NOTE: See scamadviser.com for a scam score and whois information on any website. You can also use this site to see how many other websites are sharing a server. A legitmate business might have more than one website on a server but not dozens of dissimilar sites.

 

Scamadviser.com is not always accurate because scammers are buying older domains. However, you CAN check their hosting history:

 

ALSO: Check that they have an Australian Financial Services License and the Australian Government Moneysmart website for Companies you Should Not Deal With. In spite of what the may claim, any business or person that offers or advises you about financial products must have a license.

 

We have been getting cold calls since 2010 from bogus companies claiming to be options and commodities traders. So far they have all been scams. The latest ones are below:

 

I have concluded that you should NEVER SEND ANY MONEY TO ANYONE YOU DON'T KNOW PERSONALLY. Online investment scams are the rule, not the exception.

 

I have figured out why we are now seeing domain names of six to sixteen years on scam sites. The scammers are simply buying older domain names from domain brokers. For instance, in the puzzling case of BNP Partners (below), it turns out the hosting history of the doman shows it was sold by "THIS-DOMAIN-FOR-SALE.COM" to "NSWEBHOST.COM" on 1 June 2015, The misleading age of 5 years, 277 days (as of this writing) causes scamadviser.com to give it a HIGH TRUST RATING of 81%, which is undeserved.

 

The scam sites http://darrylevans.com, http://foxcapitalpartners.com and http://wmgltd.com.(now offline) showed long ages for their sites and receive high marks from scamadvisor; but historical data shows the domains were dormant until very recently. To check the domain name registration and hosting history for a site go to www.HosterStats.com or fill in the following form:

Enter Domain Name

 

 

Fairview HK Limited SCAM!

 These guys are still live and scamming 

 

Ability Corporate Advisory SCAM!

 These guys are still live and scamming 

I received a call from a "Mr. Danny Sharp, Senior Portfolio Manager" of Fairview HK. I spoke with him only long enough for him to offer to send me an email with his details. These include a procedure to verify his Hong Kong business registration details. I looked over the usual details confirming shared hosting and a relatively new domain registration. A number of paid press releases showed up in searches.

I also discovered an identical site at "Ability Corporate Advisory" which was enough to confirm this is another scam of the typical variety. The next step is to ask, when he calls again, if he has an Australian Financial Services License. He will say he doesn't need one and when I press the issue he'll likely hang up. Let's see.

29 April 2023

 

BTM Capital SCAM!

 This website has disappeared 

"George Mason, Senior Portfolio Manager" has called to sell shares in Northern Canada Cannabis. He has also shared a press release from a press release site that he is the new Head of IPO Listings. I ask the question why would this top executive be cold-calling in Australia? Answer, of course, he is NOT a top executive, just another scammer.

This week (May 2020) I was re-contacted by a "David Perelli" from this site. Another "Senior Manager". He says they have an "institutional block" of shares in Moderna, Inc who is developing a Coronavirus vaccine. They are wanting to sell me shares at $50 (well under the market price) as a way of encouraging me to do business with them. I allowed them to take me to the stage where I was to open an account and transfer funds to a "Triple-A rated" third party bank who would then send the money directly to Moderna. Yikes, what B.S. I finally lost my patience and hung up.

I hope you don't fall for these guys. They are the same as the 38 previous scammers (all except one have vanished). Same playbook, same website look-and-feel, same dubious history.

• Cold calling me in Australia to sell a financial product is not legal without an AFS license. "George Mason's"claim that it is OK because he is dealing with USA stocks is bogus.
• The site is on a shared server
• The age of the name extends back to 2000, but the domain went through nine owners and transfers with the latest one in May 2019.
• The "compliance officer" (Sean) said that because they (BTM) did not actually receive any money, that I was safe and they did not have to comply with things like UK money-laundering protocols (or have that pesky AFS license). He lost his cool talking to me, not listening and insisting I was wrong. 
• I'm not wrong.  A look through the Internet Archive showed that in August 2005 an apparently legitimate company was using the btmcapital.com domain. One of the things this company did was finance spare aircraft engines. The scammers claimed they had never heard of that and I must have be looking at BTMU instead of BTM. Wrong, the Wayback Machine proved that. From 2005 to July 2020 the domain was parked. It only became "live" a few months ago. Their claim of 27 years working for BTM is totally fabricated. But, of course, the whole story is fabricated.

