Last year Galina Bailey and her husband decided to invest their savings.  Unfortunately, rather than consider established, legitimate investment advisers and companies they chose their invstment adviser through a post they saw on social media.  When they realized after a few months that they had been scammed they turned to a lawyer to help them, but again she turned to social media to find a lawyer, choosing a UK based lawyer she found on Facebook rather than checking through legitimate lawyer referral services and ended up losing more money.

TIPS

In the United States, before investing with anyone, you should also investigate the person offering to sell you the investment with FINRA’s Central Registration Depository.  http://www.finra.org/industry/crd   This will tell you if the broker is licensed and if there have been disciplinary procedures against him or her.  You can also check with your own state’s securities regulation office for similar information.  Many investment advisers will not be required to register with the SEC, but are required to register with your individual state securities regulators.   You can find your state’s agency by going to the website of the North American Securities Administrators Association .http://www.nasaa.org/2709/how-to-check-out-your-broker-or-investment-adviser/  For Canadians, such as Galina Bailey, they should go to the site AreTheyRegistered.ca, which is a public database that provides you with information as to whether the investment adviser or company is registered and qualified to do business in Canada.

Social Media is not the place to go to find an investment adviser or a lawyer.  Moreover, the law protects social media companies from liability for third parties including scammers who post on their sites.  Never invest in anything you do not understand and have not researched, nor should you invest with anyone or any company unless you have confirmed that they are legitimate.