Investing in a lucrative venture to make money can be quite exciting. The best part is that you don’t have to labor except the money you are putting out. But, do not be swift to let go of your money without carefully investigating the investment opportunities offered to you.

You should be aware of investment scams – a situation where fraudulent individuals pretend to be financial advisers or investment brokers in order to defraud you of your money.

So, here are major investment signs to watch out before you let go of your money;

• You Should be on an Alert when You Get a Cold Call.

Often, investment scammers tend to be smart. Instead of waiting for you to discover them, they go out of their way to seek you out. It could be in form of phone calls, a visit to your business outfit or residence, or an email. You should be at alert because they usually look and sound professional, making them unsuspicious.

Sometimes, they will present you with an investment opportunity you may not be familiar with. Don’t be rash to jump into action. Instead, if the opportunity sounds good, request for details and do extensive research and investigation on the proposed offer.

It doesn’t matter the returns on the investment presented to you, do not let the quest for money deaden your reasoning and pressurize you to sign deals or hand over money at the instance. If you do, you may have yourself to blame.

• If It Appears too Good to be True

If the offer sounds too good to be true, you should beware. You may be presented with a track record of past returns on the investment opportunity so that you would be convinced . The record may not be authentic, so don’t let such documentation fool you either.

You should be skeptical if nothing seems to be amiss with the returns year after year. There’s always a time of retrogression or track of low performance even with the best investment opportunities. So, don’t believe a 100 percent smooth-going record.

Do you remember the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme? Smart investors did not fall for the scheme because the promised returns were too consistent to be true. The initiators of this type of fraudulent scheme would usually use new investors’ funds to pay dividends to the older investors. But in the real sense, there’s no investment existing anywhere.

For such fraudulent acts, payoffs are certain provided there’s consistent inflow of new comers bringing in money. So, when there are no more people coming to put in their money, the organizers would close the scheme and cart away with the remaining funds.

Finally, if you outsource your investment management to a broker, you should not just fold your hands. It’s important you monitor what is going on with your money.

Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs to build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.