Investment scams in Bulgaria involving cryptocurrency or other financial instruments have become increasingly popular in recent years. Scammers usually post ads and commercials on all sorts of social networks, messenger and chat platforms (Facebook, Telegram, Viber, WhatsApp, etc.) and promise high returns to investors but actually the money is used for personal gain of the scammers or for repayment of funds to other investors (the so-called “Ponzi scheme”). It is a common practice newly registered fake websites, pretending to be genuine investment platforms, to be used for the investment frauds. The official website of Bulgarian General Directorate for Combating Organised Crime has published a long list of such fake websites and domains.
The simplest and most commonplace scam involves the purchase and sale of goods on the internet through various sales platforms, where the customers provide their bank account or card details to the scammers or pay a deposit for goods which, of course, they never receive. Among the increasingly common and trendy scam schemes is a Facebook ad for (unrealistically) high investment returns that “catches the eye” of potential scam victims. The investors usually receive a link to a website (fake crypto, forex or other investment platform) or an app to install on an iOS or Android mobile device. Thus, people fall victim to malware (viruses, trojans and other malware) installed on their devices, which fact they usually find out once their bank accounts have been drained without their knowledge or consent. These cases are examples of classic automated cyber-crime, where there is a direct theft of funds from the victim’s accounts without any investment at all.
Another common type of scam involves the so-called social engineering, in which not algorithms and machines, but real people communicate with the victims of the fraud. In these cases, victims make certain dispositions of their own funds and voluntarily transfer funds to the fraudsters. The scam usually involves a phone call (typically from an overseas number), an email (less common), or messages in encrypted messenger or chat applications (preferred by fraudsters are Facebook Messenger, Telegram, etc., which can also be used without a phone number). Fraudsters convince the victim to invest a relatively small 3- or 4-digit sum. The “investment” is usually a bank transfer to an account specified by the fraudsters. In order to create confidence in the victims, the scammers declare the initial “investment” (e.g. €500) to be quite beneficial and often even transfer a larger amount (e.g. €600) back, so as to make the easy prey believe that the investment is real and can bring them a large profit (20% monthly revenue sounds great, doesn’t it?). The “investors”, who have not yet been scammed, as a rule, make a second transfer of larger amounts to the “brokers’” account. After which they become actually defrauded because the amount in question is never refunded.More insolent fraudsters manage to embezzle from the victims additional amounts, by claiming that these amounts are needed for bank charges and administrative expenses for the transfer of the full amount of their investment and profit.
In summary, the above described scams usually take place because of people who are not checking in advance the credibility of the source offering them high returns, the merchant from whom they will be purchasing the good/service, etc. And secondly, due to the perfectly natural human greed which blurs the minds of the victims in the face of the incredible profitability on offer and they are unable to think soberly to recall the time-honoured proverb “Too good to be true”.
Once they have “sobered up”, the defrauded “investors” fully understand what a fraudulent scheme they have fallen into. And they direct all their efforts in the only possible direction, namely – to recover the stolen funds.
Unfortunately, some victims of such scams do not seek qualified legal help to resolve the problem; instead they initiate various “Barking up the wrong tree” type of actions, such as filing all sorts of complaints and notifications to all sorts of authorities, without realising that most of these authorities are not competent to solve their problem, or even if they are legally competent, they have no experience and the necessary expertise to investigate such cases of online fraud, let alone recover the funds.
With their professional experience and knowledge, lawyers who specialize in internet law, incl. cyber transactions and frauds, can assist you either before you have become a victim of investment fraud, by preliminary research of an investment scheme, or after the investment fraud has already taken place and you have lost the funds you have invested.
At this later stage, a lawyer can provide:
- Professional assistance and drafting a strong complaint to the relevant authorities competent to investigate such frauds;
- Comprehensive investigation of the fraudulent scheme and the individuals behind it, identifying possible options for full or at least partial recovery of funds stolen by the criminals;
- Carrying out a thorough analysis of the specific case and assessment of the chances of success of filing a lawsuit in pursuit of the above goals, including the options for injunctions and securing assets for the repayment of the stolen amounts.
