Man loses €55,000 to investment scam as expert warns of common fraud tactic

A 52-year-old man from Marijampolė lost €55,000 to telephone fraudsters posing as investment consultants, police reported Monday, as a Bank of Lithuania expert highlighted a persistent scam tactic: non-Lithuanian-speaking callers offering unrealistic returns.

The victim filed a complaint with Marijampolė District Police, stating he had posted an online ad for investment services in August 2024 before being contacted by a Russian-speaking individual, LRT reported. The caller convinced him to transfer funds to a fake online platform, defrauding him of €55,000. Authorities have launched a pre-trial fraud investigation.

Lukas Jablonskas, an investment services supervision expert at the Bank of Lithuania, told LRT’s Lietuvos diena program that such cases remain frequent as scammers refine manipulation techniques while households accumulate savings. “There is no such thing as fast or guaranteed profit—there is always risk. If someone promises unrealistic percentages, it is definitely a scam,” he warned.

Jablonskas noted most losses occur when fraudsters impersonate bank or institution employees, persuading victims to transfer money. A clear red flag, he said, is callers who do not speak Lithuanian: “If you hear someone offering investments in a foreign language, we advise hanging up immediately. Given the chance, scammers are highly persuasive.”

The Bank of Lithuania has proposed legal amendments targeting phishing scams, where payment or login credentials are stolen. Under the changes, unauthorised transactions not explicitly confirmed by the account holder would be classified as fraudulent, with payment service providers liable for reimbursement. Jablonskas estimates this could halve incidents in a category representing roughly 60% of all reported fraud cases.