BACK

22 Jan 2021

It’s been a turbulent year for anyone with investments; from commodities to shares, everything appears to be dropping in value. There is one sector of the financial market that is showing explosive growth; unfortunately, it’s the investment fraud business. Our solicitors for fraud have seen a spike in bad actors using the turbulence caused by COVID as a tool. The pressure to move investments and rapidly liquidate assets, mixed with big gains for Amazon and Tesla have made the ‘too good to be true’ stories of the fraudsters believable. In uncertain times, it’s become harder to discern true information from falsehoods.

This may be a good moment to consider getting preventive assistance from our fraud solicitor at ABV Solicitors. Although we will always pursue fraudsters to the full extent of the law and reclaim your lost assets, prevention is better than cure and with a little professional knowledge of the markets and critical assessment of the options, you can sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to pursuing the best yields for your portfolio.

Be curious and dig deep

The primary tool of the fraudster is sounding knowledgeable on subjects they know very little about. Because their job is not to provide a legitimate service, but to convince you to hand over your money, asking specific and detailed questions will rattle a scammer. An open-ended, non committal response to your question or delaying answering should be seen as worrying when questioning someone about their investment opportunity.

Do your homework

In an attempt to look legitimate and respected in the industry, a scammer will often present qualifications, licences and credentials. They may mention associations with big firms. As our fraud solicitor will advise you, aim to corroborate their claims with online research. Check publicly available lists of licensed brokers and call firms they supposedly work for. Try checking their name against blacklists and bankruptcy records. If they run their own firm, we will advise you to view their Company House records.

Wire transfers

The end goal of the scammer is to receive your money – quickly. Over time banks, credit card companies and online transaction providers like PayPal and Apple pay have all created systems to stop suspicious cash transfers and to trace transactions which can be used to find and prosecute scammers.

This has led to many of them using wire transfers like Westen Union to facilitate anonymous international transactions. No legitimate business would require the use of wire transfers and if you are requested to pay in this manner, consider it very suspicious. Contact our fraud solicitor at ABV Solicitors for advice and the police.

Did you find a great deal or did the deal find you?

There are great opportunities to find in the investment world, but such investments take hard work to find. If this opportunity has found you by cold calling or spam emailing you, have you asked how good can it be? If you start seeing phrases like guaranteed returns or no-risk, you are not dealing with a reputable broker and should contact our team for legal advice.