Fake brokers
Andriy Saranenko fraud guide: fake brokers, paid signals and account access in chat apps
Andriy Saranenko, a financial analyst and CFA charterholder, looks at the fake broker who lives inside WhatsApp and Telegram. The pattern rarely changes: an ad or an unexpected invitation to a group chat, a friendly professor with an assistant, trading signals, a slick app, profits that keep climbing on a dashboard and, at the end, a fee you must pay before anything can be withdrawn. In the United States the people who sell securities or give paid investment advice have to be registered, and their records are public. That makes fraud of this kind easy to test, often in a few minutes, before a single dollar leaves your account.
Andriy Saranenko fraud guide: how the group chat pitch works
On December 22, 2025, the SEC published an investor alert describing group chats as a gateway to investment scams. Fraudsters may set up a chat that claims to be led by a well-known financial guru, a professor or a successful CEO, sometimes impersonating a real person with deepfake video. People join because a contact invited them, or they are added after clicking a social media ad.
The chat then moves members to an app or a website that looks legitimate. The SEC adds a point worth repeating: an app being available in a well-known app store does not make the app, or any trading you see inside it, legitimate.
Andriy Saranenko reads the group itself as part of the sales process. The welcome messages, the daily market notes and the members who post their gains all serve one purpose, which is to make the first deposit feel like joining a club. A joint alert from the SEC, CFTC, FINRA and NASAA in 2024 warned that people in a group who claim huge profits might be in on the fraud.
The professor, the assistant and the signals
The same December 2025 alert described an SEC case in which each investment club on WhatsApp had a professor who posted market commentary and an assistant who handled members. They circulated trade recommendations said to be based on AI-generated signals, then charged bogus fees to withdraw. According to the SEC press release, at least 14 million dollars was taken from US retail investors.
On September 29, 2026, the SEC charged several entities over schemes totaling at least 15 million dollars. The complaint says they formed WhatsApp groups, impersonated investment professionals and issued supposed AI trading signals. There was no genuine trading platform, the profits shown were fictitious, and investors who asked for their money were told their accounts were frozen until they paid advance fees.
The CFTC warned in January 2024 that scammers promise returns of tens of thousands of percent, or a 100 percent win rate, from bots and signal services, and that AI cannot predict the future or sudden market moves. Andriy Saranenko applies a simple test to any signal seller: ask for a complete trade history, losses included, from an account at a named broker. A chat that answers with screenshots has answered the question.
Ramp-and-dump: when the whole club buys one stock
Not every chat asks for a deposit on a fake platform. Some steer members into a real, thinly traded stock in a real brokerage account. The FBI warned on July 3, 2025, that so-called investment clubs on messaging apps were being used for ramp-and-dump schemes, in which the organizers push the price up with coordinated buying and sell out to the members who arrive last.
To look credible, the FBI said, perpetrators may impersonate legitimate brokerage firms or well-known stock analysts. The bureau reported at least a 300 percent increase in victim complaints referencing ramp-and-dump stock fraud in 2025 compared with 2024.
Andriy Saranenko points out what makes this version hard to spot: the account and the trade are genuine, only the advice is not. The questions stay the same. Who is the adviser, where is the registration, and why does a stranger want hundreds of people to buy the same small stock on the same morning?
| Step | Chat-app broker | Registered professional |
|---|---|---|
| First contact | Ad, invite or unexpected group add | You find the firm in a register |
| Advice | Signals with no audited record | Advice under a written agreement |
| Account | App or site link from the chat | Account in your name at a custodian |
| Access | Asks for logins or screen sharing | Never asks to log in as you |
| Fees | Tax or fee to release funds | Disclosed charges deducted from the account |
| Communication | Telegram or WhatsApp only | Contact details listed in the register |
Who may sell you trading advice in the US
Investor.gov states that brokers generally must register with the SEC and become members of FINRA, and that investment advisers generally register with the SEC or with state securities authorities. The same site notes that unlicensed, unregistered persons commit much of the investment fraud in the country.
