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FOREIGN EXCHANGE Similar to the crypto scams noted above, these involve scammers promising easy gains for investments in foreign exchange markets. They often keep the ruse going by

delivering payouts Ponzi scheme–style. RECENT CASE: In late 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Houston resident John Fernandez had fraudulently raised more than $4.3

million from about 175 investors, promising “guaranteed interest every month” from trading in currency markets. Rather than investing in foreign exchange markets, he sent investors computer

screenshots of fabricated gains from trades, the SEC said. He paid out some money, but that was mostly a Ponzi scheme — a fraud in which the illusion of a successful operation is created

by paying investors fake “profits” that are simply money paid in by other deceived investors. When that venture failed, Fernandez blamed a “tax blowback” and asked investors to move their

money to a new investment, described as a “legitimate financial company.” This second venture, which promised annual returns of 5 to 100 percent, failed as well. GUARANTEED BUYBACK These

scams promise the benefits of entrepreneurship with none of its risks. All you need to do is buy something from the scammer, who promises to buy it back from you once it’s ready for market.

Variations on this pitch have included “you buy our seedlings, and we’ll buy your plants” and “buy our earthworm farm equipment, and we’ll buy your worms.” RECENT CASE: Since 2021, a company

called Agridime has raised $191 million from more than 2,100 investors in what the SEC says is a Ponzi scheme. The company allegedly agreed to sell investors beef calves for $2,000 apiece,

then buy back the same animals at a higher price after a year, guaranteeing a return of at least 15 percent and allowing participants “to become a part of providing fellow Americans with the

highest-quality farm-fresh beef available.” Instead, the SEC says, the company acquired far fewer cattle than it sold to investors, had less than $1.5 million in cash as of last September,

and made at least $58 million in Ponzi payments to investors. In its advertising, the company acknowledged, “We know it sounds too good to be true.” PRECIOUS METALS In these illegal

operations, salespeople persuade victims that they should move their savings out of safe, traditional investments and into gold and silver coins. These coins, the scammers say, will keep

your hard-earned money safe when the economy (or the environment or the health system) inevitably collapses.  RECENT CASE: In a settlement announced last October, the CFTC and regulators

from 30 states alleged that precious metals dealer Safeguard Metals had deceived more than 450 investors by selling them $66 million in fraudulently priced silver coins. According to the

settlement, the company pushed older Americans, most of whom were inexperienced investors, to empty their retirement accounts for silver purchases by preying on their fears and

misrepresenting the safety of traditional retirement accounts. Sales representatives told one investor that the stock market was going to crash and the government would confiscate people’s

IRAs and repeatedly called another to say “hurry up” and “make a decision.” Despite telling customers that it typically sold them silver 4 to 23 percent above its own costs, Safeguard’s

markups actually averaged 71 percent up until 2021, according to the CFTC.