28 Nov 2019
22 March 2020

 

Doncelle Investments SCAM!

 This website has disappeared 

"Steve Blackwell" supposedly from Hong Kong is trying to talk me into buying a NYSE listed company, Barrick Gold, through "Doncelle Investments". Why not not just buy it myself, I asked? His answer "we know just when to buy and sell". Stupid. Points to consider.

• Cold calling me in Australia to sell a financial product is not legal without an AFS license. His claim that it is OK because he is dealing with USA stocks is bogus.
• The domain name is new as of August 2019.
• There is a listing for "Doncelle Investment Limited" as a Hong Kong company still in business after 9 years. They appear to have no website and searching under that name turns up no further information.
• A reverse IP lookup shows this site shares a server with 47 unrelated websites.
• Other scam markers will be updated soon.

28 Nov 2019

 

Empire Global Partners SCAM!

 This website has disappeared 

• The website was new in October 2018.
• They are not on a shared server but the server they are using has only been detected since October 2018.
• Much of the boilerplate on their website is plagiarized from other websites, some of which are defunct. This implies recycling of old scam sites into current spam sites.

22 Jan 2019

 

Felder Wilhelm SCAM!

 This website has disappeared 

Where do they dream up these names for bogus scam sites? "Felder Wilhelm"? You gotta be kidding.

• The website was new in July 2018. The company claims to have been in existence since 1972, so it is unlikely to be legitimate.
• A Google search on the company returns ZERO hits other than their own domain. If this were a real company there would be SOMTHING on the internet besides their own website.
• They are on a shared server with 1202 other domains.
• Much of the boilerplate on their website is plagiarized from the website of Pictet Wealth Management

17 Sepl 2018

 

Branson Yates Capital Partners SCAM!

 This website has disappeared 

A man calling himself "Anthony Fanning" with calling from an "unknown number" but claiming to be in London called to chide me for not buying gold futures with his company some months ago. He is now offering me an opportunity to buy unleaded gasoline futures. "It's the driving season coming up", he says. Such nonsense. The market accounts for the driving season every year. Anyway, it's bogus, as ususal.

• The website was new in May of 2017. This is a while ago, but the company claims to have been in existence since 1986, so it is unlikely to be legitimate.
• A Google search on the company returns ZERO hits other than their own domain.
• They are on a shared server with nearly 1068 other domains.
• Much of the boilerplate on their website is plagiarized from the website of Eclipse Capital Management.

6 Sept 2018

 

Independent Brokers LLC SCAM!

 This website has disappeared 

These crooks did an identity theft on a real Brokerage house that was no longer in business. Their pitch is for pre-IPO shares of ANT/ALIPAY. They made their webpage with refermces to an SEC number soi it appears as if they had SEC filings and FINRA brokerage registration. All of it was bogus. A look at the SEC filings appeared to be good, but the corporate phone number was different. When I called that number I spoke to a person who said he had worked for Independent Brokers but that the company was not doing business. BrokerCheck report them as a "Previously Registered Brokerage Firm". I sent an abuse report to GoDaddy and filed an FBI report. They also fail the usual tests:

• The website was created only a few months ago (Jan 18)
• They are on a shared server with nearly a hundred other domains.

13 April 2018

 

Fintech Capital Partners SCAM!

 This website has disappeared 

I'm so tired of all these guys calling me. I have been cold-called by 30 or so "companies" and not one has been legitimate. Every single website has vanished. This one is attempting to sell me ICO for GRAM. They fail the litmus test.

• They are on a shared server with OVER THREE MILLION domains! I've never seen that before.
• The website is only 3 months old.
• Need I go on

13 April 2918

 

Cornerstone Financial Services SCAM!

