Associated Incidents
David Rosenberg, founder and CEO of Rosenberg Research, discovered that scammers were deceiving victims by posting investment advertisements under his name on social media.
Rosenberg is said to have discovered fake investment ads appearing on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram in March. The ads falsely claimed that the economist was the administrator of an investment scheme. Since then, he has heard of people losing money to these fraudulent ads. Although the exact losses were unclear, they were estimated to exceed one million dollars.
Rosenberg said that dozens of clients, friends, acquaintances, and even strangers have come to him to ask if the ads were true or if the advertised investment was suitable.
Victim Syed Hasan lost $16,000 to the scam. He said he saw an investment ad on Facebook in April, which claimed to offer stock investment opportunities with returns of 30% to 70%.
~Fake investment advertisement~
Hasan joined a WhatsApp group called "(03) Rosenberg Investment Strategy" and invested in a stock at a buy price of $2.91 based recommendation by a group memvber. A month later, the stock's price soared to $10 and gained Hasan's trust.
Later, an administrator impersonating Rosenberg recommended a second stock. Unfortunately, this disastrous investment caused the share price to plunge from $1.27 to 20 cents in only 15 minutes. Meanwhile, the value of the first stock he had invested in dropped by 80%.
In addition, a female victim lost $500,000 in a week. Another victim, nearly 60 years old, was also scammed out of $450,000 in savings.
Over the past few months, Rosenberg has received a number of calls and messages from victims. Although he and his family have reported the scams to local police and other authorities, not much progress has been made. Toronto police said they need to receive a report from a victim to begin an investigation, but no reports have been made yet.
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