Prices prompt oil, gas investment scams

With oil prices exceeding $70 a barrel, investors looking to make a quick buck are losing millions of dollars to sham oil and gas investments.

Typically, these deals involve scamsters who assure investors they can profit from high energy prices by investing in oil wells, for example, or alternative energy sources. State and federal regulators say that while some such investments are legitimate, others are mostly lures used by fraudsters to rip people off.

No industrywide figures on energy scams are available. But, “Energy markets are extremely hot, and we’re seeing a lot (more) of these energy-based investment schemes,” says Mary Schapiro, the incoming chief executive of NASD, a self-regulatory body for broker-dealers.

Oil prices have fallen this week as a Middle East cease-fire sparked hopes of easier access to energy supplies. Yet oil prices remain volatile, sparking interest from scamsters.

USA Today