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.
{ 63 comments… read them below or add one }
I also invested with Milton Hayward, buying 300 disney shares in December 2008. The person i dealt with was David Bassett. He then moved on to be replaced by John Cannon who tried to sell me other investments. I declined, and cannot contact them. All emails returned.
Guess i have also been scammed!
Abhorrent practices by lenders within the mortgage industry are called abusive lending. There are some guides for you to identify those blabbermouth swindlers.Think first before biting. And it might be necessary to contact an attorney in your particular state to learn more about this kind of abusive lending.
I was also contacted by Dave Basset of Milton Hayward, and he tried to get me to invest in Disney. I declined as I was suspicious, and thought no more abot it until this week when I have just been contacted by another company also based in Japan using the same “motis operandi”. I therefore ran a search on Milton Hayward to see if there were any reports of scams, and hey presto, what a surprise, I find it was indeed a scam. I feel sorry for anyone who fell victim to them, and maybe I can help you catch up with the perpetrators, or if not, another bunch of scammers using the same idea. This time the company name given to me was Anderson Munro, and the lady who has been calling me is called Olivia Reisler, or so she says!! The message she sent me has a remarkably similar format to the one I recieve from Milton Hayward, and the story is the same, only this time they want me to invest in a company called BYD, a large chinese company. I have all her details and phone number etc if anyone wants to knock on her door in Japan and catch her and her kronies before they make off with more innocent peoples hard earned cash.
Thanks Steve, I’ll look into Anderson Munro and Oliva Reisler and see what I come up with. My guess is that once someone catches on to the name they change it. Thanks for the tip though I look for to hearing from you. I also want to thank you for commenting as well.
i have also (and still am) in contact with Anderson Munro and Oliva Reisler. A few points I must show you:
They are based on the 42nd floor of the Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower - which only has 39 floors.
The website looks crap and unprofessional. registered to
Andrew Foster
95 Graveney Rd
Finsbury Park,
London
SW17 0EJ
United Kingdom
strange for a top trading broker
That’s funny how do you get 42 floors on a 39 story building? That tells you how far these scammers are willing to go just to make their story seem legit. I hope you haven’t fallen for their scam as well, Thanks for commenting and updating us on the situation. If you have anymore info please inform us some of the readers here have been taken on this scam and a looking for more information.
http://www.andersonmunro.com/contact.php
http://www.mitsuitower.jp/en/floor/index.html
Their Korean office is on the 14th Floor of the Star Tower in Seoul - KPMG has offices on the 10th floor http://www.kpmg.com, what is the betting they have never heard of them??
All press releases and any mention of Anderson Munro seem to originate withing the last few months
through a Google search - strange for a company of over 14 years old.
Oliva Reisler is ringing me back Monday to make @a deal’ (hahaha) so any questions you want me to ask, please post. I was stalling her saying that my father who works in a position on authority was checking out her deal - where she seemed offended but not put off. If I can set it up I may also record the conversation and post too.
BTW I have informed the OFT and Trading Standards, again, any info I will post.
Andrew Foster has another 122 domains listed which you have to pay to get the list, if anyone can get this I would love to see this
one final note check these two out:
http://www.macmillanfrasier.net/people.php
Nigel Meuller CEO & Chairman
The main founder of the company back in 1991 and was bestowed the chairmanship as well as being chief executive officer. His stock broking career began in 1967 earning membership of the Stock Exchange in 1970. Formerly the Chairman of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, prior to its merger with Deutsche Borse; he also chaired the Frankfurt Stock Exchange Benevolent Fund.
http://www.andersonmunro.com/profile.php
CEO & Chairman James Bradshaw
The main founder of the company back in 1991 and was bestowed the chairmanship as well as being chief executive officer. His stock broking career began in 1967 earning membership of the Stock Exchange in 1970. Formerly the Chairman of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange
Great info Brian. How do you know so much about this company?
