£350K down the swanny

noh

There has been a thread on here previously concerning this company.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5986348/bruckner-ferdinand

AnotherJoe

Still_Dave wrote: »

Oh well. It’s an example of the way that money easily obtained is easily lost.

People tend to take a lot more care with money that they’ve earned.

Unfortunately that's not true, witness all the British Steel pensioners ripped off.

capital0ne

steampowered wrote: »

That's simply a lie. The vast majority of scams are aimed at older people.

It's not a lie, because altho' older people are targeted they don't fall for the scam as much as youngsters

https://metro.co.uk/2018/09/12/young-people-are-more-likely-to-be-scammed-than-pensioners-7937830/ :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

londoninvestor

seacaitch wrote: »

A common theme to these sad tales is a severe lack of financial education/knowledge, meaning the victims have absolutely no idea how to set about prudently husbanding their money themselves or how to seek trustworthy advice to help them. Little means by which to make any sensible judgements in order to protect themselves.

This is entirely true - but the other necessary ingredient is a lack of critical thinking and scepticism (again something there's not enough of in the education system).

I have plenty of family and friends who aren't financially sophisticated and wouldn't be clear on where to start with £350k. But I can't see any of them proceeding by googling "good investment returns" and being talked into a scam by a salesperson without asking "hang on, is this really legit?"

Malthusian

londoninvestor wrote: »

But I can't see any of them proceeding by googling "good investment returns" and being talked into a scam by a salesperson without asking "hang on, is this really legit?"

No, I'm sure your friends would do some basic due diligence (or what they thought was due diligence), e.g. checking that the company they were investing their money with was on the FCA register.

Oh wait, Bruckner Ferdinand were.

Never mind, I'm sure it won't happen to us. David from Hemel Hempstead just got greedy when he thought he could get returns of 6% per year without losing all his money.

Keep_pedalling

capital0ne wrote: »

It's not a lie, because altho' older people are targeted they don't fall for the scam as much as youngsters

https://metro.co.uk/2018/09/12/young-people-are-more-likely-to-be-scammed-than-pensioners-7937830/ :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Although if you read that link older people fall for different types of scams. Older people tend fall for the bigger ones.

Sailtheworld

Malthusian wrote: »

Never mind, I'm sure it won't happen to us. David from Hemel Hempstead just got greedy when he thought he could get returns of 6% per year without losing all his money.

Which is, of course, the crux of the matter. A 5% premium over cash and David didn't consider (a) if that was too good to be true or (b) what sort of risk he might have to take to get that premium.

There are a lot of ads at the moment warning people about pension scams. Sad faces explaining how someone offered them a free pension review. It's BS of course - they were snared by an offer that was too good to be true and the 'greed goggles' went on.

Varrko

So how would you mitigate this? I refuse to believe anyone offering 6% returns must automatically be a scam?

barnstar2077

Varrko wrote: »

So how would you mitigate this? I refuse to believe anyone offering 6% returns must automatically be a scam?

This sort of thing can only be avoided by doing your homework, and by coming onto forums like this one for a reality check before you invest thousands.

quirkydeptless

Varrko wrote: »

So how would you mitigate this? I refuse to believe anyone offering 6% returns must automatically be a scam?

Going through a Financial Adviser?