Investor resilience in an age of digital deception
GFIA raises awareness of IOSCO World Investor Week 2026 (5–11 October)
This week, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) is running World Investor Week, a global campaign now marking ten years of promoting investor education and protection. The 2026 themes are Investor Resilience, Digital Deception and Scam Alert, under the tagline “Invest in Your Future.” The Gibraltar Funds and Investments Association (GFIA) is pleased to help raise awareness of the campaign.
Why these themes
Last year’s campaign involved 137 participants across 118 jurisdictions. The 2026 focus reflects a hard reality: investment fraud has moved online. Scammers now use social media, messaging apps, cloned websites, fake “regulated” credentials and, increasingly, AI-generated content to look credible. The tactics change, but the psychology does not. Fraudsters rely on urgency, authority and the fear of missing out.
What resilience means
Resilience is not about never making a mistake. It is the habit of pausing, checking and asking questions before money moves. It also means knowing your risk tolerance, diversifying, and treating any unsolicited approach with scepticism, however polished it looks.
Relationship investment scams
IOSCO’s campaign also highlights relationship investment scams, sometimes called romance scams or “pig butchering.” They typically start with friendly contact from a stranger on social media, a dating app or a wrong-number text, then move to talk of an investment on an unfamiliar trading app that shows fake gains. The tell-tale signs are a relationship that moves very fast, excuses for never meeting or appearing live on video, and any mention of money or investments. IOSCO’s guidance is available at worldinvestorweek.org.
Check before you invest: IOSCO’s I-SCAN
IOSCO’s International Securities & Commodities Alerts Network, or I-SCAN, is a free, publicly searchable database of investor warnings issued by IOSCO’s member regulators around the world. At the time of writing it holds over 47,000 alerts, and new entries are added regularly. Users can search by keyword, such as a firm name or website, and filter by regulator, category (for example unlicensed firms, impersonators of licensed firms, or regulator impersonators), product type (including crypto and digital assets) and date. It is available at iosco.org/i-scan.
One important caveat: the information is submitted by member regulators and IOSCO does not independently verify it. A firm’s absence from I-SCAN does not mean it is legitimate, so I-SCAN should be one check among several, alongside the licensing register of the relevant regulator.
Practical tips
Be wary of unsolicited contact. Cold calls, direct messages and “wrong number” texts that turn into investment conversations are classic entry points.
Treat guaranteed or unusually high returns as a red flag. Real investments carry risk.
Beware of pressure. “Act today” or “limited places” is designed to stop you thinking.
Check authorisation independently. Confirm a firm is licensed using the regulator’s own register, find contact details yourself rather than using those you were given, and search the firm, website and app name on I-SCAN.
Do not trust what you see or hear. Deepfake video, cloned voices and fake endorsements are now cheap to produce. Verify through a separate, trusted channel.
Guard your credentials and devices. Never share passwords, one-time codes or crypto seed phrases, and never download software or apps at the request of someone you have met online.
Watch for “recovery” scams. Victims are often targeted a second time by people offering to retrieve lost funds for an upfront fee. Never pay money to recover an investment or to release funds.
Talk to someone. Scams thrive on secrecy. Raise scams with friends and family, especially anyone who mentions a new online relationship or investing in crypto for the first time. A second opinion costs nothing.
If you think you have been targeted
Stop all payments and stop engaging. Keep records, including messages, wallet addresses and transaction details. Contact your bank or platform immediately.
Report fraud to the Royal Gibraltar Police. Report concerns about a firm to the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) if it claims to be regulated in Gibraltar but is not, or if it appears to be a clone of a firm that is regulated in Gibraltar.
A shared responsibility
Investor protection works best when regulators, industry and investors act together. GFIA encourages its members to use this week to reinforce scam awareness with clients and teams, and to point investors to official regulatory resources.