You can check on the legitimacy of a firm by visiting www.finra.org, created by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The site allows users to look up the names of individual firms to see what actions have been taken against them. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) maintains a great source of investing information designed to protect investors at www.investor.gov, which is a portal site to many tools and information that potential investors need to use before making an investment.