The Growing Threat of Investment Scams
Unfortunately, numerous fraud victims continue to fall victim to scammers who are establishing fraudulent investment schemes. Many of these investments involve cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, or alternative digital currencies. The way they market these opportunities is by promising exceptionally high returns on your investment. They typically begin by requesting relatively modest amounts of money, small investments of 500, 1,000, or 2,000. What they will do is send you documentation showing that your money doubled perhaps in a month or month and a half.
The Escalation Strategy
Then they begin requesting more funds. They usually provide very convincing explanations for why you should send additional money. For instance, if you invested a thousand and it doubled to 2,200, they might say, “Look, if your account contains 5,000 in it, your money will then triple.” So, you contribute another few thousand, then it triples to 15. They say, “Look, we have a special program. If you have 50,000 in your account, we have a special investor bonus for that.” They will continue escalating until they have taken all the money from your account.
The Debt Trap
Sometimes they even convince you to borrow money on your home equity line or from relatives to invest money into these investments. Then sadly when you attempt to withdraw money or request redemptions, all of a sudden there are fees, there are taxes, there are audits, things you have to pay money to get the money out. By the time you are finished, you may have invested hundreds of thousands. That is what this family discovered in Atlanta where they had invested $800,000.
Why Scammers Use Encrypted Messaging Platforms
You notice in this headline it mentions WhatsApp. Many of these scammers use WhatsApp and Telegram for communications. You might wonder, well, why do they do that instead of text message, email, and other communications? Well, the reason why is WhatsApp and Telegram are encrypted channels, meaning that the apps themselves, the moderators cannot see what the communications are.
The Advantage of Encrypted Communications for Scammers
If you were communicating through email or even text message or through Instagram or Facebook, the moderators can see the words in your messages and they have algorithms and they have filters that will look for certain keywords that will identify a scam, identify a fraud. If they use WhatsApp or Telegram as a scammer, all the communications are now obscured. So, nobody can see all that communication. Now, after the fact, you may be able to do an investigation and in hindsight subpoena the records and find out what was said, but nobody is monitoring it in real time, which is why these scammers get away with it.
The Psychology Behind the Scams
Also, remember, they have on staff very high-level psychiatrists and psychologists that know exactly how to word the messages, how to structure their communications with you to convince you to send money. It is almost like a Jedi mind trick. So be aware that no matter how smart, sophisticated you are, you may be victim or susceptible to losing money on these scams.
Recovery Options and Next Steps
So if you have been scammed out of money, you want to make sure you take the right actions. Our website will give you some instructions of what to do. There are also options for trying to maybe do asset recovery, but there are limitations on that. Keep in mind that these scams are still out there. They have been going on for many years and the artificial intelligence technology is enabling these scammers to do more.
Third-Party Recovery Possibilities
There also might be some options for recovery from third parties. If your bank allowed this to happen or an accountant or an advertising agency, you may have some recovery options through third-party liability.
