Investment Scams Are Increasing

Criminals used the Covid-19 pandemic to target victims online, through impersonation scams, romance fraud and investment scams.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is warning people to beware of people posing as investment advisers and offering to help them set up new schemes via online meeting platforms. “Scams are increasingly sophisticated. Fraudsters can be articulate and financially knowledgeable, with credible websites, testimonials and materials that are hard to distinguish from the real thing." says the FCA.

They ask their victim to share the screen and enable remote access, which hands over control of their device and potentially, their bank account. 

Data from Action Fraud reveals consumers reported losses of more than £78 million between January-December 2020. Throughout 2020, consumers reported average losses of £45,242 each on average when investing with fraudsters imitating genuine investment firms. 

The data has been released as part of the FCA’s ScamSmart campaign, alongside advice to help investors avoid fake firms and protect their hard-earned cash. Around 2,100 cases were reported to the FCA since July 2020 and over £25m was stolen in the 15 months from January 2021. The FCA said the number of screen-sharing scams it had seen had risen 86% to 683 in the six months from July to December 2021 compared with 367 for the same period the year before.

Screen-sharing has become a familiar part of work life, as people use popular online meeting programs in their jobs. Remote access software is a legitimate tool for services like IT support to troubleshoot problems without being in the room. But scammers are increasingly hijacking this familiarity to lure victims into granting access to more than just a picture of their screen.

Most investment scams involve one or more of the following three elements:  

• Promoting an investment opportunity that does not actually exist – the scammer then keeps the money.

• Promoting an investment opportunity that does exist – the scammer takes your money rather than investing it.

• The scammer pretends to represent a legitimate investment group  

The targets are then persuaded to grant the fraudsters control of their computer, by either expanding permissions or downloading remote access software, giving them direct access to online bank accounts. This also means they can install their malware which gives them full access at any time.

The criminals do this under the guise of being helpful, offering to set up a new investment scheme and monitor it. Mark Steward, Executive Director of Enforcement at the FCA, has said to the BBC: "Investment scams can happen over many months, but sharing your screen without making the proper checks can change everything in an instant." If scammers gain control of your computer, it gives them "access to your sensitive banking and investment information, the freedom to browse at their leisure, and the ability to take whatever details they want", Steward added.

If you’ve given your bank account details to a firm you think may be operating a scam, tell your bank immediately. 

To protect yourself against scams, it’s always best to seek the advice of an expert adviser before investing your money. Investing a little bit of time and money into getting trustworthy, expert advice could save you in the long run.

FCA:        NCA:       BBC:       Lloyds Bank:      Unbiased:     UK Finance:     Fraud!:   

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