This index is new. As of today there are nineteen graded entries, including a business credit and legacy set and an AI and your money set, and you can read every one of them below. I am not asking you to trust me. I am asking you to judge the method: every claim here links to a primary source, every number is dated, and anything I cannot confirm is labeled unverified.
When I get something wrong, it goes in the misses ledger at the bottom, with the correction, dated. That is the whole product. A method you can check, not a personality you have to believe.
Compiled 2026-07-11 · Sources: FBI IC3, FTC, SEC / Investor.gov · Curated and graded, not investment advice
The Entries
MA-001 · 2026-07-11
A platform promises guaranteed 10% daily returns on crypto. Real or scam?
It is a scam. Any platform or person promising a guaranteed return on crypto is lying. Real crypto markets move up and down, and no lawful investment can guarantee a fixed daily, weekly, or monthly gain.
Why
Guaranteed high returns with little or no risk is the oldest hallmark of investment fraud and Ponzi schemes, and the SEC lists it directly as a red flag. The scale is not small: the FTC reported 5.7 billion dollars lost to investment scams in 2024, the single largest fraud category that year.
Verify before you send a dollar
Look the company or person up yourself on SEC EDGAR and Investor.gov. Fraudsters routinely lie about being registered, so confirm it in the regulator's own database.
Search the exact platform name plus the word scam.
Treat any pressure to move fast, or any promise of a fixed return, as a stop sign.
SEC / Investor.gov, Digital Asset and Crypto Investment Scams: investor.gov
SEC / Investor.gov, Beware of False Claims of SEC Registration: sec.gov
FTC, reported fraud losses for 2024 (Mar 10, 2025): ftc.gov
MA-002 · 2026-07-11
I met someone online, we got close, and now they are helping me invest in crypto and it is going great. Can I trust it?
Be very careful. This is the exact shape of a relationship investment scam, often called pig butchering. The relationship is the bait. The investment is the trap.
Why
A stranger builds trust over weeks or months, then introduces a crypto platform that shows fake gains. A small early withdrawal may work to build confidence. When you try to pull out real money, you cannot, or you are told to pay taxes or fees first. The FBI stood up Operation Level Up specifically to find these victims. By the FBI's 2025 report, it had notified more than 8,000 victims and reduced losses by over 500 million dollars.
Signs you are being set up
Someone you have never met in person is steering you to a specific crypto app.
The account shows steady gains that never dip.
A small test withdrawal works, then a larger one stalls behind new fees.
What to do: stop sending funds, do not pay any fee to unlock a withdrawal, and report it at ic3.gov.
How do I actually check if a crypto investment company is legit before I put money in?
Verify registration yourself, on the regulator's own website, before you send a dollar. If you cannot confirm it, treat that as a no.
The check, step by step
Search the SEC EDGAR database for the company. Public securities offerings generally must be registered or exempt.
Use Investor.gov to look up the firm and the person selling it, and read the current crypto alerts.
Confirm the website is the real one. Fraudsters clone real exchange names with lookalike web addresses.
Remember a logo or a claim of SEC registered on a website proves nothing. Only a match in the regulator's own database counts.
Why it matters: the FTC found consumers lost more money through bank transfer and crypto payments than all other methods combined in 2024, because those transfers are hard to reverse. Verifying first is the only cheap step in the whole process.
SEC / Investor.gov, Beware of False Claims of SEC Registration: sec.gov
SEC / Investor.gov, Fraudulent Digital Asset and Crypto Trading Websites: investor.gov
A well-known person is running a crypto giveaway. Send 1 coin, get 2 back. Is that real?
No. No legitimate giveaway ever requires you to send crypto first. The moment send to receive appears, it is a theft.
Why
Impersonation giveaway scams put a real name, face, or even a fake live video on a page telling you to send crypto to verify your wallet or double your coins. Whatever you send is gone, because crypto transactions do not reverse. The SEC's alert on how fraudsters lure crypto victims describes exactly these impersonation tactics.
The rule that never fails: if receiving money requires you to send money first, it is a scam. Every time.
SEC, 5 Ways Fraudsters May Lure Victims Into Crypto Asset Scams: sec.gov
I already lost money to a crypto scam. Someone says they can recover it for a fee. Should I?
