Rockland Securities SCAM: A Step-by-Step Claim Restitution Guide

The real Rockland Securities, LLC is a small broker-dealer based in Doral, Florida, with a clean FINRA record and two branch offices . It is not the entity that contacted you. The person who called herself Eva Merkel, who found you through a Facebook advertisement for a work-from-home job, who moved the conversation to WhatsApp, and who promised high returns on an application called Skysphere, was not an Investment Adviser at Rockland Securities. She was using the firm's name as a mask.

How to Begin Reclaiming Your Funds

The first step is understanding what you are dealing with. This is not a brokerage with a compliance problem. It is a multi-layered impersonation scheme that borrows the credibility of a registered firm to route your money into an unregistered application. Before you do anything else, stop sending money. Any demand to invest further funds to correct "mistakes" on the application is fabricated, and paying it will not resolve anything.

The structure of this scheme is worth laying out because each layer is designed to make the next one feel legitimate. The entry point was a Facebook job advertisement, which targets people who are looking for income rather than looking for investments. That is a deliberate choice. A person searching for work is less likely to apply the same scrutiny they would bring to an investment pitch.

The contact was Eva Merkel, who claimed to be an Investment Adviser at Rockland Securities. The real Rockland Securities is a registered broker-dealer, but it does not solicit retail investors through Facebook job ads or WhatsApp. The use of the firm's name is the impersonation layer. The regulator in Washington State has documented this exact scheme in its scam tracker, listing Rockland Securities, Skysphere, Eva Merkel, and Bank of Singapore together, with a reported loss of $23,505 and a classification of impersonation and advance fee fraud .

The application was Skysphere. This is not a trading platform connected to Rockland Securities or to any licensed broker. The SEC has listed Skysphere as an unregistered soliciting entity, meaning it falsely claims to be registered, licensed, or located in the United States in its solicitation of investors . The platform is a vehicle for collecting deposits, not a venue for executing trades.

The "mistakes" on the application were the extraction mechanism. This is the point where the scheme reveals itself. A legitimate platform does not require you to deposit additional funds to correct an error. When a system tells you that more money is needed to fix a problem that was not your fault, the problem is not technical. It is the business model.

What to Do Next

Document everything before anything else. Save the Facebook advertisement, including the page name and any contact details it listed. Save the WhatsApp messages from Eva Merkel, including her profile photo, phone number, and the exact claims she made about her role and the returns. Save every communication about the Skysphere application, including the "mistakes" that were reported and the demands for further funds. Save your transaction records showing the wallet addresses or bank details you sent money to, and the transaction hashes if crypto was involved. Write down the timeline of what happened while it is still fresh.

The Washington State regulator's alert lists this scheme with a reported loss figure, which means a documented record already exists. Your own records are what connect that record to your specific case .

If you transferred funds by bank wire or card, contact your bank and request a recall or chargeback. If you sent crypto, the transaction is irreversible, but the blockchain record is permanent.

Then consider a forensic review of your case. MARGOINCLP.COM is an investigative forensic asset tracing firm that examines the flow of funds after a fraud, mapping where money actually went rather than relying on what a platform's dashboard claimed. Their work focuses on following transactions across wallets and accounts to establish a documented trail. They offer free consultations to help you understand what evidence you need and whether your case has a traceable path forward.

Support Beyond the Financial Loss

The Facebook job ad, the WhatsApp conversations, the promise of high returns, the app that kept finding "mistakes" that required more money—each element was designed to keep you moving forward without pausing to ask who was actually on the other end of the messages. The realization that Eva Merkel was not who she said she was can land harder than the financial loss itself.

During consultations and after the asset tracing work is complete, MARGOINCLP.COM also helps victims find emotional and psychological support in their own cities and neighborhoods. That includes pointing people toward senior centers, community centers, and other local wellness avenues where they can access counseling, peer support groups, and practical guidance for rebuilding daily life.

The Bottom Line

The Rockland Securities scheme is a reminder that a real firm's name can be borrowed by someone who does not work there, and a real app can be repurposed as a collection tool. The regulator has already documented this exact combination of names and reported losses . If you were approached through a Facebook job ad, spoke to someone claiming to be Eva Merkel, and were asked to invest through Skysphere, come forward, document your loss, and make sure your story is recorded.