Is my Dad being taken for a ride?

shadowspy24

Sorry in advance if this is in the wrong thread.

My dad has savings of £25,000 which he recently decided to send abroad to Bangladesh. He decided to use a money transfer service that is regularly advertised in London to send the money as they specialise in sending money to Bangladesh. Now they have been around for a long while so he thought that they were a reputable company. How wrong he was...

The problems started on August 17th when he went to their office in London and sent the money. The money was paid by debit card and he got a receipt from them. They promised the money would arrive in Bangladesh on or around the 2nd September. When the money didn't arrive, he phoned them up and they promised it would get there soon, so he waited another week and nothing happened. So he phoned up and the guy started making excuses and blocking his calls until he phoned with another number at which point he said he was in a meeting and hung up.

So on the 15th he paid them a visit and the guy said that they were having overdraft problems and that it would be there soon. Fast forward another week and nothing has happened and he is again avoiding calls from my dad. My dad is really stressing out now as it is a really large sum of money which he spent ages saving up. I also feel that the guy is giving false promises and lying as that's the 3rd time he's missed his deadline.

So my question is this: What should he do now? Is there any way to make sure this guy pays up? I presume the police won't care and say it's a civil case. Is there any legal protection against this sort of thing where you can make a come back if you pay someone for a service and they don't deliver? I have no idea what to suggest to my dad at this time so I thought I'd ask. I don't want to suggest any form of aggressive action yet as it's still early days for that and there is a small chance he might still pay up but I would like to know what options are available should he start to become difficult.

Thanks in advance for your help.

bigadaj

It doesn't look good, which firm did he use?

Are they regulated or members of any professional body, is the office still there, maybe try trading standards?

Money transfers are a difficult area, the big banks charge heavily for them but you have a higher level of guarantee, particularly for large sums.

atush

I agree it isn't looking good and this company seems to be going down.

Best to get courts involved if you can (what is the largest amt for county court- that would be cheapest)?

Once you get a judgement, you can send in the bailiffs

JoeCrystal

I do really hope this is not a scam or a con. Best of luck to your dad!

spacey2012

What was wrong with the bank ?
The police will be on him like a rash for money laundering .

shadowspy24

The company is called Kushiara Money Transfer. They've been around for years (2002 I think). They advertise on the asian tv channels all the time hence why my dad went to them. They also sell plane tickets to Bangladesh. The office is still there, my dad went last week. I don't know about if they're regulated or not and I wouldn't know how to find out either. I don't want to take aggressive action just yet as !!!!ing him off might lessen the chance of my dad getting his money. Ideally I want to give him a chance to pay as it is theoretically still too early to assume the worst. However if I suspect my dad has been screwed over and there is no chance of him getting his money then I will happily go all out and do everything in my power to make sure he doesn't go unpunished hence I wanted to know what options were available.

@spacey2012 the money is legit, it's just he wants to invest it in Bangladesh as he has properties there and it is more lucrative than sitting in a 0.5% interest account in the UK. The interest rates in Bangladesh are higher as well (10% I think) so it made more financial sense to put it there.

sabretoothtigger

Rates might be higher but inflation also. If it had to be cash I'd think a gold block taken over on a plane best, then deal with it at the other end.
Can a person not buy Bangladesh land with Sterling or sovereigns, at one time we were traded like dollars in many countries; a second currency for many

I dont know if there is any protection offered for this transaction, the british facing firms can go broke also when dealing with holiday money

BobQ

shadowspy24 wrote: »

The company is called Kushiara Money Transfer. They've been around for years (2002 I think). They advertise on the asian tv channels all the time hence why my dad went to them. They also sell plane tickets to Bangladesh. The office is still there, my dad went last week. I don't know about if they're regulated or not and I wouldn't know how to find out either. I don't want to take aggressive action just yet as !!!!ing him off might lessen the chance of my dad getting his money. Ideally I want to give him a chance to pay as it is theoretically still too early to assume the worst. However if I suspect my dad has been screwed over and there is no chance of him getting his money then I will happily go all out and do everything in my power to make sure he doesn't go unpunished hence I wanted to know what options were available.

@spacey2012 the money is legit, it's just he wants to invest it in Bangladesh as he has properties there and it is more lucrative than sitting in a 0.5% interest account in the UK. The interest rates in Bangladesh are higher as well (10% I think) so it made more financial sense to put it there.

If you check the Financial Conduct Authority and look at their register nothing appears for that post code or for Kushiara and they do not seem to have a website.

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register/psdFirmSearchForm.do

So does not look good unless they are part of another financial institution.

Hope he gets his money back. I was not clear if you are just concerned about the money appearing out of the transfer into an account in Bangledesh, or whether there were issues over who it was transferred to.

If your Dad is living in the UK long term and plans to stay, it seems strange to sent it out of the country.

JoeCrystal

BobQ wrote: »

If you check the Financial Conduct Authority and look at their register nothing appears for that post code or for Kushiara and they do not seem to have a website.

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register/psdFirmSearchForm.do

So does not look good unless they are part of another financial institution.

Hope he gets his money back. I was not clear if you are just concerned about the money appearing out of the transfer into an account in Bangledesh, or whether there were issues over who it was transferred to.

If your Dad is living in the UK long term and plans to stay, it seems strange to sent it out of the country.

There are some informations. Shahjalal Islami Bank (no idea on how legit it is) has remittance drawing arrangement with the Kushiara Financial Services Ltd under which agreement Bangladeshi expatriates living in UK can send their money safely and quickly to the beneficiaries in Bangladesh.

Kushiara Financial Services Ltd no longer got a website and as matter of fact, got suspended. It used to be registered as Kushiara Financial Services Ltd (505346) as small payment institution with agent status as PSD Agent which was effective since 01/11/2009. However, the company is no longer on it so I assumed it is suspended. Anyway, payment services are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme

Or it is different company entirely.

EDIT: Kushiara Financial Services Ltd ran into trouble with ASA for misleading TV ads.

EDIT2: Hmm... back in 2011, the Daily Star reported that Kushiara Financial Services Ltd's managing director is also elected chairman of Shahjalal Islami Bank Ltd. So really, no idea what is going on here. Of course, they may not be a same company after all.

That is what I found so far online.

atush

And his money doesn't have to sit in a UK acct getting .5%. There are accounts up to 3%, and if invested in funds he could be getting 4-6% plus any capital growth.

Something to think about with the next 25K?

sabretoothtigger

I send my money abroad with a uk fund, its collecting interest in South america with various governments. Of course that has problems of its own, everything does