Recently, I had been contacted by a lady named Laura who had been involved in a pretty bad scam where she was asked to invest money with a company called Milton Hayward[Is this the company's name or the man's name or both?]. Her story is what follows.
Laura’s Story About The Milton Hayward Scam
My family and I believe that we have been involved in a large investment scam. We were contacted by a company called Milton Hayward about 8 months ago; they wanted us to invest in a company called ‘For-gold’. After careful consideration and further persuasion from Milton Hayward, we did it…we invested and sent a large sum of money over to Hong Kong.
We were dealing with three main contacts at Milton Hayward - John Cannon, Mark Harvey and Micheal Gellard. The investment was said to be a signed deal and we were scheduled to have our money back plus all the extra within 6 months! Then they kept on asking for more and more. We were trapped! We felt scared to lose our money and struggled to hold on to the fact that they were telling us that we would get it back soon.
It is now clear that this is what ‘boiler room’ scams are all about…but we thought we had checked everything and were too trusting in what they had said.
Our present mission is to find more people that have been burnt by this company in order to fight back. I know we have probably lost all our money but I want to help others and try to make people more aware of the dirty scumbags that are out there!
Have You Been Involved Or Have Information
I really feel bad for Laura and her situation. I’ve fallen for my share of scams so I know how she feels. The worst part of all: She has been searching the Internet and can’t find any info about this scam. I know because I’ve tried myself.
This is where you come in. If you have any info on this scam please leave a comment below. If you have been a victim of this scam, please feel free to leave your story below as well.
Together, we can all work towards exposing these criminals to prevent others from falling prey to this terrible scam.
Next week Monday I will be posting an article on how to report scams like these and what to do. One thing I’ve noticed is that once people have fallen for scams like this, they don’t know where to turn next. In that post I hope to take some of the mystery out of reporting scams.
Till Then,
Chris
This post was featured in Money Hacks Carnival by The Consumer Boomer.
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How to check legitimate brokers and firms in the UK
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register/home.do
The Anderson Munro Investment Club hits page 1 of Google
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=anderson+munro&meta=&aq=0&oq=anderson+mun
Where I give potential investors my very best advice
Macmillan Frasier, Anderson Munro , Milton Hayward and Westernfield holdings are all the same people.
Boiler room scammers,
John Chadwick and John Cannon are the same person from Milton and Macmillan
They are coming to an end soon!
Excellent news Steve - the Power of the Internet People !!!
Hi everyone,
I am very sorry to hear of the problems outlined above and wanted to offer some advice on how to best protect yourself against such schemes. I work within the industry as an Investment Manager at a London based firm, investing principally for high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals.
The best means to avoid the scammers is to cross-check anyone who is calling you against the FSA Register; this is a public record of financial services firms, individuals and other bodies which fall under the jurisdiction of the FSA:
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register/home.do
The search can be run by company name and by surname, (try running a search against my company, “Henderson Rowe”, and surname, “de Rivaz”, as an example.). Ensure that both the firm and the individual you are corresponding with has the correct authorisations, and don’t be afraid to challenge them on this (if they get defensive you know where you stand!)
The following article offers some good guidance regarding best use of the register:
http://www.moneymadeclear.fsa.gov.uk/tools/check_our_register.html
I was involved in the Milton Hayward boiler room scam earlier this year and wondered if you have any information that might help or enlighten us. What do you mean when you said ‘they are coming to an end soon’? Really hope this means people know who they are!!!
thanks
I also want to say a BIG thank you to Chris for posting my story on here. We have had it very tough and found it all hard to accept and understand, but it is thanks to people like Chris (and all others) that have posted information and personal encounters that have all helped us deal with what happened. We now just want to help others in the same situation and stop (or even reduce) the scammers scamming others!!
So THANKS CHRIS!!! x
Ben, Thanks for posting that. I am sure that it will be useful to people.
Regards, Chris.
http://internetintelligenceagency.net/
started site but no time to sort copy - if anyone can help out I will add to the site
Westernfield Holdings - no3 on Google
Anderson Munro - no3 on Google
Milton Hayward - no2 on Google
Bradley Hill Holdings not ranking yet
Hi BryGee,
Would you just need ‘our Story’ for the site? i want to help as much as i can but not very familiar with shares etc. i can however give explanations of what happened to us and alos would be happy to put my email address as a point of contact. The more people we find that were involved with the milton hayward scam or had any contact with John Cannon etc the stronger we will be to fight back.
Let me know, my email address is laurauk1@live.co.uk
I invested in BYD shares back in Oct 2009 with Anderson Munro and fear I am a victim of a boiler room scam too. Anderson Munro were so plausible and convincing. I haven’t heard from them since Feb 16th saying the deal had gone through. Despite numerous phone calls, faxes, e-mails etc. They seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth. My story is very similar to that of Laura except in our case the shares were BYD and the names were George Cole, Andrew Reed, Peter Davies and Simon Peterson. What can be done?
I wish something could be done but this company is nothing for than an illusion. It seems that names change and locations change and it seems as if these people enter the witness protection program, never to be seen or heard from again. However their is one thing that can help and that is reporting your information. Letting people know about the scam you were invlolved in will help keep others from getting ripped off. If you have any other info to share about this company feel free to leave a comment and help keep everyone informed.
Looks like I am a victim too. Caroline Maurice, John Chadwick, Peter Ward and Andrew Tait are names I have dealt with. Initially in BYD shares (allegedly) which did well and gained my confidence but was persuded to switch to the CGY Mining IPO which has now seemingly stalled. The reports found on Google about Chadwick being appointed and M F being assigned as the CGY reps also helped the confidence.
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