Diamond Capital Funds plc - 3% Saver ??

Shedman

Just browsing for fixed rate savings accounts and came across this outfit who are offering 3% guaranteed p.a High Interest Saver (min £10k). Blurb suggests that if you hold the money for less than 12 months you forfeit any interest (but no penalties) but after 12 months you get the interest in full up to date of withdrawal. Irish based but claims to be regulated by Central Bank of Ireland & FCA (seems to be on FCA register Authorised Sch5 status) and to have Deposit Guarantee Scheme DGS to €100k (and FSCS £85k) protection.


Now being of a cynical nature this seems to be too good to be true. Anybody come across them or know anything about them (or how to check out the FSCS / DGS protection)?

EDIT - just noticed that they hold the funds through Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs). I'm guessing these aren't covered by the FSCS protection...so effectively no protection in place?

londoninvestor

This smells much like a recent clone scam I saw.

Are you sure this is the actual Diamond Capital Funds plc? (which is a genuine firm but not a retail deposit-taker).

For instance, was the website domain by any chance recently registered in Iceland?

Shedman

Yep the domain (diamondcapitalfunds.com) seems to have been registered 67 days ago and the IP location is Reykjavik. In which case it does look suspiciously like a clone scam. Mind you, you would have thought that the real Diamond Capital Funds plc would have covered off such an obvious 'clonable' domain name by registering it themselves

(The words Bargepole, This, Touch, A, With, Wouldn't were certainly uppermost in my mind when I initially saw this "offer"...:D. )

quirkydeptless

Shedman wrote: »

EDIT - just noticed that they hold the funds through Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs). I'm guessing these aren't covered by the FSCS protection...so effectively no protection in place?

Did someone say spivs? :rotfl:

londoninvestor

Seems to be one of many at the moment:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6023230/capital-bonds-what-do-you-make-of-this
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5998880/sector-capital-funds-plc
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5955174/strategic-active-trading-funds

DrSyn

Out of interest where did you see particular savings account?


Post 3 is correct Diamond Capital Funds PLC is only 67 days old:-

https://www.scamdoc.com/view/34807

https://www.scamadviser.com/check-website/diamondcapitalfunds.com

londoninvestor

DrSyn wrote: »

Post 3 is correct Diamond Capital Funds PLC is only 67 days old:

Well, the website pretending to be Diamond Capital Funds PLC is only 67 days old.

The actual firm has been authorised in Ireland since July 2014:
http://registers.centralbank.ie/FundRegisterDataPage.aspx?fundReferenceNumber=C125908&register=28

Alexland

I wouldn't get out of bed to get scammed for only 3%.

Make it 8% then I might be interested...

Shedman

londoninvestor wrote: »

Seems to be one of many at the moment:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6023230/capital-bonds-what-do-you-make-of-this
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5998880/sector-capital-funds-plc
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5955174/strategic-active-trading-funds

Indeed. Looks like at least one of these - Sector Capital Funds - is probably by the same set of cloners or ones using same modus operandi ('reasonable' High interest saver, not absurd fixed rate bonds, FSCS protection, etc).

I see Central Bank of Ireland have issued a warning about Sector Capital Funds today

https://centralbank.ie/news/article/press-release-unauthorised-firm-sector-capital-funds-(clone)-16-july-2019

I've just reported the suspicious Diamond Capital Funds clone site to them.

londoninvestor

Shedman wrote: »

Indeed. Looks like at least one of these - Sector Capital Funds - is probably by the same set of cloners or ones using same modus operandi ('reasonable' High interest saver, not absurd fixed rate bonds, FSCS protection, etc)..

Agreed - the Active Strategic blah blah one was similar as well.

quirkydeptless

Alexland wrote: »

I wouldn't get out of bed to get scammed for only 3%.

Make it 8% then I might be interested...

They must be targetting the "this isn't to good to be true" market