Behind the Facade: Unmasking the Sophisticated Investment Scams of the Digital Age

A Verizon data breach investigation report last year noted that about 3 out of 4 financial fraud incidents are the result of human error or error, with fraudsters seeking to gain access to sensitive information such as account and payment information from their target. .

Information technology company “Cloudfare” in 2023. The “phishing” threat report shows that almost 52 percent “phishing” cases, fraudsters pretend to be well-known organizations in the world: Microsoft, Google, MasterCard, Apple or even the World Health Organization.

The most desirable targets for scammers

Some people have heard that Alphabet, the company that owns Google, is getting a lot of attention from investors, as are other US tech companies: Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, NVIDIA and Tesla. . However, their representatives never call the people of Lithuania with offers to invest. But investment fraudsters often call on their behalf.

Recently, investment fraudsters especially like to exploit social networks: they invite you to learn how to invest profitably, create registration forms, and collect user data.

Then they start calling and offering financial services and impressive earnings – both to private residents and companies.

Employees or business owners who have access to company data and payments are the most valuable targets for fraudsters. To find these targets, criminals are willing to invest a lot of time and energy, collecting personal information from social networks and even hacking emails. mailboxes.

There are more and more cases when small business owners or accountants fall into well-laid traps. Fascinated by the opportunity to make quick money, victims trust fraudsters not only with their personal funds, but also with corporate funds. Therefore, it is very important for companies to implement security procedures that would ensure that amounts of a certain size can be transferred only after two or more employees have confirmed that the employees’ rights to perform financial operations of the company are properly defined.

He lures into the trap several times

We find that investment fraudsters often share their victims’ data with each other. In short, they mark on their lists people who are easier to influence psychologically using social engineering techniques.

For example, one customer fell into the traps of fraudsters as many as six times. At least half of the cases were based on promises to help recover previously lost funds. In the last contact, the scammers pretended to be Tesla employees and claimed to provide free legal services. Having gained trust, the criminals convinced the victim to transfer money to the account of a natural person and cheated again.

We have also witnessed stories when residents first entrusted investment fraudsters with all their savings, then several tens of thousands of euros in borrowed funds and several tens of thousands of euros from terminated investment insurance contracts, and finally they borrowed a round sum of euros from co-workers. Scammers cheated a resident of an impressive loot of almost several hundred thousand euros in just two months.

By using methods of psychological persuasion, fraudsters are able to create a state for their victims, when the attempts of both relatives and bank specialists to help them hit a wall. Scammers are convinced that the bank or other institution is trying to cut them off from the possibility of recovering funds.

What and why do scammers teach their victims?

In order to gain blind trust, fraudsters show pictures and draw graphs with impressive investment growth results. In order to create the impression of credibility, they even transfer the investment return to the resident at the beginning – thus creating the impression that the investment platform is legitimate and the future investment return is guaranteed.

Encouraging to communicate more smoothly and “to be able to invest at the best time”, fraudsters offer to install a screen image sharing program, which they actually use to take over a person’s or company’s online bank login data.

At the same time, malicious people carefully and convincingly teach how to deal with the bank, what answers to give to bank specialists. Impersonating investment advisors and brokers, fraudsters provide bank customers with fictitious documents.

Alleged help, tutorials and instructions on how to communicate with bank professionals are a sign of fraud. No financial broker teaches clients how to talk to bank specialists, prepares various interview scenarios, or advises on how to anticipate questions.

Fraudsters also offer assistance in opening accounts at other financial institutions to make it easier to steal money. However, criminals do not choose banks or companies as intermediaries for investment transactions, but individuals, so that it is more difficult for the bank to recognize such a payment as initiated by investment fraudsters and stop the transaction.

It is important to remember that the activities of investment companies, like all financial market participants, are licensed and supervised by the Bank of Lithuania. A list of licensed companies is available Bank of Lithuania on the website.

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