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Investing Scams

This article was written by in Investing. 3 comments.

CNN Money is running a story about the most popular investment scams. Similar stories are being run on MSN Money and Bankrate as well. In fact, the story is everywhere.

Here are the top ten scams, as measured by the North American Securities Administrators Association. The links below provide more information on each of these scams.

1. Ponzi (pyramid) schemes
2. Unlicensed securities dealers
3. Unregistered investment products
4. Promissory notes
5. Investment scams that target senior citizens
6. Sky high-yield investments
7. Internet fraud
8. Schemes that target a race, religion or ethnic group
9. Variable annuity sales
10. Oil & gas scams

Take some time to look through the information. Education is the best defense against these scams. If you need to report a scam, contact your NASAA representative.

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Updated October 9, 2016 and originally published March 24, 2005.

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About the author

Luke Landes is the founder of Consumerism Commentary. He has been blogging and writing for the internet since 1995 and has been building online communities since 1991. Find out more about Luke Landes and follow him on Twitter. View all articles by .

avatar 1 Anonymous

Here’s another one…I think.

Got a call from the Department of Unclaimed Funds saying they had a $12k insurance claim/payment for a person that shared my last name.

Went to the Bureau of Unclaimed Property’s website and sure enough, that person had a policy but they died and someone was hunting people down with the same last name.

So far so good.

But the name was misleading…the only “Department of Unclaimed Funds” was a listing for a company. The official state agency is the Bureau of Unclaimed Property.

But, they used official information with respect to the decedant. So, was this a scam? Couldn’t say, but it’s something to keep an eye out for.