Social media abound with false investment offers of cryptocurrencies, binary options and forex/CFD products, ‘investment wine‘ and the like, with fake offers of wealth management and fraudulent credit offers. Swindlers 2.0 are constantly devising new strategies to make even more victims.
Deceivers regularly use social media to disseminate their fraudulent investment offers. These are spread through sponsored ads on Facebook and Instagram, simple posts on Facebook, fake press articles or via chats between the scammer and the victim. For more information, please consult our warning of 30 September 2019.
The FSMA has identified two new techniques used by swindlers to propagate their fraudulent offers on social media:
You aren’t normally suspicious of your Facebook friends. Crooks are well aware of that! Be watchful because the identity of your contacts can be misused to trap you.
Fraudsters hack Facebook accounts and use these to promote investment or credit offers. They will for example publish on the account of one of your friends a post boasting of an investment offer providing an exceptional return. If you click on that post, the scammers will usually very quickly call you to present their fraudulent offer. Be all the more wary if you see that several persons are tagged on that post.
Fraudulent online trading platforms currently make a wide use of this technique. For more information on this type of fraud, please consult the website of the FSMA as well as our warning of 19 November 2020.
Dating sites and apps such as Tinder are venues conducive to emotional scam attempts.
These sites and apps have lately also been used to prospect for potential preys to investment fraud. Victims are mostly men. While looking for a date, they get in touch with women of allegedly Asian descent.
This fraud generally unfolds in 4 steps:
On a dating app such as Tinder, you discover pictures of a charming woman. Most of the time, she has dropped a “Super Like” on your profile. Super Likes are a paid feature of Tinder that allows you to express a special interest in someone.
Beware! Swindlers could well be hiding behind the features of the woman you see on the pictures. They have created a fake character with fake photos in order to manipulate you.
Once contact is made, exchanges will systematically be conducted in English. Your chat partner will often offer to continue chatting on WhatsApp.
One conversation follows another. Where does she live? What does she do in her spare time? What is her occupation?
She then explains that she doesn’t have to worry about money and her financial future.
Then you ask her the question she was awaiting since your initial contact: how does she manage to make so much money so easily?
She then tells you her secret: she makes money by investing! She tells you that you can also do the same. She sends you a link to a website through which you can invest either in cryptocurrencies (new ICO), or on online trading platforms proposing to invest in forex products for example. The link directs you to a fraudulent online trading platform typically produced in English and Chinese.
In some cases, your chat partner will tell you that she can put you in touch with one of her acquaintances who is a renowned trader or a financial adviser who will help you get rich.
She has won your trust and you are convinced that you have found a way to invest your money profitably and without risk. You then make a payment.
Once you have paid, you will have no hope of getting your money back. As soon as you begin wondering about the veracity of that offer, your chat partner will disappear and will not answer your messages anymore.
The FSMA encourages you to follow the recommendations below in order to prevent being defrauded:
On the FSMA website, this search can be conducted via the search function provided. In addition, all the ‘companies’ about which the FSMA has already published a warning are included on the ‘List of companies operating unlawfully in Belgium‘ published on the FSMA website.
Please note: the fact that the FSMA has not published a warning against a given company does not mean that that company is authorized to offer financial services. While the FSMA seeks to ensure that it publishes warnings in a timely manner, it is entirely possible that a company operating unlawfully on the Belgian market may not yet have come to its attention. Moreover, unauthorized companies regularly change their name.
If you have the least doubt about whether financial services being offered to you are lawful, please don’t hesitate to contact the FSMA directly using the consumer contact form. As well, feel free to notify it should you come across a suspicious company that has not yet been the subject of a warning by the FSMA.
If you think you are the victim of fraud, make sure you do not pay any additional sums to your contact. Note: this is also and especially true if you are promised a refund in exchange for a final payment, as this is a technique frequently used by fraudsters in order to try to obtain one last payment.
Also, contact the local police immediately to make a complaint and alert the FSMA to the scam via the consumer contact form.
The FSMA stresses the importance of filing a complaint quickly and with ample documentation (the company in question, bank accounts to which you transferred money, etc.).
Source: FSMA