Just Googled it and a bit of detective work
Olivia phoned me and I asked her who James Bradshaw was, she didnt know!!! That is strange from the start (being the top cheese in her company). I then asked her about the company chairman and she told me the above - I said that this seemed strange since he has a profile exactly the same as the chairman of Macmillan Frasier - Nigel Meuller(and I wonder what he would think???). This prompted her on the defensive and she said that this must be a fake company (the cheek). She was getting her legal team on the case and phone me back in an hour - you can guess, still waiting…lol
She MAY BE an innocent party in all this and hired to get leads or a great liar. But being on the 42nd floor of a 39 floor building I can guess which one…lol
Be careful out there
I have had several dealings with macmillan frasier and still have not had any money from them,it looks like they are the same people as anderson munro and whoever is making their website is just lazy!
If so they need to be stopped and if any one has any other names and addresses i will only be too glad to visit them.
Keep the info. coming in and we will get to them very quickly and stop this happening.
If any one has had dealings with macmillan frasier please let me know.
Thanks for the info Steve the more information we can put out there the more people we can save from getting ripped off. Make sure you check out next weeks post I going to be composing a list of name of scammers such as Anderson Munro, Milton Hayward, and Macmillan Frasier.
Was approached in February 2009 by Bradley Hill Holdings - anyone heard of them?
I have not heard of Bradley Hill Holdings but I will look into it more. Thanks for the info Ro.
Guys please report this. Use this link:
http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/escams.htm
This is for the FBI. They want people to report what happened, how much money wa slost and the contact info. I hope this will help you all!
Shelley
My father was ‘targetted’ by this crowd. A lady called him from Anderson Munro and wanted to sell him some stock in BYD. Apaprently they had a large quantity of stock they had to dispose of at the special knock down price of 81HKD (when the market was trading at approx 75HKD). Luckily he asked me first and knowing it was probably a scam - I did some research and presto i found this site.
Incidentally they now claim to be on the 39th floor of Mitsui tower, which presumably puts them somewhere in the airconditioning units.
The lady phoned my dad up again yesterday and when he confronted her she got irritated and starting saying things like - you guys in the UK don’t understand how these things work.
I think I understand all to well, I work in compliance in a large multinational bank and know exactly what’s going on
I am just gathering some details and will then be reporting Anderson Munro to the FSA. Im also going to drop a line to the Financial Crimes unit at Scotland Yard. Mr Andrew Foster (if he exists) will be getting a knock on his door shortly.
Incidentally - I did some research on BYD, it’s a genuine company and probably not a bad investment but as a Hong Kong stock it can be relatively easily traded on the open market through most major high street banks (ID 1211.HK) and stock brokers.
UPDATE:
My father has now been phoned by Westernfield Holdings who clain to be trading in Carbon trusts. Again based in Japan (supposedly) they are also a scam see postings from June 4th http://migger.net/2007/05/31/unicorn-ventures-advarsel/ . Not sure if they are connected with Anderson Munro but seems odd that 2 days after they failed with that another company are trying a similar trick.
Andy (or any one that could help)
I think I have just been scamed by “Anderson Munro” I have been trying to contact them for a week to try to sell my shares and have had no reply. His name was Thomas Nielsen and said he was Dutch.
Unfortunatley this was my first dabble in the market and I now have no idea what to do. Im not that computer literate so finding a “paper trail” back is near on impossible for me to do, but if you do get any info, or, if you speak with the authorities I would be very willing to share. the best way of contacting me is my E mail.
Dick
Dick, I sent details to the FSA and it’s now up to them if they include it on their list of known ‘bad’ foreign trading companies, they’re not always the fastest responding organisation in the world. I’ve not manage to find a suitable place to report this to any of the police agencies though as we’ve not personally had a crime committed against us.
If you’ve actually lost funds then I suggest you go directly to the police and report it as a crime. If you pass on the details from this web page that’s really a pretty good starting point for them. I’m sure all the names that have been given to yourself and others are fictitional so I’m affraid you’re going to need the help and resources of one of the law enforcement agencies to track anyone down. If you have any specific questions though please do come back and I’ll do whatever I can to help. Good luck and please keep us posted.
I have recently been talking to Victoria Mayer, George Cole and Max Clark of Anderson Munro and I will be making them aware of the points that have been made here. In an effort to help anyone who Googles Anderson Munro I have established a couple of Internet locations dedicated to them and will refer anyone who contacts me to this information aswell. I have provided my email address and would like to assist where I can. I have also invested with Anderson Munro ( in BYD ) so have a personal interest. I will keep you informed of any progress that I make.
They ( Pearlgate International Ltd. ) have a “legitimate” bank account with the Hang Seng Bank at 83 Des Voeux Road Central, Hong Kong. Hang Seng is a part of H.S.B.C. Presumably someone opened this and someone takes money out of it ?? Are there any other bank details and trading names ?
I am just doing some random research and thinking at the moment.
When ” Andrew Foster ” sets up his websites he ( or someone else who is related to the scam ) ” surrounds ” the website with PR information ( using free PR sites like prlog, prfire, free-press-release etc etc ) which is then boosted with those postings being posted on sites like Digg.
Anderson Munro posts die out in early November but Westernfield Holdings are still being posted as recently as the 25th November. So, up to a few days ago someone was still posting information ( in this case about an investment in a wind turbine drivetrain testing facility http://www.pressreleasepoint.com/westernfield-holdings-furthers-its-research-wind-turbines ) in anticipation of the fact that they would be calling potential investors who would then be Googling Westernfield Holdings and wind turbine drive trains.
So, the tracks are pretty fresh here then !!!!
How do you prevent people from falling for these scams. Well, not everyone will Google for information but lots of people will. So, one way would be to get warning information to the top of Google for anyone that searches. How would you do that ?? Well you can take a leaf out of thier book and promote this blogsite and other warning sites using the same keywords that they are, say, Westernfield Holdings and wind turbines.
They are always going to be ahead of us ( although I can see some common denominators appearing that could well put us in the same time and same place as them ! ) but they obviously think that they need to back up phone calls to a database that they have acquired with a website and supporting PR.
The important thing is to identify the company and the theme ” eg wind turbines ” and then promote the warning as hard as possible.
Christopher, you are already doing a great job but perhaps you can help out with tags and keywords and any other SEO type stuff relating to this latest information ??
I have posted the following blog:
http://mandarainmaker.co.uk/wordpress/2009/11/29/westernfield-holdings-wind-turbine-drivetrain-testing/
which may be of interest and help.
Actually I note that a number of people have managed to get thier posts to rank on the first page of Google so that company is pretty well blown. Even they will have trouble explaining thier way out of those. ( Hopefully ).
I would also urge people to stay away from macmillan frasier because they are without a doubt the same people as anderson munro .
I am in the process of tracing key people in macmillan frasier and we should be knocking on their door sometime soon!
When i have more details i will post names and numbers online
That’s good to hear Steve.
re: chris windley
One thing worth trying is an adwords campaign on keywords Anderson Munro, Macmillan Frasier, Westernfield Holdings would be cheap since there is no one advertising under those names
- what is Google’s stance on this?
I have a spare url - http://internetintelligenceagency.net/ where I can add something on the front page to warn others but can’t risk landing foul with Google - any ideas
I suggest emailing the PR sites to make them aware they are being used to support financial crime.
I have contacted PRfire, prlog, free-press-press and pressreleasepoint. If anyone spots these ‘PR releases anywhere else I suggest they email the site to let them know. No genuinel PR site is going to want to be actively supporting criminals. If the PR sites don’t remove the items then we contact Google to let them know and possibly get the PR sites themselves de-ranked.
The difficulty now is going to be spotting the next incarnation of the company.
I also have major problems over an investment made with Macmillan Frasier and am also sure that they are villains, I also invested with Anderson Monro but the Hang Seng Bank would not accept my funds that were due to Pearlgate Int Ltd, I did get those funds back less a considerable amount due to currency changes. Macmillan Frasier were still contacting me until 18th November and thats when things got a bit out of hand and I was advised that their lawyers would be in touch. I have several names of individuals at Macmillan and several at Anderson Monro if thats any help.
Gary
I am pleased to say that thanks to the support of some of my social networking friends I got straight into page 1 for a couple of searches around this area within 24 hours
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&rlz=1R2ADBR_en&q=westernfield+holdings+wind+&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=
I did not really use my ( extensive ) Internet networks or any of my very highly connected friends so I am pretty confident that I can do better than this with a bit of practise !!
