Thursday, January 31, 2008

Internet Investment Scams

By Pauline Go

The internet revolution has made investing inexpensive and hassle-free. Apart from providing excellent investment opportunities, internet also provides detailed information with respect to intricacies involved in investing. However, internet has also become a safe haven and excellent fishing ground for fraudsters.

Listed below are some important types of internet investment frauds that occur quite frequently.

Online investment newsletters: Newsletters are the best source of getting information about market analysis, current standings and future trends. There are hundreds of online newsletters that have appeared on the internet during the recent past. Fraudsters can use this tool for their own benefit. These people publish false information with the objective of promoting needless and worthless stocks. There are companies that pay fraudsters for spreading such information on the newsletters. There are also other types of fraudsters, who tend to drive the price of stocks by means of circulating baseless recommendation. In this way, they are able to sell their own stock holdings.

Similar strategy is followed in case of web-based bulletin boards, online newsgroups and online forums. These are the arenas where investors share their information, experiences and analysis. Fraudsters tend to use it for their own benefits. If the objective of the fraudster is to lower the value of a particular stock, he tends to float dubious information about the company, resulting in unabated stock selling and heavy loss.

Another type of fraud is through junk e-mails or spam mails. Through this, fraudsters spread information about spurious investment schemes to investors. The same means can also be used to spread false information about a particular company. A single mail can be used to contact millions of investors around the globe.

Through the internet, fraudsters and scam artists can achieve a much wider effect with minimal effort. One more important type of fraud is to gather all the confidential financial information of a customer including credit card details, bank account numbers, social security codes, investments and even assets. Providing such information to fraudsters can result in heavy financial loss and, sometimes, even a bankruptcy.

About Author:

Pauline Go is a professional writer for many website. She also writes great articles like How To Make Money In Annuities, Bond Markets And Oil Prices, Psp Advantages Of Setting Up A Wholly Owned Subsidiary

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