With the internet being such an important part of most people’s lives in Canada, it’s no wonder that the concept of investing online has grown rapidly in recent times. Direct investing, ETFs, traditional mutual funds, and of course, cryptocurrencies, can all be purchased through websites, apps and a variety of online platforms. This is great news for Canadians, as a lot of these platforms allow investors to bypass a middle-man and get certain types of investments at a lower rate.

However, as most things in life, one must be vigilant in making sure that what you are putting your money into is indeed an investment, or even anything legitimate.

To most of us, it may be obvious when you see ads on the side of a website stating “Toronto woman makes $600/week staying at home,” are probably fake. Of course, there will always be some people that fall victim to the bait and then be scammed out of their hard-earned money.

CASE 1: BINARY OPTIONS

Recently, W5 did an investigation (see here) on “Binary Options”, a form of “gambling investing” where investors decide whether a stock will go up or down within a set amount of time, and if you choose correctly, you win.

Spoiler alert, people were scammed out of their money.

Binary Options have since been banned in Canada, but there are still sites that will allow you to invest in them because there are legal loopholes that make these companies untouchable.

CASE 2: ONLINE INVESTMENT COURSES

Some sites will claim to provide you with online-only investment courses. These courses are convenient for people who are always on-the-go, and want to be able to learn how to invest on their own time.

The questions you have to ask yourself are:

-What are they going to teach you?

-What kinds of investments will the course teach you about?

The course should be very specific. To be honest, it’s hard for any course to just teach you how to invest in general. The world of investments is vast, and even I am not savvy in all of them.

If the course description is very light on the details of what they are going to teach you, then you should probably stay away! It may also just be a link to a Binary Options platform…

CASE 3: PAYMENT OPTIONS

This one is the one that will stop many people with a suspicious feeling from proceeding any further, but it is worth mentioning.

There are very few investments in Canada that will accept credit cards.

I want to say “no legitimate investment option will accept credit cards,” but I’m sure if I dig really deeply, I’d likely find something.

Regardless, if the investment platform allows credit-cards as a payment, you should generally steer clear! It is a serious red flag!

In conclusion, while it is certainly in your best interest to do your research and look for a variety of investment options, it is still a good idea to speak with a licensed advisor to at least get an initial review of what you have (or don’t have) and get some advice first. The age of face-to-face may be giving up market-share to online options, but if we are talking about money, do you really want to avoid talking to a real-life person entirely? At the very least, a licensed advisor who has made a face-to-face connection with you, is accountable not only to you, but to governing bodies and organizations as well. And while you should certainly do your direct-investing or purchase ETFs yourself, you should not forego seeing an advisor altogether. There are reasons that we still exist.

If you want to speak to me, don’t hesitate to contact me!