[Soobee]

I have just read your article on WhatsApp investment scams with interest. I have recently joined a group called FTSE100 run by someone calling himself Tim Wood assisted by someone calling herself Emily Grace Smith. The group has 117 members. The format is morning investment advice on what stock to buy and when plus a lecture every evening with content that looks very knowledgeable and authoritative. The members all seem to follow the advice and guidance without question and the administration assistant Emily shares the monthly performance of the advice.

The recommendations usually seem to work out and they seem to know exactly when the correct moment is to buy and when to sell.

It all seems too good to be true.

Why would anyone with such apparent in depth knowledge want to share this for the benefit of a group of people they don’t know, for free?? It just seems too altruistic.

I think there may have been an invitation at some point to click a link to a different VIP group but I did not do this but other members of the group may have done.

I suppose I am just waiting for the sting but like everyone who falls for these types of scam I am interested in the tips.

What is going on here do you think?

[Richard Berry]

Thanks for highlighting this group, my first reaction would be to run a mile and avoid any further interactions and block the group. 

Firstly, I could not find any information on Tim Wood as an investment professional on the web or Linkedin, nor did any thing show up for Emily Grace Smith. 

Alarm bells should be ringing if you cannot find any trace of some someone offering financial advice without being connected to an established or regulated firm with no online presence. Checking for reviews on trusted sources is one of the first steps people should take before thinking about investing with a new firm.

Secondly, you said that there were 117 members in the group and that they follow the advice. The screen shots of the messages you sent us state at the bottom that “Only admins can send messages” yet, there are messages from members of the group asking questions like “Can you please tell me about AAON? Shall I still hold?” and another asking “Morning FTSE prediction 8795. Be interesting what spending review impact is”.

However, as only admins can post messages and it’s unlikely that members would be made admin, that suggests to me that they are fake prompts to illicit positive feedback. Which is clear from other comments from fake members like “I’m planning to put £2k into BAE Systems”.

You also state that all the recommendations seem to good to be true, and that is usually the case. It’s a fairly standard scam trust building exercise to tip large cap stocks and then hit you with a rogue recommendation.

This appears to be what is going on here, as you mentioned an invitation for a VIP Group, which is where you will either be encouraged to pay for a service, open an account with an offshore unregulated broker or given penny stock tips for pump and dump schemes.

I also noticed that on the performance chart you sent they were using the icon and branding of a UK regulated brokerage XTB. I checked with XTB who stated “XTB does not actively manage any public or client based Whatsapp groups. All client communications are sent by verified methods such as push notifications, emails and SMS. We regularly email clients on how to avoid online investment scams and impersonations. This site / group has nothing to do with XTB and is, therefore, an example of such risks. We would urge all clients – with XTB or any broker – to be highly vigilant in how or where they seek investment information.”

As for the in-depth knowledge displayed, this is easily replicated with AI these days. There are a few tell tale signs like using emoji numbers and written numbers, it’s neutral, logical and doesn’t give an opinion. Plus the use of phrases like “dire scenario” and “degrading public service quality” whilst not in context of an opinion is something that AI writing tools do to emphasise a point.

I’d avoid, delete, block, unsubscribe and report to WhatsApp.

[Soobee]

The sting looks like it is going to be an invitation to a DMA trading platform. I feel that I need to alert all of the participants that it’s suspect.

[Author]

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