 This website has disappeared 

They want to help me get into Tesla (TSLA). Wow. Do I really need help to do that?

• Domain name was created in December 2017 so it fails the age test.
• On a dedicated server with so it passes the shared server test.
• They have no Google presence to speak of. There is a company with the same name that does truck financing in America

13 April 2018

 

Stirling Capital Services SCAM!

 This website has disappeared 

Only fails some of litmus tests but smells bad enough to make the list.

• Domain name was created in July 2015 so it passes the age test; but there are no hoster statistics available.
• They provide a number of articles which are supposedly written by a "Danna J. Cano" but these are found all over the web on other sites by other authors or unattributed. I find these by googling entire paragraphs off their website.
• On a shared server with 369 other domains
• Their address is a a shared or virtual office
• They are unique in that they are still alive. Everyone else has disappeared. If I'm wrong about them being a scam, please let me know.

13 April 2018

 

Darryl Evans SCAM!

 This website has disappeared 

I was approached via a person calling himself "Kevin James'" from this company purporting to be headquartered in Zug, Switzerland. They match some but not all of the usual standards for a financial scam.

• These guys have done a lot of hard work to look legitimate:
  • their web site is top notch; although fairly empty of meaningful information.
  • They have an amusing backstory about a farmer (Darryl Evans) turned financial wizard whose wife died of cancer and that is why they support a breast cancer fund.
  • they don't have a shared server; in fact they use their own server hosted in Switzerland. This makes them look legit.
  • their domain name is 11 years old
  • they get high ratings on scamadvisor.com.
• However, if you dig deeper, you find the domain, new in 2005, was just transferred to "darrylevans.com" in October 2016, so the website is actually only 4 months old.
• Google cannot find ANY MENTION of this company, other than its own website.
• They cold called. I now have the belief that any cold call has to be a scam.
• They have no Australian Financial Services (AFS) license nor had any idea what i was talking about.

Be warned.

22 Jan 2017

 

MCF Consultants SCAM!

 This website has disappeared 

I was approached via a "pre-screener" and "senior representative" from this company purporting to be headquartered in London with offices in Shenzhen, China. They match the usual standards for a financial scam.

• Cold calling to recommend buying gold option contract.
• Wrong price given for the option recommended (GCF17 for $1050).
• Website registrered in Seychelles Islands; the web host server is in the Netherlands.
• Domain name is very new; registered 13 months ago.
• It is on a shared server with 56 other unrelated domains, all using the IPN 192.241.157.211.
• Company claims online presence since 2004. Google searches turn up NOTHING about this company except for its own website.
• A search for a UK business of that name has zero results (other than their own website).
• They have no Australian Financial Services (AFS) license. Any business or person that offers or advises you about financial products must have one.

No doubt about it. They are after your money.

 

05 Nov 2016

 

Wealth Management Group, Ltd. SCAM!

 This website has disappeared 

Another cold call inviting my interest to invest in Australian alternative energy systems. Their domain name is registered in Panama with a website out of Singapore and the caller telling me what a hot, muggy day it was in Hong Kong. Scam adviser gives it a high score of 84% based on an almost 10-year domain age. Digging deeper reveals the original domain name was owned by another company (Whitall Management Group) which was active in 2003, but the company is not around anymore and the name expired in Sept 2004. It was bought by a string of domain sales companies and last changed hands in November 2015, which puts it firmly back in suspicious territory, less than 3 months old.

 

01 March 2015

 

Fox Capital Partners SCAM!

 This website has disappeared 

Another cold call. The usual reasons. This one has an "old" domain name that was dormant for years which was recently purchased for the scam site.

 

BNP Partners SCAM!

 This website has disappeared 

This one is unusal in that it gets a "safe" rating of 81%from scamadviser. This is mostly becaues the domain name was created in 2010. Searches reveal the name was recently purchased. The company is purportedly located in Shanghai.

