Ombudsman, TTSEC CEO: Scams going on during covid19

FINANCIAL Services Ombudsman Dominic Stoddard and acting Trinidad and Tobago Securities Exchange Commission (TTSEC) CEO Lystra Lucillio said while many people are grappling with the health and socio-economic impacts of the covid19 pandemic, others are trying to rob them of their hard-earned money through financial scams.

They said the launch of the TTSEC mobile application will give people a faster avenue to report potential scams to the commission and educate themselves about wise financial investments.

Addressing the virtual launch of the app on Wednesday, Stoddard said, "Money is too difficult to come by.

"The economic impact of the pandemic is so economically-linked in TT, as is the case in many other countries. Unemployment has increased and there is a noticeable reduction in disposable income for a significant proportion of the population."

While many people are dealing with these challenges, Stoddard said, "Sadly, there are many others concocting schemes and dubious arrangements to defraud ordinary citizens of the little that they have."

He said through the app, people have greater accessibility to make complaints to the TTSEC about possible financial scams. Stoddard was confident the app could be a focal point in the commission's investment education platform.

"Last year, in the midst of the pandemic," Lucillio said, "we saw an increase in the number of Ponzi and pyramid type financial scams being reported in the news and circulated on social media."

She said the TTSEC, Central Bank and the Financial Intelligence Unit issued a statement last year alerting the public to these scams.

Lucillio said the TTSEC has also collaborated with the police to educate the public about them as well as launching investor-awareness campaigns on television and social media. She added the objective of the latter was to specifically target "pyramid-type investment scams that were being marketed as a form of sou-sou."

Despite all these initiatives, Lucillio said, "Thus far, we at the TTSEC are not in receipt of a single complaint from a member of the public."

She said e-mail, phone and letters are the format used to submit investor tips and complaints to the commission. but: "None of these are being fully utilised by the public."

In reviewing its complaints system, Lucillio said the TTSEC decided to launch this app to give people greater opportunities to make complaints to the commission or seek investment advice from it.

She said data from the Mutual Fund Association of TT and the TT Stock Exchange estimated that "locally, the retail or individual investing population is in the vicinity of 750,000 out of a population size of 1.4 million."

Lucillio said additional data from Statista (an online markets statistics website) showed: "in 2021, mobile phones mad up approximately 48 per cent of web traffic in TT."

She added that in the same period, desktop computers accounted for approximately 46 per cent of web traffic.

Lucillio said three out of four people in TT have internet access and there are approximately 940,000 active social media users. Through the app, she said, "We expect to see an increase in the number of people contacting the TTSEC."

Tips about possible financial scams can be submitted anonymously, along with related images, documents, videos and audio files.

TTSEC lead counsel Brian Peters said the app had been in the making since last year and is available through the Google Play Store and the Apple Store.