Investment and payment scams are often perpetrated by criminals who attempt to capitalize on current events and economic anxieties to pursue their targets.
Investment scams are designed to lure people into investing in fraudulent or non-existent opportunities. These scams often promise quick and easy returns with little to no risk on assets like shares of a company, cryptocurrency, real estate or precious metals and coins. Scammers often contact people by email, social media, texts or calls – with offers of “exclusive” or special opportunities, or invitations to join “investment coaching” groups.
Payment scams often rely on the speed and relative anonymity provided by online instant payment services to defraud targets.
That’s why, as part of Meta’s ongoing efforts to promote scam awareness, Meta is sharing insights and practical tips to help you recognize common investment and payment scams online as well as highlighting tools that are available across Meta platforms to help you avoid these scams.
Tips to Avoid Investment and Other Online Payment Scams
Look up who’s giving you investment advice and make sure they are qualified and licensed financial advisers. Never make investment decisions solely based on online investment tips.
Fraudsters may impersonate registered brokers, investment advisers or even celebrities to gain your trust and confidence, so it’s important that you engage them only on their official channels – independently verify their official email address and phone numbers from official sources, then call them directly and ask if they are working with you and offering you the investment.
Be wary of investment directions from someone you do not personally know and do your independent research on any investment. Do not rely only on the word of the person you’re communicating with.
Recognize classic investment fraud red flags: Get rich quick offers, guaranteed, no risk, high investment returns. Every investment has risk, and the potential for high returns usually comes with high risk. A promise of high investment return that often comes with a guarantee of little or no risk, creating a sense that there is limited time or need to act fast, or claiming that past success with investments in well-known companies is a reason to buy stock in a little-known, low value company – is a classic sign of investment fraud. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Keep in mind that some scammers are sophisticated, and may spend weeks or months trying to gain your trust. These scammers may not make promises at first, but later lead you to an “opportunity” that involves promises of profits. Offers to invest in small companies with low stock prices and little operating history or track records of profitability may be warning signs.
Use instant payment methods like Zelle, to transfer money only to people you know and trust.
Instant payment methods are convenient but most payments are irreversible if you send funds to a scammer. Make sure to review protections you have for fraud and scams on specific payment methods or use other modes of payment.
Investment and Online Payment Scams to Watch Out For
Here is an example of investment scam to watch out for, according to research Meta has done in partnership with open source researchers at Graphika:
Fake cryptocurrency investment coaches
The scammers targeted people in South Africa and used fake accounts on Facebook and TikTok to pose as employees and investment coaches affiliated with the Luno and Valr cryptocurrency investment apps. They lured people with “trading secrets” for Luno, Valr and the trading platform Yellow Card. Fake investment coaches also posted decontextualized images and videos of people crying or singing, superimposed over crypto account screenshots to make it look like they are thanking the fake crypto coach for getting them money. Scammers also offered to help people recover funds lost to previous Luno- and Valr-related scams.
Advance Payment
A scammer might have a legitimate-seeming storefront or profile on a reselling platform, like Facebook Marketplace. After selling an item, they might ask the buyer to make payments ahead of the shipment or delivery of a purchased item. After receiving payment, the scammer stops responding to contact and does not send the purchased item.
Claims of Overpayment and Refund Request
A scammer might overpay for an item they’ve purchased online (or claim to have overpaid using a fake receipt) and request a partial refund from the seller. After receiving the partial refund, the scammer would then reverse their original payment (if they made one), keeping both the original payment and the refund.
Meta Anti-Scam Tools
Here are some of the anti-scam tools Meta has built to help users stay safe.
On Messenger, Meta may display warnings whenever there are requests or offers to pay in advance of shipping an item, requests to pay using instant payment methods on Marketplace or if there are signals that an account is engaged in suspicious activity.
Selfie verification for account recovery and celeb-bait protections for public figures: Meta recently launched measures that use facial recognition technology to help detect and prevent scams and enable faster account recovery through selfie verification on its platforms. Video selfie verification using facial recognition technology is optional, and is a faster and easier way for people to verify their identity and regain access to their accounts.
Privacy check-up and settings to avoid unsolicited contact: You can complete a privacy check up on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and update your settings to choose who can contact you and who can see your personal information like online status, profile photo and activity. This helps avoid unwanted contact from people you don’t know who may be scammers.
Taking Action Against Scammers
Meta continues to look for and block attempts by criminal syndicate-run scam centers to create accounts on its platforms. Since the start of 2024, Meta expert teams have detected and disrupted over seven million accounts associated with scam centers across Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, the United Arab Emirates and the Philippines.
In addition, in March, Meta removed multiple clusters of scam activity totaling over 23,000 Facebook Pages and accounts that primarily targeted people in Brazil and India. The scammers used deepfakes, among other techniques, falsely depicting popular personal finance content creators, cricket players and business figures in Brazil and India, endorsing scam investment apps and gambling websites. The scammers redirected people to messaging apps for “investment advice” and in some cases to a fake website that mimicked the Google Play store to download scam gambling apps.
Raising Awareness on Online Safety Around the World
Meta is running safety education efforts around the globe in partnership with public figures, NGOs, creators, consumer groups and others on an ongoing basis. As part of Meta’s continuous efforts to protect people from scammers, they are sharing regular updates about countering scams more broadly, including safety tips and product updates across Meta apps. Stay safe!
