SCAMS only work if they don’t look like scams. How do scammers do it? There are many ways, and here are some of the most cunning ones, to make sure they don’t fool you.
Scammers will use pictures of the “founder”, or “inventor” of the investment scheme.
However, a quick reverse image search on Google will reveal these pictures are either stock images, which anyone can buy and use, or they are taken without consent from public social media accounts of unsuspecting people who have nothing to do with these scams.
Pictures of stacks of money or of bank account statements with supposedly huge pay-outs can also be faked very easily. It’s just paper they are forging, not the actual money!
Testimonials are still convincing as they work as “social proof and “scammers” know it. However, anyone can write a testimonial and make up an acceptable sounding name.
Nowadays fake video testimonials can be made just as easy. Online freelance platforms like Fiverr offer not just logo design and content creation, but also fake video testimonials for as little as RM25.
The freelancer will say whatever outlandish things the scammers want them to say about the scam, on camera, with little regard on how it will be used.
Many scams are promoted by people who receive commissions when victims buy into the scheme.
Regrettably, that means that if you Google whether a certain investment scheme is a scam, you will find many websites that have a financial interest in answering your query in a certain way.
Either they conclude it is not a scam if they receive a commission, or they conclude it is a scam if they don’t receive a commission.
Those that don’t get a commission may recommend another equally dubious money game instead. In the era of “fake news”, it makes it harder to find reliable information online.
Other scams try to piggy back on the names of famous people and make you believe they have found the secret behind Warren Buffet or Steve Jobs’ wealth, allowing you to copy them. They most certainly have not.
The first one became rich by carefully selecting stock and then holding them for years, sometimes decades.
The second became rich by founding and growing a wildly successful company. They did not become rich by speculation and active trading, which is what those scams are typically selling.
They will give you free starting capital, for example, US$250. However, before you can access the amount, you will first have to open an account and deposit money yourself.
Cashing out if always made extremely difficult, if not impossible.
Other types of scams, such as the “work-from-home” scams may ask you to make a deposit before you can start earning.
If the job involves you paying your employer instead of the other way around, you know it’s a scam!
The messages are written for their target audience. For example, they look for students and housewives by telling you, you can “work from home” and no special expertise or skills are required.
In fact, even the badly written emails from Nigerian “princes” are written intentionally in such bad English: people who are not alarmed by such shockingly bad English, are probably less intelligent, more naïve and less educated, and thus much more likely to be convinced to send money.
Also, be wary of unbelievably high returns, money-back, no-risk and low-risk guarantees, once in a lifetime deals, fancy titles, overseas locations.
The other scams include conspiracy theories on how the rich stay rich, unregistered companies or unlicensed people, encouragement of borrowing money to invest more, lack of transparency on the investment opportunity, displays of riches, commencing deadlines, fake social media profiles that contact you relentlessly, and persistent calling and texting to the point of harassment.
Mark Reijman is co-founder and managing director of https://www.comparehero.my/ dedicated to increasing financial literacy and to help you save time and money by comparing all credit cards, personal loans and broadband plans in Malaysia.
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