Online financial scams, how to defend yourself from social 'gurus': Consob explains - Video

'Guru' of finance on social media and scams around the corner. But how to defend yourself? Consob explains, launching a themed campaign giving voice to the 'father' of all financial scams with his scheme: Charles Ponzi.

The video created by Consob recalls that fraudulent paradigm and warns of the risks, showing savers the way to avoid falling into the trap.

It is a financial scam as old as the hills. Yet it continues to claim victims even today. The basic scheme is always the same. But it takes on different forms each time. In the age of social media, it runs on the web and on smartphones.

Charles Ponzi, an Italian who emigrated to the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century attracted by the mirage of making a fortune, actually became rich, but only for a few months. Then he ended up in jail. His ploy that essentially brought the chain letter back to life lasted the space of a morning, but managed to deceive thousands of Americans.

Nowadays the Ponzi scheme lives again on social media and on the web. Easy money and without risk: this is the decoy proposed in many different declinations.

Starting from Ponzi, Consob wanted to draw the attention of savers with a video, so that they do not allow themselves to be attracted by financial offers, most of the time without authorization and therefore abusive, which promise stratospheric profits in a short time and with zero risk.

To learn more, in the “Beware of scams! ” section on the website www.consob.it, the vademecum for the protection of savers.