Trading bot scam stages: five steps from first contact to disappearance, from three regulator alerts

2026-10-18

If the person recommending a trading bot has also promised to protect the original stake, which step of the process has been reached?

Korea's Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) issued several investment fraud alerts in 2026 alone. Three of them describe trading bot, chat-room tip and illegal deposit-taking methods. This post uses only the wording of those alerts to lay out the order a scam follows, in five steps.

1.What the three alerts say

Alert 2026-3, issued on 27 January, covers illegal stock tip chat rooms during a market boom. Alert 2026-8 on 9 March covers investment fraud riding on Middle East turmoil, and alert 2026-25 on 22 September covers fake investments around the holidays.

The sentence the three share is short. No investment pays high returns while keeping the original money safe.

2.Five steps from first contact to disappearance

Step 1: success videos and impersonation

Alert 2026-8 warns that fake investment success videos and business plans are made very convincingly.

Alert 2026-3 describes people posing as staff of well-known brokerages. It also notes AI deepfakes used to pass as real experts and build trust.

Step 2: links into chat rooms and apps

Next comes a link. It leads into a group chat and to installing a trading app.

The FSS advises making no financial transaction at all with anyone who asks for chat-room joining or app installs through a link.

Step 3: bot profits plus a promise on the stake

A news report on the March alert names trading bots directly (Herald Economy). It says illegal operators promote fake trading bots they built themselves as if they had earned high returns.

Some add wording that the money will be repaid whenever asked, promising the stake is safe. The report says pairing that promise with high returns very likely means illegal deposit-taking.

Step 4: bonuses for bringing people in

Alert 2026-25 says heavy recruitment bonuses can mean a Ponzi scheme.

It adds that early payouts are likely paid from the person's own or other investors' money. The same alert says to be wary even when family or friends make the offer.

Step 5: gone when the money is asked back

The last step is asking for money back. The alert says the promised payouts or the investment are refused, or the operator disappears.

The report put reports of illegal deposit-taking at 410 the year before and 295 last year. In 2026, complaints received by the FSS included 22 multi-level schemes and 10 posing as cooperatives.

3.The first thing on the day it is noticed

On the day something feels wrong, stop sending money first. The first line of the 2026-3 guidance is to stop trading.

4.Report it and look the firm up

Report it first. In Korea, the FSS website has an illegal finance report centre for online cases, and the FSS call centre is 1332. Elsewhere, the national financial regulator is the place to start.

Then check whether the firm is a licensed financial company, in Korea through the FSS consumer portal FINE.

How to rework the return figures themselves is in the trading bot returns post.

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