We are living through challenging times, people are finding their income is becoming more and more squeezed and they are left with far less expendable income at the end of the month. When we go through times like this it is common to look for other ways to supplement lost income and with the internet there are many ways to do so (and also many ways to lose a lot of money). We’re going to take a look at the various forms of investment and some of the most common ways fraudsters will try and steal from you, including NFT scams and Forex scams.
NFT’s (Non-Fungible Tokens)
Perhaps the most popular trend at the moment for casual investors, NFT’s have been publicised a lot with various influencers and celebrities claiming to have made millions through their investments, similar to when cryptocurrencies shot to prominence a few years ago. NFT’s are related to, but not the same as crypto investments. An NFT is effectively a way of proving you own something digitally and they will be bought and sold using cryptocurrency. The most popular form item to collect using NFT’s is digital art. In fact, some of the worlds biggest and best known artists are now producing digital art and selling it, including Damien Hurst.
Due to its quick rise in popularity it also means that there are plenty of people looking to defraud those who perhaps aren’t as well informed or as experienced in the area. The most popular scams for the NFT’s revolve around either phishing or selling fake art. Phishing scams have been around for quite some time, pretty much since the birth of the internet, they aim to collect your personal information, logins and card details by sending you to a fake website that looks identical to the real one. Always ensure you type a URL in yourself and go to it directly if you are unsure. The majority of victims of phishing scams click on a link in an email. Fake art is also a major problem with digital art. Somebody can screenshot and they relist a piece of art claiming it is the original and aim to take advantage of someone who hasn’t researched it well enough.
Forex Trading
Forex has been around a lot longer than NFT’s have, this is another of the popular Instagram influencer forms of investment. You will no doubt have seen Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s and private jets posted on Instagram talking about how they have made millions and then either sharing their referral code or trying to sell you an eBook. Do not under any circumstances by one of these books, if they genuinely were making so much money, why would they be on Instagram trying to sell you one for £10?
Forex trading is effectively betting for or against various different currencies around the world. For example, you may think that the US Dollar will go down because of something coming up, it could be an election or an energy crisis. You can bet how much it will go down or earn money the more it does go down. To be effective at this form of investment you need to have a good knowledge of the geo-political landscape.