The stock market and finance policeman warns savers against false promises of co-responsible and sustainable investments. The AMF estimates the average loss of victims at 70,000 euros per deceived saver.
Promises of fabulous returns, coupled with the aura of an ethical investment. Enough to make a good number of savers salivate. Be careful though not to be fooled. After receiving numerous reports, the Financial Markets Authority (AMF) warns against certain energy transition scams. These fraudulent offers propose, for example, to invest in a hydrogen bookletsometimes declined in version petroleum Where solaror in places of parking with electric charging stationspresented as co-parking.
Since the start of the year, the AMF estimates that it has received more than a hundred complaints and reports concerning this type of investment proposal. The losses declared by the savers affected are valued on average at 70,000 euros.
Check the identity of your interlocutor
As with many other scams, the scammers rely on identity theft by taking the names of well-known groups in the energy or retail sector, real estate operators, but also financial professionals.
Professionals: cheapest online deals for limit your bank charges
posing as a co-responsible and sustainable investmentsometimes using the pretext of crowdfunding, the false brochures promise returns between 6 and 12% per year. The problem, reminds the AMF, is that there is no reality behind these fraudulent offers. Shortly after making the transfers, victims can no longer reach bogus advisers or recover their funds.
AMF advice to investors
- Be careful with advertisements what you see on Internet and particularly on the social networks; these are the favorite grounds for scammers to hook their future victims.
- Do not communicate your personal details (telephone, e-mail, identity documents, RIB, IBAN, proof of address, etc.) to sites for which you cannot certify the reliability. Beware of promises of quick wins without quid pro quos; there is no high return without high risk.
- Do not take at face value the information given by companies, whether oral or in writing; usurpations are frequent, numerous and easy to make. If the company contacting you has not received a warning from the AMF, this does not mean that it is authorized to provide you with financial services.
- Do not give in to the urgency or the pressure of your interlocutor, take time to reflect.