Investment fraud: guaranteed returns do not exist
Investment fraud costs victims the most of any scam — because it does not happen at once, but over weeks of building trust. This is the pattern.
It starts small: an ad on Facebook, Instagram or in a news app, often with a well-known Dutch personality who “got rich with bitcoin”. You enter your name and number. Then a friendly, knowledgeable “account manager” calls. The first deposit is modest, € 250. In the “platform” you watch your balance grow every day. You deposit more. Sometimes you may even withdraw a small amount — that is part of the trick.
When you want to withdraw a large sum, fees appear: tax, a “release premium”, insurance. Pay those, and something else appears. Eventually the platform disappears. What you watched grow was a number on a screen.
How to spot it
- 1Guaranteed or “fixed” returns.5% a week, 30% a month, “without risk”. Return without risk does not exist; whoever promises it is lying.
- 2A Dutch celebrity in the ad.Presenters, entrepreneurs, royals: their names and photos are used without consent. They do not invest through ads.
- 3A personal account manager who calls often.Real brokers do not call to encourage you to deposit more.
- 4Paying by crypto, transfer abroad or through a “payment agent”.Irreversible and untraceable.
- 5Withdrawal only after an extra payment.The moment it becomes clear — and the moment people pay anyway, because the balance looks so large.
- 6No AFM licence.Anyone offering investment services in the Netherlands is in the AFM register. Not in the register: do not.
A real example, taken apart
- The “interview” is a copied news page.
- The sign-up form produces a call from the “account manager”.
- € 250 is deliberately low: the entry, not the goal.
What you do
- Look the provider up in the AFM register.afm.nl → registers. Not there, or under a slightly different name? Stop.
- Search the name plus “ervaringen”, “scam”, “review”.In Dutch and English. Fake platforms change names; the complaints stay.
- Never deposit what you cannot lose — and never more because “it is going so well”.A balance you cannot withdraw without paying extra is not a balance.
- Already deposited? Stop, pay nothing more, file a report.Call your bank; collect everything (chats, payments, platform name, IBANs). Report to the Fraudehelpdesk and the AFM.
Never do this
- Pay extra to “release” your own money.
- Install software so the account manager can “help you deposit” (AnyDesk, TeamViewer).
- Accept a “recovery service” that retrieves your money for a fee up front — that is the same gang, round two.
Dossiers of this kind
5,525 dossiers in our database match this kind — counted by what they are, not estimated. A few:
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Questions people ask
I was able to withdraw a small amount. So it is real?
No. Allowing small withdrawals is a known tactic to win trust before the big deposit. Look at the licence and the way you pay, not at the first withdrawal.
Can I get my money back?
Bank transfers: call your bank at once; a recent payment can sometimes be stopped. Crypto: almost impossible. Trust nobody who promises to retrieve it for a fee up front.
Are all crypto platforms suspect?
No. But a real platform does not call you, promises no returns, and lets you withdraw without “release fees”. Crypto service providers in the Netherlands must be registered with the AFM.
Paste it into the checker. Thirty seconds, and you know what others already saw.
Read next
Sources
AFM — registers and warnings · Fraudehelpdesk — investment fraud