Fintech scams are rising fast
New Hampshire’s Attorney General warned of a rise in Meta‑branded investment scams that use impersonation, deepfakes, and fake crypto pitches to steal money ([]). A recent YouTube exposé also surfaced a supposedly fake fintech internship offer, underlining how scams are targeting both consumers and job seekers in fintech spaces ([]).
A state attorney general is warning that fake investment pitches on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are getting polished enough to use deepfake video, stolen photos, and brand names people already trust. New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said the scams now include pump-and-dump schemes, confidence scams, and fake cryptocurrency investments built to drain savings. (doj.nh.gov) The hook is familiarity. The ads and messages are dressed up with Meta branding, celebrity-style endorsements, and polished graphics so the pitch looks less like a stranger asking for money and more like a real finance app or media interview. (doj.nh.gov) New Hampshire is not treating this as a one-week spike. In June 2025, Formella joined 41 attorneys general in pressing Meta to stop fraudulent investment ads on Facebook that impersonated well-known investors and promised high returns. (doj.nh.gov) That tells you what changed in fintech scams over the past year: the old cold call has been replaced by a fake ad, a fake account, or a fake video inside the same apps people use every day. The scam now arrives through the same feed as family photos, sports clips, and local news. (doj.nh.gov) Meta says it is fighting back, but the scale is huge. The company said in March 2026 that it removed more than 159 million scam ads in 2025 and added new warnings on WhatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger for suspicious activity. (about.fb.com) Meta also said in February 2026 that it filed lawsuits against scam advertisers in Brazil and China and sent cease-and-desist letters to eight marketing consultants accused of helping scammers evade enforcement systems. That means the problem is not just fake posts but a whole ad-buying pipeline built to slip past platform filters. (about.fb.com) The same playbook is now showing up on the hiring side of fintech. A recent YouTube exposé about a company called Zorvyn FinTech dissected an internship letter that promised 35,000 rupees a month, remote work, and a return offer package of 11 lakh rupees a year, then pointed to missing company details and other red flags in the document. (youtube.com) That scam angle is different from an investment ad, but the mechanism is the same: borrow the language of a fast-growing finance startup, offer unusually high upside, and rush the target before they verify the company. One pitch asks for savings, and the other asks for trust, documents, or fees. (youtube.com) New Hampshire’s guidance is blunt. Do not trust unsolicited investment offers, do not send money because a video or profile looks real, do not rely on screenshots of profits, and do not assume a cryptocurrency pitch is legitimate because it appears on a major platform. (doj.nh.gov) The easiest test is still the oldest one: stop inside the app and verify outside it. If a recruiter, investor, or “advisor” is real, their company registration, official contact information, and public track record should still exist when you leave the message thread and check independently. (doj.nh.gov)
