The best insurance against fraud is education; being intelligent stewards and investors. Education and dissemination of fraud prevention material will increase the level of awareness in people and reduce the amount of frauds being committed. It is our responsibility to educate ourselves to protect our hard earned money from these scammers. Please understand that the main focus of a swindler is to gain access to your money as soon as you have it in your possession. They are studying you and your weaknesses.
The main challenge we all face is how to identify one of these snakes before they reach you. Even though not two scammers are the same, there are some common traits that you can use to increase your awareness that you are near of a potential scam. Please understand that the list I am providing to you does not cover all of the potential traits of a scammer, but it will give some good ideas about some of them:
* they are narcissistic, self-centered, and grandiose
* they have feelings of entitlement
* they think they are special and entitled to live a good life
If achieving that good life means they have to engage in deceptive, immoral, and illegal behavior, that is fine with them. The means justify the ends. They justify their crimes since they believe they are entitled to the good life; even if to have that good life they must take your money by whatever means possible, after all they need to feed their families too.
* they have large egos, this leads them to think that they are too smart and they wont be caught.
* they believe to be innocent.
* they lack a conscience or remorse
* they are flamboyant
* many of them lack an education and/or have money problems
* they have a "gamblers attitude", no clear plan just "go with the flow"
* they love to show you their fancies (money, girls, houses, cars, famous contacts, etc); this is how they lure you into you handling your hard earned money to them. After all you want some of their candy too, right? Also, this way you are blinded by all the lights and forget about asking questions and request documents to support their claims.
* signs of insincerity, shallowness and superficiality
* they are typically male
Why do they commit the scam?
Scams are not easy to put together. One of the main reasons for them to put together these scams is their lack of education. Bottom-line, they are low class worms that are incapable of developing a real sustainable business. They see the scam as their way to gain access to your money without investing in an education or learning to provide value in return for your investment. A sustainable business requires a plan, a clear vision, it takes time, money and hard work. However, these worms are not interested in developing a business they want the rewards without providing value in return. Why work hard and diligently in a business when they can take it from you?
How to protect yourself from scams?
1. Be wise - think with your head and not your heart.
2. Ask questions:
* Why is this "investment" good for you?
* What kind of investment/company is it?
3. If the investment requires the investment in a company; Is the company registered? Where? What is the value of the stock?
4. Request audited financial statements, whenever there is a corporation behind the "investment".
5. What are the risks? - remember there is no zero risk investment
6. Is the investment registered? - Where?
7. Who are the auditors? Who is the legal advisor? - check them out, make sure that they are really involved and certifying the investment. Request permission to contact them or your trusted advisor to contact them.
8. Always request for WRITTEN information. It takes time and it is easier to catch a flaw in the presentation when it is written. Many times the scammer does not have the know-how in putting together a presentation that is consistent and coherent.
9. Have all written information reviewed by your trusted advisor.
10. Contact the BBB and your State Attorney regarding potential complaints filed against them.
10. Never send money to anyone you do not know. Never send money to anyone who is not willing to meet with you and your trusted advisor face-to-face. If they believe in their product or service, have them invest in their "presentation" and come to meet you and do their dance in front of you.
11. Never reveal your critical financial data (social security, bank statement, credit card numbers) to people that contact you over the phone.
12. Become an intelligent investor. The best insurance against fraud is knowledge. Only invest in registered companies and only after a careful analysis of the expected return.
13. Obtain a prospectus. Legal investments are required to comply with Federal and State regulations. They are required to provide written documentation to potential investors from where they can assess risks and make educated decisions.
14. Verify claims made by the presenter. If they claim that they have a patent, where is the patent? If they claim to have an oil field that produces 2 billion barrels of oil per day, where is the oil field? who certifies that production?
15. Never speculate on a get-rich quick scheme. They do not work and they will cause pain.
16. Do not "buy" into a company that requires you to recruit others to become distributors as the formula for success. If the company does not have a solid product with a market for it, the chances are it is pyramid.
I hope this information is helpful to you. I am currently working on an e-book on fraud prevention and decided to share some of the information you will find in the ebook. The link to the book will be published shortly.
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