There actually are such scams all over the place. Couple of years ago I was in a position where I was an accredited investor (based on income) and I had to basically reveal that information on the Internet. I was an attorney in one of the large international law firms and they required you to post a professional biography online. The biography did not mention your salary, but the top lawfirms pay lockstep and publish their salary info so anybody familiar with the legal profession could have figured out the salary from the posted information.
Anyways, as soon as I fit the criteria for an accredited investor I started getting calls for what seemed to be obvious scams. There were generally of two types. One type was a call from a boiler-room type operation from some guy with a hilariously exaggerated Jersey accent asking me to buy some over the counter stock. They would suggest a stock for me and then call a couple of months later and say "see the stock we suggested before doubled in price, you should have invested with us, why not try this new stock we are suggesting now." Of course OTC stocks are so thinly traded one can easily manipulate the price.
The other type of scams are calls that are made to sound like they were accidentally made by people that have their cell-phones in their pockets and accidentally press a button. It is usually conversation between two people that is supposed to be private and you are only hearing it by accident. The two people then disclose "important inside information" that is supposed to make you rush out and buy a certain stock.
So yes those scams are out there. There are boiler-room operations all over the place trying to bilk people that are on the lower end of the accredited investor spectrum.
Usually, they prefer accredited investors because stocks that require such investors do not require SEC filings so the scams are easier.
call 1000 people today, tell 500 of them football team A is going to win this week. call the other 500 people, tell them that football team A is going to lose this week.
Football Team A wins.
Next week call 250 of the people that you told team A would win this week, tell them football team A will win again. Call the other 250 and tell them that football team A will lose.
by the end of the season you'll have a dozen or so (i think?) people that will believe anything that you tell them
[if anyone can tell me the source of this idea (book/movie?) let me know!]
Anyways, as soon as I fit the criteria for an accredited investor I started getting calls for what seemed to be obvious scams. There were generally of two types. One type was a call from a boiler-room type operation from some guy with a hilariously exaggerated Jersey accent asking me to buy some over the counter stock. They would suggest a stock for me and then call a couple of months later and say "see the stock we suggested before doubled in price, you should have invested with us, why not try this new stock we are suggesting now." Of course OTC stocks are so thinly traded one can easily manipulate the price.
The other type of scams are calls that are made to sound like they were accidentally made by people that have their cell-phones in their pockets and accidentally press a button. It is usually conversation between two people that is supposed to be private and you are only hearing it by accident. The two people then disclose "important inside information" that is supposed to make you rush out and buy a certain stock.
So yes those scams are out there. There are boiler-room operations all over the place trying to bilk people that are on the lower end of the accredited investor spectrum.
Usually, they prefer accredited investors because stocks that require such investors do not require SEC filings so the scams are easier.