 

The reasons I believe it is a scam are:

• It is a cold call for buying a block of pre-IPO stock for SpaceX. No rumours of any SpaceX IPO could be found. It seems pretty dodgy.
• Mr. "Armitage" did not have time to send me an email. He said he would call back the next day, but did not.
• More telling, the website shares a server with 109 other websites, many of them sex-related.
• Googling "BNP Partners" returns half a dozen links, none earlier than June of this year.
• Their website looks like all the others -- gibberish about wealth management, trading, etc.

31 Oct 2015

 

HML Securities SCAM!

 This website has disappeared 

This one is the $1000 gold options scam. "Michael Wright" just called and gave me the usual "tutorial" on options which proves they either don't know anything about options or think I don't know anything about options. Aside from that, the usual tests show this company to be totally fradulent. If you call the phone number on the website you will get someone who has never heard of them. If I google some of their boilerplate I get identical hits from OTHER scam sites, but I have decided to only report those that call me directly. I don't have the time. Weirdly enough I came across a site called economicfrauds.com which itself may be a fraud, or it may be legitimate and subject to a disinformation campaign by the fraudsters. The basic rule is: if they cold call you they are a fraud or a scam. Just hang up.

07 Oct 2015

 

Van Ecker/Couder & Associates SCAM!

 This website has disappeared 

Pacific Region International Markets Regulatory Commission (PRIMRC,ERROR404) SCAM!

 This website has disappeared 

Now we have "Paul Stevens" in an Oscar-winning performance as a Brit in an office in Belgium, trying to get me interested in an IPO by China smart-phone manufacturer Xiaomi. However, his "company" ticks all the usual boxes for the usual scam. Do I have to list them all again? As of today ( 1 October 2105) this company, which claims to be around since 1989 shows the following data:

 

The owner of the website is using a service to hide their identity
This website is 78 Days old
The website expected life (366 days) is relatively short.
The website uses boilerplate stolen from other, legitimate concerns

The caller claims he does not need a license to call Australians.

The caller references PRIMRC as validating their company, but wait -- they are also bogus.

Search results on their name reveals 50 or so hits, all of them a month old. They are all bogus press releases, announcements etc.

 

Now, about PRIMRC. The same applies, only its even younger (48 days) than Van Ecker/Couder. Wow. They even made a bogus regulatory agency! The PRIMRC site is hopelessly and obviously a bunch of BS.

 

These guys are so good on the phone I wonder if they are being scammed into thinking they are actually employed by a real company.

Sep 2015

 

GRAPHENE SENSORS SCAM!

 This website has disappeared 

FUND ACCESS LTD. SCAM!

 This website has disappeared 

"Peter Thompson" has called me regarding helping me as an advisor and pointing me towards a company (Graphene Sensors) which he says is traded OTCBB and is about to go public in a few months and how I should a) get in on it and b) trade with him instead of my regular broker, because Fund Access Ltd only charges me a fee on profits, not losses.

 

Graphene scams abound and this is one of them. It is like "Global Energy Systems" bogus graphene company (below) whose website has now disappeared.

 

Graphene Sensors and Fund Access website are a cut above the others; very professional looking with supporting "press releases", joint ventures with an Indian company, and lots of graphene boilerplate scraped from other websites and publications, including a cure for cancer. The creators have gone to great lengths to list the company with promotional groups and press agencies like Newwire that list anything for a fee.

 

Scamadvisor reports websites for both companies check out as being less than a year old, and are only registered for one year -- not a good sign. Both companies list their sales offices as:

27/F,
E-Trade Plaza, 24 Lee Chung St.
Chai Wan, Hong Kong.

The servers are in Singapore and Switzerland; all ownership details are hidden. They appear to not be on a shared server, which is unusual. Graphene Sensors is not registered with the SEC, has no ticker symbols, and is clearly a bogus non-existent entity. When I asked for the ticker symbol "Peter" first said they would not have one until they went public. But I know that ticker symbols are often assigned for OTCBB listings and upcoming IPO filings are public. Fund Access Ltd. also appears bogus to me. Walk away from these people.

