Clear Path step · Home · Money moves only when you decide
Run the 'met online' check before investing anything
Why it matters: Investment scams build trust over weeks, show fake profits on a real-looking platform, then block withdrawals. A slow, outside check is the one thing the script can't survive.
Do it
- Look up any adviser or broker on FINRA BrokerCheck and the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site.
- Never install an investing app or visit a trading site from a link someone sent you; find it yourself in the official store.
- Talk to someone you trust before sending money, and wait a day.
- Treat celebrity endorsement videos as unproven; they are easy to fake.
- If you can't withdraw without paying a 'fee' or 'tax', stop sending money and report it.
Check it worked: Before anyone in the household invests on advice from someone met online, a group chat, an ad or an AI-made video, they look the person up on official registries and talk it over with someone they trust.
Simply put
It's like checking a contractor's license before handing over a deposit. A scammer controls the conversation, the charts and the app, but not the official registry or the friend you talk it over with.
In detail
Scam operations use AI to translate and script many relationships at once, so the conversation will be fluent and patient. The registry check and the trusted second opinion work because they take place outside the conversation the scammer controls.
Points toward the Long View: a slow, outside check that fluent, patient AI-written scripts can't get around.