Hello Grasshoppa,

This may be a Guide for you just in case you are approached by your long lost friends or your new best friend for some good investment deals. If you are into investing, this may be something you might come across once or more but how do we know which investment is a scam & which is legit? One thing for sure, those investment scammers will always take the extra mile to make their scam looks real.

Below I have listed some of the Investment Scam Warning Sign for Your Reference :

1. Guaranteed High Yield Return & No Risk
As we all know, there are no such thing as Guaranteed Return & No Risk unless it’s Fixed Deposit. Remember Grasshoppa, “Durian Runtuh” Investment is not possible unless it’s a scam.

2. No Proof of Investment or Non Reliable Proof
You may want to ask those agent on where they invest their investors money. Some of them might not have any supporting proof to prove their investment is real. Or you may have some that are able to share some information that seems to be dodgy.

3. Not endorsed by Bank Negara or Securities Commission
You can refer Financial Consumer Alert List by Bank Negara & Securities Commission for further detaide. There are long list of companies that on the Alert List so make sure you check it out.

4. They Pressure You Into Making Quick Decision
Normally those agent will tell this “You trust me lah.”, “You will miss the boat if you dont invest now.”, “Many people already invest & earn so how can this be a scam?” & many other convincing words to pressure you to make a decision. Calm down. There is never too late in investment. Don’t let other people influence your decision making especially when it comes to YOUR MONEY.

Types of Common Investment Scam in Malaysia :

1. Forex
2. Agar Wood
3. Palm Oil
4. Arowana Farm
5. Gold
6. Money Game
7. Cryptocurrency / ICO
8. Multilevel Marketing (MLM)
9. Hotel / Land / Property Deal

It’s important to do your homework & investigate those companies before you invest.

History On Investment Scams :

1. Bernie Madoff
This guy is definitely a Legend to begin with. During the Court Trial after his arrest in 2008, he confessed that he ran his scam as early as 1991 . According to some documents that was presented in Court, his scam started as early as 1960s. List of his clients are some of the richest & most influential people in the world. Some International Banks are also his victim such as HSBC Bank. Estimated amount of his client fund is $64.8 Billions & that makes him the Largest Ponzi Scammers in the World. Want to know more story about his Scandal? You can get his book here.

2. JJPTR (JJ Poor To Rich)
First of all, how can we believe a 29 years old man that claims he studied Finance in USA & able to generate consistent return of 20% a month? Introducer will get 5% Commission Monthly upon successful referral. This “Too Good To Be True” money was offered by this Penang based company that went bust in 2017. The Founder of JJPTR claimed that their company account was hacked & USD400,000 went missing.

Suspected Investment Scams :

1. LaVida Coin
Famous Beauty Mogul, Dato’ Vida have launched her Cryptocurrency called LaVida Coin which she plans to raise $1.5 Billion to fund a Online Channel, Payment Gateway & a Mosque. Dato’ Vida have personally guaranteed Return of Investment for LaVida Coin since the Token is cheap now. That’s a huge statement especially for Cryptocurrecy which is known to be volatile. Bank Negara have recently added Lavida Coin in their Financial Consumer Alert List as per NST News.

Conclusion :

There are hundreds of Investment Scam out there & what can you do to avoid it? It is always important to do your homework in detail since the money you are investing is your hard earned money. Don’t be greedy over some so called good investment deals as it might end up to be an Investment Scam. If you find any suspicious Investment Scam out there, feel free to report it to Bank Negara via this link.

OSS!