“Most fraudsters aren’t this easy to spot,” warns a new public service announcement unveiled by the Securities and Exchange Commission. As part of the PSA video, a bright-eyed, smooth-talking advisor’s fake beard comes unglued and his office wall collapses behind him to reveal a pet-grooming business.
The message from the SEC is clear: Do yourself a favor and check your advisor’s background on investor.gov, which provides a free search tool that will tell you whether or not your advisor is registered, has declared bankruptcy and has had any regulatory infractions and customer financial settlements.
“It can be hard to spot a fraudster, and Investor.gov's free search tools can help investors verify that they are dealing with a registered investment professional,” said Lori Schock, director of the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy. “Investors who check the background of their investment professional and use the other tools and resources available on Investor.gov can make more informed investment choices—and better protect themselves from fraud.”
More than 9 million investors have used Investor.gov since it launched in October 2009. The SEC expanded its outreach program in 2016 to include PSAs, and since that time the traffic on Investor.gov has increased by 86 percent, the agency said.