Trolling the investment scammers (video)

Last month, we wrote about a new financial investment scam involving Olympus International Limited in Hong Kong. This is a real company selling ceramic and stainless plate, but victim of corporate ID theft by a group of individual trying to scam investors through escrow agents (aka money mules) by discounted shares on the NASDAQ for FireEye (FEYE) before the announcement of a yet-to-be-made public contract with Facebook, and an expected return of at least 40% within three months.

You'll find out more about the scam details in the earlier post, but today, we'll share a photo montage from an audio call with one of the financial advisor, the escrow website is reveals, a Feng Shui "incantation" is performance (just because), and we ask a few questions to validate, or in this case, invalidate the company's claims, before sharing a copy of a passport that's truly a work of art....

Fraud alert: Olympus International Limited's Facebook and FireEye (FEYE) scam

Scammers never seem to take a break with the latest fraud going through "financial advisors" claiming to work for a small Hong Kong based company called Olympus International Limited. They are using the same expats database as the Brookfield Investment Funds Plc scam, and call potential investors telling them about inside information about FireEye (FEYE) having signed a large contract from Facebook, yet to be publicly announced, and expect the stock to go up at a minimum of 40% in three months.

Getting a call from an investor survey company

It all start the same way as the Brookfield scam, with a cold call from an investor survey company asking some details about you and your investor profile that takes about 5 minutes. Shortly later you'll received an email summarizing your answers from "clientform@www.dq-datamanager.com".

They ask about your job, experience in investing, budget to buy stocks, and whether you could be interested in opportunities if they present themselves.

First Olympus International Limited Calls

Then a couple of weeks later, you may received a call from an investment company in this case: Olympus international Limited based in Hong Kong.

 

The financial advisor may speak your native language or English, and they'll offer you short term investment opportunities with close to guaranteed returns. The offer we were made aware for FireEye, listed in the NASDAQ with the sticker FEYE, and claims of inside information about a contract having been signed with Facebook. They claim to be an institutional investment firm, but also work with individual when opportunities arise. They also explain they can purchase the stock as a cheaper price since they buy in large blocks, and ask you to confirm over the phone.

The call we were told about involved Ms. Olivia Martel, Senior Financial Advisor. That's likely a fake name. The website is https://olympusintltd.com/ and telephone: +852 5803 7265. 

 

Olympus International Limited is real... 

 

 Hong Kong keeps a company registry so it's easy to check if a company exists.

 

The company was registered in 2003, so it's been doing business for over 17 years. The company registration number is 0846150 and matches the number used in the emails with seen from the scammers.

 

But cracks can be found pretty quickly...

This almost looks legit, but when we look at the website WHOIS data, it was only created in August 2020, that's a long time for a company to operate without a website. 

 

They optimized their costs too by going with one of the cheapest domain registrar, and the free Let's Encrypt TLS certificate service. But at least everything is under a secure connection contrary to what's we've seen with Brookfield website...

If we look for Olympus International Limited Hong Kong on the web, we can find what types of products they offer: namely ceramic and stainless plates or other kitchen utensils.

 But who am I to judge. Time are tough, and it's possible the company decided to change the direction of the business. But if you're going to offer financial services in Hong Kong you need to register with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) which again keeps a database of registered companies.

The only registered company with "Olympus" in the name is "Olympus Partners Asia Limited". But I'm sure Ms. Olivia Martel would not have lie about her status to the face of her client.

No matched record for "Olivia Martel" or even just "<artel"? How is that possible? That's because it's a total scam, and a group of individuals likely using fake names are using the name and CR number of a real, completely unrelated company.

Let's invest in FireEye/Facebook scam!

Most sane people who figured out this was a scam, would just block the number of ignore. So are we still interested? You bet! One Ms. Martel called back, our source said due-diligence was done, and he/she was ready to go ahead with the proposal start with a small $5,000 investment. Once the number of share was agreed upon, price (around $1 cheaper than live quote at the time), and it was explained payment would have to be made through an escrow company and was due within 3 working days. A call from an "SEC compliance officer" called Mr. Michael Winters soon followed double-checking the transaction details and requiring an audio signature by simply saying the full name. 

The purchase was confirmed the following day, and the investor was given a receipt, an account opening form, and a W8 form for US taxes. 

