Investment scams are on the rise
Preying on one of the most basic human flaws, investment scams and other get-rich-quick schemes are making up an ever larger portion of the online scammers’ cake. The number of victims, for now, is lower than the number of victims of fraudulent sales, identity fraud, and dating fraud, but the cost of investment fraud makes up almost half of all online fraud damages.
And the scammers are very much aware that a large amount of money can be made, and they are more than willing to invest in the tools that make their fraud look more trustworthy. Last week, on the 26 January, 2022, judicial and law enforcement authorities in Bulgaria, supported by Europol and Eurojust, took down a network of online investment fraudsters. The scam was exposed after complaints were made by German and Greek investors who had lost all of the deposits they had invested in the online scam. The organized crime group responsible had set up websites and several call centers that appeared to be legitimate but were actually fraudulent.
Recognizing investment scams
As malwarebytes.com state, they are by no means financial experts, but they have seen too many good people lose money on ponzi schemes, rug-pulls, and fake Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), so they feel it is they’re job to keep you safe, and warn against these types of online investment frauds.
We realize that it is hard to tell investment scams apart from some of the more legitimate offers that are thrown at us in commercials every day. But we do want to hand you a few easy-to-follow rules to keep your money in your own hands:
- If it sounds to good to be true, it usually isn’t true.
- Very high return on investment rates, usually come with extremely high risks. Your money may sometimes even be better off in a casino.
- When you are urged to act now, remember that while some legitimate opportunities want you to hurry scammers always want you to hurry.
- If the return on investment is hardly better than what your financial advisor is offering you, is the difference really worth dealing with an unknown party?
- Make sure to read the fine print. Understand what you are getting into.
- Don’t get turned into a money mule or money launderer.
Scammers are often experts in creating websites and advertisements that look trustworthy. The difficult step for them is to lure visitors to look at their creations. They will not limit themselves to playing the “greed” card, you can expect to see them use explicit content, raffles, and any other topic that happens to be “hot” at the time.
Investment scams are not only pushed by online media by the way. Unsolicited emails are another common method, and some scammers will text you their offerings.
With thanks to the Cyber Defence Alliance and malwarebytes.com. The full story is here: https://blog.malwarebytes.com/scams/2022/02/investment-scams-are-on-the-rise/
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