Guard against scams: How to do your homework
Opportunity or scam? These resources can help you find out.

If someone is pitching you a financial product (such as a stock, a bond or an investment fund)...

If someone is offering you a service or business opportunity (such as a work-at-home job or a loan)...

  • See if your local Better Business Bureau (lookup.bbb.org) has any complaints on the company. The BBB also has reliability report cards (search.bbb.org) on nearly 2.5 million businesses.
  • Contact the Federal Trade Commission (ftc.gov or 877-382-4357) to find out if the FTC has taken an enforcement action against the company that is pitching you.

If it's anything else that sounds too good to be true (such as a notice that you have won a prize)...

  • Google it. Plug the name of a company and its owners into a search engine; you might also add the word "fraud" or "scam" to narrow the search. If there's any negative feedback out there, you'll likely turn it up.
  • Visit the Scam Alerts section of FirstGov for Consumers (consumer.gov/yourmoney.htm) to check on the latest list of cons and tips on how to avoid them.

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Scam Speak: Hear these lines, and your fraud alarm should start buzzing.

4 scams: How to avoid them Top of page

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.