“You can't cheat an honest man. He has to have larceny in his heart in the first place.” -- W.C. Fields
In the US, the investor is supposed to be the first line of defense against stock fraud schemes. Unfortunately, the laws were written to help out the lower and middle classes from unscrupulous stock scams, not the wealthy "sophisticated" investors.
SO here's a tip: if you get scammed, don't count on the government to help you. They've got bigger fish to fry. You need to do your own due diligence, get your own lawyers/accountants/etc to look things over, and verify every claim and every representation that someone makes to you. If anything is even a little bit off DONT INVEST.
I was approached to invest money in two separate projects but ultimately didn't because there wasn't any way to ensure that I was going to see a good use of the money. That's how it is: if your only connection to someone is the use of your money, you better make sure that you understand how and when you make money on the deal. Otherwise, you're as good as robbed.
Note that this applies to ALL INVESTMENTS. If the company goes under for good reasons or fraudulent ones, the result is the same. CAVEAT EMPTOR.
"If anything is even a little bit off DONT INVEST."
This is so true. I remember be really pressed hard to invest in some natural gas wells where each well was "owned" by the investors who were paid out fractionally based on the production, the more wells you were in to the more you got paid. Someone I know was getting $3000 - $5000 checks a month from this operation and I was quite curious. But given the scope of things and the kinds of returns they were promising I was amazed that such a deal would even be around by the time people got to me. So I asked for a picture of the gas works. Which was provided but didn't match where they said it was (go go Google Earth!) and once I tracked down where they said things were going on, it was near the edge of the live fire missile range which a) meant you couldn't go out there to take pictures, and b) the US Bureau of Land Management wasn't about to be writing gas leases on land you might get bombed on. Sure enough, a call into the local sheriff left no doubt. No wells, no drilling, anywhere. And he got another data point for his investigation (I wasn't the first person who called). About 9 months later the whole thing vanished. I mean literally everyone in charge just disappeared. Sad really.
Comments
“You can't cheat an honest man. He has to have larceny in his heart in the first place.” -- W.C. Fields
In the US, the investor is supposed to be the first line of defense against stock fraud schemes. Unfortunately, the laws were written to help out the lower and middle classes from unscrupulous stock scams, not the wealthy "sophisticated" investors.
SO here's a tip: if you get scammed, don't count on the government to help you. They've got bigger fish to fry. You need to do your own due diligence, get your own lawyers/accountants/etc to look things over, and verify every claim and every representation that someone makes to you. If anything is even a little bit off DONT INVEST.
I was approached to invest money in two separate projects but ultimately didn't because there wasn't any way to ensure that I was going to see a good use of the money. That's how it is: if your only connection to someone is the use of your money, you better make sure that you understand how and when you make money on the deal. Otherwise, you're as good as robbed.
Note that this applies to ALL INVESTMENTS. If the company goes under for good reasons or fraudulent ones, the result is the same. CAVEAT EMPTOR.
"If anything is even a little bit off DONT INVEST."
This is so true. I remember be really pressed hard to invest in some natural gas wells where each well was "owned" by the investors who were paid out fractionally based on the production, the more wells you were in to the more you got paid. Someone I know was getting $3000 - $5000 checks a month from this operation and I was quite curious. But given the scope of things and the kinds of returns they were promising I was amazed that such a deal would even be around by the time people got to me. So I asked for a picture of the gas works. Which was provided but didn't match where they said it was (go go Google Earth!) and once I tracked down where they said things were going on, it was near the edge of the live fire missile range which a) meant you couldn't go out there to take pictures, and b) the US Bureau of Land Management wasn't about to be writing gas leases on land you might get bombed on. Sure enough, a call into the local sheriff left no doubt. No wells, no drilling, anywhere. And he got another data point for his investigation (I wasn't the first person who called). About 9 months later the whole thing vanished. I mean literally everyone in charge just disappeared. Sad really.
I've read so many articles about people that invest in these schemes that promise an insane ROI. They get blinded by greed and eventually get scammed.