Has anyone had any dealings with Polax Group? I think I've been scammed.

DfG

I was drawn into an investment opportunity in July of this year where brokers were utilising AI (Artificial Intelligence) to boost funds. I suspect I've been scammed as I can't get in touch with them since trying to draw funds out of my account. Has anyone had any dealings with them that could advise on their experience? www.polaxgroup.co

Nardy

This is worth a read.

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/warnings/polaxgroup

jimjames

Unfortunately you're probably correct. Report to Action Fraud but consider it unlikely you'll be able to get any money back. There is no legitimate broker selling AI solutions directly to investors via cold calls

Eyeful

A simple online scan suggests, if it is either of these two, then you are correct.
https://check.getsafeonline.org/check/polaxgroup.co              (web site started on 5 Sept 2023)
https://check.getsafeonline.org/check/polaxgroup.com           (web site started on 4 April 2023)

The FCA site also  suggests you are correct.
https://www.fca.org.uk/news/warnings/polaxgroup

What checks did you do into the group before investing?

DfG

Eyeful, there was very little information about them available in the summer and what was available was all positive; no doubt seeded by Polax themselves. There appears to be far more information available now saying not to go near them, I feel like such an idiot.

Eyeful

Before investing I 

1. If it comes via an Email or Phone call I know its a scam.

2. Check they are on the FCA register                        https://register.fca.org.uk/s/

3. Do a  a quick general check, using a couple of scam checker sites such as 
                                                                                 https://check.getsafeonline.org/   
                                                                                 https://www.scam-detector.com/validator/

4. If the dividend yield is more than  twice that of the FTSE 100, I assume it is very high risk or a scam, & stay away. 

5. Check their website out  for 
contact info
is there missing info (i.e. no FCA reg number, no Company number)     
  

6. For instance, today the Poleaxe Group.co web site, has no FCA or Company reg numbers.                                         Their contact address is in Switzerland.

All of which are red flags to me to stay away.                         

ZeroSum

Sounds like the recent coscoin crypto scam.
Anything making AI claims, is nailed on a scam

refluxer

DfG said:

Eyeful, there was very little information about them available in the summer and what was available was all positive; no doubt seeded by Polax themselves.

You're almost certainly right - the reviews on this site are a mixture of 1-star scam warnings and glowing 5-star reviews that (due to the language used) have clearly been written by shills and not genuine customers. The review site even gives a warning that 'the reviews on this page do not meet our trust signals are were likely submitted by PolaxGroup'.

DfG said:

There appears to be far more information available now saying not to go near them, I feel like such an idiot.

Try not to be too hard on yourself - scammers are getting very sophisticated these days, plus a glossy website can hide a multitude of sins. Just make sure you learn from your mistakes and be on your guard from now on, especially if other companies approach you to tell you they can help you to recover your money (for a fee) as it's likely they are in on the scam, too. 

You didn't say how you got into this but, looking to the future, you must never respond to unsolicited emails, texts or calls about 'financial opportunities' as they will all be scams. Social media is also a common way to get you to see this stuff and 'too good to be true' adverts can almost look legitimised in amongst genuine posts on your Facebook feed, plus any 'financial opportunity' recommended by any influencer should always be ignored.

In terms of doing due diligence in the future, there are a few basic searches you can do yourself - the whois lookup site will tell you when a website domain name was first registered (if it was registered last week or within the last few months, it's a scam) and the FCA's Financial Services Register will tell you whether a particular firm is authorised to do business in the UK (even if Polax Group are a legitimate business in Switzerland, if they're not authorised to provide financial services here in the UK then you won't be protected if things go wrong).

The complaints section of their site contains the following, ominous statement...

Procedure of Complaint

If you have a complaint regarding unfair treatment by any of our employees or are dissatisfied with their work-related outcomes, please send an email to us, and we will address it accordingly. We value feedback from all customers, regardless of their satisfaction level. When communicating with our customer service department, we kindly request that you maintain a professional tone and refrain from using profanity when expressing your complaints.  

... and the fact they even have to state that suggests to me that they are expecting trouble.                  

Interestingly, their UK support phone number is a landline located in Rugby, according to who-called.co.uk.

Nardy

JamesRobinson48 said:

TBH, even setting aside all the obvious red flags here, even the name tells me something's not quite right:  nobody wants to be poleaxed!

Any one using a .co TLD (top Lever Domain) sets my warning bells off. Some think it stands for company, it doesn't, it stands for Columbia.

DfG

Thanks for the comments. I've been hoping against hope that I was wrong but I need to face up to the stark reality that my money is gone. I've pulled a summary together and will report it tomorrow to Action Fraud in Scotland, where I live. 
It was initially www.polaxgroup.com but changed to www.polaxgroup.co around Sep/Oct

Albermarle

DfG said:

Thanks for the comments. I've been hoping against hope that I was wrong but I need to face up to the stark reality that my money is gone. I've pulled a summary together and will report it tomorrow to Action Fraud in Scotland, where I live. 
It was initially www.polaxgroup.com but changed to www.polaxgroup.co around Sep/Oct

You may be approached by people saying they can get your money back for a fee. This will also be a scam, so just ignore them.