I think my 70yo DM is being conned!

[YouPutTheScrewInTheTuna]

So posting here for traffic/advice. My 70 yo mother has got herself wrapped up in some trading company called 4XFM (elon musk endorsed apparently!)

My gut says it's a scam of some sort. So far she has invested £200. They are very persistent - weekly phone calls from the US, and I overheard part of one today "you don't want to miss out on the fluctuations, invest a bit more money, great return on investments" everything I suspected they would say.

She has told me she's done her research and it's legit - is there anyone at all on here who can advise me on info about this company and also, if they are a scam, how I can make her understand/prove it in someway!! She is very stubborn! Thanks.

It's a con

Yes it's a scam

Of course it's a scam

Met police info

www.marketwatch.com/press-release/about-4xfm-2022-is-it-safe-updated-2022-06-25. It's crypto based. But read the article

This definitely sounds like a scam.

Is she telling the truth that it’s only £200? I’d be very worried there was more she wasn’t telling you about.

100% a con.

@maddy68 that link doesn't work.

I'm so sure it's a scam, anything too good to be true and all that.
But i really need something concrete, if you look the company up it has good ratings on places like trust pilot etc. She is 100% convinced.

@enjoyingscience I really hope she hasn't invested anymore yet, it's not like she has lots of money either.

Absolute scam. What would a legitimate finance house in the US want with a 70 year old British woman if it wasn't?

Might be time to explore financial POA options

When you Google it, most of the results that praise it are virtually identical articles posted on blogs in countries like India and on various dodgy websites full of badly translated copy and dubious adverts - that will be the 'research' your mum has done, but the sources aren't legit; it's clearly a case of content farms churning out the same stuff across multiple sites to flood search results - these aren't articles written by actual experts or financial journalists.

I can also find no suggestion that it is linked with Elon Musk, so this is clearly some bullshit they've spun your mother over the phone, or has come from one of those ads where scammers use the image of someone famous without permission (happens to Martin Lewis all the time, for example).

She needs to stop giving them money and she needs to block the number they're phoning from.

if you look the company up it has good ratings on places like trust pilot etc

TrustPilot is, ironically, not very trustworthy.

The website may be legitimate, although not very regulated.

However, these types of companies rarely call customers themselves.
So this makes me think that the person calling her is some 'middle-man' who got her to sign up under their affiliate, which means that this person gets paid commission for each deposit the people they refer to 4X.FM to complete.

None of that is technically illegal. I would suggest sitting down with her at the computer, getting her to log in to her account and taking a look.
You should be able to sell off any holdings that she has in the account (if any) and then make a withdrawal of her funds back to her bank/card.

Tweet Elon Musk "company called 4XFM have convinced my 80yo grandma to invest with them because they say they're endorsed by you. Nothing on their website, can you confirm?"

You never know you may get a reply and that should be convincing enough for you or your grandma.

Call the Financial Conduct Authority’s Consumer helpline for advice/confirmation - or even better get her to call them to confirm what protections (or lack of) she has for her money. That’s assuming you’re in the UK of course.

And have a read of this - www.fca.org.uk/consumers/cryptoassets

This has boiler room scam written all over it it.

“If you think you have been the victim of this type of fraud, contact Action Fraud.”
www.actionfraud.police.uk/news/well-known-names-being-used-in-cryptocurrency-scams

Ok run the numbers for her

Using simple maths

Invest £200 want to get that back° and make money
Say promised a return on investment at 10%pa
£200 × 10%
= £20 /12 mths
= £1.66 p/mth

The sales company get commission°° on earning
Say 25% but only on return
1.66 × 25%
= £0.42 p/mth

1 phone call of 5 min each week employee paid National Min Wage
£9.50 / 60min
= £0.16 p/min × 5 min
= £ 0.79 p/call

So the sales company are making a loss £ 0.37 by calling DM after the initial investment.

You can change the maths to whatever she has been promised.

° the return of the original investment will not be guaranteed and the fees will normally be fixed so that if (when) the investment makes too small a return the capital will be used to pay the fees.
°° commission is usually charged on the investment + gains so that cost will be higher
Month 1 ( £200 + £1.66) × 25%
Month 2 ( £200 + £1.66 £1.66 - mth 1 fees) × 25%
Etc

She needs to understand that even if it was not a scam that its gambling the initial investment
Plus that she needs to check if the business is regulated in the UK or the USA

Thanks everyone, some really good points here that I can take back to her. Damn these scammers going for vulnerable people!

Who else would they go for? Nobody else is going to be taken in, are they?

I hope you can sort it out and convince her that £200 is more than enough to lose.

Not regulated by the FCA so that would be a red flag for me. As others have said, not sure the type of products they are marketing are suitable for retail investors