Online Investment Scam On The Rise, Research Shows

A recent study by the Better Business Bureau (BBB), a U.S. nonprofit promoting good business practices, has revealed that the number of scams and the volume of money lost by victims are rising globally.

The investment scam study revealed a staggering increase in the average money lost by victims. In 2021, victims lost an average of $1,000 to investment scams. By 2024, this figure had skyrocketed to nearly $6,000. Shockingly, some victims reported losses in hundreds of thousands of dollars.

According to BBB, the study was conducted to curb the rising link between investment and cryptocurrency, some of which are tied to dangerous organised syndicates from Southeast Asia.

The syndicates operate by promising unrealistic returns on investment, where targeted victims are shown fake results to convince them to send the fraudster more money.

BBB also highlighted that social media plays about 60 per cent in contacting and luring victims into unrealistic promises and parting away their money to earn more.

“If the victim gets nervous and tries to withdraw their investment, that’s when the scammer and the money disappear,” said Jessie Schmidt, Vice President of the Better Business Bureau. “It’s all a Ponzi scheme. You get your money in, and you never get it out.”

Meanwhile, an ongoing scam example cited by the BBB was the prevailing “pig butchering scams” – a practice in which fraudsters first earn the victim’s trust through a perceived romantic or platonic relationship to persuade the victim into sending money or invest into dodgy investment.

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Mayowa Durosinmi

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M. Durosinmi is a West Africa Weekly investigative reporter covering Politics, Human Rights, Health, and Security in West Africa and the Sahel Region

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