With the popularization of online finance, scammers' techniques have become increasingly sophisticated and cunning. Every year, countless investors suffer heavy losses due to accidentally falling into scams. Therefore, improving the ability to identify scams is crucial for every investor. May 15, 2024 is National Investor Protection Promotion Day, and the slogan for this year's promotion day is "Caring for Investors, Working Together - Promoting High Quality Development, Boosting Investor Confidence". Guanzhong Ecology has specially organized and planned anti fraud tips to help investors stay away from investment fraud traps and guard against property losses.
1. What is investment fraud
Investment fraud usually refers to criminals deceiving victims into making "investments" through fraudulent means and other means, in order to defraud them of their money. Common scams include "watching advertisements to earn extra money", "consumer rebates", "using houses for retirement", "private equity investment to run enterprises", as well as "virtual currency", "blockchain" and other projects that can earn high returns. These fraudulent activities often have strong concealment and deception, and are targeted at specific groups, especially the elderly, with the ultimate goal of deceiving the trust and funds of the victims through various means.
Secondly, recognize these scams
1. Cryptocurrency investment scams
Cryptocurrency investment scams typically start with direct messaging or contact through social media platforms, including dating apps. Scammers claim to have made a lot of money through cryptocurrency investments and guide you to a website or application for investment. Afterwards, you will be presented with false reports showing how much your funds have increased, which will encourage you to make more investments. But once you give them money, they will close their account and disappear without a trace.
2. Investment training scam
Scammers of investment training scams often claim to have "patented," "tested," or "validated" investment strategies, promising to make a fortune in financial markets and product investments, and even change your life. They are also good at using convincing 'success stories', such as those who made a lot of money, bought luxury cars, and lived in luxury homes with their programs, but this is completely fabricated, or with very few exceptions. These are just bait, their real purpose is often to cheat you out of tuition fees, and the so-called 'secret investment methods' are often worthless.
3. Real estate investment scam
The scammers of real estate investment scams usually claim to have a "world-class" real estate development project that is a great investment transaction. They may showcase new luxury development projects and facilities through various channels, such as billboards, advertisements, telemarketing, social media posts, or websites, making you feel like this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. However, once you decide to purchase and pay, you will find that this property takes several years to build or simply cannot be realized. If you try to resell, it's also difficult to find a buyer.
4. Investment scams involving precious metals and coins
Scammers of precious metal and coin investment scams often refer to themselves as "metal dealers" or "rare coin traders". Regardless of whether the market is up or down, they will tell you that now is the best time to invest. Their goal is to create a sense of urgency that will prompt you to take action quickly. To convince you to believe them, scammers will lie about their qualifications and experience in these markets. In the end, they often fail to fulfill their promises. On the contrary, they will also keep your money for themselves.
III. Unveiling the manifestations and fraudulent schemes of illegal investment and wealth management
1. Promise high returns. Criminals often fabricate the myth of "overnight wealth" to attract elderly friends and lure them into investing through huge profits. In order to deceive more people, scammers often fulfill their promised profits on time and in full during the early stages of illegal activities. After the investment amount reaches a certain scale, they secretly transfer funds or abscond with the funds.
2. Fabricating false projects. Most criminals register legal companies or enterprises under the guise of responding to national industrial policies, supporting the construction of new rural areas, and practicing "economic theories". They use contracts as a cover to fabricate false projects, promise high returns, and deceive the public into investing. Some criminals use the name of entrusted wealth management to intentionally confuse investment and wealth management concepts, using new terms such as electronic gold, investment funds, online forex trading, e-commerce, etc. to confuse elderly friends.
3. False advertising and hype. Criminals use methods such as hiring celebrity endorsements, publishing interview articles in newspapers, and making social donations to gain public trust. They increase their publicity efforts, create false publicity, and deceive the public into trusting and investing. Some criminals use the virtual space of the internet to set up websites in different locations or rent overseas servers to set up websites. Some also spread false information and deceive the public into investing through online platforms such as websites, forums, and instant messaging tools such as QQ and WeChat.
4. Using family affection to deceive. Criminals often use relationships such as relatives, friends, and fellow townsmen to lure the public into investing with high returns. Some people who have fallen into investment traps are willing to use their family and geographical relationships to attract friends and relatives to join in order to free themselves, causing the participants to quickly spread and the scale of illegal investment to continue to expand.
Fourth, please keep these anti fraud tips safe
When making financial choices, investors must adhere to the principles of "three looks, three knowledge, and three don'ts".
Three looks:
When it comes to institutional qualifications, whether they have the qualifications to issue and sell financial products, financial consumers should invest and manage their finances through legitimate and legitimate financial institutions; Secondly, check the product scope and whether it is a self operated or consignment product of financial institutions within the approved business scope; Check if the marketing personnel have the professional qualifications to sell the product, and be careful not to mislead sales.
Three knowledge:
A confidant, whether the risk tolerance of elderly friends matches the product risk level; Knowing the other person, being able to truly understand the product direction, risks, and charging situation; What is the most pessimistic expectation regarding the existence of exaggerated profits or false advertising.
Do not:
Do not believe easily, do not believe in false advertising; Don't be greedy, don't be tempted by the high returns claimed by the product; Do not disclose personal financial information, and do not casually disclose it. It should be noted that 90% of online telecommunications fraud begins with personal information leakage.
Reminder at the end of the article:
Be highly alert to sales calls, emails, or text messages from strangers, discuss with family members when encountering problems, and do not easily answer strangers' sales calls or click on unknown links; Do not easily disclose personal information and refrain from conducting fund transactions and transfers in public places or unsafe online environments. If you are accidentally deceived or suspected of being deceived, you should keep relevant chat records, transfer vouchers, and other key information, report to the public security organs as soon as possible, and safeguard your own rights and interests.
