Certification would more to do with proving an identity, a physical address, a bank account and being connected to real people. It's to make it more difficult for would-be scammers from being able to hide. Thus, a publically accessible website of who's raising money, for what, their photo, and some references who've vouched for this person would (I think and hope) significantly deter scammy behaviour. (of note, this type of information is becoming more accessible anyhow http://blog.programmableweb.com/2010/09/20/watch-out-for-ste... - stealthmodewatch.com)

On the other side of the coin, investors could take a simple multi-choice test on ROI, accounting and finance principles .. whatever.

I'd have to brainstorm further. If an arm has a problem, you don't cut it off, you fix it and make sure it doesn't happen again with creative solutions - because you're not solving any problem by amputating (or rather not applying that solution correctly if there are healthier alternatives), you're just creating more problems.

-- another solution may be to simply cap investments at a certain amount, so people can't invest their life-savings in one go.

-- also, a way to search on these micro investments (and micro investors too) would be great: http://www.google.com/finance/stockscreener http://www.formds.com/filings (hat tip gojomo)