How to Identify and Avoid Common Investment Imposter Scams

Stop and check before you fall prey to scammers

If you received an unexpected call from the Australian Taxation Office saying you had a tax debt and demanding that you pay immediately, what would you think? Or if a company called and said they needed remote access to your computer or bank account to fix a service problem, what would you do?

Common scams:

• Impersonation – Someone claiming to be a Barclay’s bank employee may contact you via email, phone, or social media. They would never call you via phone or contact you via social media, and any email from them would come from an official email address. We will never ask for your login information, through any form of communication. If you have any doubt, open a Customer Service request here to confirm the validity of a request.
• Phishing Emails or Websites – Always be wary when receiving an email that was not prompted by you. If an email asks you to go to a website and reset your password, do not do it unless you have specifically requested this. These types of scams often result in a malicious third party recording your login details and stealing your funds. Venture Bell employees will never ask you for your Secret Private Key or Recovery Phrase. In case anyone asks you to provide this information, you can report it in our Support Center here.
• Fake Investment Proposals – This type of scam may ask you to “pay a fee” or “pay a tax” in order to release a bigger amount of funds to you. The scammers usually refer to official authorities such as the SEC or other institutions. Fraudsters can go as far as to forge official-looking documents or fake ID cards. If you have been approached by a party that claims to be part of Venture Bell and asks for payment of taxes, assume they are scammers and report these attempts in our Support Center here.
• Fake Refunds – We do not provide refund services of lost funds from third-party platforms. If someone asks for payment in order to recover/refund lost or previously scammed funds from third-party platforms or old forgotten wallets, then this request is definitely a fraud. We would never ask you to pay us for such a service.
• Romance Scam – This is a deceptive practice involving impersonation of an eventual partner or a promise of a fake relationship that can be used as a persuasion technique to manipulate victims in order to extract funds or sensitive data, such as login credentials, recovery phrases, etc. Please be very cautious when you come across a new person on social media.
• Money Transfers / Deposits / Withdrawals – Never perform money transfers on behalf of another individual, either for them or by giving them your login details. Not only is this a potential violation of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing regulations, but you are also putting your own funds at risk if you give someone access to your account.
• Platform Clones – Be cautious of modified URLs such as venturebell1.com.au, venturebell.net.au, venturebell.io.au, etc. Make sure you are using our official website with the correct URL to access your account. The login page of the platform is https://client.venture-bell.com/#/login
• Other types of scams and phishing attacks could include: blackmail, lotto prizes, job offerings, fake exchanges, fake airdrops, malware such as one that can affect Clipboard, an XLM transaction with malicious link as MEMO, Sim Swap, and “pump and dump” schemes, among others.

Sometimes scams can be detected fairly easily if you pay attention to: spelling/punctuation errors, no website or physical address given, return email addresses belong to free email services such as Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail.

If you send money to a scammer, you may not be able to get it back. Worse, if you knowingly take part in a scam, you could face hefty fines and criminal charges.

If you suspect something, report it immediately to our Scam Detection team: [email protected]