Investment scams are nothing new: bad players have been using pump and dump tactics for media stocks or cryptocurrencies for a long time, attacking emotions such as fear and greed. And who would not want big – or even stable – dates back to their money, especially in the midst of prices and other economic disorders?
The crooks are currently capitalizing on this with fraudulent Facebook advertisements to attract users to hand over large sums of money. Here is how to spot these patterns and avoid falling victims.
According to a group of 42 prosecutors general, current fraudulent investment campaigns also have elements of identity identity.
The program begins with Facebook advertisements that have eminent investors, including Cathie Wood by Ark Investment Management, Joe Kernan de CNBC, and Tom Lee de Fundsstrat, as well as other rich people like Warren Buffet and Elon Musk (none of whom were real with the announcement). If you click on the ad, you will be invited to download or open WhatsApp to join an investment group.
This is where the pump and dump starts. The “experts” in the group advise members to buy specific actions, inflating the price, which they sell and take advantage of. The AG letter AG to Meta detailing the scam includes reports from people losing $ 40,000 to $ 100,000 after clicking on a fraudulent ad on Facebook.
Other investment scams from Facebook involve cybercriminals that collect sensitive personal information via fraudulent investment platforms (also by the usurpation of celebrities).
What do you think so far?
Investment scam red flags to monitor
For many people, it seems obvious that you should not get your investment advice from a Facebook ad or a WhatsApp group. But fear and greed are powerful emotions, and the crooks count on these social engineering tactics which work at least part of the time.
This is why you should beware of any advice which promises an unrealistic rate of return in a short period of time without risk of loss as well as the mentions of celebrities, political figures and well -known investors (which approves almost nothing). It is also just a good practice not to click on Facebook advertisements, which are easy vectors to broadcast scams and malicious software.
Another sign of a scam is the content or communication that seems to be generated by AI. After joining a WhatsApp group, an investigator of the Prosecutor General’s New York office was called by a crook who used AI to translate his speech into English. Unfortunately, emotions can obscure our ability to identify the content generated by AI if we want to believe what we see.
