The SEC sets up HoweyCoins for investors in need of a hot tip

something most registered and licensed investment firms won’t let their clients do, according to the SEC.

Celebrity endorsements — another common trick fraudsters employ — do not make a proposition a good investment, the Securities and Exchange Commission cautions.

“It is never a good idea to make an investment decision just because someone famous says a product or service is a good investment,” the SEC warns on the web page that breaks down its fictitious HoweyCoins scam.

Investors are told that HoweyCoins will be traded on an SEC-compliant exchange, where investors can earn extra profits. That’s another ploy that scam artists frequently use, the agency said.

Using the word “exchange” can convey the impression the purchase and sale of the asset is regulated when often times it is not, the agency warns.

The SEC’s breakdown of the HoweyCoins scam also provides links to other advice that the agency has given regarding initial coin offerings, cryptocurrencies, Ponzi schemes and related issues. In addition, there are links to similar advice available from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the North American Securities Administrators Association and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

The SEC’s educational efforts in concocting the HoweyCoins scam amount to more than an ounce of prevention.

Offering a detailed, online look at what a real scam looks like could conceivably increase the frequency with which investors’ reason and common sense trump their greed and impulsiveness. The website is a great place for investors to visit the next time they are approached with a can’t-miss proposition.

But the SEC shouldn’t put its beat cops out to pasture just yet.