Dave* was due to retire in five years and noticed that he wasn’t getting a great a return on his current investments. He worried that he wouldn’t have enough money to retire on comfortably, so he decided to go online and see what deals he could find that might give him a bigger return. Dave typed ‘invest my money’ into the search engine and got lots of results. He decided to look at the first one that came up and saw a great return on a site which looked professional and detailed. He filled in his details on the contact form and waited for someone to get back to him. Within a couple of days, Dave got a call from a very friendly lady who talked him through the details and sent him lots of information by email. He decided to invest a small sum of money. A couple of months later, Dave looked at his account via the portal that he’d signed up to online and to his delight he’d doubled his money! Dave decided to invest a far larger sum of money this time. After six months, Dave wanted to cash out on his investment, so he contacted the firm in order to start the process. He didn’t get a response. He later tried to login to his account on the portal only to find that he could not. He tried desperately on numerous occasions to contact the firm and then one day the website could no longer be found. Dave had lost his life savings to a criminal.

Arun* saw a ‘celebrity endorsed’ social media post advertising the promise of big returns on Bitcoin. He contacted the company and following a phone call with a “trader’ was convinced to make a payment of £300. After logging into his trading account on the website, he saw his investment increase. Arun continued to invest more money following pressure from another “trader” from the company and was persuaded to take out a loan sourced by the criminal. Arun only realised it was a scam when he was unable to access his account to withdraw his money or contact the company.

Jack* met Beth on an online dating app where they began messaging regularly. Jack felt like he was getting to know Beth well and she explained she was a successful investor with detailed knowledge of cryptocurrency.

Beth told Jack more and more about cryptocurrency and the huge profits there were to be made by investing. Although he was hesitant at first Beth persuaded Jack to invest, telling him that she had made a large sums on a number of different cryptocurrencies. Beth told Jack to visit an online trading platform and showed him how to get started. Over the next few weeks Jack invested more and more of his savings. However, soon after he had moved all of his savings to the online trading platform he noticed his balance had been reduced to zero.

Maisy* received a cold call from a ‘stockbroker’ at an investment firm, offering her shares in a company about to be listed on the major stock exchange. Maisy was told she would receive a huge return and was urged to invest before the company ‘goes public’. She was given the ‘firm registration number’ and addresses of individuals ‘authorised’ by a regulator convincing her it was legitimate.
Maisy proceeded to buy the shares. She realised she had been scammed when she was unable to contact the investment firm and couldn’t get her money back.