Martin Lewis and Elon Musk do not seem to have much in common. One is a guru of British personal finance of trust; The other is the richest person in the world and a close ally of Donald Trump. However, their wisdom and wealth make it a powerful weapon respectively for the crooks.
“I have a doubtful honor … to be used in more scam ads than anyone in the United Kingdom, even if I never advertise,” Lewis in the Guardian told.
“If you add Elon Musk, between us, we are the vast majority of Scam advertisements,” said the founder of MoneysAvongexpert.com, referring to data compiled by action fraud, the British center for the snack of cybercrime allegations.
The status of Lewis as a force for good means that when it offers advice, people take note. Consequently, fraudsters capitalize on his influence with the public to send what they are “shortcut psychological messages”, he says. “I am here to represent” financial source of trust “, Elon Musk has” a huge wealth “.”
This week, a Guardian survey on a fraud of $ 35 million (27 million pounds sterling) highlighted the tactics that investment crooks use to deceive the British on millions of pounds each week.
Fraud was exposed by a huge data leak on the SVT public dissemination call center, which shared the files with international media partners. Out of approximately 2,000 victims who are convinced of separating from the most important sums, 652 came from the United Kingdom.
So, how can you, or your loved ones, avoid reaching their ranks?
Regarding investment scams, false cryptocurrencies are at the top of the list, but the crooks hang on opportunities too beautiful to buy other things such as gold, wine, property, carbon credits and land bank, where land is divided into smaller plots to sell to investors.
The latest data from the Banking Body Finance banking organization showed that investment crooks have deceived the British from 56 million pounds sterling in the first six months of 2024. However, the real total will be much higher, because many victims do not signal crime, often because they feel embarrassed or shameful they have been taken.
These scams are generally a type of authorized Push payment fraud (application), which involves bringing someone to send money from their bank account.
For the victims, he often begins by click on a (false announcement of social media or a new alert. It is generally advice for an assumedly large cryptographic investment, but it is in fact a trick that leads only to fraudsters who pretend to be a real business.
Impatient investors give a small amount at the start, let’s say £ 250, and before they know – thanks to things such as sophisticated software that displays an apparently live trading screen – they become rich.
With these types of scam, this “profit” is a pure fiction, serving as bait: the victims generally lose the big money trying to withdraw. The “windfall” is always blocked by the need for another payment, whether broker costs or a tax invoice. It only ends when the victim is broke.
Along the way, fraudsters play on the idea that traditional banks and the government are wary of crypto and see it as a threat. This helps to convince the victims to mislead their bank on the real objective of their transaction.
Meanwhile, the volatility of cryptocurrencies and the perception that people can become rich overnight offers perfect coverage for fraudsters. Consequently, the number of cryptographic scams reported to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has more than doubled since 2020, according to the financial guard dog.
Faced with the trial to fight this growing problem, the FCA carries a list of “warning panels” of the cryptographic scam on its website. He advises people to be “extremely careful” if one of the answers to the following questions is “yes”:
Have you been contacted unexpectedly?
Are you put under pressure to invest quickly?
Do you walk around investment returns that seem unrealistic?
Do they try to flatter you?
If you want to do your homework on an investment, start by checking if the company or the person is authorized. Almost all financial service companies in the United Kingdom must be authorized or registered by the FCA and will be on the Financial services register.
Another useful tool is the watchdog Scamsmart Investment Checker.
You must verify that the reference number and the company’s contact details correspond to those in the register. If there are no coordinates listed or if the company says it is obsolete, call the FCA on 0800 111 6768. Do not forget, some companies pretend to be allowedSo always use the contact details of the financial services register.
Meanwhile, Lisa Webb, a consumer law expert, “he said:” You can also use Google’s reverse image search to check if an image in an ad has been used elsewhere. Sometimes Deepfake videos are a compilation of images that already exist, so it’s a good way to find the original and confirm that the announcement you have seen is probably fraudulent. »»
Also, whatever you do, not Give someone access to your device by downloading software or application from a source in which you do not trust. This could allow crooks to take control of your device and access your bank account.
The good news is that if you have been the victim of the fraud of applications, you are now more likely to recover your money from the payment company you have used. This is because new rules forcing banks to issue reimbursements up to a maximum of £ 85,000 entered into force in October.
There is also the possibility of raising your file with the financial service (FOS), which has a remuneration limit of £ 430,000. This is a free service, and the FOS defines the process that consumers must follow Son website.
“Many of the cases we see now involve cryptocurrency,” explains Pat Hurley, director of the mediator at the FOS. With many street banks having blocked cryptographic payments, the organization also notes an increasing number of “several stages fraud,” he adds.
These are scams in which fraudsters encourage people to move money in different banks or other payment suppliers to facilitate the victim to buy the crypto as part of a fraudulent investment, explains Hurley.
He adds: “People must be vigilant when presented with incredible investment yields – especially online. We see every day that reality is that it is often a scam. »»
Victims are often dazzled by successful feedback. Unfortunately, the yields provided by real real investments are generally less turbo-paired. When the investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown examined the average annual return delivered by comparable investments over a period of 20 years, it found that British shares delivered 7%, while for technological shares, the figure was 16.4%. Going to gold delivered an annualized return of 11.2%.
“If we show you an investment and it could get much higher yields than these, you may want to ask yourself why?” Said Victoria Hasler, head of research on funds at Hargreaves Lansdown.
“Higher return is generally compensation for more risks. For actions, you must expect long-term yields of around 7 to 10% per year, “she says. “Technological yields have been very high in recent years, distorting the long -term average of the sector, but we would not necessarily expect that.”
And what about crypto? Hasler is Stern: “Hargreaves Lansdown does not offer cryptocurrency and does not intend to do so. The FCA has also prohibited the sale of cryptographic derivatives to all retail investors due to the damage they put. Speculation in cryptocurrencies is extremely at risk and should not be confused with investment. »»
She adds: “Celebrity mentions are not good indicators because they can be easily faked and, even if they are real, they do not guarantee that the person who approves them has specific investment knowledge.”
Many victims of scam to which the Guardian spoke had lost money that changed life, a situation that Lewis describes as “bloody”.
“The stories I heard about people who have lost their lives and their self -esteem, because of these criminals, are heartbreaking.”
Meanwhile, Lewis is frank in his advice: “All I can say to the public is that if you see a celebrity advertising on social networks (or probably ads at all), you should assume that it is a scam until you have a direct corroboration of a source of confidence that it is not.”
