With the members of the public’s growing awareness of the common deceptive tactics, fraudsters continue to invent new tricks in their relentless pursuit to deceive and exploit. Like bacteria, they keep on evolving, reinventing new and sophisticated methods that people haven’t known yet.
Watch Out for Fake Testimonials Fraudsters Now Use To Target You
It’s quite unfortunate that many investors have fallen victim to scam brokers. Every day, I receive at least one email from a victim, inquiring if I may assist them recover their funds.
Most people find me through my YouTube channel called “Scam Detective”, where I’ve reviewed several online trading platforms(legitimate and scam). I also provide recovery assistance to those who have fallen victim to scams.
How Fake Testimonial Scams Work
As a first step in their pursuit, many victims turn to platforms such as YouTube, Scamadviser, Trustpilot, Facebook, and Reddit to see what others have said about their perpetrators. If you’ve been scammed, I’m sure you’ve done the same. Consequently, they discover negative testimonials from other victims, which reinforces their belief that they have indeed encountered a scam.
Traumatized like a shipwreck survivor, they begin to look for assistance desperately in those platforms.
Unfortunately, fraudsters have infiltrated those places, flooding them with false testimonials.
These criminals will claim, in those fabricated reviews, that an individual or entity helped them recover funds from a scammer successfully. They will leave the contact details associated with the supposed “saviors” in those testimonials, hoping to lure victims desperately seeking help.
When you contact the person or entity associated with the email or telephone number to seek help, you’ll be asked to pay an upfront fee. The amount may entail significant sums(hundreds or thousands in your applicable currency).
Once you pay, you’ll be told to wait for the outcome. After a few days (usually a week or less), you’ll be contacted again and informed that your money has been recovered successfully. Then they’ll tell you to pay some charges first to receive the funds. Unfortunately, after you pay, they’ll demand additional payments continuously. Once you realize the trick, they’ll vanish, leaving you even more devastated. That’s how these deceptive testimonial scams work.
How To Tell If You Are Being Targeted By Testimonial Fraudsters
One surefire red flag of potential testimonial fraud is being asked to pay a fee to collect your recovered funds. Usually, a legitimate recovery professional will not ask you to pay money to receive money. There’s just no logic in that. Instead, the recovery expert will deduct the fee from the recovered funds so you don’t have to pay anything to get your money.
However, the professional may ask you to pay a commitment fee only. The amount should be reasonable, not hundreds or thousands of dollars as I often see scammers demanding.
The purpose of the funds is not to enrich the professional but to cater for the costs associated with the recovery process either fully or in part. Plus, it demonstrates the client’s commitment to the course so that the expert doesn’t commit their scarce resources in vain.
A recovery professional’s financial rewards should come from the recovered amount and not from the client’s pocket.
Therefore, any individual who claims to have recovered your money but asks you to part with some cash before you can receive it is not being sincere. After all, wouldn’t it be logical to get that money from the recovered funds, depending on the agreement between both of you?
How Do You Avoid Falling Victim To Testimonial Scams?
Avoid individuals who leave contact details of supposed scam recovery experts in comment sections online. Stay away from the people associated with those contact details, because chances are high that they are fraudsters.
A legitimate scam recovery professional will have a proper platform where you can learn more about their services. Take us, for example, besides a YouTube channel, we also run this website where you can see our our professional consultancy services.
Some experts will have a blog, social media page(s), or a YouTube channel that showcases their services and expertise.
The professional will not charge you an upfront fee. They will draw compensation from the recovered funds, usually a small percentage of the sum. Any individual that asks you to pay an upfront retainer is a red flag.
However, some professionals may require a commitment fee, payable upfront upon signing a service contract. This doesn’t mean they are fraudulent, particularly if the amount is reasonable. It demonstrates your commitment and enables them to dedicate their resources effectively to your case. Otherwise, you don’t expect them to shoulder all the costs related to investigating your case. It’s only fair that you share it.
If you’ve fallen victim to a fraudster, and you’d like to get some help, go to this page, or send an email to scamread@scamreader.info to report the incident and get help.
With nothing to add, watch out for fraudsters who publish fake testimonials to lure devastated scam victims.