Boiler Room Scams

[ricky.green]

Ricky,

Dont fall for any of these calls, they are setting you up to scam you. By the way did you initially 'invest' based on a cold call. If you did it would explain how this guy got your details. I would also have to say that if you 'invested' in a company in China based on a cold call then you were scammed and this is just part 2.

Hello,

Thanks for your response, you have clarified my thoughts on the recent calls.

Wescorp Legal and Mr. James Burbott seemed a little odd and it has also been confirmed by my broker.

I am satisfied with my initial investment, I have already received a slight return on this and the broker was introduced via a colleague who is also satisfied with the company and broker.

It is still a worry how my details have been acquired and I will continue to monitor the situation.

Thanks again for your time and advice.

Ricky.

 

[123hf]

I have some calls regarding the Greencell Technologies (GT5).

The stock is increasing well, but I need information regarding Strathclyde Associates.
Do anyone have information regarding Strathclyde Associates and these Greencell GT5. Is it trustworthy? and if not, why.

Strathclyde Assicuates, used the Seoul address only to give some background for the company, they don't have any office at Seoul, the only rent a phone line, normally all the calls are tranfered to Indonesia.
Their real address is :
JL. Jendral Sudirman Kav 1.
Jakarta
12780 - Jakarta Indonesia
The real phone number is +62 2152 70745 and Mr Hendrik Anderson is suppose to be the company CEO.
I had some money invested with this guys, after pushed the guys a lot they sent me the shares certificates on my name, but now the shares already drop 50% of the nominal value.

 

[anley]

Ricky

Are you 100% sure you're dealing with a legit broker and I mean 100%.

Have you properly answered these questions yourself, and not replied on anyone else -

Where are they located?
Where did you send the money to for your original investment?
was it to the same account name as the broker or a different one?
Are they registered by that country's financial regulator
If so have you called them to their main switchboard number from the number on the regulators website
When was their website first registered and does it tally with how old the company is supposed to be - http://whois.domaintools.com/

I'd get answers to those if I were you because something smells very fishy here.

 

[anley]

123

You've been dealing with a scammer and chances are the share certs you've been sent are fake. I wouldn't do any more business with them and also I doubt that Hendrik Anderson is his real name because you're dealing with international conmen.

 

[pboyles]

Strathclyde Assicuates, used the Seoul address only to give some background for the company, they don't have any office at Seoul, the only rent a phone line, normally all the calls are tranfered to Indonesia.
Their real address is :
JL. Jendral Sudirman Kav 1.
Jakarta
12780 - Jakarta Indonesia
The real phone number is +62 2152 70745 and Mr Hendrik Anderson is suppose to be the company CEO.
I had some money invested with this guys, after pushed the guys a lot they sent me the shares certificates on my name, but now the shares already drop 50% of the nominal value.

Strathclyde Associates are a well known boiler room scam. Many governement agencies have issued official warnings against them. The shares you have will be worthless. Whatever you do dont give them any more money.

 

[pboyles]

Hello,

Thanks for your response, you have clarified my thoughts on the recent calls.

Wescorp Legal and Mr. James Burbott seemed a little odd and it has also been confirmed by my broker.

I am satisfied with my initial investment, I have already received a slight return on this and the broker was introduced via a colleague who is also satisfied with the company and broker.

It is still a worry how my details have been acquired and I will continue to monitor the situation.

Thanks again for your time and advice.

Ricky.

There are a few ways they may have obtained your details. Firstly by getting them from a genuine share register. I imagine this might not be easy if your shareholding is in China.

Secondly they may have got them from a 'mugs list', that is a list of people who have previously fallen for some sort of share related scam. People like this are seen as easy targets for them.

Thirdly they may actually be the same people that sold you the shares in the first place and are now just using a different name to carry out part two of the scam most likely asking for an advance fee for something or other.

If you tell us the name of the original broker who sold you the shares we can check and see if they are genuine. Also the name of the company whose shares you hold is often a good indicator.

