Fraud in investment platforms – the most profitable for fraudsters / Article

Fraud on investment platforms has so far proved to be the most profitable form of fraud for fraudsters. Relatively, the number of cheated people is not large – 255 residents have reported fraud in nine months. Therefore, the amount that was defrauded by all of them seems to be larger – less than 2.5 million euros.

“Sometimes the amounts it invests are so phenomenally large. And it always manages to surprise, sometimes negatively.

That swindler is so skilled that he is able to lure a person into his clutches and convince him to give up all his property, all his savings.”

said Olegs Filatovs, head of the 2nd department of the Cybercrime Combating Department of the State Police (VP).

Statistically, young people fall into fake investment platforms more often, falling for promises of good profits.

“Wild returns, high interest. And. And you decide, yes, well, I’ll try with a hundred euros. They’re like – great, you put in a hundred euros and two or three days later you have 150 euros. It can’t be. And they say, well maybe you want to increase,” said technology enthusiast Elviss Strazdins.

He pointed out that this is how fraudsters increase the promised profit and do not allow it to stop. People wire money to scammers.

The VP confirmed that large resources are involved in investment fraud in order to convince people to continue investing. “Fake graphs are drawn, convincing you in this way that you are only going up in the plus, when in fact you are in the minus down all the time,” Filatov said.

“Remember, they’ll go further. You’ll transfer 2,000, ask where my money is. They’ll come up with something new. A lawyer will show up and say, oh, they were scammers, I can collect the full amount, but you’ll have to pay 1,000 for for my services. Then we transfer 1000 to him. Then some other person appeared who, it turns out, has understood the whole scheme and then he has to transfer.

They will never stop, remember this – they cannot stop. They will stop only when you stop,” said Strazdins.

“We have also had cases where a person invests for two years. He trusts the fraudster so much that he invests, invests, invests. Invests until there is no more money. No one gives loans anymore. The properties are sold and there is no place to invest anymore. The fraudster simply stops this communication,” said Filatov.

One of the warning signs that a transaction might be a scam is the promise of a large profit.

The Financial Industry Association recommends that you check the company you want to work with before each investment.

“As far as we are talking about investment frauds, so we evaluate the service provider, make sure that he is licensed. We can safely call the Bank of Latvia, ask if we are in doubt. And we invest only if we are aware that this service provider is therefore legal and really achievable,” explained Laima Letiņa, advisor of the Financial Industry Association.