Scammers are getting more and more clever in the way they try to trick people.

Latest in a string of trading scam ads hosted by Yahoo! UK is a series of ads where they abuse the name of a well known entrepreneur claiming he endorses or uses the trading system being advertised.

I have seen at least two instances of this behaviour so far: Duncan Bannatyne and Richard Branson. They are both wealthy UK entrepreneurs and are well known internationally.




In this latest example featuring Richard Branson's name being used/abused, another particularly diabolical twist is added to the mix: the site reporting the 'news' about this system is none other than Forbes!

Except.... it's not really Forbes. It looks like Forbes, and the URL looks like forbes.com - but if you look closely you'll notice the true URL is https://www.forbes.com--php.top.




You see what they've done there? The first part of the URL really makes you think you're reading a Forbes article. In reality the scammers have managed to register a domain that ends in .top and somehow created the bit in the middle to make it looks like the real thing. The php bit is particularly vicious, because php is usually found in an internet address, so by putting it there they're trying to disguise the real domain name with a red herring.

Clever, uh?

Of course the 'Forbes article' tells the story about how Richard Branson is furious that others have found out about how great this trading system is, and everybody is now becoming a millionaire.




Enter Briton Andrew Chambers (obviously a fake name and the picture is likely an actor) who, "had a hard couple of years. He spiraled into depression after tragically losing his wife and then his job at the young age of 35. He couldn't pay his bills and was almost evicted from his home. But now, thanks to this simple options trading software, Andrew’s life is turning around...".






You can guess the story from there. Thanks to this fantastic trading system, even you, with only 250$ can become rich!

By clicking on pretty much any link on the page you are redirected to blazingtrader.cc where the usual psychological pressure tactics of scarcity and personal guarantees of getting you money by tomorrow are employed (red circles).




There's the usual video, where the presenter (another actor presumably) promises people to give them 20,000 dollars every day. This is practically the Nigerian scam, claimed to be of British origin, with American-sounding actors.

Such an international endeavour.... buyers beware!

Same trick as in the OP here:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2025/04/19/delete-all-texts-on-your-phone-if-you-see-these-2-words/

Here is a list of blocked scams and someone even already convicted:

https://www.tradingschools.org/?s=fraud+busted

The pattern is always the same:

get rich quick, with an algorithm or secret techniques finally revealed, fancy sports cars and beautiful women.....but there is yet another trick: after the scammers have....disappeared with the money, sometimes...they come back and appear as lawyers from law firms promising to be able to recover lost money and instead...they are still the same scammers....

The cat and the fox:


Il Gatto e la Volpe

For the series “trading gurus”:

'I experienced a catastrophic financial loss': How options trader 'Captain Condor' led his followers to a $50 million wipeout


https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20260101173/i-experienced-a-catastrophic-financial-loss-how-options-trader-captain-condor-led-his-followers-to-a-50-million-wipeout

Shaban 

'I experienced a catastrophic financial loss': How options trader 'Captain Condor' led his followers to a $50 million wipeout

@Shaban,

This story should be required reading for anyone considering following a trading "guru." The math here is brutal but predictable.

Martingale is the financial equivalent of Russian roulette. You can win several rounds, but the chamber eventually lines up. Going from 4,400 contracts to 17,000 to 48,000 to 99,000 -- that's not risk management, that's a death spiral with extra steps. The system requires infinite capital to work, and nobody has infinite capital.

What kills me about iron condor strategies marketed as "income trades" is the implied safety. Sure, you collect premium most months. But when the market moves hard -- and it always eventually does -- you're on the hook for multiples of what you ever collected. The win rate looks great until one loss erases years of gains. That's not a bug, it's the core structure of the trade.

The broader lesson here applies to anyone trading ES, CL, or any of the markets you follow: position sizing is the only risk control that actually works. No strategy survives sizing that assumes you'll never be wrong twice in a row. Or three times. Or four.

The hardest part? These followers likely saw months or years of consistent profits before the wipeout. That track record made the guru seem credible. But past performance in a strategy with tail risk tells you almost nothing about future survival.

TGIF! Have a good weekend!

-- Fi
"The market doesn't care how many times your system worked before -- it only takes one time for it not to."