On July 27, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued the following investor alert:
The FBI Criminal Investigative Division and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (OIEA) warn of fraudsters swindling investors while pretending to be registered brokers or investment advisers.
Fraudsters may falsely claim to be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) or a state securities regulator in order to lure investors into scams, or even impersonate real investment professionals who actually are registered with these organizations. Fraudsters may misappropriate the name, address, registration number, logo, photo, or website likeness of a currently or previously registered firm or investment professional. They try to trick investors into believing that they are registered by using a number of tactics, including the following:
Registration of Investment Professionals. Many sellers of investment products or services are either brokers, investment advisers, or both. Most brokers must register with the SEC and join FINRA. Investment advisers that provide investment advice to retail investors generally must register with the SEC or the state securities regulator where they have their principal place of business.
To quickly and easily check if someone offering you an investment is currently licensed or registered, use the search tool on Investor.gov. Once you confirm that the seller is licensed or registered, make sure you are not dealing with an imposter. Contact the seller using contact information you verify independently – for example, by using a phone number or website listed in the firm’s Client Relationship Summary (Form CRS) – rather than relying on contact information the seller provides you. To ensure you are looking at a genuine copy of the firm’s Form CRS, follow these steps:
For additional information about Form CRS, visit investor.gov/CRS.
Regardless of whether someone claims to be registered with the SEC, beware if you spot these warning signs of an investment scam:
Report possible securities fraud to the SEC at www.sec.gov/tcr. Report online fraud to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at https://www.ic3.gov.
The SEC maintains a list of Impersonators of Genuine Firms. This list is not exhaustive – firms may be impersonated even if they are not on the list.
FINRA staff issued an article about imposter schemes.
More information about online frauds and investment scams can be found at www.fbi.gov or Investor.gov, the SEC’s website for individual investors.
You can contact the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (OIEA) by phone at 1-800-732-0330, using this online form, or via email at Help@SEC.gov.
Receive Investor Alerts and Bulletins from OIEA by email or RSS feed. Follow OIEA on Twitter @SEC_Investor_Ed. Like OIEA on Facebook at facebook.com/secinvestoreducation.
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