The Expert Podcast

…So how does a typical online fraud work you may have? Been defrauded or scammed out of money from some type of investment maybe purchasing. a luxury item like a watch or maybe a PlayStation. So how do these scams work in what is the typical red flags to watch for And if you are a victim how do you get your money back? Well an online scam usually starts. With a presentation. Have some opportunity to the victim It may be an investment It may be something like if you put your money into this deal we'll double your money in two months, it may be we'll promise 20% return every month. It may be some type of a scheme where when you put your money in, you'll get back. Your money but also some additional profit. Sometimes it's the purchase of an item at a unreasonably good deal. And we talked to a client last week where there was a Rolex watch that was made available for sale at a low price. And they sent the money and of course it didn't get to watch. Sometimes it's hard to find out I'm like when PlayStation five was hot or certain types of sneakers at a lower level of scam but sometimes victims will lose. Tens or hundreds of thousands we've even seen many cases. In the past few months where the loss is are over $1 million

So usually what happens is…there's some social media. Presentation of this opportunity. It may be on Facebook or Instagram.A lot of times it's on telegram or some other social media platform. And sometimes it's not a very direct. solicitation It may not be Hey put your money in. Sometimes it's part of a dating scam where some, a person will come and say that they're interested in dating you on a dating site and that you talk to them back and forth. On chat for maybe two weeks three weeks a month or more. And they may mention something about Hey I made all this money in this investment Sometimes it's somebody posting a picture. Of them having a fancy dinner or on a fancy vacation or driving a luxury car. And says something like, Hey congratulate me for making a big profit on my investment deal. And so what they want to do is they want to get victims to ask them about this investment So they're not even. it doesn't look like they're trying to pitch anything or trying to sell anything. They get you to ask for It's almost like you're begging for this investment. So you'll see this post or you'll see this message from this dating person that says we have this great deal for you. And you ask about Hey what did what is this deal or what is this investment? And the person might say well you know I can't really tell you about it They might be in play hard to get.

Eventually they'll tell you about this deal. Yeah There's an investment company They put money into cryptocurrency They put money into bonds or they'll have some, some description of what this deal is. And…it doesn't. Represent that it's them. Right It doesn't represent that They're the one. who, who are doing this, this investment deal They just put their money in like anybody else. And it almost makes it seem like they have nothing to do with this investment company. And you ask them what can I get in on it And they say well I don't know if they're doing any new investors or they play hard to get eventually. They'll put you in touch with this investment company or where this deal is. And they'll talk to you a little bit about what the deal is and how much money you're going to make. And you're put in a little bit of money sometimes even tell you don't put in a lot of money, just start with something small 500, 1000 some small amount of money. So you put your money in. And they will send you. Statements account statements that make it look like your money went up just like you have a bank statement you get every month that shows your account balance. These statements will show. That your 1000 is now. 2,400. More than double…

Okay. So you think you made a lot of money and they'll tell you look if you put in. Another. 8,000 So you get your account over 10,000. It will automatically double within 30 days So now you put an 8,000 plus the 2000 supposedly you have on your statement… And. You put in 10 and sure enough, three four weeks later they show you an account statement with $20,000 in it. And they'll use that as a means to get more money Well do you know if you get your account statement up to 50,000? Then it will double again to a hundred thousand. So all you need to do is come up with another 30 grand. So now you find another 30 grand They keep asking for money along these same lines and they use your account statement as both a… A carrot to get you to put in more money showing how much you've made but also. A lever to get you to get to certain levels of investment. And eventually you might either get suspicious or maybe you just want to take some profits and say Hey wait a minute My account statement now is showing a hundred thousand dollars. So let me take some money out I'd like to take out all of it or half of it or whatever the case might be.

First of all once these scams happened there was no taking any money out They never let you take money out. It's not like a bank where you can withdraw. You know a certain amount. So when you ask for money out they're going to say well you can take money out but you have to pay taxes on your profit. So if your profit is $60,000, you have to pay 20% tax in order to take it out So you have to pay another $12,000 in taxes. Sometimes at that point the investor or the victim will realize it's a scam and they'll take action appropriately. Sometimes they won't recognize that. And they'll send the 12,000. Okay Where's my money Oh we just found out now you have to pay an audit fee. Or an accounting fee. They'll keep making up other fees to try to get more money from you. And they have a. A very detailed playbook and script to know exactly what to ask from you. It could be taxes audit fees. import fees duty fees government fees I don't just keep asking for money until. You. Get worn out as an investor or you get suspicious or you just don't have any more money. And at that point now you realize you're a victim and then you want to take some kind of action… In the case of physical goods Sometimes they'll ship you a box with bricks in it or rocks in it and make it seem like they sent you something. And then it's the same thing You're a victim.

So what do you do if you've lost money? Well we've covered this in other videos and you can look at those but basically what you want to do is…it's a three step process First is do an investigation either on your own or through an agency. To discover the true identity of the person Cause they always use fake names fake emails fake addresses fake phone numbers. So you want to find out who the true identity of the person is. But once you do that then you want to run an asset search to find out where's their bank accounts and where's their real estate where their corporate assets and step three. As you get a writ of garnishment, which is a legal process through the court to allow you to seize those assets.

That's the three-step process But the main thing is. If you are a victim of this kind of scam I'll bet that the scam followed that kind of pattern It started out innocently enough maybe not directly It was somebody you met online or somebody you met. You know through social media. And they told you about some great deal. And they didn't really hard sell you on it They just kind of told you about it in a way that made you very curious and very interested in it. And so you followed up and then you put a little money and then a little more a little more a little more in an escalated until you got to the point of being suspicious Maybe you tried to take money out, they hit you up for taxes or audit fees, and then you realize that you had become a victim.

So that's how frauds work That's the pattern that the scammers will use. So if you start to see that. In any type of investment. That might be a red flag to recognize you might need to do more due diligence to see if you truly are in a legitimate deal or if it's just somebody taking your money.