According to the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority's latest figures, around 5,000 Swedes have been affected this year and lost a total of half a billion kronor to the scammers.
— What is different now is that it is a refined method where they use the latest technology with AI, says Björn Rygart and adds:
I cannot go into more detail about the investigations we are conducting because there is a preliminary investigation secrecy.
Operates abroad
The scammers operate in countries other than Sweden and focus exclusively on stocks traded abroad.
They have gotten away with a lot of money and everything indicates that it is a crime that will only increase.
They often pretend to be well-known financial profiles and can use AI to create sound and image. They later invite to closed chats on, among other things, Whatsapp. Once in the chat, they give "investment advice". The advice concerns stocks that are cheap in unit price and are not traded much.
Which means that a group of people can influence the market price through their trading.
Be source-critical
He says it is important for small investors to be source-critical and consult an established actor, such as a bank, if you are unsure.
There is no reason for a financial profile or anyone to give selected individuals investment advice in a closed forum for free. There you should be cautious.
Market manipulation in the form of "pump and dump", where the scammers first drive up the stock price to later sell themselves, has existed for many years. The difference is that it was previously on a smaller scale, carried out by Swedish perpetrators in Swedish stocks. They were also convicted of the crimes in many cases.
Those crime schemes we have not seen in recent times.