 

 

 

The procedure is pretty similar to the one used by Brookfield Investment Funds Plc so far, but there's a twist as this time around a proof of address and copy of address is being asked first, before the payment details of the escrow company are provided. That's probably to avoid all those leaks that have happened on this website and others in the past. The escrow company (aka money mule) takes a central part in the scam so they only want to limit the distributions of the information to the minimum. Since our source did not use his/her real name, the use of a fake passport copy and proof of address, and filling a W8 form with falsified information would have been required. We did advise against it.

If you've been scammed, or managed to obtain the money mule information, please let us know in the comments section.

People behind Brookfield Investment Funds Plc and Kaloca Inc Investment Fraud

We first wrote about Brookfield Investment Funds Plc when covering AirBnB and Virgin Hyperloop One Pre-IPO scams. This is a non-existent company that claims to be based in Ireland and the United Kingdom and receive payments through "money mules" that are recently incorporated financial companies such as Singapore based Vipco Holding Pte and WELLINGTON YORK PARTNERS PTE. LTD.,  John Jennings law office in Germany, or Kaloca Inc in the US.

Somehow, the scammers are still free to operate but at least the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK and Ireland has finally written warnings about Brookfield Investment Funds Plc "clone firm" that mislead investors by claiming to be an already authorized firm.

Derek Nguyen - Kaloca Inc. CEO

But we have now received more information from a victim of Brookfield Investment Funds Plc scam, who paid to Kaloca Inc., and hired a private detective to look into the matter.

Amazingly Kaloca Inc. company has been registered by a recidivist, Mr. Derek Nguyen, who previously another scam company under the name Kaloca Holdings Inc. He is now CEO at Kaloca Inc, and both companies point to the same, non-loading website kaloca dot com.

Based on investigative work, Brookfield scammers are mostly working out of Northern Virginia with Carl Bryce likely being a scammer on the West Coast, and others are using fake names. Gregory Ellis, who is allegedly working with them, had been arrested in Thailand in 2013, then jailed by the DOJ, but was eventually released from prison and went back to his old trade.

While the walls are closing in on the scammers, various authorities are involved, victims are often taken in a circular loop, where each agency point to the other one to solve the issue. We'll keep you posted if more information comes out. Feel free to contact us if you are a victim, as if more people come together there's a better change to recover the funds.

Fraudulent Company Warning: WELLINGTON YORK PARTNERS PTE. LTD.

A coupled of months ago we wrote about AirBnB and Virgin Hyperloop One Pre-IPO fraud where victims would receive cold calls from native English-speaking, apparently financially savvy "financial investors" proposing them to invest in pre-IPO offerings from popular companies that had yet to be listed in the stock market.

They work for fake companies and instead ask victims to invest through escrow companies "for your safety". We previously mentioned Kaloca Inc (USA) and Vipco Holdings (Singapore) used by Van Gossum Consult, Brookfield Investment Funds Plc, and others, but we were informed about another company helping scammers: WELLINGTON YORK PARTNERS PTE. LTD
.

Victims who contacted us receiving an invoice with the following details:

WELLINGTON YORK PARTNERS PTE. LTD.
68 Circular Rd.,
Suite 02‐01,
Singapore 049422
Account Number: 348 903 0630
Bank Name: UNITED OVERSEAS BANK LIMITED
Bank Address: UOB Plaza
80 Raffles Place,
Singapore 048624
Swift Code: UOVBSGSG

Make sure not to make any payment to this company, and if you've received an invoice you can contact the police, and/or the Commercial Affairs Department in Singapore to report the company.

The company has a website which we will not publicize here, but while they claim to operate since 1986, they only thought of registering the website in 2018...

Since the company is registered in Singapore, there's a searchable business registry, and we can see the company was only incorporated on the 7th of June 2019.

Fraud Warning - COVID-19 Bank Scams

In February 2020, we wrote about one particular type of financial fraud, namely pre-IPO offering for well-known companies like Virgin Hyperloop One and AirBnB, where the scammer call victims offering investment opportunities.

But just like politicians, scammers never let a crisis go to waster, and we've received information from Standard Chartered Bank so some are trying to exploit COVID-19 pandemic to prey on victims.

Here's the email from the bank:


Protect your business from COVID-19 bank scams

Criminals are exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic to target and scam bank clients. They are using social engineering techniques (Phishing and Vishing) to hack or spoof business email accounts to fool potential victims into making fraudulent payments or to gain access to online banking authentication credentials for financial gain.

