2001 E-mail this story to a friend Questionable investments Insurance agents have sold a variety of investments that have cost retirees their savings. The agents and investors are told an insurance company will pay note-holders if the company defaults. In thousands of cases, however, neither the company borrowing the money nor the insurance company supposedly backing the investment paid up. Many of the companies and insurers are fraudulent, regulators say.
Many retirees fear they've lost their life savings after investing in pay phones.
More than 2,200 Carolinians have invested in ETS Payphones, a Georgia-based company that stopped paying the promised returns after filing for bankruptcy last year. Federal securities regulators contend the company operated a massive Ponzi scheme. Sometimes, however, the terminally ill people live longer than predicted, thanks to advances in medical science. In other cases, the insurance policies were simply nonexistent, or were fraudulently obtained.