Let’s break down some major financial scams happening to folks right now.
1st, scammers are capitalizing on fears of a recession to trick folks into:
- Making bogus investments to “get rich quick”
- Joining "investment coaching" groups w/ expensive fees

Thanks Meta for partnering with me to make this PSA to keep folks safe.

These investment scams promise quick returns with "no risk" with assets like shares of a company, cryptocurrency, real estate or metals/coins.
And they target people on social media, texts, emails, or calls.

Folks often feel embarrassed that they have fallen for an Investment Scam or paid high fees to join a bogus "exclusive investment group/opportunity" so they suffer in silence while the scammers recruit more people into their fraudulent scheme. We have to talk about this to protect people.

For example, scammers have been targeting people using fake Facebook / TikTok accounts to pose as experts, employees, & investment coaches affiliated w/ cryptocurrency and investment apps.
Scammers claim they have "trading secrets" (and you have to buy in to their group with expensive fees).
They post images and videos of people crying or happy with screenshots of how thankful they were that they "made profits" so others fall for the scam.
They also pretend they have internal access and can "support with account recovery".

Now let's talk through 2 other major types of financial scams in action right now:
1. Advance Payment Scams
2. Overpayment and Refund Request Scams
Even if you haven't fallen for this, you or a loved one have likely encountered someone making one of these claims this year!

Advance Payment Scams:
These scammers often hide behind legit looking profiles (like a Facebook Marketplace account). After chatting and agreeing to sell an item to you, they then ask that you pay *before* picking up the item to secure you as the buyer. After you pay, the scammer ghosts you.

Overpayment and Refund Request Scams:
This is when a scammer may provide too much money for an item they purchased online (or they claim they have with a fake receipt photo) and request a partial refund from you. After they receive the partial refund, the scammer then reverses their original payment (if they made one at all), keeping the original payment + the refund.

How do we protect ourselves:
1. Be wary of investment advice from people you don’t know or have recently met
Only take investment advice from licensed and registered investment firms or advisors that you have confirmed are who they say they are -- not someone you just met or watched on social media

2. Spot investment red flags
If it’s too good to be true, an opportunity to “get rich quick”, or "guaranteed with no risk", it's likely a scam

3. Be politely paranoid during money transfers
Only transfer money to people you know personally, people you’ve independently verified are who they say they are, or once you’ve met up to receive an item you want to buy IRL.