Investment Scams
If you’ve been a victim of an investment scam, National Fraud Helpline can help you to recover your lost money.
Investment scams have become highly sophisticated with realistic marketing material and scam trading platforms.
Once we have identified that you have fallen victim to an investment scam we can try to help you claim your money back from the bank.
We operate on a no win, no fee basis, and we will not ask for any fees to be paid up front. You only pay us if we successfully recover your money.
Have you fallen victim to an investment scam?Contact National Fraud Helpline. Call 0333 0033218 or fill out our Claim Form.
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What Is An Investment Scam?
Investment scams are when criminals trick victims into believing that they will get high interest returns on their money.
The fraudsters ask the scam victim to send money or cryptocurrency to accounts and then steal the money.
Investment fraud is very varied and includes anything from Crypto Investment and Whisky Investment to Pension Investment
Very often the scam will be part of a Ponzi scheme where victims are initially paid out some money from the wider scam only to later realise that their money has disappeared. An example of this is the alleged 79th Group fraud.
Another growing trend is ‘pump and dump’ share scams where victims are encouraged to buys shares in ‘penny stocks’ via social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram.
Investment scams are often incredibly realistic with highly sophisticated online platforms and convincing websites.
Fraudsters who run investment fraud are often some of the most convincing scammers that we come across.
To make investments seem more realistic fraudsters will very often allow a victim to withdraw money at the start of the process. This may even be more than they have invested. The idea behind this is to convince the investor that they can withdraw their money at any time and to encourage them to invest more funds.
Later down the line they will tell the investor that they need to send more money to withdraw their funds. One of the common lies told by the scammers is that an investor has to pay taxes before the investment firm is allowed to release the funds.
With investments seemingly doing well, scammers will also encourage victims to borrow money in the form of loans or from friends and family. Very often they will pressure the victim by telling them that the investment opportunity is very limited. Some people are also put into ‘VIP groups’ where they will be given so-called ‘exclusive opportunities.’
Please see below on tips of how to avoid investment scams.
Have you lost money to an investment scam? Contact National Fraud Helpline. Call 0333 0033218 or fill out our Claim Form
How To Spot An Investment Scam
The common signs that an ‘investment opportunity’ may be a scam.
- Get rich quick: If an investment looks too good to be true it probably is. Unfortunately, genuine get-rich-quick schemes are incredibly rare.
- Social media investment opportunities: Bona fide investment opportunities don’t normally come via a stranger contacting you on WhatsApp. Similarly, Facebook adverts need to be treated with great caution.
- Is the company FCA regulated? If a company isn’t registered with the FCA be incredibly careful. Check the Financial Conduct Authority register to see if you are dealing with an authorised firm, and the FCA warning list of firms to avoid.
- Transparency: Can you find information about the company you are you dealing with? Don’t rely on the fact that it is on Companies House. Anyone can set up a company on Companies House.
- Misspellings and poor grammar. This should act as an instant red flag.
- Check where your money is being sent. Are you being asked to send money to bank accounts that don’t match the name of the investment company or to a crypto wallet? This is massive red flag. NB The company name matching also does not mean that it is a legitimate investment.
- They ask you to put money in to get money out. This is known as an advanced fee fraud. If you are asked to pay taxes, for example, to withdraw money this should ring huge alarm bells.
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