Investment Scam Investigations

Who Investigates Investment Fraud?

Swift Cyber Expert conducts serious fraud investigations by utilising extensive intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance, advanced cybercrime investigation methods and strategic profiling of suspects for civil and criminal action.

In addition, Swift Cyber Expert works with internal legal experts who specialise in cross border fraud and global asset recovery services in foreign jurisdictions. Using this expertise, Swift Cyber Expert can freeze bank accounts and assets associated with offenders involved in serious fraud. In recent years, Swift Cyber Expert has received law enforcement awards, plaques of recognition and commendations for uncovering major cyber fraud networks and syndicates whilst disrupting large scale fraud gangs working in Asia, Europe and Central America.

What Is Securities Fraud?

Securities frauds are also referred to as stock or investment frauds and are one of the many illegal operations targetted by Swift Cyber Expert’s international investigative services. These types of scams involve deceptive practices relating to commodities and stocks, with the intention of fraudulently profiting off investors.

Swift Cyber Expert has recovered millions of dollars for victims of fraud and continually manages complex class action lawsuits for large investor groups targeted by international internet fraudsters.

What Is Cryptocurrency Fraud?

Cryptocurrency fraud can take a number of forms. This can include digital heists where hackers steal cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Etherium from individuals and large cryptocurrency exchanges. An example of this type of attack is the large scale theft of more than $32million from Japan’s Bitpoint exchange. This follows on from the massive $500million hacking operation that targeted another exchange, Coincheck.

Individuals can also be victim’s of crypto-fraud through investment in scam currencies. To learn more about cryptocurrency fraud and how Swift Cyber Expert is helping to combat these cyber-attacks.

What Is Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is a digital currency that usually only exists electronically. Although they’re often thought of as a new trend, cryptocurrencies have been in development for a long time. Bitcoin, the most well-known cryptocurrency, was launched in 2009. More than 2,000 cryptocurrencies are active on the international market.

Standard currencies (such as the Australian dollar) are centralised and regulated. These have a middleman (a bank or the government) to keep a record of how much currency is available and who has what. This helps to track fraud attempts, such as counterfeiting.

A cryptocurrency peer-to-peer trading system has no middleman. Instead, all logs are recorded in a ‘blockchain’. People who own some of a particular cryptocurrency keep track of payments and transfers. If person A sends a bitcoin to person B, every bitcoin owner is notified. The blockchain speaks to participants’ computers, and when they all agree on where the money is, an extra ‘block’ is added to the chain with updated balances and the whereabouts of the money.

Crypto payments are irreversible and lack legal protection, with no centralised authority to monitor transactions. Consequently, this poorly regulated system is the perfect breeding ground for scammers.

Cryptocurrency Investment Scams

Cryptocurrency investment scams include Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). These are ways that new cryptocurrencies fund their startup by offering new investors the opportunity to receive coin tokens in return for money. While legitimate ICOs do exist for the development of genuine cryptocurrencies, they are also a favourite mechanism used in cryptocurrency fraud.

Many ICOs are marketed without any real technology or legitimate business plans to back them by individuals or small groups with little to no industry or IT experience. In recent years regulatory bodies have prosecuted scam ICO perpetrators. In 2019, the US Securities and Exchange Commission charged the CEO of a software company worth $42million, for defrauding investors through an ICO.

Cryptocurrency Trading Scams

As with any type of investment, malicious individuals and scam groups have found numerous ways to defraud well-meaning investors out of their hard-earned funds. The cryptocurrency trading market is rife with unregulated brokers who use dodgy tactics to steal investments or fleece investors out of more cash.

Often these crypto scams are run out of call centres, usually based overseas, by cold callers with enticing offers and promises of hot tips that will return high dividends.

What Is Binary Options Fraud?

Binary trading scams are used to defraud investors of millions of dollars every year. They promise quick returns through the prediction of asset, commodity or index price over a short time period. While there are many licensed firms that trade in them as a legitimate financial services, investment in binary options is high-risk with returns that are almost impossible to predict, even for professionals. This system of investment is often co-opted by scammers.

What Is a Forex Online Fraud?

