Today many seniors on fixed incomes are having a hard time economically with interest rates under 5 percent. For a couple of hundred dollars you can buy literally millions of e-mail addresses. In fact, the only people getting rich are company insiders, brokers and stock promoters who control the bulk of the shares. They drive up the price through hype on the Internet, by issuing bogus or misleading press releases and quoting from fraudulent or non-existent analyst reports and then dump the shares on the unsuspecting public. As the scam artists move on to the next stock, investors watch the price of their shares collapse.
American investors lose billions of dollars a year to stock fraud, according to state regulators.
If something sounds too good to be true, it is. Crawford offered seniors these simple tips to protect themselves. Never buy anything over the phone from a stranger. Before dealing with a financial professional, meet them in person and look them in the eye. Then call your state securities regulator to find out if they and their firm are licensed and whether the broker has a disciplinary history.