Cathay Bank Investment 16 March at 4:08PM edited 16 March at 4:09PM in Savings & investments 12 replies 473 views

jimjames

JenAnn said:

She is a Taiwanese citizen & lives in Taiwan, my son has visited her there & met all of her family. He is due to visit her next month & she is due to stay here for a few months in the summer which is why it is so hard to believe that she would scam me. She says she has £30.000 [sterling equivalent] invested with the bank. Strange but I do not trust her now - is it the long game??
Thanks again to all, my money will be staying in the UK.

She might be being scammed too. It's very easy to take deposits and pay "interest" at high rates to someone for a reasonable length of time before being found out. LCF managed it for 5 years before they collapsed and that was a ponzi using new deposits to pay existing investors. It's entirely possible she's fallen for a similar scheme where her capital is being paid back as interest and it's only when you want your money that you find they don't exist.

Malthusian

JenAnn said:

The woman is real & has stayed with us for months at a time [never paying her way]. She is 58 yrs old with her own business teaching yoga & dance. It's difficult to believe she would scam me. 

A freeloading broke serial entrepreneur who exploits vulnerable people sounds like a textbook scammer to me.
Bear in mind that she is already committing a criminal offence by giving you financial advice, even if this investment was real (it isn't). (Unless she has FCA registration as an adviser to go with her yoga certificate and Zumba black belt.) Is that implausible that a known criminal would try to scam you?