The variety of investment scams out there is limited only by the imagination of the con artists who create them. The most common ones have been around for decades and are simply repackaged and perpetrated on a new generation of unsuspecting investors. Look out for these classics:

1. Pump-and-Dump.
   A newly emerging economy, a vanguard technology or a disease gone wild can all give rise to legitimate investment opportunities, but they can also be gateways to fraud. For example, during the most recent Ebola outbreak in Africa, the stocks of two companies that produce infection-control equipment such as the suits and masks worn by health-care workers were hyped up as the next hot investments. After all, with a potential pandemic in the works, who wouldn’t want to invest in protective gear?MarketWatch noted that the two manufacturers were healthy companies, but they cautioned investors to beware of scammers who might take advantage of headlines as a hook for investment fraud.. Stock pumpers load up on a company’s low-priced stock and then incite a buying frenzy by spreading positive rumors about the stock through the Internet, texts and emails (the pump). Once increased demand has driven up the stock’s price sufficiently, the fraudsters sell (or dump) their shares, causing the stock’s price to fall. They make a handsome profit while investors are left with worthless, or near-worthless, stock.
   
   
2. Investing seminar schemes.
   You receive an invitation to attend an exclusive seminar that promises quick and easy money. Not only will you get valuable information about how to invest successfully or operate a profitable business, but you’ll also hear from self-made millionaires who have gotten rich using the same program. In addition to promises of fast money, regardless of experience or training; sure-fire returns that will deliver security for years to come; and coaching each step of the way, success stories assure you that you, too, can become a millionaire if you just follow a few simple steps.
   
   What’s not to like? Unfortunately, such claims are almost always over-hyped or misleading, and strategies suggested by the seminar to achieve these results are usually expensive and high-risk. If you get involved in these so-called opportunities, you’ll usually find that the pay-off doesn’t match the promise—and you won’t be able to recover the money you spent.
   
   
3. Ponzi scheme. 
   This devious bit of trickery was first unleashed in the 1920s when Charles Ponzi swindled thousands of people out of their life savings by promising them massive returns on their investments. Instead of investing the money, promoters of this scheme use it to pay “dividends” to other investors—and pocket the rest. This ploy lulls existing investors into a false sense of security and lures new ones with the illusion of success.
   
   Eventually, when a sufficient number of new investors can no longer be found to keep up the dividend payments, Ponzi schemes fall apart—that is, if the schemer hasn’t already run away with the money.
   
   
4. Pyramids. 
   In another get-rich-quick scheme, fraudsters claim investors can earn handsome profits by making a one-time or recurring payment into a company. Sometimes they’re asked to distribute a product too. In all cases, new recruits must bring in other members. Like the Ponzi scheme, this scam relies on the fees and other expenses paid by members, rather than legitimate financial gains from investments or from selling products.
   
   Often times, a genuine product may not exist at all. People at the top of the pyramid profit from those who join under them, and that number increases exponentially at each level. Pyramids survive only as long as existing members are able to recruit new participants.