“The money quickly disappeared and then the real headache began”

I recently caught up with a client, colleague and friend of mine, Jason – a guy I have known for over 20 years. He told me how he got scammed on the financial platform, EToro. It got us chatting about the temptation of using ‘do it yourself’ investment platforms and the reassurance that comes with using Fidelity and going through SK.

We know that there are a lot of investment platforms out there. And many of them are really very good. They look slick. They use great tech so are super easy to use. You can buy and sell shares with one click. They’re cheap and you can dabble with very small amounts if you want to just have a play around.

Investment platforms and apps are booming

These platforms have exploded onto the market in the past few years. They have opened up the world of investing to a whole new group of people. They have given those with smaller pots of cash the chance to dip their toe in. Alternatively, like Jason, people can use them as a bit of a side hustle as it were. They have their more substantial investments with us and dabble with the likes of EToro.  And by his own admission, it is basically a bit of glorified gambling.

It starts off as a bit of fun. But when it goes wrong, the fun quickly stops. It was one of those days for Jason where there was a lot going on – family stresses and work commitments. He got a call and then they verified his account via the usual EToro text message number. It was only when he stopped to breathe for a moment, that he realised something wasn’t quite right. He had shared details that he shouldn’t have about his account.

Computer says no

The money quickly disappeared from his account and then the real headache began. Trying to get hold of someone at EToro was impossible on the phone. He sent numerous emails and had various chatbot chats, none of which were giving him the support or answers he needed. After days of to-ing and fro-ing, EToro confirmed that they could not verify that he had not simply cashed in this money. There was no recourse. No getting the money back.

In the grand scheme of things, he didn’t lose a lot of money, thankfully, but he still lost a useful amount.

These platforms are fine as long as everything is going well. As soon as  there’s a problem though, you have no fallback, no support. Today’s scammers are seriously slick and are usually miles ahead tech wise than anyone working on the open market. Jason has never been scammed before and is one of those very on it, careful money guys. It just goes to show how good the scammers are today. Now interestingly, Jason had had a glitch on his Fidelty account a while back. As soon as he noticed it, he called me. We spoke to Fidelity, they sorted it out and the account was back to where it needed to be within an hour.

The power of human relationships

SK is all about the relationships we have with our clients and with our financial partners. When it comes to your investments, the reassurance you get from having us and Fidelity’s support team at the end of the line is what helps us stand head and shoulders above the investment platform apps. For many, this difference is priceless.

Update: You can read more about this here.