Futures and forex have their own gatekeepers. The CFTC tells investors to verify registration before working with any person or firm in futures, options or forex. A commodity trading advisor is defined by the NFA as someone who, for compensation or profit, advises others on futures, options on futures, retail off-exchange forex or swaps, and every registered retail foreign exchange dealer must be an NFA member.
Andriy Saranenko draws a practical line from these rules. A person who charges you for individual buy and sell calls is stepping into territory where registration is normally expected. If the chat cannot name the firm, its registration and the regulator, you already have the answer you need.
Andriy Saranenko on account access and copy trading
The next request usually sounds generous: the professor offers to trade for you, or to connect your account to a copy-trading program. An SEC investor alert from December 11, 2024 described a case in which investors were asked for their login credentials so their accounts could be synced with the defendants' copy-trading program, and were charged commissions or other fees when they tried to withdraw.
The same alert says to be suspicious when someone wants to talk through an encrypted messaging app such as Telegram or WhatsApp, or uses an email address that seems unrelated to the firm. The FBI, in a public service announcement on July 3, 2025, called any request for access to your financial accounts a red flag.
Andriy Saranenko keeps the rule short. Passwords, one-time codes and screen access stay with the account owner. A registered adviser who manages money does so under a written agreement, inside an account held at a custodian in your name, and has no need to log in as you.
Dashboard profits and the fee to withdraw: the fraud's endgame
Once money is in, the balance rises. Investor.gov lists advance fee fraud among common scams: if someone asks you to pay taxes or fees before your funds can be released, you may be dealing with a scam, and it often comes with fabricated dashboards that have quickly increased in value.
Some schemes let a person withdraw a small amount first. The 2024 joint alert explains why: a partial payout builds trust and pushes the next deposit. When the target asks for the full amount, the fraudsters find an excuse, say more money is required or mention fees and taxes for the first time.
The CFTC has put the principle in one sentence: you should never have to pay more money to get your money back. It also lists a WhatsApp customer service number among warning signs. Andriy Saranenko adds that a real brokerage deducts its disclosed charges from the account itself, so a demand for a fresh wire is a sign that the balance on screen is not there.
Investment fraud in 2025: what the FBI and FTC counted
The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded 72,984 investment fraud complaints in 2025 with reported losses of 8,648,617,756 dollars, more than any other category. Cryptocurrency investment fraud alone accounted for 7.2 billion dollars. Schemes the IC3 labels investment club scams produced about 1,600 complaints and 160 million dollars in losses.
The IC3 report describes the mechanics in terms that match the chat pattern: victims are introduced to investment groups of supposed insiders, shown fake profits, sometimes offered loans to invest more, and charged taxes and fees when they try to withdraw.
The FTC told Congress on March 25, 2026, that consumers filed 3 million fraud reports in 2025 with 15.9 billion dollars in losses, and that investment scams led with more than 7.9 billion dollars, roughly half of the total. The CFTC estimates that relationship investment scams cost Americans about 10 billion dollars a year. The IC3 also logged more than 632 million dollars in 2025 investment losses where victims reported a link to artificial intelligence. Andriy Saranenko treats all of these figures as a floor, since they count only people who reported.
| What you check | Where | What should match |
|---|---|---|
| Broker or brokerage firm | FINRA BrokerCheck | Name, registration, disclosures |
| Investment adviser | SEC IAPD via Investor.gov | Firm, person, state or SEC filing |
| Forex dealer or trading advisor | NFA BASIC | NFA membership and registration |
| Phone and website | Contact details in the register | The number you actually call |
| The person in the chat | Call the firm on its listed number | Confirmed as an employee |
Andriy Saranenko's register routine: BrokerCheck, IAPD and NFA BASIC
FINRA BrokerCheck is free. It shows current registrations, ten years of employment history and disclosures such as customer disputes and disciplinary events for brokers, brokerage firms and investment adviser firms. The BrokerCheck hotline is (800) 289-9999.
The SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database covers firms registered with the SEC and most state-registered adviser firms. Investor.gov offers a single free search that leads to both. For forex and futures, the NFA's BASIC database is free as well.
One warning shapes the whole routine. The SEC reports that impostors copy genuine registration numbers, employment histories and credentials from BrokerCheck and IAPD. A matching name proves little, so Andriy Saranenko takes the phone number and website from the register, calls the firm directly and asks whether the person in the chat works there. The SEC gives the same advice: do not use contact details supplied by the person who approached you.
Andriy Saranenko on recovery fraud after a loss
Losses attract a second wave. The IC3 counted 10,516 complaints and about 1.4 billion dollars in losses linked to fund recovery schemes in 2025, and noted fraudsters posing as government officials and recovery firms, including invented law firms and fake versions of the IC3 itself.
The FTC warned in 2026 that these schemes target people who already lost money and that scammers buy lists of victims. A demand to pay by cryptocurrency, gift cards, cash or a payment app is, in the FTC's words, a direct sign of the scam. The SEC alert adds a variant: a claim that the SEC has frozen your account and that a payment will unfreeze it.
Andriy Saranenko's view is plain. A stranger who knows you were defrauded and wants money up front to get it back is more likely part of the original chain than a way out of it. Reports to the agencies listed below cost nothing to file.
| Agency | What to report | How |
|---|---|---|
| SEC | Securities fraud, fake advisers | sec.gov/tcr, 1-800-732-0330 |
| FBI IC3 | Online investment fraud | ic3.gov |
| CFTC | Forex, futures, crypto trading schemes | cftc.gov/complaint, 866-366-2382 |
| FTC | Scams and recovery offers | ReportFraud.ftc.gov |
| Your bank | Transfers still pending | Number on the back of your card |
Where to report investment fraud in the United States
Investor.gov advises anyone who suspects fraud to stop communicating with the people involved and send them no more money. Securities tips go to the SEC at sec.gov/tcr, and the SEC's office for investors answers at 1-800-732-0330.
Internet-enabled fraud should be reported to the FBI at ic3.gov as soon as possible. Forex, futures and crypto trading schemes can be reported to the CFTC at cftc.gov/complaint or toll free at 866-366-2382. The FTC collects reports at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Call your bank or card issuer about any transfer that is still pending.
Andriy Saranenko suggests one evidence folder for every agency: chat exports, usernames and phone numbers, app and website addresses, wallet addresses, bank records of each transfer and screenshots of the dashboard with dates.
Questions and answers
How does Andriy Saranenko suggest checking a broker met in a group chat?
Look the firm and the person up in FINRA BrokerCheck and the SEC's IAPD database, or in NFA BASIC for forex, then call the firm on the number listed in the register and confirm the person works there.
Is it legal to sell trading signals in the US?
Paid, individual trading advice is normally an area where registration is expected: advisers register with the SEC or a state, and commodity trading advisors for futures and forex register with the CFTC and join the NFA.
Why does Andriy Saranenko say never to share account logins?
The SEC has described cases where logins were collected for supposed copy trading, and the FBI calls requests for account access a red flag. A registered adviser works under an agreement and does not need your credentials.
What does a fee to withdraw my profits mean?
Investor.gov treats a demand for taxes or fees before funds are released as a sign of advance fee fraud, and the CFTC says you should never have to pay more money to get your money back.
How common is investment fraud in the US?
The FBI's IC3 recorded 72,984 investment fraud complaints and over 8.6 billion dollars in losses in 2025, and the FTC counted more than 7.9 billion dollars lost to investment scams the same year.
Where should I report a fake broker?
Report to the SEC at sec.gov/tcr, to the FBI at ic3.gov, to the CFTC at cftc.gov/complaint for forex or futures, and to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
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