Once you click on one of these ‘investment ads’, you’re redirected to a contact form on a very professional looking website. You fill in your details, then an ‘investment expert’ calls you with more information. You’re advised to start by investing a small amount to gain experience and you get help and guidance where needed. Thanks to fake charts and dashboards, your investment appears to be doing (really) well.
The problems start when you stop putting additional money into your investment or you want to cash in your gains.
Perhaps more time is needed to transfer your money, you suddenly have to pay certain fees, or there are other issues, all of which are intended to extract even more money from you.
If you don’t play along, all communication will be cut off, or worse still, the fraudsters will start harassing you with threatening phone calls. You’ve lost your investment.
Sometimes they take things a step further. A few months later, you get a call from a law firm or a financial authority promising to recover your money if you pay a retainer. This is another attempt to trick you.