 

SOUTHBRIDGE WEALTH MANAGEMENT SCAM!

This website no longer exists

Yet another Cold Call has reached me. This time it's to old "gold option" offer at $1000/option, which is not the current price. Aside from that, this company website ticks the usual boxes for a scam:

• No Internet presence AT ALL. No articles, press releases, etc.
• Website has been up only 65 days.
• Website owner is hidden behind an agent with an address in Belize.
• The server is in Panama City.
• The "headquarters" at 10 Aldersgate St in London appears to be a mostly empty building.
• No mention of any CEO, COO, CFO names on the website.
• The server they are using in Panama is only shared with 7 other websites, but they look to be a mixed lot: 2 examples are thehushlounge.com and festicheap.com. The latter sells discount tickets in Europe.
• The domain name has a lifetime of only 1 year. No plans, obviously, to use it for very long.
• Do they have the required Australian Financial Services license? I haven't asked yet, but they will claim they don't need one. I'll find out next time they call.

 

JANSSEN & BOSMANS SCAM!

This website no longer exists

Another pitiful attempt to sell me gold options. I'm actually getting bored listening to the same bogus lame nonsense about options. The "agent" asks me do I know anything about options? I say "yes". Ignoring this he proceeds to lecture me on how much money I could have made in the last month if only I was one of their clients. This one rings the same bells as most of the others. A 35-year old (right!) company with a 9-month old website 1-year website on a shared server with 837 other domains. I don't have to dig any deeper.

 

CLEARWATER OPTIONS SCAM!

This website no longer exists

CRENSHAW ASSET MANAGEMENT SCAM!

This website no longer exists

Although the websites are very good looking, these two are not only clearly phony, but they are identical! Except for images and styling they share the same boilerplate on their web pages. Some of the text is lifted piecemeal from a legitimate company called Global Futures Exchange & Trading Company. Both of these companies use shared servers with numerous non-related sites. The 16 shared domains for Clearwater includes one porn site. Their are 507 shared domains for Crenshaw also includes an apparent porn site. Clearly not a very salubrious server for a supposedly serious business. Of note is the usual lack of Internet presence.

 

OSBORNE AND McKENZIE INTERNATIONAL SCAM!

This website no longer exists

This one rings all the warning bells. At the time of this writing the "35 year old company" had a website only 12 days old with an anonymous owner. It is registered for only 1 year.. Purportedly in the UK, it is hosted in the USA and shares a server with 186 other sites. An online search reveals zero hits other than their own website. An address search in London reveals no such company at that address. This is a fraudulent company and any money you send them will be lost forever.

 

GATEWAY MERCANTILE ASSET EXCHANGE SCAM!

This website no longer exists

Just for fun, I goggled a paragraph from Delta Asset Commodities "about" page and came up with this one! Same host as below. Same litmus tests. Stay away.

 

DELTA ASSET COMMODITIES EXCHANGE SCAM!

This website no longer exists

My final call with "William" from Branford Capital Management had him protesting "We don't need an Australian Financial Services License because all trades are with Delta Asset Commodities Exchange in London". Well, waddya know, this "exchange" also fails the litmus tests, plus bad grammar on the website is a dead giveaway.

 

Branford Capital Management SCAM!

This website no longer exists

This scam involved a cold call from a "senior advisor" with the typical gold option offer. Buy five $1000 "options" to control 500 ounces of gold. I was offered my "own trading account" through their website as they are "advisors only" and only take a 5% fee on my profits. The "advisor only" status does not absolve them from obtaining an Australian Financial Services license. This company rings all the bells for being a total scam:

 

 

Evan Thompson SCAM!

This website no longer exists

Global Energy Systems (Toronto) SCAM!

