If you are leary, that should be enough of a downside. but to find other proof on the web about these secured investment contracts
you can do a search on
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22secured+investment+contract%22+scam
which will find
http://www.stockgumshoe.com/2008/06/secured-investment-contracts-legal ly-obligated-181-gains-stansberry.html
which points out that the guarantee is not so guaranteed at all
it appears that the corporate bonds that you would buy are backed by a company called Vertis
And this a bad thing according to this article because....
That’s because Vertis is in the process of going bankrupt — they’re getting ready to merge with another company, erase the current notes (those are the bonds — all of which mature next summer), and give the note holders new notes or perhaps equity in the new company — they’re not actually recommending that you buy these, so I didn’t read the agreements and the reorganization documents very closely.
That article also talks about all the different types of corporate bonds that this program could be, not all of which are good, or always leave the end investor in a good spot. Considered that Vertis is a distressed company probably at this point.
if you would rather own a company via stock, then lend a company money which is what this secured investment contract is, this probably isn't for you either.
This is basically a very very high yield investment, that is also very very high risk.
unless you can stomach something like that, with basically throw away money, I wouldn't invest in an investment like this.
I also found this page, with some other people talking about this
http://www.superiorinvestor.net/showthread.php?t=8066
seems like their consensus is that this is spam and a scam as well. at least until someone makes money with the secured investment contracts
I hope that answers your question.

