Investment offers, crypto and “guaranteed” returns

How it starts

The FTC's June 2024 alert is titled "Unexpected messages on social media about investing are almost always scams", and says scammers use Facebook, LinkedIn and WhatsApp to offer fake investment opportunities, such as a chance to invest in cryptocurrency. Others begin with a "wrong number" text or on a dating app. The FBI's 2025 report describes the same approach: contact, typically by text, social media, ads or dating apps, then a quick move to a messaging app, and often an introduction to people who present themselves as investing insiders. The FBI says cryptocurrency investment scams like these are largely run by organized criminal groups based in Southeast Asia, using victims of human trafficking as forced labor.

How the money disappears

You're shown a website or app that looks like a real trading platform. The FTC says these fake platforms show fake growth. The FBI says people are encouraged to invest more, and are even offered loans to do it. The money was never invested. When you try to withdraw, according to the FBI, you're told to pay "taxes" or "fees" first, and then the platform and the friend disappear. The FBI's 2025 report calls those charges "a final attempt to exploit money from the victims." So don't pay a tax or fee to withdraw: paying it doesn't release anything.

Some of these platforms ask for cash instead. In June 2026 the FBI warned that scammers tell people "in-person cash pickups are required to continue investing with the fraudulent investment firm or to pay purported fines to withdraw their investments," then send couriers to collect the cash at their homes or in public places. Its advice: "Don't disclose your home address or agree to meet with unknown individuals to deliver cash or other valuables as part of investment activities."

Crypto ATMs and QR codes

Cryptocurrency shows up in many patterns, not only investments. The FTC's guide to cryptocurrency and scams describes scammers posing as government agencies, law enforcement or utility companies who stay on the phone while directing people to a cryptocurrency ATM, walk them through feeding in cash, and have them scan a QR code that sends the crypto to the scammer's wallet. The FTC's rule is short: "Only scammers demand payment in cryptocurrency." And: "Cryptocurrency payments typically are not reversible." In the FBI's 2025 report, people aged 60 and over filed 6,188 complaints involving crypto ATMs and kiosks, reporting $257 million in losses.

What the numbers show

For people aged 60 and over, investment fraud was the crime type with the largest reported losses in the FBI's 2025 report: 16,926 complaints and $3.52 billion in reported losses. Cryptocurrency investment fraud alone accounted for 13,685 complaints and $2.76 billion from that age group. These count only complaints filed with the FBI, and only those where the person gave an age, which the FBI's form doesn't require.

Signs to weigh

From the FTC's guide to investment scams:

• Promises of big, guaranteed profits, or claims of little or no risk.
• A secret method or a "proven system."
• Few details about the investment. (The FTC's advice is to get the details in writing.)
• High-pressure sales tactics.

The FTC's June 2024 alert sums it up: "Investments always involve risk — there are no guaranteed returns."

How to check

1. Look up the person and the firm at Investor.gov, the SEC's site for checking investment professionals. A match isn't proof on its own: the SEC and FBI warn that impostors copy real advisers' names and registration numbers, and even urge people to look them up. Contact the firm only through a phone number or website you've checked yourself in its official records, never through details the person gave you.
2. Search the company or app name with the words "review," "scam" or "complaint," as the FTC suggests.
3. Talk it over with someone you trust before you send any money, especially to someone you've only met online.

"We can get your money back": recovery scams

People who've lost money are sometimes contacted again by someone offering to recover it, for a fee or for their personal or financial details: a "law firm," a "crypto recovery law firm," or even someone posing as the FBI. In the cryptocurrency section of the FBI's 2025 report, people 60 and over filed 2,529 complaints about recovery scams, with $540 million in reported losses (the FBI notes that the losses may also include money lost in the earlier scam). In July 2026 the FBI warned of scammers impersonating its own complaint center, and said plainly: "IC3 will never ask for payment to recover lost funds, nor will IC3 refer someone to a company requesting payment for recovering funds." A link from one of these impostors, it says, "may be used to collect more financial data to revictimize the person," and the FTC says "Anyone who asks for your personal or financial information or for upfront fees is a scammer." It also says "IC3 will never directly communicate with individuals" by phone, email, social media, phone apps, online chat or public forums, so a call, email or message "from IC3" about your money is a scam. If more information is needed about a complaint, it says, people will be contacted by FBI employees from local field offices or other law enforcement officers; you can check such a contact by calling your local FBI field office at a number from fbi.gov, which you type into your browser yourself, not one from a search result or an ad: the FTC warns that "the first search results you see might be paid ads."

If you sent money

Stop sending more money. If you sent a wire or a transfer from your bank, call your bank right away. In the FBI's words, "If you discover a fraudulent transfer, time is of the essence." Its advice is to contact your bank immediately and "request a recall of the funds". If you paid in cryptocurrency, the FTC's guide says to contact the cryptocurrency exchange or ATM operator immediately, tell them it was a fraudulent transaction, and ask them to reverse it. If you handed cash to a courier, don't agree to another pickup, and file a complaint at ic3.gov, as the FBI's June 2026 alert asks.

Where to report

The FTC suggests reporting investment fraud at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to the SEC at sec.gov/tcr, and crypto fraud to the FBI at ic3.gov and to the cryptocurrency exchange you used. If you paid through a crypto ATM, the FTC's guide for people who were scammed says to contact the ATM company too. See also what to do if you paid.

Related patterns

• Someone you met online who needs moneyA warm connection, a reason they can't meet, then a money problem.
• Job offers by text, and jobs that ask you to payEasy remote work, "reply YES," then a deposit to unlock your pay.
• QR codes on parking meters, packages and textsA square code hides a link you can't read until you scan it.