How to avoid being the victim of fraudulent investment companies
Everyone wants to be able to make more money without losing money but in recent times there have been many reports of investment scams and binary options scams. The need to make money drives people to fraudulent investment companies making them lose their money to these fraudulent brokers and scammers. Many also fall for these investment tricks because they lack adequate information on the subject of investing online.
In this article, I will be giving you steps to take before investing your hard money in any investment company.
Tips for investing online.
1. Do your research :
Finding the best company does not mean you google search, open tabs and register on any platform that comes your way. Doing your research means putting in the work to find out all you can about the company you are about to give your hard earned money.
Although many of these companies provide false informations about their locations and founders, there are websites that review these companies e.g Trustpilot, Scam watch. If the investment company has a lot of good reviews and high rating on these review sites, then you’re good to go if you’re comfortable with all the other information you’ve gathered but if they have bad reviews, avoid them.
Also, you should be very skeptical of offshore investments and the ones that sound too good to be true.
2. Investigate the Broker :
It’s also very important to investigate the broker or sales person introducing the offer to you. There’s been reports of disgruntled ex-employees swindling investors to discredit their previous employers. So do your due diligence to be sure your contact person is still a member of the organization they claim to work with and is also a legit broker with a good track record. You can hire an investigator online with www.investigators247.com
3. Understand the investment:
Ensure you understand the investment before you part with your money. Take your time and do not be pressured into making quick investment decisions. Many of these fraudulent brokers come up with time limitations and bogus concepts to get their victims to act immediately. Understand the investment and do not jump into that investment under pressure.
4. Referrals :
This is one of the best ways to determine if a company you choose to invest with is credible enough. Usually, someone who has invested and made profits or returns will tell you if it works or not. I will advice that you get your referrals from people you know personally, who have tried such investment options and it worked for them.
5. Company certification:
The company has to be FCA approved. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is the regulator for more than 56,000 financial services firms and markets in the UK. For an investment platform to be authorized by the FCA, it must meet certain standards set by the FCA. This is before they start to operate in the market. Use the financial services register to check whether they are authorized or not.
6. Always start with little money:
The first rule of investment is to only invest money you can afford to lose. Not that you plan to lose the money but its always safe to invest as little as you can especially if its your first time conducting business with the investment company.
7. Give little or no personal information :
Divulging your personal information to a fraudulent broker may result in identity theft. These fraudulent companies trick their victims into sharing personal and financial informations with them. Shun any investment company, brokers or sales rep requesting for your personal or financial information.
In summary,
investing online can be tricky because there’re usually no direct physical (face to face) contact with the broker or investment companies. So, many of these fraudulent brokers hide behind layers of fake personas which makes it impossible to tell who they are or their location. These fraudulent brokers have gone a step further by making their sites and social media accounts look legitimate with purchased reviews and referrals misleading people.
A few steps to follow before every online investment have been discussed in this article but it’s also possible to miss certain details during research resulting in a scam. People have lost money to well researched FCA approved companies hence the need to recover money lost to fraudulent online brokers.
Fund recovery is the process of engaging fund recovery experts or professionals to help recover money that has been lost to various online investment scams.
A well reputable company that can help you go after lost funds to investment and related scams is Investigators247. Be mindful, and take necessary precaution and due diligence before investing with any company online.
