Would you believe that crooks are actually creating fake broker-dealers in order to swindle you out of your money? In the old days, con men would set up real brokerage firms, then either churn your account, push penny stock pump-and-dump stocks on you, or on rare occasions, sell you totally fraudulent tax shelters.
But now, fictitious brokers and investment adviser companies are being created and many have names that sound like legitimate firms.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has a listing of a whole bunch of these scams. One interesting thing to note is that 28 of these firms are from New York, whereas only three are from California.
In the “old days,” most of the scams worked out of Newport Beach and Century City in California. I guess these days, New York adds more legitimacy to an investment company.
In addition to these fake companies, the SEC also provides a list of Unregistered Soliciting Entities Impersonating Genuine and Former US Registered Securities Firms.
Plus, some companies claim to be registered with an “official” United States agencies, that are either fake or pretend to be part of the U. S. Government. This is a list of fictitious governmental agencies.
If you have any doubt about a firm that you are planning on doing business with, check them out.
You can check out brokers and brokerage firms at:
You can check out investment advisors at:
Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website