Empty promises

You are invited to a WhatsApp or Telegram group. Investors report about their impressive profits, and a financial expert gives tips about how to make money quickly.

Then you see a video featuring a celebrity advertising an investment platform. Everything seems professional and credible. You start by investing 250 euro. The balance appears to grow on the platform.
Your contact recommends you to make further deposits. So you invest more money. However the gains only exist on-screen. Your money is actually gone.

Cases like this are not isolated incidents.

In 2025 alone, the FMA received 843 investment fraud reports with incurred losses totalling around 20 million euro. Frequently the fraud only comes to light when affected investors want to have their money paid out. They are suddenly asked to pay “taxes”, “fees” or make additional deposits. The promised gains are never paid out.

Fraudsters are becoming ever more professional.

It is often difficult to detect investment fraud nowadays. Fraudsters use social media, videos and pictures generated using AI, faked trading platforms, and pretend to be genuine companies. Their object is always the same: to gain your trust and to take your money.

How can you protect yourself against fraud?

• Take your time.
• Understand products.
• Check over providers.

Fraudsters frequently pressurise their victims. They want you to act before asking questions or before you are able to check the offer thoroughly. Any serious investment does not require a decision within a few minutes.

Do you understand the product?

Inform yourself about how the investment works, the risks and costs that can arise, as well as how you can get your money back. The principle applies that: I don’t anything that I don’t understand. The possibility of high profits, are always associated with an increased risk. The worst case scenario is a dead loss.

Who is behind the offering?

Check who is offering you the investment, and whether the company is authorised to do so. Compare their name, web address, postal address and contact details. Don’t rely solely on the information the provider supplies. Fraudsters frequently copy the names and websites of genuine providers. Such counterfeit providers are known as “clone firms”.

You can check which companies are allowed to provide financial services in Austria via the FMA website.

Are there warnings?

The FMA and other supervisory authorities regularly publish investor warnings. A web search can often reveal important clues.

Remember: Just because there isn’t a warning about a provider doesn’t automatically mean that a provider is legitimate.

If you have been the victim of investment fraud

Inform you bank quickly, and file a report with the police. Acting quickly can help to prevent other losses. Also exercise caution about “offers to get you money back”. Anyone charging an advanced fee to get your money back, is frequently often a fraudster.

TIP:Don’t click on links you don’t know about, never divulge your passwords, and never install software for remotely accessing your computer when requested to by third parties.

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