Service NL Partners in Fraud Awareness Campaign

As part of Investor Education Month, Canadian securities regulators announced today the launch of a new online fraud awareness campaign which will run from mid-November to mid-February 2012. The online campaign is designed to educate Canadians about online fraudulent investment promotions.

“In a world with increasing reliance on online commerce, it is important to ensure that the public is constantly reminded to be vigilant when accessing online investment services,” said the Honourable Paul Davis, Minister of Service NL. “Our goal is to inform the public of the potential for online fraud, so that people can learn to protect themselves from these elaborate criminal schemes.”

The securities regulators online public education initiative will include online advertisements and social media promotions that point to a video and website of a fictitious company, BlueHedge Investments, to illustrate how scam artists use these tools to lure unsuspecting investors in cyberspace. Soon after people land on the fictitious company’s website, they are redirected to an educational website to help them recognize, avoid and report investment scams they might find online or via social media.

“Our enforcement teams across the country have firsthand knowledge of how unscrupulous promoters are turning to the internet to market their fraudulent investment opportunities and the threat these online investment scams pose to Canadian investors,” said Bill Rice, Chair of the Canadian Securities Administrators and Chair and CEO of the Alberta Securities Commission. “Canadian securities regulators felt it was important to tackle these tactics head on and educate potential investors in the same spaces where fraudsters solicit their victims.”

The Canadian Securities Administrators is a council of securities regulators of Canada’s provinces and territories. They coordinate and harmonize regulation for the Canadian capital markets. Service NL, through its Financial Services Regulation Division, is a member of the Canadian Securities Administrators.

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2011 11 07             11:30 a.m.