Apologies for the long title, just thought it would be easier to pick up when searching.
Contacted by Ross Cattaneo of Philips Equity Management from Prague, Czech Republic, yet another offer to buy my AMUC stock. Now when you know you have bought a pup, and have had several offers to buy it up before, you are automatically sceptical. Ross assured me this was not a scam and referred me to IERA as the authority who would organise the derestriction of my shares. For this service they wanted the token fee of 5c per share,when you have 200k that means $10k and he would then buy from me at 85c a share. Lovely! Oh yes and as I am a non US citizen then I would get my $10k returned with the final payment, and all within 5 days!! Wow, for $10k outlay for a week I get $170k
+ $10k back, laughing all the way to the Ferrari showroom.
But wait! Last time I derestricted shares by myself directly to the correct Transfer Agent I paid $50 for 50k shares. So why I am paying so much? According to John Morley, Compliance Officer at Philips, that is in case I got a loan using my AMUC shares as collaterol and would be used to pay off that loan. So,they are offering me $170k for shares that could only raise $10k as a loan?
So do you think this is a scam? You better believe it! Had I paid the money then I would have got a phone call telling me that there were warrants attached to my shares which I had to derestrict too, but they would be honorable and buy them from me as well even though they didn't need them to reach their quota of 51% of the company to complete their hostile takeover.
By the way IERA are in Japan, & Ross kept suggesting I phone to confirm the deal, knowing that with a 12hr time difference this would be difficult. The phone number would probably divert somewhere else anyway.I used modern technology to contact the equivalent to the FSA & SEC in Japan who confirmed that the IERA does not exist.
There are warnings out there about advance fee scams & about fake regulators.Always check with the genuine authorities which you find by yourself.
If you really cannot resist the temptation to have one more go at getting your money back on these dodgey shares, then offer to go for a smaller portion of the shares. If you get money out of them, & you won't, then use that to derestrict some more after taking your first fee back. I tried that once, was told that there were warrants to pay, refused, suggested they use the money I had sent to derestrict what they could, they refused, and I never saw my money again. Oh I know some will say I'm an idiot but I had to prove a point to myself & you guys can benefit from my experience.
Here are a couple of links given to me by US authorities when I reported this scam. worth a read.
Regulation S -- Rules Governing Offers and Sales Made Outside the United States Without Registration Under the Securities Act of 1933
Removing the Restrictive Legend" (
http://www.sec.gov/answers/restric.htm);
"Microcap Stock: A Guide for Investors" (
Microcap Stock: A Guide for Investors)
If any one wants to contact me directly I would consider sending the full text.
Happy hunting.
Remember if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is too good to be true!
