Emerging scams mock the police

Fraudsters are getting more brazen with their lies in the absence of any repercussions for stealing.

- Adriaan Kruger

It is time to register new e-mail addresses and get a couple of new phone numbers. I suspect the current ones have been blacklisted by scammers they don't call back anymore when I register to invest in their fraudulent trading programmes.

That all the fraudsters suddenly stop calling all at once also raises the suspicion that a few syndicates sit behind most of these scams, or at least are in the "marketing department" to generate sales leads for dubious clients.

The clients range from outright thieves who take victims' money and disappear to bucket shops operating offshore.

However, some of the fake news articles and videos lead back to brokers that are registered with the Financial Sector Conduct Authority.

There are other signs that many of the scams and fake news stories originate from only a few sources.