UBS fraudsters offering fake shares in Airbnb

Growing Pre-IPO Scams In Well-Known Firms

In recent scams, calls claiming to be from brokers approved by banks like UBS trap victims into buying pre-IPOs of recognised firms like Airbnb, Uber, Lyft and others. The victim gets a list of stocks / IPOs and their prices and is asked to transfer funds into another account to buy them. 

They get the documentation regarding the ownership of the bought stocks, and the broker may further call to buy for the other types of such IPOs – which are non–existent. But if the victim wants to access the shares after the fund transfer, he may never get it.  

The founders and venture capital firms privately own organisations like Airbnb and have not even declared the date to release an IPO. They declared it was not rushing to the market, but the buyers got emails stating they could invest through the provided links on the website. 

Fraudsters use American/Australian accents to address the target customer. The interested buyers were asked to pay money upfront to receive the deal, and they were delivered official paperwork with terms and conditions. 

Many such sites claim they handle private hedge funds but may have no public web presence. Sometimes, they use a clone website of a renowned organisation and may offer to sell investments in AirBnB or some forms of crypto assets. They claim to deliver huge returns on crypto investments, and sometimes they say they are working in fields like an event-driven strategy or others.

How To Protect Yourself?

The investors getting the before-mentioned calls should be alert and know that such investments do not exist and the website can be a clone of another organisation. Some sites depict/demonstrate the huge performance of their hedge fund investments based on manipulated data, or it may not be the actual funds.

If the investors are interested in buying IPOs, they can get them directly from the market it is launched, and they will be allowed access to it through various means. They can contact a reputed authorised platform to seek options available to all public buyers and institutional investors. People trying to contact you immediately are often selling a fake. 

Such firms are often anonymously registered, and one may not be able to get their corporate details – the details related to the owners or employees of the organisation online. One may not find them in the authorised company register lists.

If the investors fall for the scam, they may lose their money, and the fraudsters may use the victim's contact details to make future calls regarding similar scams or call to get you a refund of the previous investments made in non-existent shares. 

In addition, they may give options to buy back the investment or claim they can get your money back. Do not fall for follow–up calls by those claiming to be authorised or capable of recovering your money. If you have lost money in a fake IPO / hedge funds option, there is little chance of recovering the money once the transaction is completed.

• One should never accept or send paperwork from/ to unknown callers and never provide financial details to cold callers.

• Sometimes, they threaten or ask for legal fees or other associated expenses or bills. If you pay or refuse, they disappear and remain untraceable.