For years, the stereotype of a scam victim was simple. An elderly person receives a suspicious phone call. A fraudster persuades them to hand over money. Life savings disappear.
But the face of fraud is changing. Today, some of the fastest-growing targets for investment scams and get-rich-quick schemes aren’t pensioners. They’re young people.
And experts believe a unique combination of economic pressure, social media influence and a growing sense that traditional routes to success are no longer working may be making some young men particularly vulnerable.
This isn’t because they are naive. Nor is it because there is something inherently wrong with wanting to improve your life. In many cases, the opposite is true.
The very qualities that scammers look to exploit – ambition, optimism, resilience and a desire to build a better future – are often the same qualities society encourages in young people.
The problem is that fraudsters understand this. And they have become increasingly skilled at disguising old scams as modern opportunities.
Fraud experts repeatedly stress that anyone can become a victim. Scams succeed not because people are foolish, but because criminals understand psychology.
Fear, trust, hope, loneliness and financial pressure can affect anyone regardless of age, education or income. Older people are often targeted because they have accumulated wealth. Younger people are increasingly targeted because they are trying to create it.
According to City of London Police, victims lost almost £880 million to investment fraud in 2025 alone. Research from Barclays has found that more than a quarter of investment scam victims are now under the age of 30, while adults in their twenties account for one of the largest groups reporting social-media-related investment fraud.
The stereotype of the scam victim is rapidly becoming outdated.
What makes today’s young adults different is not intelligence or judgement. It is the environment they have grown up in. This is the first generation to come of age in a world where the internet has been a constant presence from childhood.
Previous generations might have sought advice from parents, teachers, employers or local communities. Today’s young people can receive guidance from thousands of voices simultaneously.
A teenager scrolling through social media may encounter financial advice from a qualified expert, an entrepreneur, a crypto trader, a motivational speaker, an anonymous influencer, an online coach, an AI chatbot and a scammer within minutes.
Often, all of them look equally convincing. The challenge facing young people is no longer access to information. It is deciding who deserves their trust. That creates opportunities for genuine education and self-improvement.
But it also creates opportunities for exploitation. As one expert put it: “The risk isn’t that young men are hearing too many voices. It’s that they’re hearing more voices than any generation in history while having fewer trusted filters to help distinguish expertise from exploitation.”
Many young men are not turning to alternative paths because they are reckless. They are turning to them because many feel the traditional path no longer offers the certainty it once did.
Home ownership feels increasingly out of reach. The cost of higher education continues to rise. Secure employment can feel harder to find. Wages have struggled to keep pace with housing costs and everyday expenses.
For some, the promise that hard work alone will lead to financial security feels less convincing than it did for previous generations. Into that uncertainty steps an enormous online industry offering alternatives.
Become your own boss. Escape the rat race. Achieve financial freedom. Retire early. Build wealth online. Many of these messages are not inherently problematic.
Entrepreneurship, investing and financial education can be genuinely valuable. The issue is that scammers use exactly the same language.
Promises of secret strategies, exclusive communities, rapid wealth creation and insider knowledge have become some of the most common warning signs in modern investment fraud.
Louis Theroux’s documentary Welcome to the Manosphere explored one part of an online world that has become increasingly influential among young men.
The programme focused on debates around masculinity, identity and the online personalities attracting large audiences of young male followers.
This article is not concerned with judging those beliefs. People will continue to agree or disagree about the ideas being discussed. But the documentary highlighted something that deserves wider attention: vulnerability.
Many of the communities discussed in the programme are built around themes of self-improvement, discipline, financial independence and personal responsibility.
Those aspirations are not unusual. Nor are they exclusive to young men. However, experts warn that communities built around personal transformation can become attractive hunting grounds for scammers.
Someone searching for purpose, direction or financial security is also someone likely to be paying attention when an opportunity promises a shortcut.
The risk is not the search itself. The risk is who answers.
Modern scams rarely look like scams. Instead, they often arrive dressed as mentorship programmes, investment clubs, educational courses or business opportunities. Among the trends consumer experts frequently warn about are:
- Crypto “signal” groups.
