Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable ...
The best advice for people invited to an “investment seminar” is stay away. Most such seminars are a scam and a hunting ground for fraudsters and other financial predators. Average people that go to one will probably lose one thing: their money.
Such a seminar is simply a modern variation on a number of classic con-game strategies. The goal of one is to create an environment that will encourage you to invest your money without thinking and lure you into it. In other words the “seminar” is actually a trap for suckers set by con artists. Here is how it works:
Create an Atmosphere of Greed and High Expectations
The first goal of the seminar is to create an atmosphere that encourages you to buy. There are several ways of achieving this goal the first is to use a motivational speaker that claims to be a self-made millionaire. The speaker will give you a rousing speech about how he went from living on welfare to becoming a multimillionaire by employing a trading strategy or buying a particular investment.
The speaker is often an actor or professional salesman who makes his living giving such speeches. Many seminar promoters deliberately hire individuals that look good and speak well. They make sure the speaker is wearing expensive clothes and is seen driving up to the seminar location in a really expensive car. If the speaker is a woman she’ll be wearing a lot of expensive jewelry. In many cases the speaker knows little or nothing about the investment he or she’s just reading a script.
If this was not bad enough many seminars employ experts that claim to have fancy degrees or financial knowledge. The expert will follow the speaker and present evidence of how great the investment is and how it will work. Like the speaker the expert is also a paid actor who is putting on a show. His job is to make the investment sound real.
Free Meal, Free Booze and High Pressure
The job of the speaker and expert is to warm you up and get you ready to buy the product. They are usually followed by a salesman that gives a presentation on the investment and how wonderful it is. This presentation usually only contains part of the story, it shows you the guy made several million dollars off of the investment not all the people that lost their money. The risks are never mentioned and such details as a lack of SEC registration are conveniently left out.
The seminar is conducted in such a way as to make the presentation look good and legitimate. The seminar promoters use a number of tricks to enhance the product that you should be aware of.
They may have shills or plants in the audience. These are people who are paid to act like normal people tell you how wonderful the investment is or how much they made from it. These people might be other con artists that are in on the scam. In the case of a Ponzi scheme past investors that have been paid off to make the fraud look real are deliberately invited to tell their stories.
In many cases the seminar is held at a fancy hotel and a free meal is offered with it. Most seminar promoters also make sure that the drinks including the alcoholic beverages are free. They will not begin the presentation until everybody has eaten the nice meal and drank a lot of the free booze. They want people to be comfortable and off guard when the sales talk beings.
The fraudsters’ final trick is to pressure the seminar guests to buy right then and there. They will claim that what they are pushing is a limited opportunity. The reason for this is obvious they want to prevent people from thinking about the presentation or researching the investment. They try to get you to get out your checkbook right then and there. To enhance the illusion a number of the shills may buy more of the investment right then.
The lesson here is obvious buy investments through normal channels such as websites, brokers and dealers. You may not get a free meal out of it but you will get legitimate investments that will meet your needs.
How Safe are Money Market Funds
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal";...
How Safe are Indexed Funds
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable ...
How Safe are Variable Annuities
Variable annuities are actually among the safest retirement investments around. There are some risks and potential risks associated with these investm...
