The Financial Ombudsman Service warned the people after taking into account the current economic circumstances. People would naturally be drawn to fake investments, like cryptocurrency scams, with biting living costs.
The Financial Ombudsman Service has received a growing number of investment scam complaints. And most of these complaints are related to cryptocurrency.
Scams are mostly about someone persuading you to buy cryptocurrency through a legitimate intermediary and then sending money to what you believe to be a genuine investment platform, which in reality, is operated by fraudsters.
The interim chief executive and chief ombudsman at the FOS, Nausicaa Delfas, said that they are concerned people could be enticed by such fake investments in current economic circumstances.
When talking of investment fraud, the ombudsman service said it saw examples of consumers being scammed out of tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The caseload of the service between April and June went up to 570 complaints made by customers, largely against their bank, after they had authorized payments that turned out to be investment scams. Around 500 complaints were received in the same period a year ago.
The FOS upheld nearly 60% of investment fraud complaints in the favor of consumers between April and June this year.
Be wary, conduct your own research, check the FCA register and directly contact the firm on the contact listed.