Traders can be lured into investing large sums of money with the promise of high returns in foreign exchange fraud operations. This type of fraud rose to prominence in 2008 when currency trading first began to emerge as a common form of investment fraud. Because one trader’s gain is another trader’s loss, the foreign exchange market runs as a zero-loss game in the best-case scenario. Once you factor in brokerage and other transaction fees the overall investment landscape becomes a negative-loss proposition. While forex trading is not always fraudulent by definition, there are large numbers of scams associated with the industry, making it a hotbed of potential scams.

Falling victim to a Forex scam

Although Forex trading systems are not always fraudulent, this highly-technical market is prolific with financial scams that target all levels of investors.

Forex fraudsters operate out of call centres in countries such as Cyprus, Israel, Ukraine, Armenia, Moldova, Georgia, Bulgaria, South Africa, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and Myanmar. These scammers lure investors in with the promise of high returns and specialist support, posing as industry experts despite having little to no experience in trading foreign currencies – nor any intention of doing so.

Instead of investing the capital they receive, these criminals funnel it through an intricate money trail for their own use. By the time you realise that the trades are fraudulent, your funds have vanished.

If this sounds all too familiar, please contact our Forex scam investigators as soon as possible to discover how we can assist your case.

Common types of Forex scams

Signal seller scams

Signal sellers are managed account companies, retail firms, asset managers or individual traders who provide a software system that flags advisable times to purchase or sell a currency pair. These suggestions are based on professional insights, purporting to help inexperienced traders earn money in return for a recurring fee.

While some legitimate signal sellers perform trade functions as promoted, it pays to do your due diligence. Otherwise, Forex scammers could snatch your money and disappear.

Signs of a signal seller Forex scam

Subscription charges: Exercise caution if you are asked to pay daily, weekly or monthly fees to access this ‘privilege’. You should never share your credit or banking details without confirming the trader’s regulatory status.
Broker-specific signals: Step away from signal sellers that offer trading signals tied to a certain broker. The seller may make biased recommendations to earn a commission fee, regardless of your best interests.
Unsubstantiated results: False testimonials from seemingly-sound sources may attempt to persuade action, despite the signals failing to forecast profitable trades. Be wary if there is no verified track record to back reviews.
Inflated accuracy: such claims are an instant warning, as no trader or technology can achieve this degree of precision. Always compare past signals with historical market data.

Robot scams

A Forex robot is a software program that utilises algorithms to automatically buy and sell currency. The parameters and optimisation codes employed by genuine Forex robots are assessed by independent bodies to ensure their validity. Legitimate brokers often offer these Forex robots as value adds.

However, some scammers sell fraudulent robots that trade at random. Although claiming to be able to make you money around the clock, these untested systems can instead cause you to lose your hard-earned savings.

Signs of a robot scam

Exceptionally-high returns: Forex robots can advertise systems that achieve a percentage growth rate in the thousands after only a couple of years. Be sceptical. This figure could only reflect closed trades. If the system has open trades and the stop losses are triggered, your profits could be erased.
Set scalping tactics: Some Forex robots utilise a scalping system, trading for minuscule profits. Technically, this can create a seemingly-strong win rate that inflates results – and leaves your profits susceptible to slight variations in market conditions, should things take a turn.

Forex managed account and broker scams

Some Forex scammers target beginner investors who are looking for an expert to handle trades on their behalf. Posing as an investment firm that provides managed Forex accounts, the fraudster often demands a fee or commission charge in exchange for their professional services. But instead of maximising your returns, they report false profits and drain your account.

A scammer may also pretend to be a registered Forex broker, swindling investors with fake funds. They may assume the identity and registration number of a legitimate Forex broker, even creating a practically-identical website to lure you in and convince you to hand over your money.

Signs of a managed account Forex scam

No proof of fund manager qualifications: while fraudulent fund managers claim to be certified to serve this role, they may struggle to provide legitimate evidence of this experience.
Incredible returns: Forex scammers tend to purport inflated returns, displaying figures that outshine market norms to reel in unsuspecting investors.
Overly-high fees: charges are standard but make sure to read the fine print carefully before committing to a managed account. Excessive costs with penalties for early exits may be a warning sign of a Forex scam.