No. This is a second scam aimed at people who were already hit once. Paying an upfront fee to recover lost crypto almost always means losing more.
Why
Recovery-fraud operators watch for scam victims and pose as investigators, lawyers, or fund recovery services. They ask for an upfront fee or your wallet details, then vanish. The FBI's IC3 has repeatedly warned that no legitimate service guarantees recovery of stolen crypto for a payment, and that victims are frequently re-targeted this way.
What to do instead
Do not pay anyone who contacts you promising recovery.
Report the original scam at ic3.gov and to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov. Both are free.
Be skeptical of anyone who found you first.
unverified: exact IC3 PSA wording, confirm on publish
FBI IC3, report and public service announcements: ic3.gov
Someone added me to a group chat where an expert gives tips and everyone is buying a coin. Should I get in?
No. Unsolicited investment group chats are one of the most common scam setups right now. The expert is usually fake, and the goal is to get you to buy while they sell, or to route you into a fake platform.
Why
The SEC issued a specific alert on this. Fraudsters recruit through ads and group chats on apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, impersonate famous financial experts, sometimes with deepfake video, push a coin or an AI trading platform, and show fake profits. When you try to withdraw, they demand fees or taxes, then disappear. In 2025 the SEC charged multiple purported crypto platforms and investment clubs that targeted retail investors exactly this way.
The SEC's plain instruction: never rely solely on information from group chats to make an investment decision. Verify any person pitching you using the Check Out Your Investment Professional tool on Investor.gov.
SEC / Investor.gov, Group Chats as a Gateway to Investment Scams: investor.gov
SEC / Investor.gov, Social Media and Investment Fraud: sec.gov
SEC press release 2025-144, charges against crypto platforms and investment clubs targeting social media: sec.gov
MA-007 · 2026-07-11
I got offered an online job doing simple tasks for money, but now they want me to deposit crypto to unlock more earnings. Is it real?
No. That is a task scam. A real job never asks you to pay to get paid. The early small payouts are bait to make the deposit feel safe.
Why
The FTC tracked this exploding. Task scam reports went from about zero in 2020 to roughly 20,000 in just the first half of 2024. Overall job-scam losses topped 220 million dollars in the first six months of 2024, and crypto losses to job scams hit 41 million dollars in that same half year, nearly double all of 2023. The FTC calls cryptocurrency the payment of choice for these scams. The pattern: small payouts build trust, then you are told to put your own money in to unlock the next set of tasks, and once you send it, it is gone.
The rule: if a job requires you to deposit your own money, especially crypto, to keep earning, it is a scam.
FTC, How to spot and avoid task scams (Aug 2025): consumer.ftc.gov
MA-008 · 2026-07-11
An AI trading bot says it guarantees profits with no risk. Is that legit?
No. An AI bot that guarantees profits is the same old guaranteed-returns lie wearing a new word. AI does not remove market risk, and no lawful tool can promise a sure gain.
Why
The SEC put out an investor alert specifically on AI and investment fraud, warning that scammers lean on AI buzzwords and claims of AI-driven guaranteed returns to sound cutting edge. Law enforcement is seeing the same wave: the FBI's 2025 report flagged AI-enabled fraud as its own category, with 22,364 complaints and nearly 893 million dollars in reported losses.
The check does not change. Guaranteed returns means fraud. Verify registration on Investor.gov and EDGAR before any money moves.
SEC / Investor.gov, Artificial Intelligence and Investment Fraud: investor.gov
A program says it will get me $50,000 in 0% business credit for a fee. Real?
Be very skeptical. What these programs usually deliver is a stack of promotional-rate credit cards opened on your own personal credit and personal guarantee. That is personal debt relabeled as business funding, and the fee comes off the top.
Why
The pitch works by helping you open several cards with zero-percent introductory periods. When the promo ends the rate resets high, the balance is yours, and the whole plan only comes out ahead if the borrowed money earns fast enough to beat the reset, which is borrowing to speculate. The FTC has brought cases against business-opportunity and credit-repair operations that promise easy funding for a fee. No one can guarantee a specific amount of credit for you.
What holds up instead
Real business leverage is borrowed against income a business already produces, on terms that income can cover, never against a hoped-for return. If a program charges you up front and its math depends on a promotional rate, treat that as the warning.
