How to recognize investment scams

If someone promises you suspiciously lucrative earnings from cryptocurrency, they may not want to grow your savings, but to take them from you.

At first, on websites you usually visit, such as YouTube, Facebook or Instagram, you will encounter ads promoting cryptocurrency investments. They promise that you can easily earn and grow your money. Just invest €500 and you will triple it. That sounds interesting, right?

Recognise fraudulent offers

• Such ads are attractive because they often feature a popular celebrity or well-known person, who may not even realise they are the face of a fraudulent business scheme.
• The credibility of the project is reinforced by testimonials from “satisfied customers” who supposedly got rich easily on the platform. These are fake accounts that also share positive video reviews, of course from paid actors.
• The entire investment project seems real because scammers use actual cryptocurrency exchange charts. Behind it all is supposedly a company, but registered in offshore tax havens.

Beginning the investment

After registration, the fraudulent company will first request your contact details (phone number and email). Then the fraudsters entice the victim to make an initial investment of approximately €200–€250; this is an amount most people are willing to risk for the promise of potential gain. These entry fees go to various personal accounts – “money mules” – that help make financial transactions untraceable.

A second contact only occurs after some time. Scammers can wait several weeks, months, or even years before reaching out again. They entice the victim by telling them that their deposit has grown and that their crypto account now holds several thousand euros.

Paying out the profit

At this stage, various manipulations occur so that scammers get exactly what they want. The victim is extorted by being asked to provide IAAP (identification, authentication, and authorisation tools) or to install remote access software (e.g. Anydesk, Anyconnect, Quicksupport, Supremo Mobile Assist, Teamviewer, etc.). Using these tools, attackers can steal funds, take out unsecured loans, and make fraudulent payments.

Long-term consequences

In this type of scam, a crypto account is often created in the victim’s name, which, in coordination with the scammers, redirects funds exactly where the attackers want, to make them disappear into the system. 

Victims face intense pressure from scammers even after they discover the fraud. This forces them to remain involved in this dirty business or return to it. Because of fraudulent payments made from their account, they fear imprisonment and are also extorted by the need to repay debts incurred from unfinished crypto trades. The imagination of scammers is truly diverse when it comes to manipulating their victims.

Current common scam practices

• Deepfake – scammers often use the faces of celebrities or politicians to make their ads seem more credible. They create fake videos where these personalities supposedly promote investment platforms or guarantee high profits, although in reality they have no connection.
• Buy shares and secure your income – scammers lure victims into investing in gold, oil, or shares of well-known companies like Slovnaft via deceptive ads. After filling out a form, a fake broker contacts the victim, pretending to be an official employee and sends a verification code to gain trust. The victim is convinced that investing is easy, assisted with registration on the fraudulent platform, and advised to invest €200–€250, which they will never see again.
• Scammers posing as rescuers – they target people who have already lost money in investment scams. They promise to help recover stolen funds, but in reality it’s another scam. They demand various fees for “legal services” or “processing refunds”, causing the victim to lose even more.

How to protect yourself

• Do not enter your full payment card details (card number, expiry date, CVV) or online banking credentials if you arrived at a website via email or chat. 
• Do not install new software just because a stranger recommends it. You never know its true function or what damage it could cause if it extracts sensitive information from your computer. 

Always make investments only through a verified platform or institution.