The recurring patterns
The technology changes; the structure rarely does.
- Guaranteed, fixed or unusually consistent returns
- Pressure, urgency and limited availability
- Returns paid from new investors' money rather than profits (a Ponzi scheme)
- Commissions for recruiting others (a pyramid structure)
- Unregistered sellers and unregistered products
- Difficulty withdrawing, or new fees required before withdrawal
- Affinity targeting through a community, faith group or shared background
- Unsolicited contact, romance-led approaches and messaging-app 'mentors'
- Requests for passwords, remote access or a crypto recovery phrase
Verify before you send anything
Registration and disciplinary history of firms and individuals can be checked for free through FINRA BrokerCheck and Investor.gov. Verification takes minutes and is the single highest-value habit in this lesson.
Our own boundaries
We never contact you asking for account credentials, never guarantee returns, never execute trades and never take custody of your money.
Why this matters
Fraud is one of the few investing risks that can be almost entirely avoided by knowledge.
Terms used in this lesson
- Ponzi scheme
- A fraud that pays existing investors with new investors' money rather than real profits.
- Pyramid scheme
- A structure that pays participants for recruiting others rather than for any real product or return.
- Affinity fraud
- Fraud that targets members of a shared community, faith or background to borrow trust that has not been earned.
- BrokerCheck
- A free FINRA tool for verifying the registration and disciplinary history of brokers and firms.
Check your understanding
No score is recorded. This is only here to test whether the lesson landed.
- Written by
- Suggested Investments Research Team
- Content type
- Educational article
- Published
- 2026-09-13
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-13
Sources and methodology
- Intelligent Accumulation methodology — Suggested InvestmentsPrimary source
Educational content only. This lesson is not investment, tax or legal advice and does not recommend buying or selling any specific investment. All investing involves the risk of loss.