An investment scam is a fake but extremely appealing investment opportunity. This opportunity is promoted on various websites and on social media. The scammer may try to lure people into investing in shares, funds, virtual currencies or binary options. What the investments have in common is that their future prospects sound almost too good to be true. If the victim clicks on the ad and submits their contact information, they start receiving numerous requests to invest in the instrument in question.
Often an investment scam will begin with an initial payment of a few hundred euros. The scammers will send their victim regular messages about the performance of their investment. In the messages, they will also ask the victim to invest more money in the highly profitable assets. In reality, the investment doesn’t even exist and the money paid by the victim is pocketed by the scammers.
Investment scams have become increasingly common in Finland in recent years. Of all the different types of scams, Finns lose the most money to investment scams. The best way to avoid falling victim to investment scams is to learn how to spot them.