Group-IB have published a very well researched report on fake investment scams in Europe 

The scam follows a well-established set of steps:1. The bogus come-on is published on social media.
2. The victim is taken to a phony investment website.
3. The victim enters personal information in a form on the scam site.
4. A call center contacts the victim, offering more information about the fraudulent investment prospectus.
5. The victim, after providing more information, is given a login to a site that offers a dashboard of general investment performance.
6. The victim makes an initial deposit of €250, and receives an individualized dashboard showing their own investment’s performance (the information displayed there is bogus).
7. The victim is urged to invest more money. If the victim asks to cash out, the victim is told more needs to be invested to reach the cash out threshold. This continues until the victim is eventually disillusioned.

The researchers identified over 10,000 domains, of which over 5000 are still in use. While it’s not something particularly new, with the economy in its current state and financial burden on individuals, we can unfortunately expect to see more of these kinds of scams, and more people falling victim to them. 

So it’s a good time to remind friends and family to be wary of anything that may appear to be too good to be true.