SINGAPORE — For every 10 individuals who checked out Brilliant Ingots’ gold investment scheme online, one took the bait for its promises of 24 per cent annual returns and 2 per cent commission for every referral, among other attractive offers.

Thankfully, for the 600 unsuspecting visitors — out of close to 6,000 who visited the website — they were told only to indicate the amount they were willing to part with before the “golden opportunity” was unveiled to be part of an atypical campaign to raise awareness of investment scams and was not real.

After being told that they have been “scammed”, common tell-tale signs of such rackets will be highlighted to them. These include attractive but unverified returns, companies that claim to be well-established, and pressure tactics such as limited time offers.

Prospective investors are advised to approach these claims with “healthy scepticism” and assess investment opportunities based on known facts and information that can be verified.

Brilliant Ingots Investments is the second of two “investment scams” dreamt up by the Securities Investors Association and national financial education programme MoneySENSE. It was advertised on various print media and online platforms from April 16 to 25.

It comes after SantaQuay Resorts, which ran ads from April 2 to 10, enticing investors with the prospect of paying as little as S$10,000 for their own beach resort. More than 22,000 individuals visited the website, and one in 20 people fell for the fictional investment property which promised investors capital back after two years, on top of guaranteed returns of 24 per cent per annum.

Figures from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) showed that more than six in 10 of those who visited both websites were males, and a majority of the visitors were 44 years old or younger.

MoneySENSE and the Securities Investors Association said that they are “encouraged” by the response to the campaign, including how some members of the public, upon identifying red flags to these “investments”, raised them to MAS.

“This reflects investors’ awareness of potential investment scams. Promoting informed investing is an ongoing effort, and we will continue to explore compelling financial education initiatives to better reach the public,” the organisers said.

This campaign comes after a spate of high-profile investment scams here in recent years. London-based EcoHouse, for instance, enticed many investors with its unique proposition of investing in social housing in Brazil. The scheme, which offered an impressive 20 per cent fixed rate of return for a 12-month contract, reportedly attracted more than 2,000 investors globally, while at least 800 people in Singapore were said to have shelled out about S$65 million into the scheme since 2011. In late 2014, the Brazilian government said that EcoHouse had no links with the country’s social housing scheme, while EcoHouse later filed for a voluntary wind-up.

More than 10,000 Singaporeans also lost money to Genneva Gold, which was raided by the Commercial Affairs Department in 2012.

As part of the ongoing campaign, the organisers have also launched an education website, which includes resources including the Financial Institutions Directory and Investor Alert List, in the hopes that the public will exercise greater discernment when making investments.

The website, titled Beware! Investment Scams (at http://bewareinvestmentscams.sg), also has a section for users to share their personal experiences of being conned by scams.