This website no longer exists

These guys tried very hard. The Evan Thompson calls supposedly came from a Fairfax Media pre-screening campaign (yes, I had calls from Fairfax) and more than one "senior trader" from Evan Thompson. Even though the Evan Thompson website was registered 4 years ago (unusual for a scammer) there are a number of odd things about it; including its location in Hong Kong (always a red flag), and their apparent confusion about how many "senior traders" I was assigned. Frankly, if any senior trader was calling me without my solicitation that is another red flag. Another problem was that sometimes the company was called "Evan Thompson" and sometimes "Evan & Thompson". They have very little Internet exposure.

 

The real give-away was their trying to "get me in" to a block of IPO stock for a clearly fictitious graphene manufacturing company called Global Energy Systems, which is supposedly located in the Toronto Star building in Canada. There are a lot of virtual companies based at that address. There is no reference anywhere on the Internet to this company having any kind of stock offering or ticker symbol. The website also fails the scam tests
:

My opinion is that this is a fictitious company. I did find another company named Global Energy Systems (which appears to be legitimate) at www.gesolutions.ae. This domain is in the United Arab Emirates, but openly registered in the USA. It has a lab in Texas. It gets a 93% high trust rating from Scamadviser. Note that this website is not accessible from Australia. You have to have a USA IP number (at least) to see what is there. And what I found was a lot of the boilerplate for the bogus Toronto GES was lifted from GES in Dubai. This is way too suspicious to consider committing any money for a stock offering. When I last talked to the "senior trader #2" he offered to email me the same information on GES I had received from "senior trader #1". When I mentioned that I had already had calls from them and that I found out there was another GES in Dubai, he fumbled around and said "Yes, that's the one I was talking about" and then said he "had to check some things" and would get back to me. I haven't heard from the since.

12 September 2014

 

Union Options UK SCAM!

This website no longer exists

My call from these guys was almost laughable at this point. I'm not sure why they think I'm such an easy mark. They were fairly easy to spot. They telltale whois check shows a website only 10 months old. The "gold options" spiel is the same; buy an option on gold futures and make heaps of money. When I asked at what strike price their option offering was at they ignored the question and moved on to how I could triple my money with this "limited risk" option strategy. Caller ID showed a number in Thailand. Calling that number I did NOT get the "financial advisor" who had called earlier. Instead I talked to a man who admitted he had worked as a cold-caller to pre-screen potential suckers; he told me to not have anything to do with them. It was strange they were using his number; but I was SO GLAD to finally hear from someone who admitted to a scam.

Hopler Global Investment Group SCAM!

This website no longer exists

This mob is almost identical to Timmermans (below). "Matthew Cook" is the very smooth contact. He claims they are advisors only but of course, trading will be done through another company, "Lionbridge Global Commodities Exchange". I won't even go into details; they easily pass the litmus test for a scam trading outfit. When outed, they always profess disbelief and are so good at it you wonder if you are making a mistake. You aren't. When they claim to be in business for 20 years and nothing, NOTHING, about their company is on the web older than a few weeks, and their domain name was created only a few months ago, they are bogus. Of not, "Matthew Cook" called me to protest mightily about my last phone call in which I accused them of scamming. "I'm just an advisor" he said, "I could double your money by Christmas". But he could not (or would not) answer the question as to why Hopler Global had a web presence only a few months old, except to say "we have a lot of private clients" which still did not really answer the question. He is very convincing, though. Is he in on it, or do the scammers hire financial advisors and don't tell them about the scam so they can have credibility and plausible deniability? Doubtful.

 

Lionbridge Global Commodities Exchange SCAM!

This website no longer exists

This trading company is affiliated with Hopler. Equally bogus according to the litmus test.

 

Timmermans-Grantt Solutions SCAM!

This website no longer exists

Another "cold call" to my Australian mobile phone offering to help me get rich. They only want 2% of the profits for advising me on which gold options to purchase. They claim they don't want any of my money; however they will help me open an account with a third party that will allow me to buy and sell options. Of course, that company will want my money for the options purchases and I'll never see it again. How do I know this is a scam?

