Frauds and cons rise with the rate of bankruptcies.

Beware the Fraudster or Con Artist

This is a warning everytime the economy tanks. And unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’d know the economy’s been pretty bad lately. That signals the feeding frenzy of the predatory ones coming to a wallet near you – yours. The fraudsters will use almost anything at their means to part you and your cash. They are not above hiring or recruiting legitimate business agents to do their dirty work either. Remember Bernie Madoff?

Con artists have been known to recruit insurance agents lately because they have an established credibility working with clients on financial matters to tap.

That’s more lucrative than the boiler room trolling for victims with cold calls…you know, those pesky and rude callers that bug the hell out of you? And often incredibly rude too. It’s amazing these glibe talkers get away with so much.

Fraudsters Favourite
To most people…the would be investor, the would be victim, the fraudster can make “bonded life settlements” seem like a version of annuity which has been around forever and appear very reliable and safe as an investment for their retirement in these financially turbulent times.

In bonded life settlements, investors buy life insurance policies at a discount from people with a life expectancy of five to seven years. Then they collect the benefits when the policyholder dies. The difference between what investors paid for the policy and the value of the benefits is their return. But there’s another signal that must make you wary of fraudsters coming out of the woodwork soon, if they haven’t already done so. Just look at Wall Street activity. These con artists have a way of copying new investibles coming from large financial houses.

Wall Street firms have begun securitizing bonded life contracts and selling them to investors, much as they did with mortgage-backed securities. Understand then, that some bright money grabbing genius has already figured out the legal way of getting at a very lucrative new business.

With Wall Street jumping in the best rule of thumb these days is to hide your documents. That includes your credit cards, your bank account and your check book. There’s also that history of the latest and greatest coming to a crashing halt some years down the road and you’re left holding the empty (money) bag.