Rant: I almost lost a $15,000 chunk of my emergency fund to a 'high-yield' scam

This was about eight months ago, I was sitting at my kitchen table in Phoenix looking at an email that promised a 12% return in six months. The site looked legit, like a real investment firm. I had just finished a big flooring job and had that money sitting in my savings, and I thought, why not make it work a little harder? I was literally one click away from transferring the funds. What stopped me was a tiny note buried in their terms saying my principal wasn't guaranteed, which made me pause and do a real deep dive. I found a state regulator website listing them as an unregistered entity. My heart just dropped. If I hadn't taken that extra hour to check, that money would have been gone. It was a huge wake-up call about chasing returns without doing the homework. Has anyone else had a close call like this with an online investment offer?

3 comments

3 Comments

blair50620d ago

Glad you caught it, but 12% should always set off alarm bells immediately.

susanr1520d ago

Right? It's one of those numbers that just looks wrong as soon as you see it. Makes you wonder what else slipped through the checks. A mistake that big usually points to a bigger problem with the process, not just a typo. They really need to fix whatever let that happen.

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morgan.cameron11d ago

My own bank statement would probably give you a heart attack then. I once missed an extra zero for months because I just assumed I was that bad with money. Guess some of us are the reason those checks need to exist.