Investors should beware of opportunistic investment scams related to Hurricane Katrina, the North American Securities Administrators Association has warned.

“Bottom-feeding con artists always try to find ways to exploit tragic headlines to cash in on unsuspecting investors,” said Franklin Widmann, chief of the New Jersey Bureau of Securities and president of NASAA.

“In the aftermath of this week’s tragedies, investors should be patient and cautious when making decisions about their investments or finances,” he said. Cold-calling telephone salespeople, advertisements or Internet postings that tout investment pools or bonds to help hurricane victims or to pay for water removal, water purification or electricity-generating should be a red flag for investors.

Widmann also urged investors to watch out for oil-and-gas scams, given the current oil prices and the prospects of even higher prices following Katrina’s destructive path through Gulf of Mexico oil fields and refineries.

Many con artists exploited fears associated with the Sept. 11 attacks and the Year 2000 computer bug to promote investments in precious metals, emergency preparedness scams and non-existent technology companies, Widmann said. He urged investors to hang up on aggressive cold-callers who are promoting hurricane-related or oil-and-gas investments, and to ignore unsolicited e-mail or Internet messages discussing small companies with new hurricane-related technologies or products. Anyone who is tempted to invest should request written information that fully explains the investment and should contact regulators to check that both the sellers and the investments are licensed and registered.