Investment company scams

willaldridge

Hi
looking to invest and with the amount of high tech scams in this area I am slightly nervous. 

Is there a failsqfe way of checking the person you are dealing with is from the company they are saying they are from? 

Can the fsa do this? 

Do I just contact the company. 

All looks very legit at the moment but I want to do the correct checks and balances before moving forward. 

willaldridge

Obviously the fsa won’t do much but would the FCA help? ☺️

lozzy1965

willaldridge said:

Hi
looking to invest and with the amount of high tech scams in this area I am slightly nervous. 

Is there a failsafe way of checking the person you are dealing with is from the company they are saying they are from? 

Do I just contact the company. 

All looks very legit at the moment but I want to do the correct checks and balances before moving forward. 

Sounds suspiciously like you have been contacted?  If so was it out of the blue or did you initiate contact?

eskbanker

Why are you dealing with a person?  If someone has contacted you, walk away, as no reputable investment company cold-calls....

Post more about the context, including company name, and posters here will advise in short order if it really is legit!

willaldridge

Thanks. 

BROMFIELD Investments are the firm in question. 

Said they held their bonds with Hargreaves lansdown. Just checked with them and they do not have anything on their platform so ..walking away! 

Thanks for your help. 

eskbanker

willaldridge said:

Thanks. 

BROMFIELD Investments are the firm in question. 

Said they held their bonds with Hargreaves lansdown. Just checked with them and they do not have anything on their platform so ..walking away! 

Thanks for your help. 

In terms of your original question about how to tell, you've obviously already found evidence of inconsistencies (let's not use less polite terminology, to improve the chances of the thread remaining), and a quick look at their website quickly identifies more - their footer asserts an FCA number, but it doesn't correspond to an actual entry on the FCA register of authorised companies, and there's likewise no FCA reference for 'Bromfield Investments' or similar.  The website structure is suspiciously content-free and the domain was only registered a few weeks ago, with all key information redacted, so this one really doesn't pass any 'sniff tests'....

dunstonh

According to the FCA register, there is no regulated firm called Bromfield Investments

Said they held their bonds with Hargreaves lansdown. Just checked with them and they do not have anything on their platform so ..walking away! 

Hargreaves Lansdown only offer direct to public and not via intermediaries.     So, that would put me on guard straight away.
The mention of bonds also puts me on guard.   That is most misused term going and accounts for most of the recent scams.   The scammers use the information about a genuine corporate bond (yield and expiry date) and scam people into thinking they are savings fixed term deposit.    The scammer doesn't actually buy the corporate bond. Its all fake to get money out of you.

There is company of that name at companies house but no indication that it is actually active in the area you mention.   So, it is possible that the genuine company of that name is being cloned.

How did you find out about this company?   At the moment, there are warning bells to be concerned about but tell us more about how you found the,? i.e. on a website for example?   Then we can help further.

lozzy1965

Interestingly a search on the phone number they have put on their website returns Flying Frog Recruitment, Care Sisters Limited, as well as this link:

https://www.linkfundsolutions.co.uk/investor-information/fraud-alerts-and-warnings/link-financial-investments-boiler-room-scam-advance-fee-fraud-warning-august-2019/

jimjames

Had a similar one recently where scam company pretending to be Tilney were trying to sell Treasury gilts and Barclays bonds. They were using the names of genuine Tilney staff on a brand new domain

https://damn-lies-and-statistics.blogspot.com/2021/06/tilney-treasury-barclays-bonds-fixed.html

The number of adverts now popping up for similar investment scams is very worrying - fortunately I'm not looking to invest but others may get taken in.

willaldridge

thanks thank you for all your comments. 

Genuinely I have had several of these calls now. My presumption had been that having searched into general investment strategies and companies and enquired at the bank that I had somehow appeared on a database through algorithms and so genuine investment brokers would be picking up on this. 

So far it seems that all have some degree of worry for newbies like myself when it comes to passing security tests. 

My conclusion is that I am most likely to now use a platform such as einvestor or vanguard to avoid the inherent dangers associated with using any 3rd party. 

Thanks again 

MaxiRobriguez

willaldridge said:

thanks thank you for all your comments. 

Genuinely I have had several of these calls now. My presumption had been that having searched into general investment strategies and companies and enquired at the bank that I had somehow appeared on a database through algorithms and so genuine investment brokers would be picking up on this. 

So far it seems that all have some degree of worry for newbies like myself when it comes to passing security tests. 

My conclusion is that I am most likely to now use a platform such as einvestor or vanguard to avoid the inherent dangers associated with using any 3rd party. 

Thanks again 

You'll be getting lots of these calls as at some point in the past you have given your details away to other scammers.

Reputable companies will not share private data nor harass you. If you get any type of these calls, just continue hanging up.