Goldman Sachs’ savings brand Marcus is being impersonated by scammers using it to dupe victims.
A website operating as ‘Marcus by Goldman Sachs’ popped up in recent weeks, virtually indistinguishable from the genuine site, which launched in the UK less than three years ago.
The bogus site is run by fraudsters. Only close inspection reveals it does not have the same address as the legitimate Marcus.co.uk account.
Scam: A website operating as ‘Marcus by Goldman Sachs’ popped up in recent weeks, virtually indistinguishable from the genuine site
‘Clone’ websites such as these are becoming increasingly common.
Even Wall Street titans such as Goldman cannot keep their names out of fraudsters’ reach. The Daily Mail, which is running a Stamp Out Investment Fraud campaign, wants financial scams to be included in the Government’s Online Safety Bill.
This paper wants tech giants who run adverts from fraudsters, and web hosting providers who sell space for scam sites, to be put under a legal duty to check their customers are legitimate.
Mark Taber, who reported the fake Marcus site to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said: ‘I am not seeing evidence Google is even vetting advertisers before their ads are displayed and I am regularly finding ads for sites which I have long since reported and the FCA has already issued warnings over.’
The fake Marcus site, which has been taken down after being reported to the FCA, was pulling in customers through a phoney investment comparison site being advertised on Google.
When savers searched for where to invest their money, the comparison site was one of the top results. It is not known how many people fell victim to the con.
Goldman Sachs told the Mail that in 2020, it received 130 reports in the UK of fraudsters using its brand.
It is now spending millions of pounds on attempting to protect customers, using software and external companies.
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