Each month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) publishes a complaint report outlining and highlighting volume and percentage of consumers’ reported financial complaints.
The CFPB is an agency tasked with providing consumers with financial protection and empowerment by improving existing consumer protection rules, enforcing rules and providing tools and resources for consumers.
On November 16, 2016, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued an enforcement policy about a form of alternative medicine: homeopathy. The FTC stated that homeopathy is not substantiated by competent and reliable scientific evidence. It went on to state that homeopathic “medicines” might not be deceptive if the advertisement or label effectively communicates that: 1) there is no scientific evidence that the product works; and 2) the product’s claims are based only on theories of homeopathy from the 1700s that are not accepted by most modern medical experts.
This enforcement policy seems damaging to an already questionable class of alternative medicine. This policy statement was also reported in Scientific American on November 27, 2016, in an article entitled: “Homeopathic Medicine Labels Now Must State that Products Do Not Work.”
The FTC policy begs other questions. Must individuals who offer homeopathic remedies disclose to their customers that there is no scientific evidence that the medicine works? Will the FTC extend this policy to herbalism? And without giving these damaging disclaimers, have these alternative medicine providers violated Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (Florida Statutes, 501.201, et seq.)?
Last week, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) handed out a $650,000 fine to a broker-dealer in the Lincoln Financial Network. The industry watchdog group found that the independent broker-dealer in Lincoln Financial’s network allowed thousands of customers’ data to be exposed to foreign hackers.
Similarly FINRA also found that Lincoln Financial Securities Corp. failed to ensure the security of their customers’ consolidated reports.
We’ve talked a lot about investment scams in the past. Fraudsters are always finding new ways to take advantage of unwitting investors. However, there are several top investment scams that fraudsters favor and which serve as the basis for many new types of investment fraud.
Investors should recognize most of these, but being able to spot signs of these top investment scams may help you in assessing new potential investment risks or signs of fraud.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that investors should be on the lookout for fraudulent claims using Forms 4.
A Form 4 is filed when investment insiders (officers, directors and anyone holding 10% or more in company securities) execute transactions. A Form 4, which must be filed within two days following a transaction, serves to inform the public of the insider’s transactions in company stock and other securities.
Apparently, scammers and fraudsters are posing as brokers and providing false Forms 4 and other official documentation to investors in order to sell them fake shares. By using forms that appear to be sent from the SEC and other regulatory agencies, scammers seek to legitimize fraudulent claims.
Anytime you decide to invest, you always do background research on the asset or security, right? It is important to know the why and how of an asset or security’s performance before deciding to invest.
Whatever security in which you invest, it is important to know who your investment broker is. Knowing your investment is in the right hands goes a long way in ensuring the security of your investment.
These should be calculated risks, though; risks based on performance projections of whatever is being invested in.
Though financial investments should not include those unforeseen or unaccounted for risks like fraud, investors are constantly facing it.
This week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicated that it would be calling on a need for more oversight from its financial regulation partner, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
The decision to shift responsibility comes with an SEC initiative to devote more energies towards the rise of independent financial advisers.
Investment scams are the last thing people want to worry about following a natural disaster.
Last week, Hurricane Matthew swept along Florida’s east coast on its way to the Carolinas. Major property damage was experienced in northeast Florida, coastal Georgia and North and South Carolina due to flooding.
Natural disasters result in millions of dollars in insurance claims and with that, come the threat of investment scams.
You have a marketable skill or talent and want to start your own business. You have heard the term “LLC” before and you know it has something to do with small-business. You might even know that LLC stands for limited-liability company, but what exactly does that mean?
There are a lot of questions would-be entrepreneurs may have about LLCs. What are they? Why are they needed? Should I form one?
Securities Fraud Lawyers Blog
