Information to Help Protect Your Financial Well-being

Please read through this information about an ongoing cybercrime called “pig butchering” that is affecting individual investors and their financial advisors. Please note: This email is purely informational and there is no immediate threat to your investments. However, it's important to provide this information so that you can protect yourself.

In brief, pig butchering occurs when fraudsters pretend to be legitimate U.S. financial advisors in an effort to gain the trust of victims, before recommending fraudulent financial investments. They contact their victim out of the blue via text message, on social media or on a messaging application such as WhatsApp or WeChat and attempt to build rapport. Eventually, they try to persuade their targets to invest in fraudulent financial investments. For a full explanation of how the scheme works, read FINRA’s article.

Here are some ways to try to reduce your risk:

• Be mindful that you will only ever be contacted from our official email address which you are receiving this message from.
• If you ever have any doubts, you can utilize FINRA’s BrokerCheck tool to verify if a person is a registered advisor.
• Watch for these red flags from fraudsters:
  • Unexpected contact
  • Refusal to participate in video chats
  • Request for financial information
  • Invitation to invest in specific financial products
  • Unknown or confusing investment opportunity
  • Unfamiliar trading platforms
  • Exaggerated claims and elevated emotions
  • Sense of urgency about an upcoming news announcement or share price increase

Our relationship is truly valued and cannot thank you enough for your continued confidence. As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the office.