Fine Art "investment" mistake

Aretnap

Rob_S said:

The Registered office address listed on Companies House is different to the office address listed on their website (I'm too new to post a link, but it's essentially their name followed by dot com)
How do you tell if they are the same company?

Do you mean this website? 
https://www.thelondonartsociety.com
The website of a reputable, or even semi-reputable, company will always have the exact identity of the company (ie the company's legal name, registration number and registered address) somewhere on the site. Either in the small print at the bottom of the main page, or in the about us/contact us section. 
The fact that I can't find that information anywhere on the website is in itself a very bad sign. 

Rob_S

Yes - the link Aretnap posted is the company in question. Thanks! At least the next person trying to find out about this company has a chance of finding this thread.

Rob_S

To answer an earlier question, my father does have various letters/receipts from the company. According to the receipts I've seen, he's "invested" at least £50k, but it may be more. He doesn't physically have any artwork, from what I gather (they claim) it is stored for him. The receipts claim he has some "Untitled" works of art by particular artists. That seems somewhat ambiguous - I found dozens of "Untitled" pieces by the artist in question on "Invaluable" auction site. The most expensive listing there is valued at  £3k-£5k, unfortunately my father has paid £10k each for 3 such "Untitled" works.

LHW99

Perhaps Action fraud would be somewhere to report it to, which may be a start if you do try a credit card section 75?

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/blog/how-to-report-scam-fraud

https://www.actionfraudalert.co.uk/Contact

I would also suggest getting a phone blocker that enables you to set up a whitelist of family numbers, and sends others to an answer machine where you can check them for him - as said he may well be on a "suckers list"

AnotherJoe

You need to get POA for your fathers financial affairs and arrange thinsg so he cant make any more financial transactions himself. Presumably he stlll owns a house, has pension income and so on.

harsh_but_fair

To be fair it may not even be fraud- he may just have been persuaded to invest in a particular area i.e. art

 I'm assuming your father is not an art dealer and therefore has no no expert knowledge in what is and is not a good investment

Anybody can be asked to invest in anything and as long as no fraudulent statements are made then it is not fraud is it just a very bad investment

Rob_S

What constitutes a fraudulent statement?

1. You're on to an absolute fortune
2. We've had several offers for items in your portfolio already
3. Buy this now, and we'll be able to sell it in a week for twice the amount
   

[Obviously I'd run a mile from anyone making these statements, but my father's judgement is somewhat impaired]

Are statements like these considered fraudulent?

Rob_S

@AnotherJoe POA seems somewhat nuclear. Perhaps I'm in denial, but I hope we're not at that stage yet.
@LHW99 A phone blocker is an idea, but they have his landline and mobile numbers. How would we go about setting this up?

Alistair31

Rob_S said:

What constitutes a fraudulent statement?

1. You're on to an absolute fortune
2. We've had several offers for items in your portfolio already
3. Buy this now, and we'll be able to sell it in a week for twice the amount
   

[Obviously I'd run a mile from anyone making these statements, but my father's judgement is somewhat impaired]

Are statements like these considered fraudulent?

How is all of this being conveyed to your father?

LHW99

Rob_S said:

@AnotherJoe POA seems somewhat nuclear. Perhaps I'm in denial, but I hope we're not at that stage yet.
@LHW99 A phone blocker is an idea, but they have his landline and mobile numbers. How would we go about setting this up?

A phone blocker works on a landline. There are a number of makes, they can be bought from the likes of Amazon, BT shop etc, and it is worth looking at the features they offer. This site discusses some

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/cordless-phones/article/how-to-block-nuisance-calls

But you can find other reviews through Google. See which seem to offer what you want, and then look around for the best price.

The article does talk about blocking calls on a smartphone, but it will probably depend on what sort of phone he has. You can usually block individual numbers, but some scammers can use multiple numbers if one gets blocked.

Worth using the telephone preference service

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/cordless-phones/article/how-to-block-nuisance-calls

Although TBH scammers won't take notice of that. It would probably reduce the number of "more genuine" sales calls though.