Scams Involving High Yield Cds

Recently there has been an increase in scam promotions about certificates of deposit (CDs) which promise much higher rates of return than normal. Regulatory agency FINRA issued a warning about such High-Yield CD sales pitches, warning consumers about these scams. At The Law Offices of Jonathan W. Evans & Associates, we are keenly aware of the potential for fraud associated with the high-yield CD scam, and urge everyone to beware of any high-yield promises. Email scams offering 15% yield as opposed to the current average 1% yields should trigger alarms for investors, and spur in-depth research before moving forward with any investment. Already, investors have suffered significant financial losses as a result of the scam. .

How to Spot the High Yield CD Scam

The scams usually appear as email phishing operations, sent out to thousands of email addresses, or as telephone solicitations. These scams attempt to engage the victim in communication and revealing their personal financial information. FINRA advised to look out for these red flags that will tip you off to these too-good-to-be-true offers:

• Emails which purport to be from a financial institution, but which have originated from another email address. Ensure you check to see that the email sender matches the information contained in the body of the email.
• Interest rates which are higher than the average current rate indicate you may be the target of a scam operation.
• Emails that contain misspellings or grammatical errors are always an indicator that the promotion is coming from imposters posing as a financial institution, brokerage firm, or investment advisor.
• Any promotion which claims to be offered for a limited time only is often a scam.
• Any promotion which purports to be from a US banking entity that has aligned themselves with an international financial entity should be avoided.
• Any kind of offer which claims to be for "special" or "best customers," and call for large minimum investments.

If you have suffered losses as a result of a high-yield CD scam or other suspicious investment activities, please call our firm today for more information. Contact our offices now.