In coordination with U.S. and global financial regulators, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission warned investors should be vigilant in the face of rising numbers of scams.
In a joint investor bulletin, issued as part of World Investor Week, the SEC encouraged investors to be aware of fraud from rising relationship investment and impersonation scams. WIW is a global effort by the International Organization of Securities Commissions to bring together regulators across six continents to raise awareness of investor education and investor protection. This year’s meeting is WIW’s 10th anniversary, and the SEC, working with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Securities Investor Protection Corporation, National Futures Association, and North American Securities Administrators Association issued a joint statement to investors.
“Investors can use the principles of resiliency that the SEC and our partners highlight this week to help protect themselves against fraud and weather market volatility,” John Moses, director of the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Assistance, said. “We encourage investors to visit Investor.gov, which provides free, accurate, unbiased information and financial planning tools to help individuals invest wisely and better protect themselves against investment fraud.”
The warning cautioned investors to take steps to protect their assets from relationship scams and impersonations.
“Investor protection is a core tenet of the SEC’s mission, and World Investor Week provides another important opportunity for U.S. financial regulators and international counterparts to raise awareness together and encourage investor resilience across the globe,” SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins. “This week, as always, I urge investors to take advantage of the resources on the SEC’s Investor.gov website and to remain vigilant against potential scams.”
In relationship scams, a stranger makes contact via text or social media, and works to develop a friendship or romantic connection before introducing a fraudulent investment scheme. The group warned investors to ignore messages from people the investor doesn’t know, and to consider deleting or blocking them.
In impersonation or imposter scams, fraudsters use AI to impersonate individuals or companies – including regulators, to create fake investments or to obtain an investors personal information to steal their identity or misappropriate financial assets. The group said to be very wary of individuals claiming to be from financial regulators or other organizations asking about shareholdings, account numbers, trading activity, PINs, passwords, digital addresses, digital wallet private keys or other information that might be used to access an investor’s financial accounts.
The group said if an investor is approached by someone representing a financial regulator to call the organization using the phone number on their public website to verify the legitimacy of the person calling before providing any personal information or sending any money.