SEC Joins Global Regulators for World Investor Week: Bulletin Warns of Relationship Investment Scams
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced on October 5 that it had joined financial regulators in the United States and around the world in issuing a joint investor bulletin during World Investor Week, urging the public to guard against investment fraud and build financial resilience. World Investor Week, organized by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), marks its tenth year in 2026, with securities regulators on six continents taking part.
The bulletin singles out two fast-growing schemes. In "relationship investment scams," fraudsters build trust, sometimes a romantic relationship, through texts or social media before steering victims to fake investment platforms. In impersonation scams, criminals pose as government agencies, regulators, or well-known investment professionals to obtain account information or payments. Any unsolicited contact of this kind pitching an investment should be treated with suspicion, the regulators said.
The bulletin also lays out basic steps toward financial resilience: building emergency savings, diversifying a portfolio, investing regularly, and paying down high-interest debt. Regulators said those habits help investors stay steady through market swings and make high-return fraud pitches less tempting.
U.S. partners in the effort include the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, FINRA, the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, the National Futures Association, and the North American Securities Administrators Association. The SEC said investors should verify any investment opportunity and the registration of anyone offering it through official channels before putting money at risk.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 位于华盛顿的美国证券交易委员会 SEC 总部大楼。图：AgnosticPreachersKid／Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 3.0。 / Headquarters of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. Photo: AgnosticPreachersKid/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
