Most investment scams share a handful of warning signs: contact you did not ask for, pressure to act quickly, returns that sound too good to be true, and a firm you cannot verify. Before you pay anyone, check the firm on the FCA Firm Checker or Financial Services Register and on the FCA Warning List, and contact it only through the details the register shows. If you have already paid, call your bank at once and report the fraud to Report Fraud, which replaced Action Fraud on 4 December 2025.
The warning signs
The FCA’s page on how to protect yourself from scams, updated on 19 January 2026, asks seven questions. If the answer to any is yes, stop and check.
- Is it unexpected? Scammers often call out of the blue, or make contact by email, text, post, social media or in person.
- Do you feel pressured to act quickly? A bonus for investing fast, or an offer said to be available only for a short time.
- Does it sound too good to be true? Tempting rewards, such as high returns on an investment.
- Is it exclusively for you? Claims that you have been specially chosen and should keep it secret.
- Are they flattering you? Building a friendship to put you at ease.
- Are you feeling worried or excited? Fraudsters work on emotions to make you act.
- Are they speaking with authority? Claiming to be authorised and sounding knowledgeable about financial products.
The FCA adds a practical test: a genuine bank or business will not mind waiting while you think. The FCA itself will never ask you to transfer money to it or for your bank PINs and passwords, and scammers often pretend to be the FCA.
Check the firm, in three steps
Almost all financial services firms in the UK must be authorised or registered by the FCA.
- Search the FCA Firm Checker. The Firm Checker shows whether a firm is authorised and has permission for the service it is offering you. The full Financial Services Register holds more detail. Check the firm reference number (FRN) and contact details match what you have been given, and always type the address in yourself rather than following a link.
- Search the FCA Warning List. The Warning List names firms and individuals the FCA believes are operating without permission. The FCA says the list is not complete: unauthorised firms often change their names, so a firm that is not on it may still be a scam.
- Call the firm back on the number from the register. If no contact details are listed, or the caller says they are out of date, call the FCA on 0800 111 6768.
The Firm Checker cannot confirm whether Financial Services Compensation Scheme or Financial Ombudsman Service protection will apply to a particular product, so check that separately. For an overseas firm, the FCA suggests checking the regulator in that country as well.
Clone firms
A clone firm pretends to be one the FCA has authorised. The FCA’s clone firms page says they use the name, address or FRN of a genuine firm, copy its website with small changes such as a different phone number, or send emails from addresses that look similar or from webmail providers. They may claim the contact details on the register are out of date; the FCA says this is unlikely, as it updates the Firm Checker and the register on average every 24 hours. They may also contact people who have searched online for loans or investments and submitted their details, offering bonds, shares, foreign exchange or cryptocurrencies that are worthless, overpriced or do not exist.
What happened to ScamSmart
Older guidance often pointed readers to the FCA’s ScamSmart campaign. The fca.org.uk/scamsmart address now redirects to the FCA’s Protect yourself from scams page, and the FCA’s page logs record an editorial change to remove ScamSmart references on 19 January 2026. The checks themselves have not gone away: the Warning List and the Firm Checker are the tools to use.
Cold calls and the pension cold-calling ban
Unsolicited phone calls about pensions have been banned since 9 January 2019, with fines of up to £500,000 for firms that break the rules. The only exceptions are callers authorised by the FCA, or trustees or managers of pension schemes, where the person called has consented to calls or already has a relationship with the caller.
In practice, an unexpected call about your pension, a pension transfer or releasing pension money early should be treated as a scam. Report the call to the Information Commissioner’s Office, as the government advised when the ban began. The Telephone Preference Service is, in the Insolvency Service’s words, the official central opt-out register for unsolicited sales and marketing calls; once you are registered, sales calls that still arrive deserve extra suspicion.
Social media and online adverts
The FCA’s guidance on financial promotions on social media (FG24/1, March 2024) says promotions must be fair, clear and not misleading on every channel, and that influencers who promote a regulated financial product without approval from an FCA-authorised firm may be committing a criminal offence. A post praising an investment, with no risk warning and no sign of who approved it, is a warning sign in itself.
Crypto is the clearest case. The FCA says reports to it of crypto investment scams have more than doubled since 2020, and that fraudsters advertise on social media, often using images of celebrities, and target people searching online through search engine adverts. Those adverts lead to professional-looking sites that can fake prices and returns. The FCA says genuine crypto promotions must carry prominent risk warnings and must not offer joining or referral bonuses, as our explainer on UK crypto rules sets out.
Not every risky offer is illegal. In a statement of 26 September 2025, the FCA warned that unregulated firms use websites, marketing campaigns and finfluencer promotions to sell high-risk products such as unlisted loan notes and mini-bonds, often with a fixed, high rate of return. Many rely on exemptions for wealthy or sophisticated investors, and in the UK investors can self-certify as sophisticated. The FCA’s rule of thumb is to limit high-risk investments to 10% of a portfolio. Our guide to due diligence on early-stage investments shows the questions to ask of any high-risk offer.
Products the FCA does not regulate
The FCA says investment scams often involve products it does not regulate, and lists bamboo, diamonds, fine art, gold, graphene, hotels, UK and international forestry, land for development, land overseas, overseas agriculture, parking, precious metals, storage, student accommodation, sustainable energy, whisky and wine. Even when such an offer is not a scam, it warns, you won’t be protected if something goes wrong and could lose all your money. Our reports on whisky casks and other passion assets show what that looks like in practice.
What to do if it has happened
| Step | Who | How |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Stop paying | You | Do not send more money, including fees to release funds or recover losses |
| 2. Call your bank | Your bank or payment provider | Use the number on your card or statement; report as soon as possible |
| 3. Report the crime | Report Fraud (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) or Police Scotland | Online or 0300 123 2040; in Scotland, 101 |
| 4. Tell the regulator | FCA | 0800 111 6768 or its online form, especially for clone firms and unauthorised firms |
| 5. Complain if your bank says no | Financial Ombudsman Service | Once you have complained to the bank and are unhappy with its answer |
Report Fraud is run by City of London Police and replaced Action Fraud on 4 December 2025; the phone number did not change. Residents of Scotland should report to Police Scotland on 101, as the Report Fraud site says.
If you were tricked into making a bank transfer, the Payment Systems Regulator’s reimbursement protections cover Faster Payments and CHAPS transfers between UK accounts made on or after 7 October 2024, up to £85,000, and you should report within 13 months. Banks can apply an excess of up to £100, though not for vulnerable customers. If you are unhappy with how your bank handled the fraud, the Financial Ombudsman Service can investigate.
Finally, expect a second approach. The FCA warns that victims are often targeted again, sometimes with offers to recover the money for a fee. Our explainer on recovery scams covers how they work. If you are new to investing, our guide on how to start investing covers the regulated routes.
