After all the press about pyramid schemes and other investment scams, you would think that they wouldn’t succeed anymore. Wrong! They happen all the time, and even in the Napa Valley.

The recent rally on Wall Street has made investors more adventurous. Be careful. Investment fraud is always around. According to the FINRA Investor Foundation, the profile of the victims of investment scams may not be what you would have guessed.

Most are married, male, college-educated and financially literate, with above-average incomes. Most make financial decisions without outside help and usually are between ages 55 and 64. Variations to the profile are abundant, so if you are outside the profile, it doesn’t mean you are not a target.

Of course, older victims are the most frequent targets because they have money. But the definition of “older” is in the mind of the definer. Older may be anyone older than you or me. Older investors who admitted to being fraud victims answered frankly in the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fraud survey. Seventy-three percent were more likely than younger investors to own risky investments like penny stocks, commodities and promissory notes secured by real estate.

Many were subject to “affinity fraud.” This is fraud where the purveyors were from the same church, religion, ethnicity, neighborhood, college or schools.

Many investors were defrauded by a person who got in touch by telephone. Believe it or not, about one-fifth said they got scammed via a “free lunch” seminar. These lunch or dinner seminars are billed as “educational seminars” but are not. Be careful of the meal offers at fancy hotels and restaurants. If you haven’t been invited to one, just wait. You will be.

There is nothing inherently wrong with these programs. There is usually a great deal of valuable information provided. But before you attend, do your homework: check out the providers. Ask lots of questions and be skeptical. Don’t fall prey to hard-sell techniques.

Investment and insurance brokers can be checked out to see if they are unlicensed or have black marks on their records at the following Web sites: finra.org/investors; adviserinfo.sec.gov; or insurance.ca.gov.

Of course, every investor needs to assess his or her personal ability to take risks. Most of these programs which turn out to be frauds would appear to be too good to be true. Again, most of the victims could see this with perfect hindsight. When it looks too good, it probably is, in fact, too good.

Fight the greed element. The goal to “make a killing” is often a slippery slope for investors. With the 2007-2009 massive drop in the stock market, some investors want to try to make it back quickly. This is another red flag. There are very few successful get-rich-quick schemes.

If the Bernie Madoff and Alan Stanford investors had asked more questions and been a little more skeptical, they might have avoided this debacle.

Contact Tom at 1030 Seminary St. Ste. D, Napa CA 94559, 254-0155, fax 254-0158 or e-mail suntrm@aol.com.