How to be secure in your investment choice

Considering making an investment can take time in finding the right opportunity to achieve the greatest return. This might be compounded with the concern around fraud and scams. Knowing what investment scams are and how to spot them will help you in feeling secure in your selection and decision making process.

What are investment scams?

An investment scam also known as investment fraud, is a deceptive practice where a criminal uses high pressured sales techniques to get you to invest in worthless, cloned or non-existence products.

There are three main types of investment scams:

  1. The scammer says they are representing a legitimate investment group but are lying.
  2. The investment might exist, but the scammer takes the money instead of investing it where they said they would.
  3. A fictitious investment opportunity that does not exist.

How to spot investment scams?

We often think of cold callers being the main contact for scammers but the internet and particularly social media, has opened up more opportunities for scammers to strike.

There are ways to spot an investment scam and here are some to watch out for:

  • They pressurise you by suggesting that this opportunity has a time lapse and you need to make a quick decision.
  • Call you out of the blue on the phone, email, text or social media direct message.
  • The investment isn’t registered on the FCA’s financial services register – you can check here https://register.fca.org.uk/s/
  • You saw something on social media, for example cryptocurrency scams might often be found advertised through social media or endorsed by celebrities.
  • It seems too good to be true and quite often it is. Trust your instincts in this regard and check it out thoroughly before committing to anything.

Protecting yourself from investment fraud

Knowing the signs of investment fraud will help you to ward off any unwanted scams.  You can also use the FCA warning list where you can check an investment or pension opportunity > https://www.fca.org.uk/scamsmart/warning-list

Never share personal or bank details with anyone, if anyone asks for them after they have called you, put the phone down and call the number on the back of your card.

Being aware of what investment fraud is will put you in good stead to ward off potential scams.  You should never feel pressured into making a decision and if you are not sure, take your time and do some further research first.

For more information regarding investment scams, please give the team a call on 0121 550 8509 or email info@godfreymansell.co.uk.