Have you been offered a fantastic investment by someone online? Does it feel like an opportunity that you’d be stupid to miss out on? Are there no downsides, and you need to get in now?
Investing can be a fantastic way to secure your financial future. However, investing always contains risk. Always. If you’ve been offered an investment that promises the world, there’s a risk it may be an investment scam. Scams online, over the phone, via email, even in online games, they’re becoming more frequent and harder to spot. Scammers are spending months talking to people to steal money from them. Everyone is at risk of an investment scam.
Thankfully, even as technology gets more advanced, there are some surefire signs of a scam that you can look out for. If you’re ever considering investing, check it out with someone else first. They can give you the confidence you need that something is legit. They might also stop a scam from happening.
Key ways to spot a scam
Are they promising the world?
Legit ways to invest never promise you the world. They can’t: investing is risky and there’s never a guarantee you’ll make money back. If someone you’ve met online is promising you big profit: that’s a red flag. Ask someone else whether it sounds like they’re promising the world. If they are, you might want to avoid.
Are they pushing you to act urgently?
Scammers are savvy: they know when we’re under pressure it’s hard to think through a decision. That’s why it’s so important to check it out with someone else. They can support you to think about the offer because you can take it slow. If you and your mate see them pushing you to urgently get on board the next Bitcoin rush, dip out.
If you say no, are they letting it go?
Good friends know when to let it go. Does a conversation with someone you’ve met online keep coming back to investing? If you say you aren’t interested, do they let it go? Or do they keep bringing it up? Tell someone else about how they’ve raised the investment opportunity. What do they think? If it seems fishy to someone else, you might want to pump the brakes and say no.
