Police say Bermudians have been conned out of thousands of dollars from fraudsters offering dodgy overseas investments.

They are warning the public to be wary of hastily arranged seminars advertised by word of mouth at hotels and private homes which have left locals ripped off and unprotected by the law.

Police spokesman Dwayne Caines said people were being attracted by the high rates of return that were promised.

"You might invest $10,000 and then they give you $1,000 return but that is just part of the original $10,000. Then they say there is something wrong."

And that is the last the investors see of their money.

The dubious investments included financial packages, land and property but the key factor was they were hosted by people from overseas, even though locals sometimes helped.

Mr. Caines said: "If it is a legitimate investment opportunity the persons putting on the seminar should have a licence granted by the Bermuda Monetary Authority."

He said people lost "thousands" but many people were reluctant to talk about it to Police.

"The basic principle is: If it looks to good to be true then it probably is."

The Orange County Register in California reported last week that Bermudians were among the victims of an $18 million Ponzi scheme.

The newspaper said Richard A. Parker, of Laguna Niguel, California, who skipped town after he was indicted in the scheme was was arrested by FBI officials in Burlington, Massachusetts last Thursday.

Mr. Parker headed Morgan, Weinstein & Co., which represented itself as a lender and bilked victims out of $18 million for promised loans totalling more than $11 billion, prosecutors allege. Officials say the company had no assets.

The alleged victims were from Germany, Taiwan, China, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Bermuda, Thailand and India, among other countries. Parker will be extradited to Orange County. His trial is scheduled for September 23, the Register said.

And business newsletter Offshore Alert reported last week that two of the organisers of a 1998 investment conference in Bermuda have pleaded guilty to tax evasion in the US.

As part of their plea agreement, Jeffrey S. Szuch and Shoshanna B. Szuch have agreed to testify against other people involved in the Global Prosperity Group, also known as the Institute for Global Prosperity, which organised a conference in Bermuda in December, 1998 attended by more than 200 people.