<Anchor> It is a
friendly economic time.
Today (23rd) will be with reporter Kim Hye-min.
Reporter Kim, these days, as interest in stocks increases, there are many people who sign up for reading rooms. First of all, what is this reading room?
<Reporter>
Have you ever received a text message like this?
<Anchor>
What a guarantee of thousands of times, thousands of percent returns, are you talking about these spam texts?
<Reporter>
Right.
I've also received a lot of text messages like this recently, and Reading Room is a similar investment advisory business that provides investment advice and receives expenses through private chat rooms or telegrams.
As stock prices have risen and the number of people investing in stocks has increased, the operation of reading rooms has also skyrocketed, so many people are being scammed here.
The important thing is that people who are called investment experts in the reading room can easily operate a business by simply reporting to the Financial Services Commission, even if they do not have financial expertise.
Therefore, users must sign up after thoroughly verifying themselves before paying.
<Anchor>
But people like us have no way of knowing whether this person is an expert or whether it is illegal or not. Is there any way to tell?
<Reporter>
Yes, it is very important that users know this standard in advance. First, I mentioned earlier that reading rooms can be operated just by reporting.
However, reading rooms that have not been reported are unconditionally illegal.
To check, go to the'Financial Consumer Information Portal' website and search for the company name in'Similar Investment Advisor Report Status'.
Also, advertisements such as "famous celebrities also invested" and "I made a few thousand percent profits", no one believes it anymore.
There are so many false advertisements that have no objective basis, and this is also subject to punishment.
And leading room companies must provide the same investment information to an unspecified number of people.
One-on-one cannot provide investment advice.
For example, a member specifically asked about a specific sport, but you are punished for answering separately.
In addition, there are cases where an investor informs the company of public certificates and passwords and entrusts all investments, and the company also arranges loans to investors who do not have the money to buy stocks.
These are all sales that should not be done.
If this happens in the reading room you are joining, you should report it to the Financial Supervisory Service immediately.
The Financial Supervisory Service provides rewards of up to 2 million won per case for excellent reports.
<Anchor>
Reporter Kim, it was said that the Financial Supervisory Service recently inspected these illegal activities. Did the results come out?
What was the result?
<Reporter>
Yes, the Financial Supervisory Service recently investigated the reading room.
When we checked 351 companies, 49 of them, that is, 14% of them were violating the regulations.
The most common violations of simple reporting obligations, but this is not a major damage.
7.4% of companies installed an automatic trading program on member computers to place orders for stocks.
You can tell what kind of illegal cases there are.
Even if consumers are being scammed and suffer damage, it is often difficult to recover, so I will say again, but you must be careful in advance.
<Anchor>
Reporter Kim, but even if we just suffered damage, it is difficult to recover.
So, there seems to be a way to prevent it.
<Reporter>
First of all, if there is a dispute with a leading room company, the FSS cannot intervene.
Most investigative agencies also believe that it is correct to deal with civil lawsuits.
There are some opinions that the regulations are insufficient.
Anyway, the only way to do this now is to file a long civil suit or file a claim with the Korea Consumer Agency for damage relief.
In addition, it is said that consumer resources only mediate in the middle, have no coercion, and it is difficult to resolve this mediation if the leading room company does not accept it, but it is rarely accepted.
Therefore, it is important to carefully check all the conditions and methods of refund before paying the fee, and leave these conditions as data or audio recordings.
In addition, some companies induce that the discount rate is high when a long-term contract is made, but there are frequent cases of sudden interruption in service.
It is better to sign a contract only for the period of use, and to pay in installments of 3 months or more with a credit card.
If you exercise the right to protest against the card company when you are damaged, you do not have to pay the remaining installments.