Aren't these the same companies that have radio ads with Savage and pop-ups and emails with NewsMax.com?
You will find these companies with addresses on Wall Street, in DC next to fine law offices, or with PO Boxes on an email. Research and verify just who you are investing with. Check with the proper agencies to see if there has been previous complaints or if they are currently defendants in upcoming trials. In other words, use your head and the brains inside it before jumping at wild promises.
Yep. As a rule of thumb, anything advertised by TV informercial, internet pop-up or e-mail spam is a scam and a ripoff. Sometimes internet scammers use the name of an acttual company, but they're doing it without authorization (for example, pop-ups that sell Microsoft software. When you get it, if you get it, it is a bundled version that can't be activated or registered).
No one honest advertises anything by email or pop-up, ever. You can also judge an ad by its company. If the other ads are for herbal health quackery, real estate "no-money-down-to-immense-wealth" systems, or instruction books to teach yourself kung-fu, you can safely assume they're all similar scams. Lots of scams on the radio, especially with second-string hosts like Savage. I've never really listened to Coast to Coast, but the ads I've heard there are the scam type... considering that must be the most gullible audience in America, I'm sure scammers prize those ad slots.
The way our consumer protection laws work, these guys can be very, very dishonest and still within the letter of the law.
One characteristic of scam type ads are testimonials. "I was living in a cardboard box on a traffic island until I made $4 million at home with Joe Blowfish's 1-2-3 real estate system." Those things are all bull. If the guy could really make millions flipping real estate, he would be doing that and not making hundreds of thousands selling books of nonsense to lazy dreamers.
Here are some resources:
Remember: if they need an informercial, pop-up ad or spam to sell something, it's because only chumps buy it.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F