Could this be investment fraud?

How it was sold to you

• Returns were described as guaranteed, fixed, or risk-free
• Profits were unusually consistent, month after month, regardless of markets
• The strategy was described but never really explained, or called proprietary or confidential
• You were pressed to deposit quickly, before an opportunity closed
• You were encouraged to reinvest rather than withdraw
• You were paid, or offered payment, for introducing other people

Who you were dealing with

• You could not confirm the firm on any official regulator’s register
• The firm claimed a license, regulator or registration you could not independently verify
• The website address did not match the one listed on the regulator’s register
• You were shown certificates, licenses or awards as reassurance
• The company name on the payment instruction differed from the one on the website
• Nobody involved had a verifiable professional identity or physical address

How the money moved

• Payment was only accepted in cryptocurrency
• You were guided to buy cryptocurrency yourself and then send it on
• Funds were sent to an individual, or to a company in an unrelated country
• You were asked to pay by gift card, money-transfer service or a third-party processor
• Your own bank queried the payment and you were coached on what to tell them

What happened at withdrawal

• Withdrawal requests were delayed, refused, canceled or reversed
• A fee was demanded before a withdrawal could be released
• An unexpected tax, clearance or insurance demand arrived before payout
• A bonus or credit turned out to carry conditions that made withdrawal impossible
• The balance on screen kept rising while withdrawals did not complete

How you were handled

• You were asked to install remote-access or trading software
• Someone placed trades in your account without your specific authority
• The account manager discouraged you from telling family, your bank or a lawyer
• Someone claiming to be a regulator, bank or official contacted you
• Someone promised to recover money you had already lost, for a fee

This information is educational and does not determine whether a particular person or company has committed fraud. Legitimate, fully licensed firms sometimes exhibit one or two of these features for ordinary commercial reasons, and a fraudulent operation may exhibit none of them in a form you can see. A legal assessment requires review of the specific facts, the documents and the applicable law.