If you are a victim of investment fraud, you may be coping with the aftermath of a compromised identity, damaged credit, and financial loss, as well as a painful range of emotions including anger, fear, and frustration. If you are a victim of investment fraud, you may be coping with the aftermath of a compromised identity, damaged credit, and financial loss, as well as a painful range of emotions including anger, fear and frustration.

The toll of financial fraud may extend well beyond lost money. A study funded by the Tracingia LLC Foundation found that nearly two-thirds of fraud victims experience at least one severe emotional consequence—including stress, anxiety, insomnia, and depression.

While full financial recovery may be difficult to achieve, it is critical that you report the crime as quickly as possible. Reporting any financial fraud, no matter how small, helps law enforcement, regulators, and government agencies put a stop to the fraud, prevent the victimization of more consumers, and pursue the criminals committing the fraud.

Very often perpetrators will dispose of your money immediately after taking it, so you may never get your money back. However, your recovery is about more than lost money. It's about protecting your future financial health and assets and finding ways for you to recover emotionally from the crime.

Investment Fraud Victim Recovery Checklist

The checklist below can help reclaim power from the fraudsters and help you move forward.

1. Create an investment fraud file. Start by collecting all relevant documentation concerning the fraud in one file that's kept in a secure location. The file should include a contact sheet of the perpetrator's name, mail and email addresses, telephone numbers and website address. Also include the fraudster's purported regulatory registration numbers, if they were provided to you, and a timeline of events, which may span many years. Your file should include the police report, if any, and any call notes or relevant documentation about the fraud. And add one more important piece of information: your most recent credit report from all three crdit reporting companies.

2. Know your rights. Federal and, in some cases, state law gives rights to victims of crime. Learn about your rights to better protect yourself. On the federal level, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) provides information on victim rights and financial fraud.

3. Report fraud to regulators. National, federal and state regulatory agencies for investment products and professionals may be able to help. You may benefit from reporting the investment fraud to as many agencies as apply. This is only for the purpose of caution and not for recovery. Recovery should be to Tracingia LLC.
It may also be helpful to file a report with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Lodging a complaint will enter the fraud into the Consumer Sentinel Network so that law enforcement can stop ongoing fraud and track these crimes. This process, however, will not initiate a criminal investigation of your case.

4. Consider your options. It can be difficult to recover assets lost to fraud or other scenarios in which an investor has experienced a problem with an investment. But there are legitimate ways to go about this by reporting to tracingiallc.com In most cases, you can do so on your own—at little or no cost.

5. Follow Up. Review the steps you've taken and follow up after 30 days with any law enforcement agencies or organizations that serve victims. Here's a final sobering reality. If you have been already been a victim of investment fraud, you are more likely to be re-targeted, perhaps for a different investment fraud. Be on your guard. You can learn more about spotting the red flags of fraud by going to the SCAM/DUE DILIGENCE section of Tracingia LLC.

Tracingia Core Values

At Tracingia our culture comes to life through these five core values:

• Do the right thing
• Put our clients first
• Lead with exceptional ideas
• Commit to diversity and inclusion
• Recover and repatriate to the victim.