January 2018

Posted on Jan 1, 2018 in Commissioner's Corner

TIP: Never make an investment solely based on the reputation of or “friendship” with a member of a group to which you belong.

Affinity fraud refers to an investment scam that targets groups and uses the trust among group members to spread the fraud. Con artists leverage that network to gain trust, cloak themselves in credibility and lower the guard of their target victim. It could be called “relationship” fraud because the con artists use relationships to get their “friends” to buy into fake investments, often Ponzi schemes.