Published: January 13, 2009 11:55 pm      

‘Investigate before you invest’

Seniors Against Investment Fraud program operating in West Virginia

GRAFTON — The West Virginia State Auditor’s Office urged individuals Tuesday at the Taylor County Senior Center to protect themselves against fraud.

The forum in Grafton was an effort to make the group of seniors aware of “SAIF” — or Seniors Against Investment Fraud. This outreach program for West Virginia seniors has been in operation for three or four years. The auditor’s office travels to group meetings to speak about investment fraud and educate citizens, especially seniors, on the topic.

In West Virginia, investment companies must be licensed through the West Virginia Securities Commission, a division of the auditor’s office, and State Auditor Glen Gainer serves as the securities commissioner. It’s a violation of state law for an individual, company or corporation to offer stocks, bonds or annuities if they’re not registered.

In his presentation, Jim Terango, director of field services for the state auditor’s office, said scam artists often prey on senior citizens. Locke Wysong, eastern regional representative for the office, assisted with the event, which was free to the public.

SAIF has a proactive approach, encouraging people to call 1-888-SAIF-WVA before they make any type of investment. This toll-free phone number allows persons to report entities that are soliciting them for investments.

By calling the 800 line, which is funded by taxpayers, consumers can find out whether a company is registered and how many complaints have been filed against them.

“Investigate before you invest,” Terango said. “You’re doing the investigation by calling us. We’re going to check it out for you.”

He said the role of the auditor’s office is to provide members of the public with information so they can make their own decisions.

“We don’t give advice (on investments),” Terango said. “We’re never going to tell you who to invest with and who not to invest with.”

Fraud appears in many forms, such as phone and credit-card scams and more. If an investment sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and don’t believe people who claim they can double a person’s money, he said.

“Many, many scams occur now,” Terango said.

Seniors are often reluctant to report being victimized because they don’t want others to know that they fell for a scam, and they want to keep their independence. Individuals shouldn’t be afraid to report investment fraud, he said.

Terango said volunteers with the SAIF program can help seniors prepare complaint forms if they believe they’ve been scammed. Rosemary Knight, a staff member at the Taylor County Senior Center, is a SAIF volunteer and can help people confidentially make their reports.

Also, the securities commission, which is part of a national database, is notified of scams and sends fraud alerts to the SAIF volunteers to spread the word, Terango said.

He said prevention is the key.

“I’m sure we’ve prevented a lot of people from being scammed,” he said.

For more information, call 1-888-SAIF-WVA or visit www.wvsao.gov.

E-mail Jessica Legge at jlegge@timeswv.com.