Is There a Checklist?

If someone is promising you something which looks too good to be true, it probably isn't kosher. So check for the regulatory license and don't believe any returns. If the returns are more than what you would get in an FD, then the odds are you're taking risk. In fact, recently I came across someone who got lured into something like that, but they were smart enough to go to sebi, raise an issue. And they got all their money back because it was someone from the broker side who was trying to help them.