I am an active member of the FundingUniverse discussion forums, and I recently came across an alarming post by one of the members. The poster had been contacted by an investor in the UK that said he was interested in the poster’s business plan. If you aren’t familiar with FundingU, it’s basically an online community of state-focused websites bringing investors and entrepreneurs together. Anyway, the poster mentioned that the UK investor wanted to invest in his company, but that he first needed to give him $5,000 for admin and processing fees.

Luckily, the poster set up a fake bank account because he was leary of this., and a supposed investment bank tried to withdraw the funds. When they weren’t there, they contacted him about the money. I had never heard of an investor requiring an investment from an entrepreneur, so we all warned him to be careful. He was smart on his own though by being cautious, and at the end of the day, it was a scam. Essentially, phishing scams are all over the place, even in the investment world. Be careful.