A disabled US veteran has spoken out after losing more than £170,000 in a sophisticated social media investment scam. Craig Wilkinson responded to a fraudulent Facebook advertisement that appeared to be from a legitimate financial firm he had previously researched.
Wilkinson, who has three children, told ABC News he wanted to build a nest egg for his family. The fake ad led him to a WhatsApp group where he was assigned a 'mentor' named Emily, who built his trust through personalised messages. After an initial £5,500 investment, Wilkinson was induced to hand over a total of roughly £170,000 as his supposed returns grew into the millions.
When he tried to withdraw the money, he was told he could not do so without paying steep fees—a common pattern in investment scams. Wilkinson has reported the matter to police and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which are investigating and working to potentially recover his funds.
Investment scams originating on social media accounted for about half of the £2.1 billion lost to financial fraud in the US in 2025, according to the FTC. The agency warns consumers to look out for four key signs: scammers posing as legitimate organisations, claims of a problem or prize, a false sense of urgency, and requests for payment via specific methods such as cryptocurrency or a particular app.
Meta, Facebook's parent company, said it now bans financial service ads from linking to messaging services like WhatsApp and is investing in technology to help users spot and avoid scams.
