“In the aftermath of this tragedy, investors should be patient and cautious when making decisions about their investments or finances,” said Mark Gallant, PEI Registrar of Securities. “Telephone salespeople, advertisements, or Internet postings that tout investment pools or bonds to help hurricane victims, new water-removal or purification technologies and electricity-generating devices should be a red flag for investors to be cautious.”

NASAA and the PEI Securities Office also urged investors to watch out for oil-and-gas scams given the current oil prices and the prospects of even higher prices following Katrina’s destructive path through Gulf of Mexico oil fields and refineries.

Recalling that many con artists exploited fears associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks and the Year 2000 computer bug to promote investments in precious metals, emergency preparedness scams and non-existent technology companies, the PEI Securities Office urged investors to:

• Hang up on aggressive cold callers promoting hurricane-related or oil-and-gas investments, and ignore unsolicited e-mail or Internet messages discussing small companies with new hurricane-related technologies or products.

• Request written information that fully explains the investment.

• Use common sense. Pie-in-the-sky promises often signal investment fraud.

• Contact your provincial securities regulator to check that both the seller and investment are licensed and registered. If not, they may be operating illegally.

To contact the PEI Securities Office visit www.gov.pe.ca/securities or call 902-368-4564.

The North American Securities Administrators Association is the oldest international organization devoted to investor protection. NASAA’s membership consists of the securities administrators in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, the provinces and territories of Canada and Mexico.