The Better Business Bureau has issued a new warning involving investment scams and something people may not be too familiar with -- cryptocurrency.
Reports of investment scams hit an all-time high in 2023, according to the BBB.
Con artists will often use romance to lure you in – and oftentimes, they use cryptocurrency as well, according to the organization. It’s that layer of confusion that makes it easier for criminals to go undetected, the BBB explained.
The scam often starts with unsolicited investment advice through social media or WhatsApp. For instance, you should also be wary when someone you’ve met on a dating site or online mentions cryptocurrency or an investment opportunity and tries to sign you up.
In other cases, people sign up after seeing posts about investments on a friend or family member's Facebook page. Unbeknownst to them, those Facebook pages have usually been hacked.
According to the BBB, the average amount of money lost to investment scams rose from $1,000 in 2021 to close to $6,000 this year.
"We're seeing a lot with cryptocurrency where they want you to buy investment cryptocurrency because nobody really understands that," said Steve Bernas with the BBB of Chicago and Northern Illinois.
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Consumers lost more than $4.6 billion to investment scams last year - more than any other scam category, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Below are some key takeaways:
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- Don’t believe any investment opportunity that uses the word "guaranteed" or offers "low" or "no risk" with "high return."
- Be on alert for high pressure sales tactics. Many risky investments are sold at "opportunity meetings" or other high pressure situations where someone shares a fictional success story. Those people are usually paid and may be lying.
- And be sure to ask - how will this investment make you money? in some cases, you may be required to recruit others. That can often mean you’re involved in a pyramid scheme.
