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January 31, 2012 at 07:00 PM
Have you ever hired someone to provide a service, only to discover he or she “played” you with lies or distortions? If so, you fell victim to a “black-hat trickster.” This happens to millions of consumers each year. When they find out they’ve been tricked, they post Facebook rants or complain on Internet sites such as RipoffReport.com. The result? “Tricky” advisors can see their reputations vanish as quickly as magician David Copperfield dispatched the Statue of Liberty: poof!
Black-hat tricksters are the bane of today’s marketplace. They wear black hats because they lack white-hat empathy. They view people as objects to be taken advantage of rather than as flesh-and-blood humans with feelings and needs. And they’re tricksters because they’re willing to hoodwink clients to benefit themselves.
Black-hat schemes range from major fraud to minor deception. Major “black-hat” criminals like Bernie Madoff get a lot of publicity, but minor tricksters are much more common, hurting millions of consumers every year with stunts like these:
• Misrepresentation of fact: Falsely telling someone that a product will never decline in value.
• Churning: Advising a client to switch out of a perfectly good product into an inferior one.
• Material omission: Failing to disclose surrender periods and related fees, especially to elderly clients.
• Misrepresentation of purpose: Telling prospects you want to discuss (living trusts, retirement planning, estate planning, etc.) when you’re goal is to simply sell them an annuity.
