Scammers gain victims’ trust by advertising on social media pages of celebrities

The Abu Dhabi Judicial Department confirmed that many fraudsters gain the trust of their victims by posting advertisements about their activities on the pages of celebrities and social influencers.

In response to questions from Al-Emarat Al-Youm, she said that the “technique” of defrauding people through fictitious investment groups in stocks and cryptocurrencies includes specific, repeated steps that fraudsters follow to lure their victims and seize their money.

She attributed the victims falling into the scammers’ traps to the victim’s tendency to easily trust others and the desire to get rich quickly.

Al-Emarat Al-Youm monitored cases filed by victims against fraudsters who made them believe that they would make imaginary profits in a short time through trading in stocks and cryptocurrencies. However, they discovered – after transferring the money – that they had been subjected to fraud.

In detail, the department explained that the fraudulent operations take place after criminal gangs create groups specialized in trading stocks and cryptocurrencies, and advertise their fake groups via emails and social media sites, with promises of imaginary profits.

She added that fraudsters gain the trust of victims by advertising their activities on the pages of social media celebrities, while victims suffer financial losses as a result of believing the promises.

The department indicated that the fraud plan includes generating enthusiasm among victims with the initial lucrative returns, and pushing them to increase their investments, hoping to achieve quick and easy profits. After paying larger sums of money through money transfers to personal accounts, no profits are collected, and the group members do not respond to their calls, so they find themselves falling into an electronic fraud operation.

The department attributed the victims falling into the traps of fraudsters to the desire to get rich quickly, and being carried away by promises of obtaining imaginary profits, in addition to the lack of awareness of individuals about the importance of research and investigation before entering into any investments via the Internet, noting that “the damages that befall victims include loss of money, entering into financial distress, and the difficulty of prosecuting the perpetrators legally.”

She added: “The deposited profits may have been transferred from other victims, which exposes the deceived investor to legal accountability, in addition to the possibility of being held accountable for the sources of the funds.”

The department stressed that the burden of preventing fraud falls on the investors themselves, by being careful not to be led by promises, and staying away from questionable transactions, in addition to dealing with investment opportunities for which there is reliable, accurate and transparent information regarding the mechanism of using funds and expected returns.

Al-Emarat Al-Youm has monitored many cases of financial fraud through fictitious investment groups. The country’s courts recently witnessed a case involving a Gulf national who lost AED 620,000 in a “fictitious investment” after two Asians he met at an exhibition lured him into making huge profits by trading in global stocks through their company. He said that the defendants created an atmosphere that would excite the passion of their platform’s visitors, as they displayed a luxury car and claimed that the global company that manufactures it sponsors their platform. He gave them the money in installments, but eventually discovered that they had deceived him. Another person filed a lawsuit against four individuals and a company, accusing them of seizing AED 665,000 in cash after they contacted him and managed to deceive him into believing that they owned a stock trading company, impersonating its employees, and telling him that they could open an account for him to trade in the company. In a third incident, a man filed a lawsuit demanding that a person be obligated to return to him 251,600 dirhams, indicating that the defendant made him believe that he worked in a commercial company operating in the field of digital currencies and stocks, and offered him work in the project in exchange for large profits, so he accepted, but the other person did not fulfill his obligation, and did not return to him the amount paid.

Two financial advisors, Mohamed Diab and Omar Hefzy, confirmed that trading and promoting fictitious stocks and digital currencies constitutes one of the modern criminal phenomena that has spread recently, as a result of the development of information technology and electronic payment methods.

They said that cyber fraud crimes have spread widely worldwide during the last three years, which requires enhancing community awareness in this regard through some simple measures that a person can take to protect himself from falling victim to fictitious investment groups, noting that “it is not possible to limit the platforms designated for trading, as they are managed from abroad, and most of them cannot be trusted, as they are used to commit fraud crimes.”

It is promoted in various ways, with false slogans, through social media channels and direct personal meetings.

• The desire to get rich quick is the most prominent reason why victims fall into the trap of fraudsters.

• The fraud scheme involves generating excitement in victims by promising lucrative initial returns.