The "Institutional Trader"
Dear members,
I was a victim of those crooks earlier this year, lost a couple of boxes (which I witnessed on T2W). Since then I have been unsuccessfully trying to get my money back.
A few days ago I received following email:
"We have been trying to contact you for sometime with regards to your current investment with us. I cannot express the importance of you dropping us an email with a relevant time whereas we can discuss your account in detail as this is long overdue.
Best Regards,
Steven Parker - Institutional Trader - IAM GROUP LIMITED
Office: +813-4540-1255 - Fax: +813-4540-1000
[email protected]"
In other words, they are bold enough to go on claiming more money despite my threats, emails etc.
I don't know whether some people could get caught another time. Anyway, it is worth mentioning that they would dare anything.
IAM Group is and will always be a scam.
The first guy that calls you is the Opener.
The Opener
The openers try to interest the person (known as the “mark”) in a “start-up, mega growth” stock. The stock might be listed on the Nasdaq Index as a low capitalized company (smallcap) so it can be manipulated and sold with less restrictions than the NYSE. More often than not the stock will come from a company from the Over the Counter Bulletin Board (OCBB) which can be bought and sold overseas with almost no restrictions due to Regulation S (a securities law allowing non-listed shares to be sold overseas but not in the USA). The mark will be told that the stock is about to explode or be listed on the NYSE. If they agree to buy now the “broker” might even back-date the purchase to a lower price and the mark stands to make a fortune.
Next is the Closer.
The Closer
Once the mark is interested he is introduced by phone to a more senior fraudster involved in the scam. This person is known as the “closer” and will normally pose as a senior executive at the brokerage firm. He will tell the mark how lucky he is and offer him the opportunity to buy more stock or even stock in other companies.
And then after you are confident that they receiver your funds and you got the welcome to the club bulll****, they usually introduce you to the "Guru", a special VP of Institutional trading who has made his clients a ton of money. Keep in mind, this guy has read the account opening form you filled out providing them with all yopur other investments, your risk tolerance, stock preferences, your net worth, your income etc. Now he has all the ammunition he need to go for the jugular. I've seen these guys with their slick talking take a guy down for over a million dollars.
The Loader
After a number of months the mark will realise that the stock they purchased has not been listed or has not taken off. He will call or fax the “brokerage house” to complain and find out what has happened with his money. The mark will be put through to a “cooler” whose task is to cool down the client and reassure him that his stocks are fine and he is even in a better position. He will tell the mark that to smooth things over he will tip him into another company’s stock that it even better than the one he already invested. The cooler will then pass the mark onto the fourth person in the chain, known as a “loader”. The loader will then sell the mark more worthless stock.
Then when you are really pissed or felling like the situation is hopeless, Here comes the Slop loader.
The Slopper
More time passes and nothing happens. The mark will have called the “brokerage house” and been told that it is closing and his stock has been passed onto another company known as “sloppers”. These are generally fraudulent “brokers” with impressive sounding names such as Monahan & Monahan or Davis Goldberg both of whom scammed our client’s accountant. Other types of these scams are the “recovery rooms” such as InterGlobal Mergers & Acquisitions. These scammers pray on the fact that the marks are desperate to recoup their losses and are vulnerable to further fraud. They will tell the mark that they now control the company whose stock they originally purchased and it is nearly worthless (which of course it is). They will tell the mark that all is not lost because they represent clients who buy worthless stock at a premium for taxation reasons and will swap same for “blue chip stock” such as IBM, etc. Our mark fell for this scam also.
In this scam, for the mark to have his stock purchased by the fictitious tax avoiding clients, he needs to pay monies directly across so that the tax on the stock can be paid (or any other reason to extract further money).
Another scam the recovery room will attempt is to sell the mark an “indemnity bond” to guarantee that the nonperforming shares could be re-registered in the names of supposed clients wishing to purchase the worthless stock.
Now you are really feeling like you want to get anything you can back from this "investment" and you are holding worthless paper.
The “Regulator”
Again, nothing happens and our mark should be getting suspicious. It is at this point when the mark will receive a call from a supposed “stock fraud” investigation or regulatory body. There are a number who contacted our suspect including the “Global Fraud Detection and Prevention Centre”, “International Shareholder Protection Department” and “Securities Regulation Office”.
The scam here is quite simple. The bogus regulator represents a number of stockholders similar to the mark who have been scammed. The “regulator” is trying to prosecute the fraudulent brokers and will be liquidating the stock. The good news is that the mark will be still making a fortune when the stock is liquidated. All the regulator needs is money to pay the IRS to release the stock. The mark is expected to pay these “fees” upfront (as our suspect did).
The “regulator” will also have an official looking web site which lists “accredited brokers” some of whom are scammers. The regulator will give the mark some names of some brokers and advise the mark to check them out on their own web site. Of course they come up as being accredited and genuine and the mark is scammed by them also.
And so it goes round and round.
We all get the emails: “XYZ Co is a hot share buy, about to take off!” or we get the phone calls asking us to invest in some American stock that is about to list on the New York Stock Exchange. While the companies on offer are legitimate, invariably the emails and the phone calls are part of a fraud scheme known as a “boiler room scam”.
My advice is when you get that call out of the blue wanting to conduct a survey, hang up It is the TQ or qualifier trying to get you to accept a call from an opener. That's how it all begins and you are on a "suckers list" forever.
