My cousin put $500 into BioTech Dreams last year. It was gone in a week. Poof. So yeah, I get why you steer clear. Index funds are boring but they don't just disappear. Losing that first deposit hurts, man.
But seriously, how does that work in real life? Like, do you mean when a bank fails and there's no insurance? I remember hearing about folks in Cyprus a while back who had their accounts straight up drained. Or is it more about investment scams that vanish overnight? Give me some concrete stuff here, because just saying 'they can wipe you out' feels like fear-mongering without details.