Financial fraud

Fake investment and trading platforms

Sponsored ads with deepfake testimonials, convincing dashboards, unreachable brokers. First withdrawal works, the rest never do.

11 min readIntermediate

Red flags to recognize

Ads with famous faces (presenters, athletes) modified by deepfake
Promises of guaranteed 200-400% returns or 'zero risk'
Broker not listed by FINMA, FCA, BaFin, AMF or CONSOB
Account manager very present, calls in the evening too
Initial bonus to 'unlock' a higher trading tier
Pressure to deposit more before large withdrawals
Platform UI very similar to MetaTrader but on a never-heard domain

What to do now

Verify the broker on FINMA Warning List, FCA and ESMA databases
Look for independent reviews: forums, Reddit, Trustpilot with caution
Do not respond to sponsored ads promising guaranteed returns
Try a mid-size withdrawal before depositing large amounts
Keep screenshots of all correspondence, transfers and dashboards
If you deposited: freeze the card, file a complaint, request chargeback if possible

Real case

Fake platform with deepfake TV host, 2025

A Facebook Reels campaign shows a famous host 'revealing' a trading platform 'banks do not want you to know'. The video is a deepfake with voice cloned from real interviews. 250 EUR is enough to start.

A retiree deposits 250 EUR. After three days the dashboard shows 940 EUR. Following his account manager's advice he deposits 8,000 EUR more. After two weeks the balance shows 38,000 EUR but every withdrawal is rejected for 'KYC checks'.

Mythos analyzed the video: deepfake artefacts on the jaw outline, imperfect lip-sync, abnormal blink rate. The broker was not in any EU register. The domain was registered in Belize, the server IP in Russia, and 22 clones of the same platform had already been reported.

What Mythos can do on this case

Deepfake detection in ad videos (artefacts, lip-sync, blink)
Broker verification against FINMA, FCA, ESMA, CONSOB registers
Platform domain analysis: registration, hosting, certificate
Cluster analysis: detection of clone platforms with shared codebase
Dossier generation for regulatory reporting and law enforcement

Next steps

Analyze the platform with Mythos Check the FINMA Warning List