All “prime bank” programs promoted as high-yield, risk-free international investment pools are frauds, the Securities and Exchange Commission warned in an investor alert Thursday.

“These investments do not exist,” the SEC said.

The regulator explained fraudsters peddling these products often tell potential victims their money will be used to buy and trade international investments including debentures, standby letters of credit, bank guarantees, prime world bank financial instruments, private funding projects, offshore trade or trading programs, trading platforms, trading facility, trade slots, high-yield trading or roll programs, and guaranteed bank notes.

Scam artists also may misrepresent that the instrument is issued, traded or guaranteed by an international or private bank or trust located abroad, the SEC said.

This type of fraud is not new. “They have been a feature in our top 10 trap list for a number of years,” said North American Securities Administrators Association spokesperson Bob Webster.

In 2001, losses from this crime to investors were estimated at $1.5 billion. The SEC shut down three dozen prime bank scams between 1999 and 2002. At that time, the Commercial Crime Bureau of the International Chamber of Commerce called prime bank scams the “fraud of the century.”