 

[Jimbo Jones]

Hi Shishir -

I'm almost ashamed to admit it but I was also conned of $15 K USD by a slick talking "Richard Franklin" and his associate "Ron Haskin".

Thank you for your advice as per below - I am going to pursue any recourse I can but I guess we have to be realistic about the chances of recovery.

Jimbo

Shin Kong Wedbush are frauds to be sure.I am also a victim of them.I invested around 30K with them over the past year.As with you, they never made any grandiose claims, ....at the most 30% in a year.When I needed to liquidate it this December, all the phone lines were down and I couldnt reach them even with email.I contacted the Financial Securities Bureau in Taiwan(their SEC) and they told me that this SKW was registered in China,not Taiwan and that this was an international scam.However there may be a light at the end of the tunnel.....I contacted their bank where I made the transfers (Cathay United Bank) and they told me that the account is frozen and is under investigation.They wouldnt tell the amount of funds available in the account.All they said was that they were awaiting a judgement from the Taiwanese court on this matter and didnt know when that would be.All in all ,looks like the authorities had gotten wise to them pretty quickly as I had spoken to a "broker" from SKW just 1 week prior and they claimed everything was hunky dory.I even got an email saying that they had been acquired by a Gibraltar based company called Fairfield Associates.

Their banks home page
www.cathaybk.com.tw
email:[email protected]

Financial Securities Bureau
Emails
[email protected]
[email protected]



Here is something curious,while furiously googling SKW ,I found this company Richmond Grant.Looks like another scam but this is based in Hong Kong, in their contact email page they ask you to contact them in case of any issues with SKW products hmmm....

http://richmondgrant.com/contact-email.php

On top of this ,their goddamn twitter account is still active
http://twitter.com/shinkongwedbush
(Last entryec 29th)

Here are the names of the people I dealt with at SKW

Ron Haskin(customer service)
David Brown(Senior Portfolio Manager)
Douglas Butler(SVP Investments)
Shang(dont remember title)
Richard Franklin(Portfolio Manager)
Mathew Curren(Portfolio Manager)
Mike Tan(used to send a SKW newsletter,stopped around March 2010)

I first dealt with David Brown, when I asked him to liquidate some monies, he suddenly got a back problem and I was now dealing with Richard Franklin,later when I made the same request to Richard Franklin to release some more monies he initially side stepped it saying that he couldnt sell it as mine was a small amount and that he doesnt anticipate a large block sale until December and also it would be more profitable then.Later, when I tried to reach him, Ron Haskin informed me that Franklin had to skip work due to the birth of his son!Matthew Curren then replaced Franklin ,by then in late NOvember/early December I reiterated that he had to liquidate it all.Mr Curren agreed and after that all communication ceased!BTW the stock they claimed I had was HGSI, I contacted HGSI as well and they claimed to have no knowledge of this broker or my stock.

As recently as Christmas Eve, David Brown has been penning articles on behalf of SKW at articlesnatch.com
http://www.articlesnatch.com/Articl...e-Q4-Loss-Much-Narrower-Than-Expected/1009319

Mind you this article was written while SKW was very much under the microscope of the relevant authorities as well as their bank.


Hope this info helps.Lets ,keep at it , perhaps we may recover atleast some of our investment

 

[kerk]

Shin Kong Wedbush are frauds to be sure.I am also a victim of them.I invested around 30K with them over the past year.As with you, they never made any grandiose claims, ....at the most 30% in a year.When I needed to liquidate it this December, all the phone lines were down and I couldnt reach them even with email.I contacted the Financial Securities Bureau in Taiwan(their SEC) and they told me that this SKW was registered in China,not Taiwan and that this was an international scam.However there may be a light at the end of the tunnel.....I contacted their bank where I made the transfers (Cathay United Bank) and they told me that the account is frozen and is under investigation.They wouldnt tell the amount of funds available in the account.All they said was that they were awaiting a judgement from the Taiwanese court on this matter and didnt know when that would be.All in all ,looks like the authorities had gotten wise to them pretty quickly as I had spoken to a "broker" from SKW just 1 week prior and they claimed everything was hunky dory.I even got an email saying that they had been acquired by a Gibraltar based company called Fairfield Associates.

