What are investment scams?
Investment scams happen when scammers use tricks or fraud to collect money from unsuspecting people in a fake business that appears real.
The fraudsters look knowledgeable and often parade themselves as being experienced in a particular online investment. They come with websites, marketing materials, and fake testimonials.
Investment scams have been around for donkey years; however, the advent of the internet and digital communications has changed the face of how scams operate and has become more complex as technology improves.
The internet investment scammers are coming up with new strategies on a daily basis, and their modus operandi keep on advancing in such a way that it may be difficult to track them after they perpetrate their sinister acts.
Sometimes, even law enforcement agents find it difficult to identify the scammers or where they are operating from. They perfect their acts in such a way that they will look so legitimate and convincing that even if you are a professional trader or investor, you may fall victim to them.
Statistics of Online Investment Scams
The United States is one of the countries where online investment scams prevail. According to a report released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), residents of the country lost $10.3 billion to different forms of online investment scams in 2021.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the US also said that more than half of the money American residents lost on their social media accounts was through varied forms of investment scams.
The figure released by the Fraud and Cyber Crime Report on money.co.uk shows that the residents of the United Kingdom experienced a loss of £4 billion to fraud in the year 2021. The figure represents an increase of 67 percent when compared to the 2021 fraud figures, which were £2.4 billion.
In Australia, a report released by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said that the residents of the country lost over $3.1 billion to scams in 2022, while $2 billion was lost in 2021.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said in a report that 159,600 (0.8%) of residents of the country fell victim to identity theft, while 509,500 (2.5%) of the country’s residents fell victim to online impersonation in 2021 and 2022.
It is against this backdrop that this article is being written to enlighten you on how you can easily spot or identify those online investment scams when you see one. Identifying them is a major way you can prevent yourself from falling victim.
Here are the ways you can easily spot online investment scams.
1: Guaranteed Profits:
Scammers are taking advantage of the high rate of poverty and unemployment, especially in developing countries, to offer them investments that come with guaranteed profits.
Every online trade or investment comes with risks. It is a two-edged sword. There are times when you will record profits, and there are some periods when you may experience losses.
Due to the nature of investment, if you come across any form of investment offering you 100 percent risk-free business, just know that such investment is a fraud. That’s the fact!
The most common form of such a scam is through fraudulent cryptocurrency investments. This is called fake trading crypto.They take advantage of the fact that many people don’t know how cryptocurrency works. They present cryptocurrency as a Ponzi scheme with 100 percent assured profits, and many are falling victims.
I want you to know today that there is nothing like 100 percent guaranteed returns in cryptocurrency. It is an online speculative trade that carries risks. You can either record a profit or a loss.
2: Jargon/Grammatical Errors:
One of the ways you can easily spot an online investment scam is that such a platform usually consists of complicated jargon that is difficult to comprehend when you go through it.
They tend to use those complex new technologies to win your heart if you don’t know about their operations. Sometimes, you can also see grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and typographical errors.
3: Unsolicited Offers:
According to the FTC, Americans lost $330 million to text messaging scams in 2022, $131 million in 2021, and $86 million in 2020. You can see that the money keeps increasing, meaning that people continue to fall victim.
Be very careful while dealing with an investment opportunity or sales pitch that you didn’t ask for but that was sent to you, and you didn’t know the sender. Many of those offers are scams.
On many occasions, scammers use fake and misleading pictures to woo you through WhatsApp or other social media messages. This is called a texting scam.
The scammers are also found to be using fake US or UK phone numbers or numbers from other developed countries just to catch your attention.
4: Fake Pictures of the Team
On their websites, scammers use pictures of the founders or management of the business they are offering to you so that they look real. They usually use pictures of white people.
The fraudsters can also use fake stock images for testimonials from fake clients with positive comments and reviews.
To check the authenticity of the images, just copy and paste the pictures into Google’s reverse image search, as this will help you detect if the images have been used on another platform. You can also check through TinEye.
5: Pressures to Invest or Buy Immediately
It is common for online fraudsters to tell you to invest immediately, telling you that there are limited opportunities or that their promo will soon be over. Ensure you do proper and comprehensive research before embarking on any online business.
6: It Looks Too Good:
If an online investment being offered to you looks too good or very real, you should take your time and be careful about it. especially because the investment offers higher profits.
It sounds too good to be true. If the investment sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Remember that investments that provide higher returns typically involve more risk.
7: Inactive Social Media Widgets:
Lots of fraudulent online investment platforms have social media widgets that are not functioning. In most cases, when you click the buttons, it will take you back to the homepage of the websites.
8: Ponzi System:
When you come across an online investment where they collect money from new members to pay previous members, Such a system is known as the Ponzi Scheme, which is a fraud that collapses in the long run.
Also, such schemes usually tell you that the more people you bring into the system, the higher your promotion and money.
