Beware of Broker Imposter Scams

While impersonation scams are certainly not new, there are surprising new variants every day. Infofinance has just received an announcement from FINRA - about observing an increase in cyber-related incidents, including fraudsters creating fake websites using the names and professional details of actual industry professionals (who have no connection to the imposter sites). And more recently, the FBI and Securities and Exchange Commission issued a warning to investors about this problem.

Impersonation is one of the oldest scams, but it can be difficult to spot unless you know what you’re looking for. Here are two patterns to be aware of and six tips to help spot the fakes.

Imposter Websites

The fraudsters behind broker imposter websites take the name and other publicly available professional details about a registered investment professional and use this information to establish a fraudulent website. The fraudsters then call and direct potential customers to the imposter websites. Their likely goal is to mimic a legitimate website to obtain existing or potential clients’ personal information or login credentials.

Investors should look for the typical mistakes, such as poor grammar, misspellings, odd or awkward phrasings, or misuse of investor terminology. In addition to these, investors should be on the lookout for websites using the registered representative’s name as the domain name for the website (e.g., firstnamemiddlenamelastname.com). 

Imposter Documents

Another type of broker imposter scheme involves an unregistered individual impersonating a registered investment professional to lure in potential investors. In this instance, the scammer created a fake version of a public FINRA BrokerCheck® report of a legitimate broker—picking an experienced broker with a spotless regulatory record. You may check brokers’ information from another source such as https://infofinance.com/broker 

The doctored BrokerCheck report was emailed to potential “clients” using the name and CRD number of a registered investment professional—but with a company that is not registered as a broker-dealer with FINRA. The solicitation included other documentation and a request for investors to respond with a photo of their driver’s license and other personal information.

Safe Trading with Info Finance

If you have any complaints about the broker, follow these steps to submit a report to Info Finance for timely assistance 
Step 1: Visit the official website of Info Finance https://infofinance.com 
Step 2: Click on Report Broker/ Platform Complaints right on the website homepage
Step 3: Click the Send Report tab to start reporting the problems you are experiencing.
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