Their banks home page
www.cathaybk.com.tw
email:[email protected]

Financial Securities Bureau
Emails
[email protected]
[email protected]



Here is something curious,while furiously googling SKW ,I found this company Richmond Grant.Looks like another scam but this is based in Hong Kong, in their contact email page they ask you to contact them in case of any issues with SKW products hmmm....

http://richmondgrant.com/contact-email.php

On top of this ,their goddamn twitter account is still active
http://twitter.com/shinkongwedbush
(Last entryec 29th)

Here are the names of the people I dealt with at SKW

Ron Haskin(customer service)
David Brown(Senior Portfolio Manager)
Douglas Butler(SVP Investments)
Shang(dont remember title)
Richard Franklin(Portfolio Manager)
Mathew Curren(Portfolio Manager)
Mike Tan(used to send a SKW newsletter,stopped around March 2010)

I first dealt with David Brown, when I asked him to liquidate some monies, he suddenly got a back problem and I was now dealing with Richard Franklin,later when I made the same request to Richard Franklin to release some more monies he initially side stepped it saying that he couldnt sell it as mine was a small amount and that he doesnt anticipate a large block sale until December and also it would be more profitable then.Later, when I tried to reach him, Ron Haskin informed me that Franklin had to skip work due to the birth of his son!Matthew Curren then replaced Franklin ,by then in late NOvember/early December I reiterated that he had to liquidate it all.Mr Curren agreed and after that all communication ceased!BTW the stock they claimed I had was HGSI, I contacted HGSI as well and they claimed to have no knowledge of this broker or my stock.

As recently as Christmas Eve, David Brown has been penning articles on behalf of SKW at articlesnatch.com
http://www.articlesnatch.com/Articl...e-Q4-Loss-Much-Narrower-Than-Expected/1009319

Mind you this article was written while SKW was very much under the microscope of the relevant authorities as well as their bank.


Hope this info helps.Lets ,keep at it , perhaps we may recover atleast some of our investment

Dear Shishir,

count me in please, wish we can work together and get the money back.
I had a bad experience with them too, HGSI and LVS, total morethan 150K invested
I plan to go Taiwan to have a look at their office, but from your message, there is no need? how can I get the regist information they have in China? as you may know China is crazy about the company register, english name and Chinese can be nothing related, and based on localation, not all of them together...

I contacted Brett at the same time, anyone who is hurt by them, lets work together, must get rid of these guys

cheers!

wishes!
K

 

[kerk]

Brett

Did you see the post here from Shishir? He has some knowledge about a court case, might be worth contacting him.

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/brokerages/14154-boiler-room-scams-281.html

Hi,

send me email: yourfriendkerk*hotmail.com

I am from China, hurt by them via HGSI, and LVS, lets work together, fighting back for our money.

 

[kerk]

Shin Kong Wedbush are frauds to be sure.I am also a victim of them.I invested around 30K with them over the past year.As with you, they never made any grandiose claims, ....at the most 30% in a year.When I needed to liquidate it this December, all the phone lines were down and I couldnt reach them even with email.I contacted the Financial Securities Bureau in Taiwan(their SEC) and they told me that this SKW was registered in China,not Taiwan and that this was an international scam.However there may be a light at the end of the tunnel.....I contacted their bank where I made the transfers (Cathay United Bank) and they told me that the account is frozen and is under investigation.They wouldnt tell the amount of funds available in the account.All they said was that they were awaiting a judgement from the Taiwanese court on this matter and didnt know when that would be.All in all ,looks like the authorities had gotten wise to them pretty quickly as I had spoken to a "broker" from SKW just 1 week prior and they claimed everything was hunky dory.I even got an email saying that they had been acquired by a Gibraltar based company called Fairfield Associates.

