In a new campaign of Febelfin, influencers Jonathan Medart and Sami Farhat warn for the dangers of online investment fraud. From a luxury yacht or exclusive car, they urge their followers to follow their financial advice for several weeks in a Telegram group created for that purpose. The promise? Those who follow this advice could become as rich as them in no time. Of course, the yacht and the car are rented and the promises are as false as the tips of the many scammers active on social media.
Investment fraud is a type of scam in which fraudsters offer you fictitious or worthless shares or financial products.
The investments that follow will in fact be loss-making and requesting your money will turn out to be impossible, but actually, the fraudsters are the ones who will run off with your invested money.
In this context, Febelfin developed a campaign with the slogan ‘Do not follow the advice of finfluencers blindly’. This campaign is aimed at youngsters that are often approached by ‘finfluencers or ‘financial guru’s’ on social media. It is a social media campaign in which youngsters get to see videos on Tiktok, Instagram and Youtube of a famous influencer that is supposedly convincing them to participate in a private group on Telegram, in order to earn fast and ‘easy money’.
- A so-called investor promising you sky-high returns on social media? Think twice before believing them: if a return seems too good to be true, it usually is! In any case, be suspicious and vigilant for fraud.
- Never invest in a product if you don’t perfectly understand exactly what it implies and always verify the information you receive, such as the identity of the advertiser.
- Be particularly wary if the provider claims that he/she can only pay out profits after you have first deposited an additional sum of money or have paid a tax.
- Never just transfer money to a foreign bank account. You can find more info about this on the website of the FSMA.