Please be extra vigilant and heed the following advice:

• Do not disclose your S2B credentials, VASCO OTP or account details to anyone, as this may compromise the security of your account.
• If you receive any suspicious emails, do not click on links or attachments until you have validated the source. Please ensure that you access your bank account only through our official channels.
• If you receive any suspicious text messages or phone calls, do not respond directly, please verify if the message or the caller is legitimate. 
• Validate any new bank account details directly with your suppliers / clients. If you notice unauthorised transactions appearing in your account, please report to us immediately.

Thank you for banking with us.

Financial Fraud: AirBnB and Virgin Hyperloop One Pre-IPO Scams

You may have read in the news that fairly large private companies like AirBnB and Virgin Hyperloop One may consider launching an IPO (Initial Public Offering). Some scammers have decided to make a buck and launched several websites, opened companies across the world in 2019, and set up call centers.

[Update June 2, 2020: The scammers have also diversified their stock offerings with scams now also involving:

PRMW - Primo Water Corporation
ZM - Zoom Video Communications, Inc.]

How Does that Work?

The scammers manage to get your phone number, name, and email address from sources that may include a website where you have expressed your interest.

A person speaking perfect English and that sounds knowledgeable with financial matters then calls pitching the unique opportunity to invest in Virgin Hyperloop One IPO (actually Pre-IPO), for instance. Most people will be wary, but then they provide you with a credible company website, including registration numbers from the Bank of Ireland that seem to match, and some information about the IPO. They let you some time to think about it, and then come back the next day where they can complete the deal.

You'll then receive an email with account opening documents, online account access, invoice for the amount you want to invest in, and of course, the W-8 form since the IPO takes place in the US. You'll talk to another employee/scammer to confirm your details. Note that we were told you'll never be asked your passport, a clear red flag.


You'll notice the company where you're asked to pay the invoice to is different from the company promoting the pre-IPO, but they'll tell you it's safer to use a third-party as Escrow to confirm payment for both sides. It's also in a different country.

Once payment is received, you'll get an official receipt, and can log into your account, and your shares will be visible. They'll then call you from time to time, maybe once to twice a month to explain everything goes well, and the IPO should occur in Q1 or Q2 2020 as expected. One day, a call is different, as they'll pitch another stock with a unique opportunity of a positive liquidation scheduled to close in about 45 days. You'll buy some shares now, and in 45 days you more than double your investment. This is a unique opportunity, does not happen very often, and is basically risk-free.

If you decide to invest again, and then be contacted from time to time to keep you updated, and when the time to sell has come, they'll call you to inform you there are some options to purchase for a fraction of the price, and you'll quadruple your initial investment. If you refuse, they'll come back a few days later, saying the sale is complete, and provide with an obviously fake NASDAQ receipt (PDF generated from Excel file) saying you need to purchase mandatory preferred shares to release the funds.

Fake Companies/Websites/Names, Real Companies, and Bank Accounts

So who are those people? We don't exactly, but we do know they are using possibly fake companies, fake names with the phone scammers having some heavy turnaround, as well as real companies that opened last year and are used to funnel the money.

"Fake" companies & websites used:

Van Gossum Consult (“VGC”) 

Singapore: One Raffles Place, Tower 2, 1 Raffles Place #27-62 S048616 London: 110 Bishopsgate, London, EC2N 4AY Hong Kong: International Finance Centre, 8 Finance Street, Central, Hong Kong 

St Johns Asset Management (“SJAM”). 

website: www.stjohnsasset.com

Office#: 386-385-5915
Address: 601 St. Johns Avenue Palatka, FL 32177, USA

Crest Security Contracts Ltd

The company was related to the two other companies listed above and has now alledgedly closed due to a lawsuit.

Brookfield Investment Funds Plc 

website: brookfieldinvestmentfundsplc.net
main email: accounts@brookfieldinvestmentfundsplc.net

Office addresses:

Exchange Tower
1 Harbour Exchange Square,
London, E14 9GE, UK
+44 207 660 1459

The Exchange Building
George's Dock,
International Financial Services Centre,
Dublin 1, D01 P2V6, Ireland
+353 1 691 7462

Others

You'll find many others companies related to AirBnB pre-IPO scam. Luxstar Asset Management, based in Luxembourg, specifically asks payments to Kaloca Inc, for which we have more details below.

We know of three companies and bank accounts used to transfer funds, but there may be more:

Account Name: VIPCO Holdings Pte.Ltd.
Account address:
11 Keng Cheow Street
No. 02‐11 Riverside
Piazza
Singapore 059608
Account Number: 503 534 950 301
Bank Name: OCBC Bank Singapore
Bank address:
65 Chulia St.,
OCBC Centre,
Singapore 049514
Swift Code: OCBCSGSG

Incorporated in February 2019.