Their banks home page
www.cathaybk.com.tw
email:[email protected]

Financial Securities Bureau
Emails
[email protected]
[email protected]



Here is something curious,while furiously googling SKW ,I found this company Richmond Grant.Looks like another scam but this is based in Hong Kong, in their contact email page they ask you to contact them in case of any issues with SKW products hmmm....

http://richmondgrant.com/contact-email.php

On top of this ,their goddamn twitter account is still active
http://twitter.com/shinkongwedbush
(Last entryec 29th)

Here are the names of the people I dealt with at SKW

Ron Haskin(customer service)
David Brown(Senior Portfolio Manager)
Douglas Butler(SVP Investments)
Shang(dont remember title)
Richard Franklin(Portfolio Manager)
Mathew Curren(Portfolio Manager)
Mike Tan(used to send a SKW newsletter,stopped around March 2010)

I first dealt with David Brown, when I asked him to liquidate some monies, he suddenly got a back problem and I was now dealing with Richard Franklin,later when I made the same request to Richard Franklin to release some more monies he initially side stepped it saying that he couldnt sell it as mine was a small amount and that he doesnt anticipate a large block sale until December and also it would be more profitable then.Later, when I tried to reach him, Ron Haskin informed me that Franklin had to skip work due to the birth of his son!Matthew Curren then replaced Franklin ,by then in late NOvember/early December I reiterated that he had to liquidate it all.Mr Curren agreed and after that all communication ceased!BTW the stock they claimed I had was HGSI, I contacted HGSI as well and they claimed to have no knowledge of this broker or my stock.

As recently as Christmas Eve, David Brown has been penning articles on behalf of SKW at articlesnatch.com
http://www.articlesnatch.com/Articl...e-Q4-Loss-Much-Narrower-Than-Expected/1009319

Mind you this article was written while SKW was very much under the microscope of the relevant authorities as well as their bank.


Hope this info helps.Lets ,keep at it , perhaps we may recover atleast some of our investment

hey, guys, I call the bank
www.cathaybk.com.tw
email:[email protected]

also to the local police department, latest news:
this SKW bank account was freezen already; not only one party, but too many are having trouble with them, taking them to the court
they are proved to be a national cheating company

how I wish you guys can speak chinese, so I can explain to you easier

I have tried to call Taiwan to get theri chinese name, but failed, my lawer told me if I got the Chinese name, I can take the owner & register to the court directly, can anyone of you provide me such information please?

now we know they are chinese mainland registered company, but no body knows the chinese name, or even any details about their registeration, this is the problem. as you may know, here China was too good to those foreigners, so their english name and chinese name are of nothing related is acceptable, so we are facing this problem: who shall we take to the court?

you are free to send me emails:
[email protected]

any kind advices are warmly welcome, lets fight them back, I want my initial payment of 11K USD back to my poket:cheesy:

 

[Jimbo Jones]

Hi Kerk -

I wonder if the FSB Taiwan can tell us thei Chinese company name.

Cathay United must have this detail - they would not have been able to open a bank account without it, but whether they give us that information is another question !


I have dropped you a quick e-mail directly - let's stay in touch on progress with recovery of the money owed to us.

Thanks,

Jimbo

 

[wow2403]

Reading this thread I´ve noticed that many scammed investors own Bio Defense Corp shares. There must be millions of them in circulation. For me it is completely strange that the SEC is doing NOTHING about it. Foreign investors are ok to be scammed or what? One house search at Bio Defense would be sufficient to proof that LU, Hamberger and Heller are all crooks. So, what are they waiting for?
Arrest them all and close down the washing machine factory.
On the other hand, I maybe should wait. Seeing how many shares are sold to idiots like myself, the boiler rooms could get out of Biodef shares, maybe they pay more for it. HAHA. Just joking ...

 

[pboyles]

I think the problem is that people won't admit to themselves that they've been scammed. They tend not to make complaints to the SEC because of embarrassment or whatever. It's partly what sustains scams like this, people just won't stand up and complain. Of all the people I have met that have been boiler room victims only a handful will admit they've been scammed, they'd rather tell you they made a bad investment.

