What are the Characteristics of a Stock Fraud Victim?
It doesn’t matter if you’re a computer programmer, a lawyer, or a hair stylist – if you’ve got money in a brokerage account, you could become the victim of stock fraud.
Nevertheless, certain traits could increase your likelihood of becoming a stock fraud victim. A recent study published by AARP revealed that some investors are more vulnerable to stock fraud than others.
The AARP survey found that victims of investment fraud tend to share specific traits. If you have any of the following characteristics yourself, you might want to take extra precautions when dealing with your stockbroker:
1. An obsession with wealth accumulation:
Everybody wants to make more money. This is true. But not everyone considers “acquiring money” to be one of their most important life achievements. If wealth accumulation is a central focus of your life, you could have a higher chance of falling prey to a dubious investment scam.
2. High-risk tolerance:
Investment fraud victims are often willing to take chances with their savings — especially if they believe there’s a chance of making a profit. Although investors can “win big” by increasing their risk tolerance levels, there’s there’s also a chance of losing big. It’s easy to forget about risks when there’s a chance for profit. Don’t fall into this trap.
3. Interested in new investment offers:
In the AARP survey, investment fraud victims said that they regularly received investment-related emails and sales calls. They said they were interested in these calls because they thought something good might eventually come along. Investment fraud victims were also more likely to make investments based on cold calls.
Investment fraud victims were also more likely to make investments based on cold calls. Before you ever do anything like this, make sure you discuss the idea with a trusted investment advisor, and make sure you research the investment thoroughly beforehand.
4. Frequent investment transactions:
Victims of investment fraud tend to make more investment decisions and transactions every year. Perhaps this increased investment activity results in an elevated vulnerability to investment fraud — because there’s a higher chance that one of the transactions will be fraudulent.
Be Careful of Stock Fraud By Using Common Sense
If the above characteristics describe you, it may be time to increase the security in your investment accounts. Also, if you receive a cold call investment offer, be sure to do your homework on the investment and the company that’s trying to sell it to you. Especially if the seller isn’t registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, don’t purchase anything.
If you lost money in your investment account, due to no fault of your own, you might be the victim of stock fraud. By contacting the Consumer Investor Resource Center, you can learn more about your situation and find out if you can try to get your money back.