FTC, Scams and Your Small Business (guide for business): ftc.gov
FTC, action against business-opportunity and credit-repair scams (Mar 2025): ftc.gov
MA-102 · 2026-07-11
Is buying a CPN a legal way to build business credit separate from my SSN?
No. A credit privacy number is not a lawful substitute for a Social Security number, and using one on an application is fraud.
Why
These numbers are frequently fabricated in the format of a Social Security number, or are real Social Security numbers stolen from other people, often children or the deceased. Putting one on a credit application misrepresents your identity to a lender. Credit bureaus and consumer-protection sources are direct that CPNs are illegal and dangerous, not a privacy tool. Paying for one means paying to be handed the instrument of your own prosecution.
The honest separation
You separate yourself from your business the real way: a registered entity, an EIN, clean separate books, and a business credit file built slowly with real vendors. It is slower, and it actually holds up.
TransUnion, What Is a Credit Privacy Number (CPN)? Why they are illegal: transunion.com
Should I buy an aged shelf corporation so my business looks older to lenders?
No. The entire point is to make a lender believe your business has operated longer than it has, and that is misrepresentation.
Why
Business age is a signal lenders look at, so a vendor sells you the appearance of the signal without the substance. Representing a purchased shell's history as your own operating history on an application is deceiving a financial institution. Buying age does not guarantee funding, and the claim that it does is exactly the kind of small-business funding scheme regulators warn about. For any business built on being trustworthy, an entity whose age is faked is a liability, not an asset.
Will a clean business credit file get my new LLC a large loan or line of credit?
Usually not on its own. A tidy file helps over time, but lenders weigh cash flow and time in business before they weigh a file.
Why
The SBA's own 7(a) requirements say an applicant must be an operating, for-profit business that is creditworthy and can demonstrate a reasonable ability to repay. A brand-new company with little revenue does not meet that no matter how clean the file looks. What a good file actually earns you, as revenue becomes real and documented across tax years, is better vendor terms and a fair seat at the table. It is a reputation instrument, not a fast funding switch. Anyone claiming a file alone unlocks large amounts quickly is describing a personal guarantee in disguise or a scam.
U.S. Small Business Administration, 7(a) loans (eligibility): sba.gov
Nav, business credit cards with no personal guarantee (underwriting reality): nav.com
MA-105 · 2026-07-11
Do business credit cards require a personal guarantee?
For small and new businesses, most do. Plan on personally guaranteeing a small business card.
Why
Cards with no personal guarantee are generally reserved for companies with high revenue and large cash balances, often in the millions, or ones where a held cash balance backs the card. For a young, small company, the personal guarantee is normal, and a pitch that hides it is the thing to distrust. Knowing this up front lets you keep your personal exposure bounded and deliberate rather than a surprise.
Nav, business credit cards with no personal guarantee: nav.com
MA-106 · 2026-07-11
Can I pay to have tradelines added to boost my credit file fast?
Avoid it. Paying to import someone else's history, or paying a vendor to report a tradeline with no real commerce, is manufactured reputation.
Why
Being added as an authorized user on a stranger's old account for a fee, or subscribing to a service that reports a tradeline reflecting no actual purchases, changes the number without changing anything real. Lenders and scoring models work to detect it, it can shade into misrepresenting your creditworthiness, and a rented history has to be paid for as long as you want it. A file built from your own on-time payments costs only time, and it gets stronger the harder anyone checks it, which is the opposite of a bought one.
TransUnion, on credit privacy numbers and building credit the right way: transunion.com
I got a call that sounds exactly like my child or grandchild in trouble, begging for money. Is it real?
Treat it as a scam until you prove otherwise, even though the voice sounds right. Scammers now clone a familiar voice from a few seconds of audio taken off social media.
Why
The FTC has warned that with a short clip of someone's voice and cheap cloning software, a scammer can impersonate a loved one in a family-emergency scam. The voice sounding real is no longer evidence of anything.
What to do, in order
Do not trust the voice. Hang up and call the person back on a number you know is theirs.
If you cannot reach them, contact another family member or a friend to check.
Treat any demand for a wire transfer, cryptocurrency, or gift cards as a red flag.
Report it at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
FTC, Scammers use AI to enhance their family emergency schemes: consumer.ftc.gov
FTC, Fighting back against harmful voice cloning: consumer.ftc.gov
MA-202 · 2026-07-11
An app or adviser says its AI predicts winning stocks, or calls itself the "first AI financial advisor." Trust it?