 

[dexterbaxter]

I am glad to people in this forum. I was almost tricked to buy AMG shares few months ago. The shares has winced tumbled from $2+ to $0.30. I don't know how any responsible stock exchange can allow this kind of manipulation. Sphinx Asia is the name of the scammer group. Beware. Let's together bring these guys to their knees.

 

[wow2403]

I think the problem is that people won't admit to themselves that they've been scammed. They tend not to make complaints to the SEC because of embarrassment or whatever. It's partly what sustains scams like this, people just won't stand up and complain. Of all the people I have met that have been boiler room victims only a handful will admit they've been scammed, they'd rather tell you they made a bad investment.

As being scammed myself, I noticed that I was undergoing a psycho-shock; fear, unbelief, bullishness, belief, anger and shame. It takes up and downs. Esp. when you lost all of your savings to one of these crooks. It changes your life, you´re pressed in a role you don´t want... After sentiment you start thinking and deliberate action.
Here are my findings:

- doing nothing is wrong!
- making new expenses is unavoidable.
- you need real professionals to go after them:
1. Report your case to the right authorities in the right country. No blind reporting.
2. Engage an intelligence agency (Caution: don´t get another scam) who can excecute an investigation.
3. When these findings show a little chance; engage a laywer or other services.
4. If the money is unreachable, forget it. Get a good psycho and start another life. Forget about the money and work hard.
5 Every known identity of any "boiler room" should be reported to the authorities. When no money, then at least a just punishment.

 

[pboyles]

I don't know how any responsible stock exchange can allow this kind of manipulation. .

I read somewhere that something like 60 or 70 percent of all transitions on these over the counter exchanges (pink sheets, Frankfurt OTC etc) are part of a fraud. It's not just the odd bad apple the entire system is bad. The exchanges make money by facilitating trades, they don't care about who is getting scammed and they have no interest in stopping it.

 

[123hf]

As being scammed myself, I noticed that I was undergoing a psycho-shock; fear, unbelief, bullishness, belief, anger and shame. It takes up and downs. Esp. when you lost all of your savings to one of these crooks. It changes your life, you´re pressed in a role you don´t want... After sentiment you start thinking and deliberate action.
Here are my findings:

- doing nothing is wrong!
- making new expenses is unavoidable.
- you need real professionals to go after them:
1. Report your case to the right authorities in the right country. No blind reporting.
2. Engage an intelligence agency (Caution: don´t get another scam) who can excecute an investigation.
3. When these findings show a little chance; engage a laywer or other services.
4. If the money is unreachable, forget it. Get a good psycho and start another life. Forget about the money and work hard.
5 Every known identity of any "boiler room" should be reported to the authorities. When no money, then at least a just punishment.

I had problem with Strathclyde Associates, sent letter to Korean Government, Malaysia Government, and the Maybank where they have an account. The Korean Government replay to me by phone and told that they are checking but, they are not an investigation company even if the company uses a Korean address and phone number, the other two never replaied.

 

[wow2403]

I had problem with Strathclyde Associates, sent letter to Korean Government, Malaysia Government, and the Maybank where they have an account. The Korean Government replay to me by phone and told that they are checking but, they are not an investigation company even if the company uses a Korean address and phone number, the other two never replaied.

Banks never give voluntarily informations; you need an investigation company for this.
As a matter of a fact these intelligence agencies mostly know all of these banks who are cooperating with "Boiler rooms" or similar crooks. If you have lost lots of money you should think about engaging one of them. Especially because your "problem-bank" is in Asia. European banks have more regulations like FATH40, so they are more cooperativ in some cases. I also heard that Hong-Kong banks are willing to help.
Offcourse these crooks change their bank accounts to those countries where they can act anonymously. But even with trusts and other kinds of set-ups the agencies have their ways to find out who´s behind it.
Tell us more how Stratclyde Associates betrayed you, maybe we can learn from it.
And remember, doing nothing will NOT bring your money back.

