By James Simons-
Fake investors are on the rise in their mission of exploiting naive investors and businessmen. The Eye Of Media has heard that a number of investor scams are operating in various parts of Britain, as investors search for their prey.
The investors use a number of technics to gain the trust of inventors and aspiring inventors to frustrate inventors and business men. Fraudsters in some parts of Norfolk, London and Essex use ”promissory” or fake notes to invest whilst swapping the fake notes for a worth while amenity like a car. Promissory notes are not new, but an old game, but many have still never experienced it. Especially, not on a large scale. Also, the use of fake notes have dramatically reduced compared to past times, making it less suspicious when they occur.
28 year old Melanie Allan from Epping told The Eye Of Media.Com how she nearly swapped her £3,000 Mercedes Benz for a bunch of fake £20,000 by a an investor scammer. Only at the last minute when her boyfriend decided to randomly spend one of the notes first, did the fake investor insist on not confirming the legitimacy of the note . The investor who went by the name of Richard Michaels insisted on cash payment after Allan’s boyfriend, Eddie Aptkins became suspicious and insisted that the money was directly transferred through the banks. Aptkins insisted that his girlfriend did not release the car until she received money in her bank account, leading to an argument with the investor who became agitated with Aptkins for ”interfering” in her affairs. It is quite ironic that one can be accused of interfering when Protecting a partner from a scammer.
Incidentally, the scammer had drawn a real £20 and used it to buy drinks from an off license in the clever hope that Alan would assume the rest of the notes were fake. Alan told The Eye Of Media.Com;: ”I can tell you I completely fell for the scam, I was convinced the notes were real. This man was smartly dressed and seemed genuine, although I never in a million years the notes were fake. Her partner was not present when fake Michaels had accompanied her to the shop to buy a drink, so was not under the spell of the real note used to disguise the fake notes.
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”All I saw was this large wedge of notes and I thought there was no way he would be investing £20k into her business in exchange for a deposit as a car and a small interest rate after the first year. It sounded too good to be true, which is why I insisted on picking out random notes from the pile to confirm it was real. Once he refused to come with me to the shop, and also to deposit the money in the bank, I knew the money was fake.
”We exchanged a few heated words, and at one point came close to blows, he said. After I announced the scam, three of my facebook friends said they had heard of similar scams on different occasions in Norfolk and Birmingham where they have strong family and business links. The story came to the attention of The Eye Of Media.Com through a third party contact on Monday evening, only for another member of the team to claim to have been aware of a different type of investor scam.
The other scam involves investor fraudsters exploiting vulnerable elderly people with plenty of money and promising to invest with reputable businesses who will deliver a return within a six to Nine Month period. Once they manage to extort the money from the elderly people with whom they usually have a strong family or social tie, they appropriate the money to themselves without pursuing any kind of investment. This different style of investment scam involves a fraudster who exploits a vulnerable naïve person, presenting one of their friends as one who owns a company which doesn’t actually belong to them. Writer Eric King said : ”some fraudsters are known to meet the victim or fall guy at a restaurant or bar which they claim to own. They will buy drinks to entertain the occasion and jokingly get staff working there to concur with his claim to own the restaurant in exchange for either free drinks or as little as a £20 cash gift.
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Most barmaids or waiters will agree to playfully accept that the fraudster owns the place because they believe it is being done to look good as part of a birthday splash meal for the vulnerable and unsuspecting victim. In reality the fraudster is making a small investment for a huge return, and has no plans to pursue any investment with an interest rate return. If anything, they have made their own small investment for a huge and immediate fraudulent return. The Eye Of Media.Com are on the look out for fake investors and are currently investigating some.
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