Gone are those days when people used to go to currency exchanges to exchange money. With the advancement of technology, anyone can easily exchange their fiat money through the online trading platform. But there are two sides to a coin. The technology made it easy for traders to trade in the foreign exchange market, but on the other hand, it also made it easy for scammers to fool innocent traders. Some fraudulent brokers take advantage of novice traders who don't know how to choose a legitimate broker and end up being a victim. We can also say that the stock market industry is the most favorable market for scammers.
Fun Fact: According to RBI, Over Rs 27 million lost to scams involving crypto and stock investments in 2018/19. Victims lost on average over Rs 146,000 last financial years, and reports tripled to over 180,000 from the year before.
Immediate Actions after Scam
Instead of panicking, people should take the following actions in case of falling for frauds:
- Report to the Local Police Station and register an FIR
- In case of online fraud, report to the Cyber cell.
- Block your card by informing the bank.
How to Get Back Money after Scam? 4 Methods
Genuinely speaking that the chances of getting your money back are very thin, but it is not impossible. Using some techniques to get your money back, but for that, you need to be very lucky. There are various ways that a victim can try to get back the money.
1. Ask Help from Authorities
Now you are sure that the broker has scammed you and you are not going to get your money back, it is time to contact stock regulators. In every country, there is always a financial regulator who oversees brokers. That is why brokers must get a license before they start operating. It is straightforward to recover your money from the brokers who are licensed under these financial regulators. But in the case of a racket scammer, these authorities will not be able to help you.
Lawyer: If you have lost a significant amount, then in such a case, you can hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit against the broker in the court. But it is quite an expensive process, and no one is willing to pay double the money to a lawyer than he/she has lost.
2. The Chargeback Procedure
If you are getting help from a chargeback, then there are very high chances that you can get your money back. During a study done by Consumers' Checkbook, a non-profit organization, they found that in 90% of the cases, the chargeback method works.
Steps for Chargeback Procedure:- Contact Issuer To initiate the chargeback procedure, you need to contact the issuer of your debit/credit card. As they are the issuer of the card and responsible for all the activity happening in your account, they can do the opposite. These credit/debit card companies use an EDI system (Electronic Data Interchange) to validate the transfer and share your financial and personal information.
- Provide Proof of Transaction In this step, you need to provide proof of your transaction and attach a copy of mails and other transaction-related documents.
- Verification Further, the credit/debit card issuer acts as an intermediate and will contact them to understand their side of the story as well. If the credit card issuer finds them guilty and works in the client's favor, they will deduct the money from the recipient's account and refund it in the victim's account.
The good thing about this process is that even the client is not charged for the refund. In most cases, the credit card issuer takes the side of a client over a merchant. So, if you have made a deposit using a debit/credit card, then in case of any fraud, there are strong chances that you will get your money back. The same procedure is used if someone deposited via wire transfer.
3. Third-Party Payment Service Providers
Many people use e-Wallets and third-party payment service providers for various reasons. From all the reasons, security is the foremost reason. If the e-Wallet is trusted, then for the client, there is no need to enter payment details on the payment page. Hence, there are no chances of further fraud from the side of the broker.
- E-Wallets
These e-Wallets make the money transfer process easy and quick as they do not take a long time as a wire transfer. These third-party companies initiate a transaction for you without giving any details of you to the broker. In some cases of fraud, these companies provide their customers with some reprieve only when the transaction is made through the e-wallet company. Some of such e-Wallets and third-party payment service providers are
- PayPal,
- Western Union,
- MoneyGram,
- Payza,
- Skrill,
- Neteller,
4. Taking Help from Intermediaries
Because of these rampant frauds in all industries, some companies came up as an intermediary who helps victims to get back their money. In return, they charge some fees from the victim. This service is only helpful to those who have a significant amount.
ExampleSuppose you lost money to a broker who is located in Australia and you live in the US. Now, instead of going to Australia and knocking on the broker's door yourself, you can hire a company that can do it for you.
To justify your claim, the company will ask you for proof of fraud. These intermediaries are very skilful and perform their task with full efficiency while getting a refund as they are in this field for so long. They have time and resources, and they know about all the excuses that scammers possibly can make. They cut through these excuses and achieve their purpose.
Cyber Security Tips
- Use anti-virus on your smartphone
- Do not auto-save your card information on your phone
- Never share your CVV details
- Remember that bank never ask for CVV or card number
- Never share your card no with anyone
- Don't share account number details over the phone
- Never share a password with others
- Don't share your details on social media platforms
- Before using an ATM kiosk, ensure no additional device is there on the machine which can skim details
So, from all the methods mentioned above, it is likely to recover your money which you thought was impossible to recover and lost hope. All of these methods take a lot of time and work as well. And most importantly, if the broker has decided to fight against you in that case, you require some concrete evidence that can back up your claim. In
In numerous cases, victims had recovered their money when it was not a considerable amount. But if the fraud involves a bigger deposit, it becomes difficult to get it back because they can quickly transfer the money somewhere else. If someone got scammed, then there is no harm in trying. Maybe you end up getting back your hard-earned money.
