Investment scams

Investment scams are often too good to be true and come to you with a sense of urgency from someone pretending to work at a well-known financial company. It takes hard work and lots of research to find a good investment, and there are some key considerations you should make before investing.

Key takeaways

  • Beware of investment promises — scammers put advertisements online for investments that offer returns that are too good to be true.

  • Scammers often communicate via social media or text messaging — scammers often contact victims without prior notice using a Webmail (e.g., Gmail) email address or WhatsApp (or similar) messaging app.

  • Scammers often pretend to be members of legitimate companies using the name of an actual employee.

  • Scammers create elaborate copies of genuine websites and apps using official logos of real financial companies.

  • Scammers often pressure victims to do a deal quickly, highlighting the risk of an opportunity that could be lost if you don't invest immediately. They also pressure victims to keep the opportunity secret.

Related content

Latest investment scams

Cryptocurrency investment scam

Scammers use social media and messaging applications (e.g., WhatsApp) to contact victims and point them to websites that look like actual companies with the correct branding and logos. They often promise to provide large returns, but investments are not returned.

Investment advice from “trusted professionals“ scam

Scammers pretending to be real investment professionals at large financial firms use social media to connect with and convince victims to sign up to cryptocurrency investment websites that feature logos from trusted brands. Victims share personal and banking details to open a trading account. The victim makes a minimum deposit with two outcomes:

  1. The money is taken and not returned.
  2. The first time there’s a small return that the victim can withdraw, then the fraudster will persuade them to invest again to achieve a greater profit. Subsequent (bigger) investments are not returned.

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