The most common investor complaints received by the New Brunswick Securities Commission last year concerned investment solicitations, the regulator said Friday.

The NBSC says that the majority of the complaints involved individuals or companies offering securities they were not registered to sell in New Brunswick. The approaches that investors complained about came by phone and email, and the investments offered included gold, oil and gas exploration ventures, and international real estate development.

Investors also reported potential misconduct by advisers and brokers, the NBSC reports, “including complaints that insufficient information was being provided, or that there was an inconsistency between what the investor thought they were buying and what they actually bought. There were also some complaints about potential misuse of leveraging for investments.”

The commission also reports that it started using an Internet surveillance tool that identifies potentially fraudulent investment websites last year. This tool, developed in-house, generates alerts for staff to follow up. These alerts have led to investigations, have added new entities to the NBSC’s online Caution List, and have generated referrals to other jurisdictions. Illegal distributions and registrant misconduct were the main focus of its investigations in 2009.

“We are proud to say that every complaint received in 2009 was addressed by our enforcement team and that we did not have to turn anyone away due to resource limitations,” said Jake van der Laan, director of enforcement.

IE