Account Name: Law Office: John Jennings
Account Address: 40213 Duesseldorf, Germany
Account Number: DE34 7001 0080 0097 3868 04
Bank Name: Postbank
Bank Address: Essen, Germany
Swift Code: PBNKDEFF

Very hard to find information about that one. It looks like an individual, instead of a law office.

Account Name: KALOCA INC.

Account Address:
2177 Buckingham Rd.,
Suite 567,
Richardson, TX 75081
Account Number: 4880 7336 0881
Bank Name: Bank of America
Bank Address:
100 N. Tryon St.
Charlotte, NC 28255
USA
Swift Code: BOFAUS3N
ABA/Routing Number: 026009593


The company was incorporated in 2019.

Some of the (likely) fake names and positions of the scammers include:

Mr. Jason Taylor, Investment Adviser
Carl Bryce, Director of Finance
Damian Williams, Director of Mergers & Acquisitions
David Billington, Accounts Department
Keith Armitage, President
Greg Ellis, Account Services.

Ian Simms, Senior Market Strategist

David Scott, Finance Manager

Daniel Parker, Investment Advisor
Melissa Keating, Accounts

Some of the phone numbers used to call victims: +35314126374, +35314124540, +44(0)1702623754, +442076601459, "private numbers", and local phones numbers which all have called barring enabled meaning they can call you, but you can't call back

I've been scammed! What can I do?

First, stay calm, and if they call you again just pretend you are still interested, just in case the police need more information. You could also install call recording apps such ACR call record provided it's legal in your home country.

Then fill a report to your local police station. You could also fill a report to the authorities of the country where you transferred the funds.

For VIPCO Holdings Pte. Ltd. in Singapore, you can fill a report online to the Singapore Police Force using their iWitness website. Alternatively, you could call the Commercial Affairs Department directly: +65 6325 0000.

For "Law Office: John Jennings" in Germany or other countries in Europe, you can follow the links from Europol website.

For KALACO Inc. in the US, you could contact the FBI in one of their offices in the US or overseas.

You could also contact a lawyer, but this would likely only work if the amount is really significant. Working on international cybercrime is a complex and slow process with the involvement of the authorities of multiple counties, certified translations, bank records, lots of documents and so on.

SafeorScam website also reported on such scams, and they offer services to help to recover the funds. However, we never worked with the company, and can't vouch for them, just make sure not to throw good money after bad.

To be honest, the chance of recovering funds is slim, as the money probably left the country where the money was transferred and spent on third parties. But it still worth a try, and the people responsible for the scam must be held accountable and spend a few years in jail. This will also prevent more victims.

Marc Faber June 2013 Market Commentary

Marc Faber has just released the June 2013 monthly market commentary (MMC) entitled "The Hidden Dangers of Political Correctness" on gloomboomdoom.com.

Marc Faber first explains "Political Correctness" (PC), which has become the outcome of a distinctive 'turn' in Leftist politics. There's a list of things one must think or say together by the elites, and goes against the right of the individual to establish his or her own beliefs. He goes as far as to say PC "is indeed a purely totalitarian concept, and it asserts the fight of those in power to suppress all but the party line's official lies."

Moving on to deal with to asset markets, Mr Faber explains bond yields have been rising all around the world, and this may negatively affect equities. Based on that fact and several technical indicators, he believes there's significant downside right for stock markets worldwide, and at least it's much more risky than perceived by the crowd of investors.

Marc Faber also mentions one investment he's done recently: gold stocks, as Gold and Silver mining stocks have the potential to rebound by between 30% and 40% following the dramatic slump experience in the last few months.

There's one attachment to this MMC:

• "The Importance of Being Diligent" by Shinya Deguch, working for Star Magnolia Capital, which provide details about fraud at Bayou Management.
  The report is also available on Slideshare.

If you want to access the full Monthly Market Commentary (MMC) by Marc Faber, it is available for 300 USD per year.  

Anonymous Looking to Investigate International Banks

Anonymous Analytics (@AnonAnalytics) has just tweeted the following:
Anonymous Analytics is seeking an analyst with significant experience analyzing international banks: anonanalytics [at] hushmail [dot] com

So after investigating Chaoda Modern Agriculture (0682.HK)and releasing a damning report leading to its suspension on the Hong Kong stock market, it seems they are now in the progress of checking out some international banks.

Chaoda Modern report took about 20 days to be ready. So we may receive a new report about an international bank within 30 days, if they manage to find a volunteer.