Be skeptical, and verify. Claiming AI you do not really have, or overselling what it does, is a real and charged offense, not just marketing.
Why
In March 2024 the SEC brought its first "AI washing" enforcement actions, charging two investment advisers, Delphia and Global Predictions, with making false and misleading statements about their use of artificial intelligence. They paid 225,000 and 175,000 dollars, 400,000 in total. One had marketed itself as the "first regulated AI financial advisor." The SEC's point was blunt: advisers should not tell the public they are using an AI model when they are not.
What to do
Treat "AI" as a marketing word until proven otherwise. Verify the adviser or firm on Investor.gov, and remember that a claim of AI, like a claim of a guaranteed return, is a reason to check harder, not to relax.
SEC, Charges Two Investment Advisers Over False AI Claims (Mar 18, 2024): sec.gov
SEC / Investor.gov, Artificial Intelligence and Investment Fraud: investor.gov
MA-203 · 2026-07-11
My boss or a company executive called, or even video-called, telling me to wire money urgently. Real?
Stop and verify through a separate channel before any money moves. A familiar voice or face on a call is no longer proof it is really them.
Why
AI can now fake a known person's voice, and increasingly their face on video, in real time. The FBI has warned of campaigns using synthetic audio impersonating known figures to manipulate targets. The danger is that the impersonation removes the instinct to double-check, which is exactly what the urgency is for.
What to do
Never act on the call itself. Confirm any unexpected or urgent payment request by reaching the person on a number or channel you already trust, independent of the call. Urgency, secrecy, and an unusual payment method together are the pattern, whatever the voice sounds like.
FBI, Senior U.S. Officials Impersonated in Malicious Messaging Campaign (2025): fbi.gov
A video shows a celebrity or public official endorsing an AI trading platform with big returns. Real?
No. Treat it as fake. Faces, voices, and entire videos can be convincingly generated, and a promise of guaranteed or outsized returns is fraud no matter who appears to say it.
Why
The SEC has warned that fraudsters lean on AI buzzwords and fabricated endorsements to seem credible and current. A video is no longer proof a person said or endorsed anything, and the underlying pitch is the same guaranteed-returns lie in a new costume.
What to do
Verify the platform yourself on EDGAR and Investor.gov before any money moves. Do not treat a video, a logo, or a famous face as evidence. If the offer promises a sure or unusually high return, that alone is the answer.
SEC / Investor.gov, Artificial Intelligence and Investment Fraud: investor.gov
FBI, on synthetic-media impersonation (2025): fbi.gov
MA-205 · 2026-07-11
What is the one habit that beats AI voice-cloning scams?
Call back on a known number, and agree on a family code word in advance. Two small habits defeat a cloned voice completely.
Why
The FTC's core advice against voice-clone scams is to never trust the voice alone, and to reach the person on a number you know or through someone who knows them. A private code word that only your real family knows, asked for on the spot, cannot be produced by a stranger no matter how good the clone is. It costs nothing and it works.
Set it up
Pick a simple word or phrase with the people closest to you, and do not post it anywhere.
Agree that any real emergency call can be verified by a callback and the word.
When a shocking call comes, slow down, hang up, and verify. Real emergencies survive a two-minute callback.
FTC, Fighting back against harmful voice cloning: consumer.ftc.gov
A criticizable method beats any testimonial. This is the public rubric every Money Answers entry is graded against. Anyone can hold an entry up to it.
Sourced. Every factual claim links to a primary source: a regulator, a law-enforcement body, a court filing, or on-chain data. Vendor or influencer claims do not count.
Dated. Every figure carries the date the source published it and the date it was verified for the entry. Numbers age; the entry says how old.
Labeled. Anything not confirmed against a primary source is labeled unverified in plain sight.
Single-source flagged. A claim resting on one source is a pattern, not a fact, until a second independent source confirms it.
Plain. Written for a beginner. No hype, no unexplained jargon.
Correctable. Every entry can be challenged. Errors go in the misses ledger, dated, with the correction.
Misses Ledger
Corrections and errors, dated. Almost nobody in this niche keeps one. That is the point.
No corrections yet. This page has been live since 2026-07-11.