The British Columbia Securities Commission has launched a mobile app to help investors identify, spot and report investment fraud at home or on the road. The app provides the following for investors:
- Up-to-date news and Investor Alerts;
- A ‘Fraud Finder’, to help people spot investment fraud;
- A ‘Risk Profiler’ which provides a means of assessing personal risk tolerance;
- The ability to complete a quick check of the CSA’s Disciplined Persons List to see if the person offering the investment services has been sanctioned or disciplined for misconduct;
- Access to the BCSC’s Investment Caution List to determine if unregistered activity or unqualified securities are being promoted in British Columbia;
- A glossary of scam terms that can to be used to identify warning signs of common investment scams; and
- A ‘report fraud’ button to allow investors to alert the BCSC about potential investment fraud anonymously.
The app is available for free from Apple’s App Store and desktop and other mobile users can access it at https://m.befraudaware.ca./.
FAIR Canada supports this initiative, and calls on regulators in other Canadian jurisdictions to develop tools to help investors combat fraud. In particular, FAIR Canada continues to call on Canadian regulators to develop an investor-friendly interface that consumers can use to verify the registration of financial service providers; this functionality is not currently available through the BCSC’s app.
