Scam or Investing Opportunity? Why Smart People Fall for “Obvious” Scams

Investment opportunity or scam-FINAL

In August of 2000, the energy company, Enron, posted a peak stock price of $90.75 per share. At the time, Enron was one of the largest companies in the United States. It wasn’t an “obvious” shady scam; everyone thought it was a great investing opportunity.

With over 20,600 employees and headed by executives with impressive resumes, Enron was dubbed a “darling of Wall Street” as the stock only seemed to go up.1Source: Time

But all that ended when Enron’s executives were found to be committing accounting fraud. And the stock price dropped to $0.26 per share in November 2001.2Source: Jct.gov

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