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Testimonials

Fraudsters use all sorts of techniques to persuade their victims to part with their money. In what follows, we provide a few testimonials that illustrate how the swindlers work and provide some tips by the FSMA to avoid falling in their trap.

Never deal with a company about which a warning has been published!

To check whether the company offering you a service has been named in a warning, please consult the warnings published on the website of the FSMA, foreign supervisory authorities or IOSCO.

If you have been the victim of a fraud, follow these 4 recommendations!

 

Fraudulent offers of portfolio management services

“I was contacted by one of their agents, who offered to manage my assets”

 

“To this day, I have not heard any more from this institution”

“The financial institution with which I deposited my funds claimed to be “perfectly secure” thanks to the “REGAFI standards”, as my “account manager” put it when I set up my account. And yet, today, I have no more contact with this institution. My account managers have changed or deleted their phone numbers and there is no reply from their email address”.

 

Credit fraud

“Their very first offer was to lend me 5000 euros for 18 months”

 

“The form is full of spelling mistakes, and now they are asking me for 305 euros to register the credit”

“I am looking for a loan. I filled in various forms online to apply for one. I received a reply to one of my applications from an intermediary, who put me in touch with a lender. I had to sign a form to register the credit. The form was full of spelling mistakes and now they are asking me for 305 euros to register the credit. I am supposed to pay that amount into an account at KBC. I also had contact via WhatsApp. So I did receive an official bank account from these people by phone, but I still find it suspicious”.

Fraudulent online trading platforms

“I recently saw on a friend’s Facebook page an advertisement for an online trading platform”

 

“(…) my contact person gave me just one hour to find a solution!”

“At the beginning of March, after having made a payment of 200 euros via PayPal thinking I was buying a Bitcoin on one site, I was immediately contacted by a second platform.

Apparently, the money I paid in was received by that company. The person who contacted me explained that I had to give a copy of the invoice and of my identity card, and then steered me to a trading platform, providing me with a sort of ‘express training’ in the field. Since I had not expected any of this, but with my curiosity piqued, I followed their advice. A few days later, they put enormous pressure on me to add 1000 euros needed to start trading.

In any event, they were sufficiently persuasive that I went along with it. But a few days later, there was the sudden downturn due to Covid, and I was on the verge of losing the 1200 euros I had invested. Once again, they pressured me to add 1200 euros more to guarantee my ‘positions’, and not to lose the initial 1200 euros. I did so, but then, a few days later, they once again pressured me, this time to add 2500 euros as a sort of insurance for my positions. I was not willing to do so and told them, moreover, that I didn’t have the money. Nevertheless, my contact person gave me just one hour to find a solution! I am still waiting for the company to return my money. When I tried to call them, I was kept on hold and never managed to speak to someone by phone”.