Investment Bonds paying 3.924% or 5.4%

Solar_House

This offer by Merian Global Investors appeared on line under BT Bonds and immediately attracted our attention, both because of BT (whose clients we are) and the name of the respected investment firm. Having done research about Merian Global Investors, which had a good record and appeared to be beyond reproach, we contacted them to express an interest in the BT bonds they offered. The scammers appeared to be very very very believable. We must have guardian angels looking after us that a simple glitch during a bank transfer alerted the bank and us of something being not quite right. If you cannot trust a big firm like Merian Global Investors, who can you trust?

dunstonh

If you cannot trust a big firm like Merian Global Investors, who can you trust?

Spoofing/cloning are common scams.

When it comes to cold calling and obscure adverts, then you do not trust anyone. Genuine regulated investment companies do not cold call and will usually only advertise in legitimate places if at all. When they do advertise, it tends to be more about the brand than a specific product.

wildfirejc

An update on what's happened since. Aberdeen Standard Investments finally investigated and got their act together - but inadvertently put my details into their marketing list. So I started getting brochures from them about investments. I wrote a very strongly worded email of complaint saying that I did not give them permission to approach me for marketing and they took me off it. They also said that they have warned all their clients that their name had been used for some scams. I think they even managed to get through to the scammers to take their name off it - so now, the same scammers have changed their website and targeted someone else - Merian Global Investors.

wildfirejc

Solar_House wrote: »

This offer by Merian Global Investors appeared on line under BT Bonds and immediately attracted our attention, both because of BT (whose clients we are) and the name of the respected investment firm. Having done research about Merian Global Investors, which had a good record and appeared to be beyond reproach, we contacted them to express an interest in the BT bonds they offered. The scammers appeared to be very very very believable. We must have guardian angels looking after us that a simple glitch during a bank transfer alerted the bank and us of something being not quite right. If you cannot trust a big firm like Merian Global Investors, who can you trust?

Solar House, did you manage to contact Merian to get them to tackle this gross misuse of their name?

Reaper

wildfirejc wrote: »

Solar House, did you manage to contact Merian to get them to tackle this gross misuse of their name?

There's not much Merian can do about it. The pages will be hosted somewhere abroad and can easily relocate.

They will change the cloned company name if it gets too well known as a scam and substitute another but that's all.

Merian can notify their customers (most of the correspondence I get from firms warns about clones) but even that's a little pointless as their customers are dealing with the correct firm.

You just need to be on your guard.

Former_MSE_Tine

Hi, the company has asked for a right of reply. MSE doesn't endorse anything a company says on the Forum:

"On behalf of Merian Global Investors, I can confirm that we are aware of an external website fraudulently claiming to sell bonds through us. The website, which is illegally misusing our name and logo, and the product it is promoting are in no way connected to Merian Global Investors. We are working with the relevant authorities to remove the fraudulent site."

dunstonh

Well done Merian for monitoring the site and getting MSE to post a comment up on your behalf.

Solar_House

I agree that most of the material used by the BT scammers might have been stolen or imitated, but what about the involvement of a serious bank like NW bank in allowing the scammers to open a Merian Global Investors Client account? This was a NatWest branch at Level 7, Aldgate Union, 10 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 8DX with a sorting code of 623170 (which turned out to be accurate.)
When ever an individual or company open an account with a bank, they usually put you through the mill, asking endless documentation and ID. So why not those scammers? Hence my belief that the scammers might be working under the umbrella of Merian Global Investors as rogue employees or ex-employees. Otherwise, they might have encountered problems opening the account.

dunstonh

Hence my belief that the scammers might be working under the umbrella of Merian Global Investors as rogue employees or ex-employees. Otherwise, they might have encountered problems opening the account.

Highly unlikely and doesn't fit the usual method with cloning scams.

verybigchris

Solar_House wrote: »

I agree that most of the material used by the BT scammers might have been stolen or imitated, but what about the involvement of a serious bank like NW bank in allowing the scammers to open a Merian Global Investors Client account? This was a NatWest branch at Level 7, Aldgate Union, 10 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 8DX with a sorting code of 623170 (which turned out to be accurate.)

Do you have any evidence that the account really has been opened in the name of Merian Global Investors?

Account names aren't checked on faster payments (yet) so you could put a payment through to my personal bank account, put "Merian Global Investors" as the account name and I'd still get the money.