Police clampdown sees scammers get what they deserve…
Following the international police raid on the so-called ‘boiler-room fraud’ last week, in which investors were cheated out of their money and conned into buying non-existent or fraudulent shares, it appears the global authorities are determined to crack down on the serious problem of worldwide fraud.
Over a hundred people have been arrested in the UK, Spain, the U.S. and Serbia within the police operation so far. There are at least 850 victims in Britain alone who have been targeted by these fraudsters, with losses totalling over £15 million. However many more are expected to come forward as the investigations continue.
It just goes to show that ‘The ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ script may be fictional but international boiler-room scams are most certainly real.
deVere United Kingdom fell victim to an elaborate cloning scam last year, in which a number of unregulated, unauthorised firms used the ‘deVere’ name to attempt to con people out of their hard-earned life savings. These swindlers went to great lengths to impersonate our well-respected global brand, and even went as far as making business cards and other company stationery to look identical to ours as well as using the same names of senior deVere team members!
It seems these criminals will go to any lengths to get what they want.
We’ve been working hard to protect people against these fraudsters, and launched a number of awareness campaigns over the past few months. For example, deVere Group CEO, Nigel Green was interviewed by BBC Radio 5 Live in May last year about the steps the company is taking to warn people of the dangers of clone scams.
There has also been a major crackdown on fraudulent carbon credit sales operations – which, I’m pleased to see, is having a great deal of success at catching the scammers who can potentially decimate people’s savings and damage the reputations of decent, trustworthy firms.
If you believe have been targeted by a clone firm or believe something is just not quite right, it’s imperative you contact an experienced financial adviser before parting with any money.
Although police and anti-fraud agencies are really clamping down on this problem, there is still a long way to go yet.
