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Our blog series on stats and data from the 2024 Investor Index continues this week with a look at stats and data on DIY investing and investment fraud. You can find Part 1 of the Investor Index series on social media use among investors here.
Among respondents to the Investor Index, 45% reported that they have at least a portion of their investments in a self-directed investment account. Among those that reported they have self-directed investment accounts, 30% opened this type of account within the last two years, and 59% opened them within the last five years.
DIY investing has been shown to be more popular among men than women, with 52% of male respondents identifying as DIY investors, compared to only 36% of female respondents. The percentage of DIY investors is also higher among young investors, as can be seen in this breakdown:
Nova Scotians who responded are slower to engage in DIY investing than most other provinces, as can be seen in this provincial breakdown:
For fraud stats, the survey asked if respondents had ever been approached with what they believed was a fraudulent investment. In 2024, 23% responded that they had been approached with a fraudulent investment, which was up from 18% in 2020. While the number of respondents approached with a fraudulent investment opportunity increased, the number who said they actually invested in a fraudulent investment remained relatively the same at 5% compared to 4% four years earlier.
The most popular method would-be fraudsters used to approach respondents was email, at 35%. Email has been the most common answer to this question since it was first asked in 2009. Other popular responses included by phone (20%), social media (11%), and by text or messaging app (10%).
When those who had been approached with a suspected fraudulent investment were asked what fraud techniques were used, the most common response was the fraudster “seemed official/legitimate” at 58%. Other common responses included the fraudster providing supporting documents (33%), promising high returns with no risk (29%), saying that they were already invested (23%), and pressuring the target to make a quick decision (21%). (Respondents were able to provide more than one answer.) You can find many of these fraud techniques and others in our red flags of fraud blog post.
In the next and final part of our series on the Investor Index stats and numbers we’ll look how well respondents did on the 2024 investor knowledge quiz compared to 2020.