1. The company claims to be in business since 1985, but a Google search of their name turns up NO RESULTS at all except for their own website.
2. Their domain name was registered in Jan 21, 2014 and expires Jan 21 2015.. This is a sure-fire indicator of an options scam.
3. Much of the "boilerplate" on their website can be found word-for-word on the websites of legitimate companies.
4. The registered owner of the domain has an address in Alaska. Click here for full details.
5. They list a strange address in the UK for their HQ. No street number, just a street. The street does exist.
6. The man who called advised me that I can buy 1 option at $1000 to "totally control" 100 oz. of gold. "What's the strike price?" I asked. No answer. The numbers are meaningless.
7. They have no AFS (Australia Financial Services) license and claim they don't need one. This is not true. Click here for more information from the Australian Government.

In-Capital

 

 

Fortis Global Solutions

 

 

DatavisionUK

 

This is too obvious for words. They call you with some lame patter about a) are you interested in commodities trading and b) can you afford it. Ok? Then a representative wil phone you. They sent an email confirming this.

 

Why are they a scam?

1. Cheesy non-professional website.
2. "whois" search of their Internet Domain shows it is created 31 August 2010.
3. No phone numbers on website or documents.

PrataCom

This "company" is represented by a guy calling himself "Daniel Moore". The targets appear to be Australians. At least the companyu website boasts a phone number, although there is no after-hours voice mail or message. The company, supposedly in business since 1981, has their website domain registered only a few months ago (13 Jul 2010). Their pitch is that they will advise you on gold options in which you risk only the option price and then can earn $100 for every $1 invested. They neglect to tell you that the price has to move up (for a call) or down (for a put) to put it "in the money". "Daniel" explained how they advised their clients to get into gold at $900/oz. And so forth and so on. My investment is safe because I send them no money. All I do is send money to a brokerage that has an account at a "big well-known bank" like Citi Bank or Chase. This protects me? Heck, you can send all kinds of money through big banks into the hands of people you don't know.

This is such a crock. I had to stop listening. These guys are just as bogus as the rest. It's a different pitch, but you still end up sending your money someplace where you'll probably never see it again. There are no Google hits on this company other than their website and a complaint registered on OzRipoff.com. Nobody has yet reported losing any money. Beware.

 

---

Our earlier scam experience was with Center Capital Trading. We almost got caught with this one, and many people did. They were much better than the DatavisionUK mob.

 

 

In spotting scam traders always look for:

• Domain name creation date within the last few months. Ownership is hidden (not necessarily a giveaway, but suspicious). Always a tipoff. I call this the "litmus test" for trading scams. Click here for a domain name search or go to scamadviser.com. Note that scammers are now buying old domain names to get a high trust rating on sites like scamadviser.com. To check a domains hosting history and name registration history go to HosterStats.com or use the submission form above
• A shared server is a big sign that this is not a serious company. Shared servers are cheap. No reputable financial company would use a shared server. scamadviser.com can show you the company's servers.
• Promise of easy money
• The company is not registered with any government agency. In Australia check the ASIC website to see if they have an Australian Financial Services License..
• Also check the Australian Government Moneysmart website for Companies you Should Not Deal With.
• Probability of a virtual address.� Search of their address reveals another company in that location, or a non-existent address.
• Inconsistencies in the business procedures.� Typos in the websites and emails.� Lack of trading accounts.� No visibility for the "trading partners"�
• Missing information such as proper addresses or phone numbers. Try calling them back using their Caller ID, if present. I did this with one trader's phone number, only to to find it led to a "pre-screener" in Bangkok who admitted to having made cold calls for a bogus company and who advised me to "avoid them at all costs".
• An unprofessional and inconsistent website is a give-away, but the websites are often professional looking.
• "Press releases" and other Google hits all within the last few months (i.e. no web presence older than two or three of months). They all claim to be in business for many years. If true, how come nobody has heard of them?

 

3 Dec 2010

Mooloolaba
Updated 2 Feb 2011

Updated 6 Aug 2014

Updated 11 Feb 2015

Updated 01 Mar 2016

Updated 04 Nov 2016

 

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