How to spot an investment scam

The best protection an investor has is pattern recognition. Investment scams change costumes constantly — mining, forex, AI — but the skeleton underneath barely changes. Learn the skeleton and you're hard to fool. Apply this checklist to everyone, including Tervolt; a legitimate platform survives it.

The skeleton of the scam

1. Guaranteed returns. The single most reliable tell. Real investments carry risk by definition; "guaranteed 12% monthly" is not an investment, it's bait.

2. Pressure and countdowns. "Only 3 spots left", "bonus expires tonight." Urgency exists to stop you thinking. Real opportunities survive a week of due diligence.

3. Unverifiable operations. Fake dashboards showing "live earnings" from facilities that don't exist were the engine of the cloud-mining fraud wave. Ask: can any claim be verified outside the platform itself?

4. Anonymous or fake operators. No imprint, no named humans, stock-photo "teams", unverifiable addresses. If nobody's name is on it, nobody plans to be accountable for it.

5. Withdrawal friction. Deposits are instant; withdrawals need "fees", "taxes", or "verification" paid up front. By the time you see this one, the money is usually gone.

6. Referral schemes that outshine the product. Referral programs are legitimate and common — but when recruiting pays better than the underlying asset, you're looking at a pyramid wearing a product as a mask.

The 10-minute check

Before sending anyone a euro: find the company in an official register (Handelsregister, Companies House, Zefix) and match the name on the site. Search the operator's name plus "scam". Check whether risks are stated as prominently as returns. Verify a real address and a named, findable person. Read how withdrawal works before depositing.

Our standing invitation

Hold us to every line above. If Tervolt ever fails one of these checks, we've failed you — and you should say so, loudly.

Educational content — not investment advice. Capital at risk.