Fraudulent Online School: Eric’s Story
Scammers posing as educators tricked a young man into a fake investment.
This story is part of Operation Shamrock’s Survivor Stories series.
The world ought to be Eric’s oyster. He’s 25 years old. He’s worked a good job for the past two years. He has his own place in a big city. He is smart, empathetic, respectful, and devoted to his family.
Instead, Eric’s grappling with an incident that changed his life in many, many ways. He’s dealing with issues that nobody at that stage of life should have to face. Even though in many ways he’s still just starting his life, he’s already grappling with how to restart it.
Eric Enrolls in an Investment School
The trouble started on social media. Eric saw an Instagram ad for a financial services “school.” He researched the school online and thought it seemed legit. It has a great website (which, it should be noted, is frustratingly still active). So Eric joined the school’s WhatsApp group.
Shortly after joining, the group’s moderator reached out to Eric. They chatted about the program and the “professor” who runs it. The moderator told Eric they’d taught hundreds of students by showing them various investment schemes and helping them try to grow their money. All Eric had to do was sign up on their website and download an app from the App Store. Eric did just that.
The Scam Begins
The school put some starter money in Eric’s account, and he followed their instructions to invest it. In short order, the initial investment grew by $400. So Eric moved on to investing his own money. First, he invested $3,000. Then $2,000 and $3,000 after that.
Eric’s account showed steady growth. The school’s moderator told Eric she saw something special in him. He had talent for this investing business. She encouraged more investment. Eventually, he invested all the money he’d saved in his two years of working.
The Missing Money
Then the bottom fell out. Preparing for an international trip to visit his parents, Eric tried to make a withdrawal. He couldn’t get any money out of the school’s system. So he reached out to the group moderator. She said withdrawals of the size he was making took time to process and that Eric needed to be patient.
So Eric waited. Two days went by. Then a week. He tried multiple times to withdraw his money. He reached out to the professor, but received no response. This cycle repeated itself several times. Eric reached out, attempted withdrawals, tried everything he could think of. He was met with silence. He eventually realized he’d been scammed.
The Impact of the Scam
Eric quickly went from a 25-year-old who was doing the right thing — learning about investments, saving for his retirement, planning for a future — to a 25-year-old who’d lost everything. The money he thought he’d use to take care of his aging parents had evaporated.
In the ensuing days and weeks, Eric’s mind went to some pretty dark places. The scammers hadn’t just stolen his money. They robbed him of his hope, optimism, and self-confidence. They pushed him toward a deeply unhealthy place. And they did it all from an app Eric downloaded from an official app store.
We tend to focus on the financial losses of scams. Eric’s story is a reminder that the cuts go so much deeper.
There’s no one solution to the problem of transnational criminals stealing from hard-working people. There’s no easy way to protect the pocketbooks and psyches of people like Eric. The road to the solution, though, runs right past the front doors of the major technology companies. They can either continue facilitating scams through their official app stores, or they can stand up for the Erics of the world.
At Operation Shamrock, we believe stories like Eric’s are far too common. We’ve shared what happened to Eric in order to educate others.
Do you have a survivor story? Connect with our team to share your experience.
