Ouch! That is bleak, at least his not sitting on his arse about it, and trying to do something, I landed on one of those lists too, and these UK/Dubai numbers would phone me all the time with high pressure sales tactics and I was just not having it, thankfully I wasn't a victim, but there's a scam for everyone, never think you're too smart to fall for one, complacency is the killer
I got rugged using a crappy exchange and in shitcoins and had to learn the hard way too