Have you ever been approached by someone offering a potentially fraudulent investment opportunity? According to a new survey from the Finra Investor Education Foundation, you probably have. Among the 2000 investors aged 40 and over they surveyed, fully 80 percent reported being given the chance to invest in something that smelled very fishy.
The sample pitch that Finra offered had investors getting 2 percent to 3.4 percent per day in a vehicle that lasted a minimum of 180 days, after which investors could pull their money out. That "2 percent a day" may sound modest at first blush, but it's outlandish when you consider that many assets currently pay out around 2 percent a year. When something sounds too good to be true, it almost always is.
It would be nice to report that it's mostly poorer, unsophisticated investors who fall for these kinds of schemes. But according to the Finra survey, it's the highest-earnings households who are most likely to fall victim to an investing scam.
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