Have you been tricked by an “investment” scam?
No matter where you live and invest, you still need to be on the lookout for scams. I get messages every day from people saying that someone pretending to be me reached out to them promising to invest money on their behalf. And that’s red flag number one! If a public figure reaches out to you, especially on an alternate account, and asks you to send money for any reason, just block them! Scammers like to use familiar faces for their schemes. But ask yourself, why would this person be messaging me on TikTok asking for money?
Another way to spot a scam is if the person is promising large profits in a very short amount of time. Every investment comes with risk. There is no way to promise that every investment you make will have a huge and immediate profit. This is probably the biggest red flag. When you hear these kinds of promises, run! Double your money by next week? Yeah, you’ll never see that money again. Some of these schemes may take months or even years to unravel, but unravel they will. Remember Cash Plus? Olint? Bernie Madoff?
Now here’s another one. If a company isn’t publicly traded, you can’t buy stocks through some random person messaging you on TikTok. So if someone is promising to sell you shares in Loshusan, for example, it’s highly likely that’s a scam. Loshusan is a major supermarket chain in Jamaica, but they’re NOT listed on the stock exchange. In Jamaica, you can look up any listed company at jamstockex.com, and in other markets, you can go to the websites of various exchanges.
Lastly, is the person pressuring you to act quickly? A lot of the scammers need you to act before you have time to think about it or do any research. So if they’re pressuring you to buy into the investment by sending you multiple messages or harassing you, that’s not someone you can trust.
Remember, a good way to protect yourself is to be informed. If you know how investing works and can do it yourself, there will be less temptation to fall for these tricks.
Our Investing for Beginners course can help you to learn investment strategies and to keep up to date with the movements of stock markets.