Shame on the Shysters

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The Internet has become a playground for tech savvy hustlers who masquerade as legitimate media sources and provide too-good-to-be-true financial tips to private investors…for a price.

Preying on an age-old combination of greed and fear, these so-called financial experts use phrases like “crash alert system” and “secret market calendar” to lure unsuspecting victims of potential fraud.

Frankly, we’re appalled, particularly when these scam artists quote the Bible in an attempt to peddle their wares.

Consider the offensive irony of someone who quotes Timothy in his promotional material, “The love of money is the root of all evil” and then charges $97 a month for financial newsletter he didn’t write and a thinly disguised advertisement he promotes as an educational video.

We’re all for education. We maintain several subscriptions to financial newsletters and generally find them to be informative, useful resources. Nothing irritates us more, though, than the fakers; the shiny pop-up videos edited to look like legitimate media interviews; websites that mimic familiar news sources; scholastic white papers that quote not a single legitimate source.

We urge caution across the board when accumulating necessary financial information. Don’t click on links that arrive unsolicited in your email in-box. Read the information in a website’s footer before subscribing to anything within the site. Check the source of information you suspect may be too good to be true.

Lastly, look for an advisor with a fiduciary responsibility to his or her clients before you trust your hard-earned money to anyone.