The Portuguese FX regulator has issued official warnings against a so-called new generation of unlicensed brokerages using social media outlets to promote their scammer investment schemes. The most popular media seems to be Instagram, where fraudsters establish fabricated influencer accounts. Through these account they can advertise incredibly alluring investment opportunities that are ultimately money traps. Users trend to get paid once, thus confirming their beliefs and hooking them to invest further. The illusion is shattered after that and investments are lost.
The Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobillários (CMVM) mentions that these individuals and groups lack any sort of authenticity or license to offer such services. That is why regulators, not only in Portugal, always advise users to check whether the people they are dealing with are licensed to provide whatever they are pushing.
On its part, the CMVM will blacklist these individuals or organizations, but that may take some time, in which some people might have already fallen victim to the scam. The watchdog has already made some great progress on shutting down a number of scams, however the CMVM still urges users to check the legitimacy of whom ever they are dealing with.
Earlier, the Portuguese authorities released details of a plan to investigate local influencers who are known to provide crypto-related advices.
Meanwhile, Instagram related investment scams are rampant in Nigeria, where fake influencers are promoting investment schemes using fabricated profiles.
