A Connecticut resident was unable to recover $200,000 after being deceived by someone claiming to know the resident, prompting a consumer alert issued Sept. 3 by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong alongside a statement from Banking Commissioner Jorge Perez. The alert cited financial losses, security threats, high-risk leverage and limited recovery options associated with offshore decentralized finance platforms. It named GMX, Gains Network, dYdX, Aevo, Drift Protocol, Vertex Protocol and Hyperliquid as operating beyond U.S. regulatory protections, but did not identify the exchange involved in the resident's loss or connect the case to any named platform. Tong said platforms promising easier access and higher returns can leave investors with little or no recourse, urging people to research services and available protections before transferring funds. Officials said some offshore venues offer leverage of 50x, 100x or up to 250x. Perpetual decentralized exchange contracts let users take leveraged exposure from digital wallets without buying the referenced asset, but carry liquidation, funding-rate, smart-contract and oracle risks. The alert also covered synthetic contracts linked to companies including Apple, Tesla, Nvidia and SpaceX, warning that users are betting on synthetic prices rather than buying shares. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission says high leverage is common at offshore venues but is not inherent to perpetual contracts, while regulated platforms apply risk-management frameworks. A May Hyperliquid example involved a $20.32 million bitcoin short using 40x leverage that came within roughly 1.5% of liquidation after 499,900 USDC was deposited as collateral. Britain's Financial Conduct Authority separately lists Hyperliquid as an unauthorized firm that may target people in the United Kingdom, without access to the Financial Ombudsman Service or Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Connecticut officials also cited a separate 2025 case involving a retired physical therapist who lost $228,000 and warned about recovery scams using fake specialists, attorneys, artificial-intelligence-generated videos and spoofed government websites. Residents were urged to verify registration, preserve transaction and communication records, report suspected scams promptly and note that decentralized transactions are generally irreversible even where other safeguards apply.