The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is warning consumers about investment scams that purport to invest in crypto-currencies.
The watchdog has seen a rising number of cases, with fraudsters often advertising on social media, claiming celebrities have made significant sums investing in crypto-currencies, such as Bitcoin and Ether.
Consumers should be wary of such claims.
It’s important to remember that crypto-currencies aren’t regulated by the FCA, so there’s no way of getting your money back if things go wrong, and you can’t ask the Financial Ombudsman for help.
Unlike conventional currencies, crypto-currencies are created and stored electronically, so there are no printed notes or minted coins. Prices can be volatile, with rapid gains and losses.
The value of a bitcoin, for example, rose from just over £3,000 in October 2017 to more than £12,500 by January 2018. However, the following October it was down to around £4,700 again.
Such short-lived but rapid price rises have helped fuel these scams. Investors should be wary of any investments that promise ‘too good to be true’ returns, particularly if they are contacted out of the blue, or pressured to invest quickly.
There are enough opportunities in the ‘conventional’ investment world to satisfy the vast majority of clients needs , whether that be portfolios designed to match your personal capacity for investment risk or specialist portfolios designed to adhere to Ethical investment criteria, Income specialisms or portfolios designed especially for those of you in Pension Drawdown.
We can help.
It’s a very different world out there now and you need to have confidence that your adviser is positioning your investment portfolio to reflect current risks. Please contact us.
Please Note: The value of your investments, and the income from them, can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.
