Investments that appear too good to be true may be a scam waiting to happen, as figures shows that the number of fake investment opportunities has risen in the last year.
A growing number of investment scams involve cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin in some capacity as criminals aim to take advantage of the cost of living crisis, the latest complaints data from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) show.
Scams often involve someone being persuaded to buy cryptocurrency through a legitimate intermediary and then sending money to what they believe is a genuine investment platform, which is in reality operated by fraudsters.
In cases of investment fraud, the FOS said it has seen examples of consumers being scammed out of tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The ombudsman said that it received 570 complaints from customers about investment fraud, making up 30 per cent of its total complaints volume in the first quarter of the financial year. This is up from 500 complaints, or 21 per cent, last year.
The FOS upheld around 60 per cent of investment fraud complaints in consumers’ favour between April and June this year.
Other scams appear to be dropping off in popularity, according to the FOS data: impersonation scams, which include so-called “safe account” fraud, accounted for 627 complaints, or 33 per cent of customer queries, while those involving missing goods remained consistent with last year’s figures at 25 per cent of total complaints.
Nausicaa Delfas, interim…
