Woman loses her US$21K savings on a too-good-to-be-true investment deal. How to spot financial fraud before it’s too late

“He felt very trustworthy,” she told CBS News Miami. “We had spent some time together. It’s not like I had met someone and we were just going off of a whim (1).”

Moore presented her with a one-page contract: If she invested US$25,000, he promised she’d receive US$250,000 on January 17, 2025 — a tenfold return, with 40 weekly performance payments to follow.

Gipson signed and transferred the money. When she reached out to him after that, his responses became rotating excuses: the money was backed up, the deal hadn’t gone through, the other party hadn’t paid.

Then she escalated, first with a withdrawal letter, then with a formal demand letter drafted by her lawyer and finally with a police report. Officers told her the case was a civil matter, so she filed suit in Florida’s circuit court in August of 2025, but the case was never resolved.

Running out of options and desperate for a resolution, Gipson contacted CBS News Miami with her story. When the network reached out to Moore, he told them not to run the story. At the time of their report, he had not returned any of her money.

She told the news outlet that it’s been a tough lesson and admits the deal was too good to be true all along.

It happens here too — and the numbers are alarming

While this story took place south of the border, similar instances play out in Canada with striking regularity.

In one case that drew wide coverage from the likes of CBC News, Toronto couple Mina Amini and her husband invested C$310,000 — their entire savings plus a loan they couldn’t repay — with a man they trusted to trade foreign exchange on their behalf. Then the money was gone, with zero return. The couple was forced into bankruptcy (2).

“We try to start again, but honestly, it’s so hard,” Amini told the outlet. The alleged fraudster, Ali Nojoumi, was charged in December 2025 with fraud over C$5,000 after the Ontario Securities Commission determined that his firm, Smart Prime Group, had never been registered to sell securities in the province.

The trust that Amini and her husband placed in Nojoumi — the same trust that led Gipson to hand over her savings — is exactly how these schemes work. Scammers don’t need to cold-call strangers. A shared connection, a credible-sounding pitch and a little time spent building rapport is sometimes all that’s needed to persuade people looking to boost their investments to follow through.

According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), Canadians lost more than C$704 million to fraud in 2025 — a number released this week to mark Fraud Prevention Month (3). And that only accounts for the cases that are reported. The CAFC estimates that 5% to 10% of fraud is ever flagged, meaning the real figure is likely many times higher. Cumulatively, losses from fraudulent activity have now exceeded C$2.4 billion since 2022 (4).

Investment fraud consistently ranks among the top three categories for financial impact, next to romance scams and job fraud. And the profile for those who are targeted is shifting. A joint warning from the Canadian Competition Bureau, the CAFC and the RCMP noted that for the first time, fraud rates among Canadians under age 55 are trending upward — and 46% of Canadians say they’ve encountered investment opportunities promoted on social media (5).

Additionally, a Scotiabank survey conducted in January 2026 found that nearly one in three Canadians aged 18 to 34 said they had fallen for a scam in the past year — even though that same age group rated itself as the most confident in their ability to spot fraud (6).

Why fraud is so difficult to prosecute

The road to getting justice after an investment scam is rarely quick or straightforward, and for many victims, it never arrives.

In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission reported that consumers lost US$4.6 billion to investment scams in 2023, rising to US$7 billion by 2024, with a median loss of more than US$9,000 per victim. Despite the problem’s widespread scale, federal prosecutors filed charges in only 24% of criminal referrals in 2025 (7).

One of the reasons so few cases head to court is the standard of proof that’s required to prosecute. To succeed in a financial fraud case, a plaintiff must demonstrate the defendant deliberately made a false claim, that the victim had good reason to believe it and that the real financial harm was the result. Even when a signed contract exists, this can sometimes be a far reach.

In Canada, the challenge is equally real. CBC’s investigative reporting on fraud found that only a fraction of such cases make it through the justice system, with many charges withdrawn or stayed due to limited resources. For victims, the emotional cost compounds the financial one. “It’s not only the amount of money that we have invested, it’s the emotional, the stress we have gone through,” another investment victim in the Smart Prime Group case told CBC (8).

Further, the RCMP Gazette has noted that research from McMaster University and Statistics Canada shows feelings of shame and embarrassment keep many people from reporting fraud at all. This is a primary reason for these crimes being underreported, which only encourages scammers to continue such schemes (9).

Practicing due diligence, and what to do if you’re a victim of fraud

The best protection against investment fraud is the work you do before transferring any money.

Contract lawyer Raul Gastesi, speaking to CBS News Miami, recommends that anyone considering an investment take time to review the other party’s tax returns, bank deposit record and profit-loss statements. Another added layer of protection is to bring in an independent accountant and lawyer to verify a business is legitimate and transparent (10).

Gipson never questioned the returns Moore was promising — but projected returns are never guaranteed, regardless of what’s stated in a contract. Gipson’s guard may have been lower because Moore came through her own social circle, which is how affinity fraud operates.

Scammers use existing relationships to bypass skepticism and suspicion that a stranger would naturally trigger. That’s why it’s worth conducting background checks on anyone soliciting your investment, even when the introduction comes from an acquaintance or loved one.