Is my dad being led into a SCAM?

michael7941

Thanks again guys!

Im sitting in on the meeting tuesday, will get the facts on this investment and make sure he isnt mistaken, but i feel this meeting will be the last with whoever she is.
Any specific questions i should be asking?

Really glad i came on here

RuthnJasper

The advice given on here is fantastic, so I can't add any more - but I DID want to say that I hope your father is OK for what has happened, Michael7941.

My great-aunts were recently similarly-targetted and it knocked their self-confidence a fair bit. Please reassure your father that younger people fall prey to scam-scum too; anyone, regardless of age, can be a potential victim.

He's lucky to have a decent son who pays attention to what's going on.

Best wishes to you and your father.

michael7941

Thank you very much RuthnJasper! Didnt think of it affecting him that way!

jamesd

michael7941 wrote: »

what he remembers her saying is the following..
- guaranteed 3% per month return
- Guaranteed not lose initial investment
- She says the company is regulated.

Who is providing the guarantee? Probably some company that will just go bust in a few years after taking the money, if not an outright fraud from day one. Claims about being regulated can be done using similar names to existing companies or claiming that some company registration is equivalent to being regulated or to the investment rather than the company being regulated to normal UK standards.

michael7941 wrote: »

Im glad you all agree that im right to be alarmed, is the money safe as it is in Avalon? As long as he doesnt allow anymore changes?

You're right to be alarmed, I think that he will lose all of his pension money if he proceeds.

I don't know just which Avalon it is but I'd get it out of there as soon as possible "Trustees banned for involvement in pension scams ... a company they controlled, Avalon Pension Trustees Limited, from acting as trustees of trust schemes in general. Mr ... and Ms ... had acted as trustees of nine pension schemes investigated by the regulator in relation to pension scams activity".

michael7941 wrote: »

Another thing worth noting, in the past when dealing with her, when my dad was saying he wasnt happy with the returns of investments offered previous she mentioned to him about the chance of using an unregulated investment!!

It is a breach of Financial Conduct Authority rules to promote unregulated investments to ordinary consumers. A sign of a likely scam.

michael7941 wrote: »

She also mentioned that if he went ahead with an investment, a financial adviser would contact him to talk about it. Does this mean she ISNT a financial adviser?

Almost certainly. A way that these things are done is to get sales people to set things up than have a regulated financial adviser do the paperwork to make it look legitimate to the legitimate pension companies. The adviser gets a cut or is duped by the scammers or both. Then the adviser gets banned for life from working in financial services when it's uncovered and may also serve prison time. But too late to get people's money back. Often the IFA would just do the pension transfer work then the consumer would choose the investment themselves, with the adviser claiming no liability for that. The consumer isn't really choosing, just buying whatever the sales person said they should buy. Some very limited protection can be had by verifying that it's really a regulated financial adviser and insisting on them writing that they have advised on both the pension transfer and on the final investment. They should run a mile from advising the final investment in such cases but this wont' help if they are part of the scam.

michael7941 wrote: »

She sounds worse the more i hear..

Phone call and unregulated investments and not really a financial adviser means it's a scam and he should have nothing to do with them.

If he wants better investment results he can ask questions here via you and we can give suggestions for legitimate investments that he can use as well as telling him what to expect from them.

jamesd

michael7941 wrote: »

Im sitting in on the meeting tuesday, will get the facts on this investment and make sure he isnt mistaken, but i feel this meeting will be the last with whoever she is.
Any specific questions i should be asking?

Questions:

1. What is your full name and the full name and address of the firm you are working for. What are the normal and mobile phone numbers to use to contact them?
2. What are the full names and addresses of the investment schemes that you are promoting.
3. When the financial adviser's firm is looked up in the FCA register and the contact listed there is contacted to ask about them, will they confirm that the adviser is really one of their regulated advisers and provide the same contact details for them as you will provide?
4. Will the financial adviser be advising on the final investment and do they have sufficient professional liability insurance to protect their customers if the transactions are fraudulent or of an inappropriately high risk level for their customer?
5. Why is only one investment being used when it is normal and expected practice to diversify into many investments to protect customers from loss if one fails or is a scam?
6. Why were unregulated collective investments mentioned before when promotion of them to consumers is prohibited by law and regulation unless they qualify as high net worth individuals with at least £250,000 of non-pension liquid assets or sophisticated investors who have been active in the financial services industry, run businesses or have lots of experience in early stage company investing?

If she has any sense those question should cause her to run and hope that it doesn't get reported to Action Fraud. The questions are in part intended to gather sufficient information to make such a report.

The information gathered should be reported to Avalon as a potential scam attempt for them to be aware of.

magpiecottage

michael7941 wrote: »

The company before Avalon was Phoenix Life, who he was unhappy with due to minimal gains, hence him looking to relocate his pension.

Minimal gain is better than having the whole fund stolen (which is what in reality will happen).

The new investment proposed by her, he's not sure what product it is thats being invested into until he see's her on tuesday

That is because they are trying to con her

- She says the company is regulated.

By whom?

Can you give us the name of this woman and the full name of the company she purports to represent, we can look into it further.

Please do not follow any web addresses she may give as these may be false sites to fool you into believing the business is legitimate.

Mojisola

michael7941 wrote: »

Im sitting in on the meeting tuesday

Don't just sit in on it, record it.

kangoora

Any time I get a call from one of these companies I just tell them I'll supply the phone number of my IFA and they can discuss their proposed review and investments with him.

None of them have ever taken me up on the offer

Which is great because I don't have an IFA :rotfl:

atush

For the first time ever, my OH received a pension review mail shot lol.

Went straight into the bin.

castle96

nothing to add, just want to see the outcome on tuesday