The Secretary of State has launched a new web page to help Missourians avoid fraud artists who want to cheat them out of their life savings. The Missouri Investor Protection Center will have information to help Missourians spot and stop a scam before it hurts them.
Secretary of State Robin Carnahan says many people become victims of unregistered securities dealers who hold free lunch seminars and lure victims into letting them manage pension funds. She says many of these people claim to be "Senior Specialists."
"Guess where they got that designation," she asks. "They either made it up or got it from the internet," she answers herself. Carnahan says there is no special certification for people to claim they help senior citizens.
Carnahan’s staff attended about 30 of those "free lunches" last year. 83 percent target senior citizens. And sixty percent of the people putting on the events were violating the law from the start because they were not registered security sellers.
The Missouri Investor Protection Center is on the web at MissouriSafeSavings.com.
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