Online investment fraud on the rise in Belgium

In the first half of this year alone, Belgian residents lost €15 million due to fake online investments, according to new figures from the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) and the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium (CCB) - with the average victim losing €37,777.

The organisations have launched a large-scale awareness campaign via internet safety website Safeonweb.be, a first on this scale in Belgium, in partnership with financial sector federation Febelfin, the federal economy ministry and police.

The initiative is intended to raise public awareness of fake online investment offers. The new campaign coincides with European Cybersecurity Month and emphasises the importance of digital vigilance.

Fraudsters use various techniques to con their victims, the FSMA said. Sometimes they use well-known Belgians, even the king, giving investment advice via deepfake videos. Sometimes it is a “friend” who invites you to join a system promising very high returns.

“Suddenly I saw the king on Facebook,” Gisèle Knopf, one online fraud victim, told Bruzz. “He promised that you could make a lot of money by investing just €250. I thought: the king, that can’t be a scam. So I clicked on the link.”

She then had a telephone conversation of more than an hour with a "friendly lady" who convinced her to deposit €250, even €1,000 if she wanted.

“I was not left alone for a moment, there was no time to think,” she told Bruzz. “When asked to pay, a screen appeared on which I could follow all my transactions. She even gave me a code that I always had to pass on to avoid fraud.”

The next morning, Knopf became suspicious: “It wasn’t right. Why did the woman suddenly ask for €1,000 instead of €250? Then I called my bank, which blocked my card, and advised me to report the incident to the police.”

She then realised she had been scammed. “You think you can’t be fooled, but in the end anyone can fall for it. Scammers are really trained not to give you time to think clearly.”

The most popular scamming technique is fake online trading platforms, the FSMA said. These make it seem possible that you can trade stocks, cryptocurrencies or other products, but in reality you are just transferring money to the fraudsters.

Another way to catch people out is so-called "recovery room" fraud. Here, criminals supposedly promise to help you retrieve your lost money, but in doing so they extract even more.

The research published this month reveals that the people most likely to be scammed are older than 50 (65.9%) and that two out of three victims are men.

For CCB director general Miguel De Bruycker, the severity of the situation is clear: “Online fraud is not a distant concern. The number of victims is rising and the amounts are skyrocketing. Only by working together with all partners can we outsmart the scammers.”

The CCB works with the FSMA among others to combat the scams. During the first half of the year, it issued warnings about 138 fraudulent websites and asked the judicial authorities to block access to them.

In May 2025, the FSMA also joined the Belgian Anti-Phishing Shield (BAPS), an initiative of the CCB. Thanks to this tool, anyone who visits a fraudulent website is redirected to a web page containing a warning.

This new approach has been successful. Since 15 May, the FSMA has submitted 121 fraudulent website names, resulting in 11,590 unique IP addresses [in other words individual users] being redirected to the FSMA’s warning page, instead of to a fraudulent website.

In addition, from January to June 2025, the FSMA alerted the authorities of the existence of 138 fraudulent websites.

“Today, investment fraud is more than just a financial crime: it is a sophisticated form of cybercrime that plays on your trust,” said Jan de Blauwe, who chairs the Cyber Security Coalition.

“But always be on your guard: always check who is contacting you and do not let yourself be pressured by imposed deadlines.”