- Telegram investment channels.
- Forex trading academies.
- Paid Discord trading communities.
- Dropshipping mentorship programmes.
- High-ticket coaching schemes.
- Affiliate marketing systems.
- Recruitment-driven business opportunities.
Not all of these are fraudulent. Many operate legally and some provide genuine value. That distinction is important. The problem is that scammers often imitate legitimate businesses so effectively that spotting the difference becomes increasingly difficult.
Professional websites, luxury lifestyle content, testimonials and screenshots of earnings can create the appearance of success even when little evidence exists underneath.
Perhaps the most overlooked factor in modern fraud is hope. Historically, many scams relied on fear. Today’s scams increasingly rely on aspiration.
They sell the dream of freedom. Freedom from debt. Freedom from low wages. Freedom from financial anxiety. Freedom from uncertainty.
For young people who feel left behind by traditional systems, those promises can be incredibly persuasive. And unlike many historical scams, they are often wrapped in communities that provide friendship, encouragement and belonging alongside financial advice.
That can make warning signs harder to recognise. Questioning the opportunity can begin to feel like questioning an entire support network.
Ruby Layram, Investment Editor at MoneyMagpie, says one of the most important things new investors can do is slow down and independently verify opportunities before handing over money.
“One of the biggest red flags is urgency. Scammers want you to believe you need to act immediately before an opportunity disappears. Genuine investments don’t usually work like that.”
Layram advises people to stick to established, regulated investment platforms and to conduct their own research before committing funds.
“If somebody is promising guaranteed returns, secret strategies or unusually high profits with very little risk, that’s a major warning sign.”
She also warns against relying solely on social media personalities or private online groups for financial guidance.
“Before investing, check whether a firm is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and use trusted financial resources to verify information independently.”
Layram says investors should be particularly cautious of opportunities promoted through Telegram channels, WhatsApp groups, Discord servers or direct messages.
“Just because somebody appears successful online doesn’t mean they’re qualified to give financial advice.”
- Check the FCA Register.
- Use established, regulated investment platforms.
- Never invest solely because of an influencer recommendation.
- Be cautious of opportunities promoted through Telegram, WhatsApp and Discord groups.
- Avoid any scheme promising guaranteed returns.
- Seek a second opinion before transferring money.
- Never invest money you cannot afford to lose.
- They constantly talk about becoming financially free within months.
- They struggle to clearly explain how money is actually made.
- Recruiting people seems more important than selling a product or service.
- Every conversation eventually becomes a sales pitch.
- Critics are dismissed as “negative”, “broke” or “closed-minded”.
- Most evidence of success comes from screenshots and lifestyle content.
- There is constant pressure to act quickly before an opportunity disappears.
Experts say concern should begin with curiosity rather than judgement. Most people who become involved in questionable schemes are not acting irrationally. They are usually trying to improve their circumstances.
Ridicule often pushes people further into communities that promise certainty and understanding. Instead, friends and family should ask simple questions.
How does the business actually make money? Where do the profits come from? Is recruitment necessary for success? Can earnings claims be independently verified? Is the company regulated? The aim is not to attack ambition. It is to protect it.
The bigger story here is not about masculinity. Nor is it really about scams. It is about a generation navigating a world unlike any that came before it.
Young people today have access to more information, more opportunities and more voices than any generation in history. But they also face more noise, more competing advice and more sophisticated attempts to exploit their attention.
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Most online communities are harmless. Some are genuinely helpful. A small number are not. The challenge for all of us is recognising the difference. Because the next victim of a scam is unlikely to be someone who lacks ambition.
It may be someone who has plenty of it – and is simply looking for a way forward in a world that increasingly feels uncertain. And that may be the hidden lesson behind the wider conversation about young men online. The greatest risk is not necessarily the ideas they encounter.
It’s that in a world where expertise, influence, marketing and manipulation increasingly blur together, some of those searching hardest for success may become the easiest people to exploit.