Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Protect Your Money: Things to Consider Before You Invest

https://invl.io/clhdkl0
Republishing this writeup for awareness as this is still applicable nowadays.

A while ago, I just learned that a friend was one of the many others victimized by an investment scam in Batangas.  The scammers got away with the money he saved up for his four kid's education amounting to more than half a million pesos.  I remember posting this only last February so I decided to repost this just to warn the others who are being recruited for some dubious investment scheme.  Please take the time to read and share this post to warn the others.

With the widespread use of e-commerce also comes rampant investment and insurance scams.  More often than not, we are lured into investing our hard-earned money in business that promises us high returns.  Who would not want high percentage return of investment? Truth is, there is no such thing as an overnight success in business and it takes careful planning, study and analysis for one's investment to grow.  It takes more than trust, confidence and gut feeling to make sound financial move.  I bore witness to friends, acquaintances and even relatives who put their hard-earned cash and even their whole retirement incentive into too-good-to-be-true investments only to find out later that they were scammed.  Years ago, I was also lured into investing my bonus and salary in networking business trusting that a friend who recruited me into it was only doing me a great favor by sharing her own financial success.  We enjoyed the benefits in the first few months of our membership.  Eventually and  unfortunately, we both suffered the bane of networking business when we came out almost empty handed.  The last time we check, the perpetrators were "enjoying" their retirement in jail with all their assets frozen.  I was thankful that I was still young at that time and I was able to work and recover from my losses. 


Today, I again see the proliferation of such scam but this time, it is more technologically advanced using social media platform. Although there are many other legitimate business on the internet, be careful where to put that hard earned cash.  This is just to remind you dear readers, before you even make that deposit or fund transfer in the business venture that you wish to participate in, think a hundred times and consider these...

1. Inquire/check or research from the Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) or Insurance Commission (IC) if
      A.  The company has the necessary licenses or there are no issues/cases against such company
      B.  The products being offered are registered and legitimate
      C.  The salespersonnel/agent are authorized to act in behalf of the company

2.  Remember to 
       A. research about the company and its product before you invest
       B. ask a copy and keep the documents/receipts of your transactions
       C.  Be wary of promises about high-yield ROI as these are proven high risk investments
       D. Never just rely on your friends or relatives' testimonies to lure you into investing, make your own study and be adequately informed. 

*The poster is a public service announcement from SEC and BSP

Originally posted on July 23. 2015

9 comments:

  1. Great post! I have seen a few friends and colleagues of my own who have been scammed by these types of businesses as well. I guess it just pays to have a research before putting your hard earned money into someone else's hands (lest it be a time deposit from a bank hehe)..This is a great reminder to everyone who is thinking of going into networking and stuff. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I super agree with you on this: Never just rely on your friends or relatives' testimonies to lure you into investing, make your own study and be adequately informed.

    A lot of my friends are luring me to invest in networking. They keep on showing me their paychecks, pictures of their cars?, jewelries and other investments like condo through PICTURES.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah we really have to be careful with where we put our hard-earned money.

    ReplyDelete
  4. thank you, this is very useful information :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. These are very good tips. We should really be very careful how and where we invest our hard earned money.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I really just want to share with you friends and dear readers to take extra caution when investing your money. It is so hard to resist especially if someone you know tempt you into it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm really careful with networking. I had some friends who were into recruiting when we were still in college. I joined at first but when they told me there was money involved, ayoko na. We should all be careful where to put our hard-earned money.

    ReplyDelete
  8. it's very hard to invest these days because there are only a little number of persons who can be trusted. your steps will definitely help everyone get a good start.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you for this post! I agree with everything you wrote here. In our case, I choose to invest money only in a certain reputable stock investment company.

    ReplyDelete