Visium

But when someone followed the link given on the website to the investment fund on the FCA register it showed they were de recognised and no longer authorised. You could also go to the lrish Central Bank's register at http://registers.centralbank.ie/FirmSearchPage.aspx (whos logo is also shown on Visium's site) and see they are not registered there either, despite being an Irish entity. This is clearly a scam, using the name of a previously existing and now defunct hedge fund to make you think it has some legitimacy as there will be a few hits for the entity names on web searches.

Now in the early hours of Monday morning you reckon you have called the financial services compensation scheme and been given a registration number. But the financial services compensation scheme is not a regulator, it is a scheme to which you apply when you want to get compensation from a UK financial services business that has gone bust without paying what they owe you. And as an Irish entity, the Visium ICAV was not a UK financial services business even if it had permission to operate due to European passporting regulation.

And the UK compensation scheme is not open on weekends (especially not overnight on Sunday), and neither is the UK financial conduct authority. So you haven't called the FSCS, or the FCA, and they haven't given you a registration number of 'Visium UK', nor Visium ICAV.

A common ruse to promote these sites uses the philosophy of 'any publicity is good publicity' to promote the name around the internet, by having people pop up on forums and act all innocent about some great opportunity that they found which seems too good to be true. Then it appears on more web searches and people who do only cursory research might think it's legitimate because people are talking about it on MSE (and because those punters are greedy, they won't all actually read what the savvy investors on MSE actually say about it).

By lying to us that you have called the UK compensation scheme and obtained a 'registration number', you have revealed yourself to be a shill, promoting this fake site.

Visium UK (now in liquidation) was not a regulated financial services business itself but was the corporate member of Visium Asset UK LLP (now in liquidation), which was until 2016 a regulated UK investment advisor providing sub-advisory services to a US-based investment advisor operating hedge funds. Some of those hedge funds may have been domiciled in Ireland, such as Visium UCITS Funds ICAV, and would never have been accessible to, or marketed to, the typical UK retail investor.

However, this scam site has stolen the name of those previously-existing businesses, and is pretending that you can send them money which their longstaning and successful hedge fund will use for liquidity within their investment program, fully guarantee it, and have the UK financial services industry compensation scheme cover your deposit if it goes wrong because "Our regulation with the FCA under 'Schedule 5'; gives us the exact same regulation as your high street bank, regardless of us not having a base in the UK."

In putting together their website they know that the casual reader will not have a clue what Schedule 5 is, and will have generally just been brainwashed by FSCS adverts to look for the words FSCS on a promotion, and may not understand that the ICAV entity as an open ended collective investment scheme cannot offer the depositary protection you get from a bank, even if it existed and was regulated. Of course, they have just stolen the names of real previously-existing entities so that if you look them up on the regulator's website you might think you found them, when actually they have nothing to do with the legitimate firms that used to exist.

The concept is similar to if I wanted to appeal to your charitable nature and set up a website to ask you for a donation to my son's local football team to buy jerseys for the new season. I don't have a son, but if you are suspicious, I could give you a photo of a football team downloaded off the internet and my son's birth certificate to show that he existed. However, it was a certificate I got from a public registrar's office; the boy no longer exists as his family all died in a car crash.

So the real parents will not query or complain why I am using their dead son's name, because they are dead too. If you wanted to prove my son didn't exist, you could go to that same registrar's office and get his death certificate. But most people being asked for donations don't go looking for death certificates, so the scam works.

This site tries to make you think it's a genunine money making opportunity by preying on your greed so you don't ask too many questions. They even go as far as to say:

A hedge funds annual goal will normally be between 10 and 20%, regardless of market conditions. Most funds (Including ours) will limit the number of depositors and require them to be fully accredited to get involved directly. This keeps the exclusivity but it can make it very difficult for retail investors to get involved.

It is against the law for hedge funds to solicit or advertise for new Business but they can occasionally offer novice investors the opportunity of better returns than the high street by means of a cash deposit account. This is no different to a deposit or savings account opened with your bank. These deposit accounts are typically used as the liquidity for the everyday running costs of the fund. In exchange for you providing this, you are offered guaranteed returns of between 3% and 6% per annum.

The hope is that unsophisticated punters find the site and read this nonsense and think, "Ooooh, it's against the law for hedge funds to offer me their 10-20% returns but they reckon they are allowed to let novices in with bank-style deposits at up to 6%... theres a loophole to let me invest in these clever schemes and this great innovative company is giving bank-busting returns. This exclusive sounding opportunity appeals to my greed! And they've used an FSCS logo! Where do I sign!"


While this is a blatant scam, it is important that this thread is not marked as spam and deleted because the more these things are called out as illegitimate, the fewer people will get duped.