How fraudsters are exploiting social media and fake news

It is time to register new e-mail addresses and get a couple of new phone numbers. I suspect the current ones have been blacklisted by scammers – they don’t call back anymore when I register to invest in their fraudulent trading programmes.

That all the fraudsters suddenly stop calling all at once also raises the suspicion that a few syndicates sit behind most of these scams, or at least are in the ‘marketing department’ to generate sales leads for dubious clients.

The clients range from outright thieves who take victims’ money and disappear to bucket shops operating offshore.

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However, some of the fake news articles and videos lead back to brokers that are registered with the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).

There are other signs that many of the scams and fake news stories originate from only a few sources.

Most of the scams use the exact same wording in advertisements supposedly featuring business leaders like Johann Rupert, sports stars like AB de Villiers and the odd celebrity. Scammers would like us to believe that these people said exactly the same thing using exactly the same wording whether the articles were supposedly published by News24 or the SABC.

Victims are led to believe that the reporters tested the programmes for themselves, suspiciously earning the same profits.

The investment required to earn profits – promised to be large enough that everybody in SA can stop working – is also similar for every scheme.

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The fake videos of Elon Musk and Patrice Motsepe both require an investment of R4 800, and one that fraudently uses FNB and Capitec branding requires an investment of R4 700.

There is probably a psychological reason for keeping the amounts under R5 000.

It is interesting that fraudsters plying their trade on social media reduced the minimum investment to R2 600 for a few weeks a while back, but it was increased to R4 800 again.

Mocking the police

It is astounding that fraudsters carry on with their scams without any regard for the law. The latest fake story to solicit investment into a fraud going under the banner of Momentum X Capital openly mocks the police on Facebook.

It states that the police had to apologise for arresting a man who had a large amount of cash with him. The story wants people to believe that the man was sent by Musk to repay money lost by investors in the fraudulent Momentum X Capital scheme.

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“This broker was detained while transferring a large sum of money to several people who had failed to make a profit on the platform,” the fake article states.

“According to Elon Musk’s personal promise, all users of the platform are guaranteed to earn money, and if someone doesn’t, Musk covers the losses himself.

“They admitted that the broker was acting within the law, fulfilling the promises of the Momentum X Capital platform. The apologies were accepted by the public, further strengthening trust in the platform.”

The fraudsters published two pictures of senior police officers “apologising” for the arrest and a picture of the arrest.

An internet search proved that the picture of the alleged arrest dates from 20 years ago.

It is beyond comprehension that people believe these lies. Several commented that the scammers should sue the police for damages.

Fraudsters and fake profiles

Criminals have been using fake social media profiles to operate their scams.

They are becoming more daring in the absence of any form of policing and share their cellphone numbers openly, showcasing the inefficiency of identification of cellphone users in terms of Rica (Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-related Information Act).

There are many fake profiles pretending to be those of well-known business people.

Two profiles claim to be Rupert, complete with a few pictures of the businessman himself. It is obvious that at least one is fake.

A message asking more information about the scam quickly got responses from two different persons claiming to be Rupert’s personal accountant. Again, it is obvious that at least one is lying.

The ‘accountant’ going by the name of David Jacobs was the more entertaining of the two and desperate enough for the R4 800 to keep on responding to messages for more than a month.

“Johann is my boss. I speak to him on a daily basis, in the morning and at night. Did he tell you about the platform or must I explain?” he said in one message.

He explained that the trading platform will generate big profits within hours. He was desperate, even sending messages to solicit money on Sunday evenings.

Jacobs promised there is no risk in the mining of cryptocurrency and profit is 100% guaranteed, within three hours.

Then he requested that the initial investment be paid into a personal bank account under the name of R. D. Davis at Capitec Bank.

Later on, he asked for a deposit into a different personal bank account, also at Capitec and under the name of P. Botsani.

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He explained that Botsani is a respected shareholder of the company and that the company, Matrix Revolution, has rules that prevent the deposit of large amounts into the company bank account.

Jacobs refused to answer the question of whether Matrix Revolution is registered as a financial services provider (FSP) with the FSCA or supply its FSP number.

“We don’t have time for jokes. We are here for business and not to play,” he said.

“You are a nonsense client. If you call me again I will paste your number on my Nigeria WhatsApp status and my fans will all report your number until mark kill,” Jacobs added in what looks like a warbled threat.

Failures

It is difficult to believe that people still fall for these scams despite all the red flags of unrealistic promises, that the same promises are made by different people, and unbelievable stories of somebody walking around with a suitcase of cash while everything else is done online.

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However, it must work well enough for the fraudsters to carry on.

They do not always succeed. A sales pitch using a doctored interview with actress Charlize Theron disappeared after two weeks when social media comments showed that few people in SA like her.

It is also noticeable that a lot of people are commenting on the social media posts to call the out as scams.

This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here