Investor Complaints and Questions

"Other contacts" includes repeat contacts, contacts with insufficient information to process, and contacts about issues not within the agency’s jurisdiction.

Nearly 50% of these contacts involved telephone calls, a 3% decrease from last year. Approximately 34% came in electronically through online complaint and question forms or by e-mail, a 1% increase from last year. The remainder included letters, faxes, and personal visits.

The volume of complaints concerning spam ranked first among the complaint categories. Complaints concerning advance fee fraud were the second ranked complaint type.  Both complaint types decreased significantly from FY 2006. Because unwary investors sometimes reveal personal financial information to fraudsters in connection with advance fee fraud schemes and unwanted e-mails and faxes, the SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy continued its efforts to help investors become more informed about ways to protect their personal information when investing online. For example, OIEA has issued an investor guide entitled Online Brokerage Accounts: What You Can Do to Safeguard Your Money and Your Personal Information.

The 10 most common complaints received during 2007: