Getting rich quick is a promise you may have heard from someone trying to recruit you into a new business or investment opportunity.
But, a lot of these promises can be too good to be true, and could cost you thousands of dollars.
It’s a lesson Gilmer Bautista said he recently learned. Bautista says earlier this year he was looking for a way to make extra money.
“Initially, I invested $1,000,” Bautista said.
He leaped at a new investment opportunity.
“I got excited and decided to put in more money,” Bautista said.
But it didn’t take long for him to realize this roll of the dice wouldn’t pay off.
“At first I was devastated. I basically pulled my savings,” Bautista said.
According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Gilmer had invested his money in an alleged Ponzi scheme. Ponzi schemes and other investment fraud has been on the rise since the start of the pandemic.
Typically, a Ponzi scheme starts when a person promises to invest your money. The investor is often promised a consistent high return. Instead, the money from new investors goes to previous investors.
“What the scammer is telling the new investor is that the money is going into an investment, not that it is going to a previous investor who invested in the same thing,” attorney Jason Kellogg said.
Kellogg specializes in Commercial Class Action litigation. He is representing Gilmer and other people in a class action lawsuit related to the alleged Ponzi…