 

[Ross2011]

Shin Kong Wedbush are frauds to be sure.I am also a victim of them.I invested around 30K with them over the past year.As with you, they never made any grandiose claims, ....at the most 30% in a year.When I needed to liquidate it this December, all the phone lines were down and I couldnt reach them even with email.I contacted the Financial Securities Bureau in Taiwan(their SEC) and they told me that this SKW was registered in China,not Taiwan and that this was an international scam.However there may be a light at the end of the tunnel.....I contacted their bank where I made the transfers (Cathay United Bank) and they told me that the account is frozen and is under investigation.They wouldnt tell the amount of funds available in the account.All they said was that they were awaiting a judgement from the Taiwanese court on this matter and didnt know when that would be.All in all ,looks like the authorities had gotten wise to them pretty quickly as I had spoken to a "broker" from SKW just 1 week prior and they claimed everything was hunky dory.I even got an email saying that they had been acquired by a Gibraltar based company called Fairfield Associates.

Their banks home page
www.cathaybk.com.tw
email:[email protected]

Financial Securities Bureau
Emails
[email protected]
[email protected]



Here is something curious,while furiously googling SKW ,I found this company Richmond Grant.Looks like another scam but this is based in Hong Kong, in their contact email page they ask you to contact them in case of any issues with SKW products hmmm....

http://richmondgrant.com/contact-email.php

On top of this ,their goddamn twitter account is still active
http://twitter.com/shinkongwedbush
(Last entryec 29th)

Here are the names of the people I dealt with at SKW

Ron Haskin(customer service)
David Brown(Senior Portfolio Manager)
Douglas Butler(SVP Investments)
Shang(dont remember title)
Richard Franklin(Portfolio Manager)
Mathew Curren(Portfolio Manager)
Mike Tan(used to send a SKW newsletter,stopped around March 2010)

I first dealt with David Brown, when I asked him to liquidate some monies, he suddenly got a back problem and I was now dealing with Richard Franklin,later when I made the same request to Richard Franklin to release some more monies he initially side stepped it saying that he couldnt sell it as mine was a small amount and that he doesnt anticipate a large block sale until December and also it would be more profitable then.Later, when I tried to reach him, Ron Haskin informed me that Franklin had to skip work due to the birth of his son!Matthew Curren then replaced Franklin ,by then in late NOvember/early December I reiterated that he had to liquidate it all.Mr Curren agreed and after that all communication ceased!BTW the stock they claimed I had was HGSI, I contacted HGSI as well and they claimed to have no knowledge of this broker or my stock.

As recently as Christmas Eve, David Brown has been penning articles on behalf of SKW at articlesnatch.com
http://www.articlesnatch.com/Articl...e-Q4-Loss-Much-Narrower-Than-Expected/1009319

Mind you this article was written while SKW was very much under the microscope of the relevant authorities as well as their bank.


Hope this info helps.Lets ,keep at it , perhaps we may recover atleast some of our investment

Hi Shishir, These crooks got $80k from me as well. I dealt with most of the names you list as well as 'Steven Young' and 'Alexander Breit'. I also got the sore back and birth of a child excuse for not selling.

Their con was made so much easier when the LVS shares I bought rose from $22 to over $50. In November they tried to persuade me to purchase attached warrants at $26 which would have cost me $182k and (if they had been legit) would have doubled my money - I'm so glad I didn't.

So where do we go from here? On the advice of the NZ Securities Commission I emailed the Taiwanese Financial Supervisory Commission. They responded saying SKW were not a registered securities firm in their jurisdiction and suggested I contact the Ministry of Justice, Investigation Bureau which I have done and await their response. I also emailed the Cathay United Bank, again awaiting a response.

Has anyone any suggestions as to how we register our claims with the authorities and perhaps get a share of the money frozen in their bank? Or is there anything else we could be doing?

 

[angryinvestor]

Re: Boiler Room Scams global Offset Experts

Hi all, it looks like Cig.Llc has made a return under a new name "global Offset Experts" contacted me recently, upon looking at the website I noticed that Global Offset Experts have the same Physical address as Cig.Llc and Financial Soultions.
These scamsters are back www.globaloffsetexperts.com
New website, new name and what looks like a lot of dubious press releases.
Has anyone else been contacted by these criminal?