PGMS & other commercial property investment

mrwowfactor

Please has anyone any info or dealt with "Prive global managment services" (PGMS) or
similar commercial property investment companies with ads popping up everywhere?
They have been giving me hard sell calls since I replied to an
ad for another company who passed on my details.
They claim to own 1000s of UK properties and promise a g'teed 1% of investment monthly
income derived from rentals with my cash used to buy more.
The usual "sophisticated investors only" disclaimer and "capital at risk" warnings
are absent? , they are FCA regulated and there is no lock-in period, protection is by a
"debenture" - default in payment triggers selling of property to repay capital but there is no
way of finding the value of their assets/liabilities - only the "top 10" properties are listed
in the prospectus. If the banks are lending at 4% or less secured on property
why are PGMS paying 12%+ for capital? they claim to have been in business for 8+ yrs so
is there any track record ?
The really scary possible is if PGMS are not getting enough new cash to pay existing investors and default,
most investors would then want to exit at the same time - then you find out if they are a Ponzi
- when it's too late!

dunstonh

They claim to own 1000s of UK properties and promise a g'teed 1% of investment monthly
income derived from rentals with my cash used to buy more.

yay!!! The magic 12% figure. The most popular figure used by scammers.

And bonus points for calling it guaranteed.

they are FCA regulated

Not according to the FCA. No such company is listed on the FCA register. I also did a search under the FCA using the postcode in case of spelling issues but nothing matching the name or similar. There was an FCA warning about a company using their address for scamming or carrying out unauthorised activity. However, as it is a virtual office, that could be anyone.

they claim to have been in business for 8+ yrs so

Its difficult to say. With no entry on the FCA register, you get no idea from there.
Their website is uncompliant as it does not give company status or regulatory information. The address they give is the cheesegrater in London. However, 122 Leadenhall St also has a company that runs virtual offices out of that address. Plus, they are not on the physical office list for that building. Cant find them at companies house.

Their website claims they give independent financial advice but without FCA authorisation they can't.
They claim to run investment funds but nothing found and with no FCA authorisation or passporting permissions into the UK granted, they cant do that for UK consumers.

The email address is a pgsm.co domain. unusual for companies to use that. Looking at the domain name lookup, it says the domain was registered on the 17th Sept 2017. They use a domain detail blocker in Panama to hide their details. that is the sort of thing that unreputable companies try to do to mask their location or real identity.

I also did a search for an LEI on the London Stock Exchange (which is required for firms doing trading or offering a number of services they claim to do) and there was no name that matched. PGMS was listed 4 times but 3 of those were for Pearl Group Management services (Some may remember Pearl Assurance and Britannic amongst others - that is theirs). The other was for a firm in Belgium who appear to run legal services.


So, you have the following issues
1 - not authorised by the FCA
2 - Cant be found at companies house
3 - their website does not contain legal and regulatory information required
4 - their website claims they do things that require FCA authorisation
5 - their domain in intentionally masked to hide their real location
6 - they are using a virtual office to hide their real location and make themselves look more important than they are.
7 - none of the funds on their site appear to be real or listed.

mrwowfactor

thanks dunstonh for your interesting reply
PGMS sent me links to Irish FCA (EAA) ref. 464322
and company check both work - sorry can't post here due to forum rules.

dunstonh

PGMS sent me links to Irish FCA (EAA) ref. 464322

If that is the case, then you are being scammed and you should contact action fraud. its a common fraud where a scammer makes themselves look like a real firm.

You should also report it here: https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/report-scam-unauthorised-firm

--

That FCA number does exist and belongs to a genuine firm. PGMS (Ireland) Ltd. More commonly known as Phoenix Ireland. The Irish arm of the UK company (that used to be called Pearl Assurance). The PGMS stands for Pearl Group Management Services. The one I mentioned in my post.

So, whilst Prive global management services shares the same initials, it cannot share the same FCA number.

PGMS (Ireland) Ltd website is http://www.phoenixireland.com/
The scam website is http://pgms.co/

The scam website shows the address of PGMS(Ireland) in another attempt to match the FCA register. But clearly the two firms don't inhabit the same address.

So, basically, you have been looking up the details of the genuine company whilst thinking it belongs to the scam company.

Scammers appeal to your greed. 12% is a big figure. They then throw in safety words like guaranteed and then tell lie after lie to sooth you. Your greed is too focused on the 12% to think sensibly.

Genuine regulated firms offering regulated financial products do not cold call. Most cold calls are scams. Never act on cold calls and you wont get scammed.

mrwowfactor

good advice, I will inform the genuine PGMS about the other one.
but there are dozens like pgms all with ++interest & "asset backed" with property with government logos all over their ads...
are they all heading for this crunch point?

supersparks

A quick phonecall to FCA advised me that PGMS is based in Ireland and is NOT regulated to sell investments in the UK, only insurance products, So obviously a scam using PGMS(Ireland's) stolen identity. I always ask to interview the salesmen asking for photo identity; they have always chickened out and didn't show.

ChesterDog

And surely 'hard sell" is all the criteria you need to know it's something to avoid.