Got Money? Then Protect It!

We've all received the call from the Broker who has a hot tip on a new IPO and they really truly honestly want you to take advantage of this information for the good of you and your family. "Don't miss the boat" they'll tell you. "It's a once in a lifetime opportunity" "Don't you deserve to live the good life?" Who are these people? And if they know this stock is going to take off, why are they calling me? It's like knowing which horse is going to win the race and calling a stranger to convince him to bet on it.

This practice of cold calling by brokers is a legitimate sales tactic as long as they don't mislead you, but who's really policing what they say? The common sense factor hopefully keeps most people from investing a penny from anyone that they've only spoken to by phone or by email.

My point is (finally) that you can check out the people you entrust your money to even in less shady circumstances such as Financial Advisers, Brokers, Banks, and other investment funds. We've listed these FREE (as always) searches on Virtualgumshoe.com under the category "Investor and Banking Disciplinary Actions".

Check the Background of Your Investment Professional through the FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) Broker Check. Here you can search background information on over 660,000 registered brokers and 5,100 registered securities firms. Info on formerly registered brokers and firms is also available." It's a fan-freakin-tastic search for an investor or an investigator. I've found detailed complaint information on investment professionals here many a time. Most people will never know these databases exist and that's the way some shady brokers would like to keep it. Take advantage of it!

Other Investor and Banking Disciplinary action databases listed on Virtualgumshoe include...

Use the FDIC: Enforcement Decisions and Orders link to search for...

• FDIC-insured state chartered banks that are not members of the Federal Reserve System


• FDIC-insured branches of foreign banks


• Officers, directors, employees, controlling shareholders, agents and certain other categories of individuals (institution-affiliated parties) associated with such institution

Use the The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency link to search...

• National banks


• Federal branches and agencies of foreign banks


• Institution-affiliated parties (IAPs), including:
  a. Officers, directors, and employees,
  b. A bank's controlling stockholders, agents, and certain other individuals

I won't list them all here. For more, just go to Virtualgumshoe.com and view the "Investor and Banking Disciplinary Actions" category.

Why Search Corporate Records? WHY NOT???

We've updated all of our Corporate Records and UCC filings links!

Corporate records are a widely available, usually free, and completely underused source of information. When would they come in handy you ask? Any of the following would be a perfect example of when you should look into corporate records.

Your hiring a contractor.
Your looking into a dog walking service.
Your putting a loved one in a "retirement community"
Your partnering with another business.
Your looking to purchase something on the Internet.
Your investigating a person or company.
Your considering using a company your unfamiliar with.

The reasons are ENDLESS. The fact is, any company with a little cash can put out a commercial, a pay per click ad or other means of getting your attention. That doesn't mean they're trustworthy. Companies pop up every day and companies shut down every day. Check them out with a few simple steps.

If they don't have a physical address listed online, that's a red flag right off the bat. If they do, search corporate records in that state. See how long they've actually been around. See if they are doing business as a different name than their legal name.

Then search "DBA" (doing business as) names, "Fictitious" business names and their legal name through Google. Look for comments made by people online via blogs, newsgroups, and sites such as the the Better Business Bureau , Ripoffreports.com, Yelp, and other consumer review sites.

If the corporate records list the principals of the companies, search them through the same means but go a step further. Run their names through any criminal record and civil litigation searches available in the states they do business in.

Be proactive not reactive, it will save you a lot of misery!

Political Contributions Dont Lie!

Religion and Politics are two subjects your not supposed bring up unless you already know the answer, or you're in the mood for knock down drag out debate. Which makes us all the more curious about who falls into what category even though we pretend it doesn't matter.

Now while there's no public database (yet) to divulge the religion of those new friends and neighbors, you can still take a peek at their political allegiance to satisfy your curiosity.

We've recently updated the Virtualgumshoe links directory with the best of the best in political contributions search databases. Check out the Huffington Post FundRace for the Celebrity angle on political contributions or click over to the Federal Election Commission's database for a basic first and last name search of your friends. You can even search by zip code at OpenSecrets.org

Just don't hold it against 'em if your new friend happens to fall on the wrong side of the fence. Whichever side that might be.

Marriage Records Update

In honor of Valentines Day we have concentrated this past week on adding new links to the category Marriage and Divorce Records. This includes courts with online databases from...

• Alabama


• California


• Georgia


• Kansas


• Florida


• Louisiana


• South Carolina

Marraige and Divorce records are becoming available online slowly but surely. Some counties allow open searches on any name but many require you know the year and county of marriage. If you need to find out the approximate year someone may have been married or divorced, your best bet is start your search with property records which are more widely available. You may be able to locate the year a spouses name was added or removed from a property deed along with the county they were living in at the time.

If that doesn't help, and you're willing to spend some dough, try a good old fashion P.I. They'll trace the social security number of the person and look for people of the same last name within the address history over a 20 year period. If you don't have the SSN, a good P.I. can alway find it.