Forex pyramid and Ponzi schemes

Forex pyramid schemes purport to be investment groups, reeling in victims by offering access to exclusive trading advice in return for a membership fee. Existing members are promised a commission to recruit more members, in turn moving up the ‘pyramid’ of promised profits.

Similarly, a Forex scam can take the form of a Ponzi scheme, advertising Forex funds that ensure a strong return in a short timeframe. Typically, the scammers only request a minor upfront investment and may even pay the first few investors their promised returns to make the scheme appear effective. These investors are then convinced to persuade their friends and family to join.

In both pyramid and Ponzi schemes, distributed earnings derive from membership fees as opposed to Forex trading wins. In both cases, the investment does not actually exist. When recruits start to dwindle, the original orchestrators close the scheme and pocket your money.

What Is a Sports Betting Fraud?

Sports betting fraud aka sports investment scams are presented as legitimate investment opportunities under a range of guises. These can include the promotion of impressive-sounding computer prediction software that supposedly uses advanced data algorithms to predict sporting results based on the analysis of previous events. Sports bet victims can also be lured in by betting syndicates or punters clubs which require the investor to set up a sports betting account and make regular deposits. In these cases, the scammers promise to make winning bets on behalf of the victim but in reality drain the accounts of money and launder these funds for their own profit.

Dating & Romance Scams

With a surge in dating apps and social media sites, online romance scams are on the rise now more than ever. These channels allow scammers to hide behind the screen, posing as prospective partners to swindle users looking for love.

Romance fraud can be financially crippling, with Scamwatch reporting a record-breaking $37 million lost by Australians to dating scams in 2021. Moreover, the FBI reports that Americans lost a record high of $547 million to online dating scams in the same year. Such crimes also inflict emotional scars, often damaging the victim’s relationships with friends and family members.

How do dating and romance scams work?

Dating scams play on your emotions with the aim of persuading you to provide money, gifts or personal information. You may be approached on dating websites or via social media before the scammer works to move communications to more private and less regulated channels like text or email.

Your ‘love interest’ will pursue a seemingly strong connection with you, despite plans to meet in person never materialising. Once they have secured your trust, they will ask you to send money for things like healthcare fees, travel costs or investment opportunities. In reality, they will either pocket these funds and/or use your bank account for further fraudulent activity.

Often run by international crime syndicates, online dating scams can also pose a serious danger to your personal safety. You may be lured abroad and tangled up in perilous situations with devastating consequences. Don’t take the risk.

At Swift Cyber Expert, our experienced investigators gather actionable evidence of dating and romance scams in Australia and across the globe, helping you to seek justice and start the next chapter. Book a consultation to get started.

Company Director & Embezzlement

Also known as misappropriation of funds,director fraud occurs when an individual in this powerful position uses investors’ money for personal benefit. Regardless of whether you are an employee, partner or other stakeholder, discovering that a director has been stealing or embezzling from their company and its investors can be extremely distressing.

But you must not turn a blind eye. If you take action against director fraud quickly and effectively, it may be possible to recover investors’ losses. Book a consultation with Swift Cyber Expert to begin an expert investigation and unearth actionable evidence that can help you to prove and prosecute the offender.

Fake Charities

Fake charities are scams designed to take advantage of their victims’ generosity and compassion, swindling unsuspecting donors for their own personal gain. Either posing as genuine charities or promoting their own fake foundations, these fraudsters often request donations after natural disasters or major emergencies. As well as leaving you out of pocket, these door-to-door and online scams also channel critical proceeds away from the causes they claim to support.

Superannuation Scam

As one of life’s most valuable investments, superannuation funds are frequently targeted by unscrupulous fraudsters. In addition to the large amounts of money held, advancements in technology have enabled these scammers to steal not only hard-earned savings but victims’ identities, too.

The consequences of such superannuation scams are often devastating. If you suspect that you have been targeted by a super fund scam, please take immediate action by contacting our renowned investigators. We will uncover actionable evidence to help you prosecute the culprit behind the crime and recover your retirement savings.

Phishing Attacks