Boiler Room Investment Fraud & Scams

Welcome to Alert Fraud. This website was built after we were victim to investment fraud for £317,000 ($500,000). I hope this website can somehow help you, your friends and your family.

Each year in the UK alone, £2.5 Billion plus is lost to financial and investment fraud and share fraud (aka boiler room fraud), with an average loss of £20,000 — globally the total loss to investment fraud is massive. One unlucky ‘investor’ lost £6 million and this is the largest investment fraud recorded in the UK.  On a personal note my father was scammed to the tune of £317,000 by a global boiler room fraud network selling fake diamond shares, gold shares and gold bullion.

In our experience, the fraud reporting process in the UK is pathetic, the help available is beyond weak and the support thereafter weak. I hope this website can help you, your friends and family learn how to prevent getting defrauded and scammed and what to do if you have been. I also want to make my story public and let the world know who defrauded us, what our experience was like and as a bonus find who the fraudsters are and where they are located.

Boiler room fraudsters typically rent office space, hire aggressive sales people with no conscience and target elderly and vulnerable people with spare cash via a cold call and without any prior warning. If you’ve ever completed a survey and answered questions such as; age, income, occupation, savings, desire to invest, etc… well this data helps fuel the fraudsters actions through readily available marketing databases which anyone can purchase. Not only that, a myriad of businesses who you have trusted and disclosed your personal data to in good faith — thinking they will protect your information — will happily sell your soul to anyone who comes knocking for only a few quid.

How to Detect a Fraudster (Scammer)?

• Fraudsters will typically phone you out of the blue and will already know your name and personal information. This is known as a cold call.
• You may just receive an email at first with an offer asking you to respond. They will follow this with a cold call.
• UK based financial and investment firms regulated by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) will not cold call you soliciting for business. And since you should only deal with FCA regulated firms when investing, you should avoid all firms which cold call you.
• The fraudster will try to quickly build rapport with you, relaxing you and gaining your trust. They will exude over-confidence and may seem to be too formal.
• They may use your first name and will talk about you and your interests, dreams and desires before turning you on to what they want to discuss. Investing Money with them!
• Once they have some level of rapport with you, they will present an investment opportunity of specific commodities including, (carbon credits, gold, graphene, jewels, land, rare earth metals, wine) or just shares.
• The offer will be presented with a level of excitement, and with very high returns promised (often up to 30% return on investment) which is intended to get you emotionally charged about the deal on offer, to get you to part with your money.
• Me too! The fraudsters will tell you they have invested in the same investments they are presenting to you and will make up some elaborate story of their successes. These are LIES!
• The scammers will come to you prepared and armed with your personal information, age, income, occupation and often they even know your previous investments and shares you currently hold.
• You will be phoned multiple times with the intention of building a friendly relationship. The more you believe you have a trusted friend giving you professional investment advice, the easier it is for the fraudsters to get you to spend your money with them. The more you invest, the more they will phone you.
• Contact via Phone where the Caller ID says: “International”, “Unavailable”, “Withheld”
• The fraudsters will speak like professional brokers and investors themselves, using language and terminology that real investment brokers and investors use.
• You will be given names of real companies and websites to trick you into believing they are a genuine company, with high prestige and are associated with these larger companies. This is social proof and it’s designed to authenticate their offer. But of course it’s all lies!
• The companies may be listed on Companies house, as real companies but not for long — they will soon disappear
• Websites and fancy brochures may look genuine but are typically temporary and are full of lies
• They may list a few shares on a minority stock exchange but not for long, they will soon disappear — they are worthless
• Ultimately these individuals are aggressive salesmen with no moral backbone. They don’t care about you, they only want your money. Just say NO and put the phone down.
• They will NOT be listed on the appropriate financial & investment regulatory bodies as a registered and approved company. It’s critical that you confirm this.