Cyberfraud Scam: Fraudsters Posing as Wealth Managers on WhatsApp

Financial firms are being alerted to a new cyberfraud scam that all investors should be aware of and take precautions against. Here’s what is happening and what you can do about it:

A popular technique of cybercriminals is to impersonate – or “spoof” – a legitimate business or individual in order to target their connections or followers, or to attempt to lend credibility to their schemes. Targets of this scam believe they are being contacted by or connecting to a trusted party and may provide personal information, engage in financial transactions, or click on malicious links. In the newest version of this scam, criminals are using the popular app WhatsApp to promote trading in ‘pump and dump’ or ‘get rich quick’ schemes in a particular stock position.

We have been informed that fraudsters are impersonating Coldstream and our employees in a WhatsApp scam to promote this type of trading. Please be aware that Coldstream does not use WhatsApp, we do not communicate with clients or prospects via WhatsApp, and will never make investment recommendations via any social media app.

If you are contacted by any WhatsApp accounts claiming to be Coldstream-affiliated, please report that account to WhatsApp; you can find instructions for reporting at https://faq.whatsapp.com/1142481766359885/?helpref=uf_share

If you ever have any concerns about a suspicious communication that you’ve received or responded to, please contact us at 425.283.1600 or reach out directly to your wealth manager via phone or email.

Coldstream takes cybersecurity very seriously. We engage multiple layers of security to protect our clients’ data and transactions. You can learn more about our data security procedures here. For more information about how you can protect yourself from cyberfraud, read our article about cybersecurity at https://www.coldstream.com/insights/cybersecurity-and-you-protecting-your-assets/