On Tuesday, CNN ran a story entitled Can One Idea Be Energy’s Holy Grail? It’s about the pursuit of a system to create excess energy from a fusion reaction, which is essentially the forced combining of atoms as opposed to the splitting of atoms which is what generates nuclear energy today. The CNN story spoke about several different worldwide initiatives to generate energy from fusion, but the story did more than that. Unintentionally, the story likely gave inspiration to hundreds of investment scamsters. Finding a story like that on the website of respected news organization and not using it to launch or support an investment scam would seem wasteful to professional fraudsters. It’s just lying there, they think. It would be a crime not to put it to use.

And so scamsters will use the story. Whether they call it a limited partnership, a hedge fund, a hot stock, or something else, scamsters will claim that they’ve found a way to profit from the development of an energy source that promises to someday make us less beholden to middle eastern oil producers. They might print out color copies of the CNN story to familiarize prospective investors who haven’t heard of fusion. More likely they’ll feign a belief that you’ve already read up on fusion and know about the exciting developments. They’ll say “Did you see that story in CNN about the race to develop reliable fusion energy?” If you say no, they’ll send it to you.  If you say yes, they’ll get right to the pitch. “I represent a company who is only months away from building a prototype fusion power plant. The company is looking for investors to be in on the ground floor of a business that promises to transform energy consumption, created hundreds of thousands of jobs, and slow the progress of global warming.” They’ll ask you if you’d like to get in on the ground floor and reap the benefits when coal fired plants are shut down and replaced with fusion plants. If you ask for audited financial statements from the company, they’ll send them to you (they’ll be fake). If you ask them for the background of the people who run the company, they’ll send you very impressive resumes (the credentials are fake). They may even be able to accommodate you when you want to make a trip to the site of the prototype plant (you’ll see a piece of land, but it has nothing to do with this company). Looking to confirm the legitimacy of the company you’ll run head first into the grips of what psychologists call the “congruence bias,” and you’ll be sunk. You’ll earn a negative 100 percent return.

Right now you might be thinking, Well, someone is going to be in on the ground floor of a company that actually does make a significant energy breakthrough, and those people will clean up. That’s right. Someone is. But what makes you think this is the company? What have you done to vet the people behind the initiative, other than follow their lead? There is a way to gather relevant information on which you can base a decision, but it won’t occur to you naturally. There are resources you’ve never heard of and investigative tactics you’ve never employed. You need to know where to look and how to evaluate what you find. The primer for that education will be released by AMACOM Books (New York) this fall. It’s called The Vigilant Investor, and it is available for pre-order now on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Don’t turn loose of a penny of your nest egg until you’ve read it.  It can help ensure that you enjoy the retirement you’ve worked and saved for.

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