Avoiding Scams

You must understand that sometimes scam artists that pose as legitimate investors often try and prey on entrepreneurs that are seeking funds. While Funded.com does all we can to prevent those from entering our site, there are warning signs you should watch out and guard against so you are better prepared.

No Up Front Money or Fees

This is the number one no-no. This will cover almost every potential scam. Even though there are legitimate investors that ask for funds upfront, most investors will not require it and we make a rule on our site that no investors or funding provider are allowed to request any money or fees. A good practice is to communicate that in the beginning of your engagement.

Do Not Wire Funds

If, for any reason, anyone asks you for any kind of payment by phrasing an upfront fee in any other term such as appraisal, travel or due diligence costs, should be avoided and reported. Bottom line; in order to safe guard yourself is to never wire funds.

Due Diligence

Always check out the investor or funding provider out regardless of their profile information or online presence. You can use companies like verifyinvestor.com to inexpensively check their credentials and also this will also guard against any unaccredited investors. A face to face meeting is always preferred.

Beware of Phishing Scams, Ransomware or Spoofing

If you ever receive an email demanding a ransom or instructing you to click on a link by an unknown source, it is recommended you do not reply, do not click on any link, or pay any ransom. This is a phishing scam which most likely originated from a virus or malware you may have encountered. Sometimes it may even show a type of password and may make false claims or use scare tactics against you to get you to pay them bit coin. These are mostly false and designed to scare you into paying and should be avoided. Some emails could mask the company or bank's email to fool you that there is a security issue and log in to your account from the email link. This is a Spoofing technique to get you to log into a fake account and steal your data. We always send a secure link only if you request this. If you believe your account has been compromised in anyway it is recommended you run a virus malware check on your computer and contact your internet service provider and change any passwords you believe to be compromised. It is always best to never use the same password for each account. We take security very serious. We currently have firewall and security measures running on our servers at all times to keep your information safe. We do not store sensitive data about you on our server, such as credit card info, Social Security or Date of Birth. You may visit our Privacy Policy for more information.

If you experience anyone asking for upfront fees, wire requests or a receive a suspicious email including us or from us. please report it by visiting contact us and sending us a message.