Regards, Chris.
Gary,
I would like a chat please. What’s the best way for us to exchange emails and phone numbers confidentially ??
Regards, Chris.
funding for carbon offset appears to be one of the next themes for Westernfield..
Gary,
Are these names the names they gave you ? because generally they give out false names.
If any of you spot these false PR stories please can you use the PR sites reporting facilities to ask for them to be removed. I have reminded some sites this morning (after initially letting them know yesterday). I have also pointed out that failure to remove them will mean that we have no option other than to contact Google to ask that their own sites are deranked or removed - hopefully that will get the message across.
Why could i not have found this site 3 months ago?
Sorry to say that i have also fallen for the anderson munro scam,with my wedding just round the corner this is a real blow.
If any one can help please do so. Im UK based.
We have been contacted by Kevin Stephenson from Castlepoint Investments wanting to sell shares in Ethical Environmental and Sustainable Global Projects - got to be a ‘boiler room’.
I have replied to emails sent to me direct from the email - should I resend them using this method?
Regards
Rosemary
Sorry to hear about your situation John. The best we can do is get the info out and let others know about this scam. It also seems as if these scammers have been targeting people in the UK so tell everyone you know about this scam so they don’t fall for it as well. Also read through the comments a few readers are working at cracking down on these boiler room scams, they may be able to help you out. Let how things go.
Rosemary, Castlepoint Investments don’t appear to fall into the same category as Anderson Munro etc because they don’t even seem to have a website that comes up on Google, never mind all the PR that goes with it. Just don’t send any money !!!!
Interestingly I have just been talking to a real broker !!
How do I know he is real ?? Well we had a discussion ( you can imagine what I was saying to him !! ) and he said that he would prove that he was legitimate. How ??
He told me to check with Finra Brokercheck
http://brokercheck.finra.org/Support/TermsAndConditions.aspx
He, Hasan ( Harry ) Bacovic, from Laidlaw Limited is in, New York.
So, by typing in his name to the brokercheck it brought up his details, his firm and some of his history.
He said that fsa concentrated more on the firm than the broker but I could not find an easy check for the firm yet.
As we know the known list of unregulated firms is here
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Doing/Regulated/Law/Alerts/overseas.shtml
Castlepoint are not on there but then neither are Anderson Munro !!!
Thanks Harry for the information !!!!
Has anyone actually reported this to the Police yet. I’ve passed on some details through a contact I have but since no actual crime was commited against myself or my family it’s difficult to get any feedback or report it officially, those of you that have actually lost money (potentially) should report it asap the sooner the authorities are officially involved the more chance you have of recovering any funds.
Good point Chris, if your not sure just check FINRA. I’ve checked them several times to see if brokers were in fact legit. Just follow Chris’s links above to search for more info. Thanks for all the info Chris.
You can report companies online to the FSA here
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/doing/Regulated/Law/Alerts/form.shtml
You can also report companies to the Police - Operation Archway ( in the UK ) here online
http://www.cityoflondon.police.uk/CityPolice/ECD/Fraud/boilerroom.htm
and the police advise checks here
http://www.sec.gov/
here
http://www.sec.gov/investor/brokers.htm
here
http://www.sec.gov/investor.shtml
here
http://www.sec.gov/investor/oiepauselist.htm
and here
http://www.sec.gov/investor/oiepauselistfake.htm
Try to relax people. These cretins arn’t as smart as they think they are. Time will tell.
We need to do some work to get higher on Google for a straight ” Anderson Munro ” search.
I have a few plans but it would help if people promoted ( posted ) this blog and my M&A Rainmaker blog wherever possible on the Internet ( eg in blogs, on social network pages etc etc ) using the title and keywords ” Anderson Munro ” and any of the investment themes that they are using on thier Press Releases that are appearing on Google.
Thier game is to keep the first page or so of Google free of any adverse information by posting lots of Press Releases.
They are obviously still monitoring thier emails as I had a call from a Mr James Morgan of Anderson Munro on Monday in response to my earlier email.
One good thing is that as you type in Anderson Munr… to Google it comes up with the option Anderson Munro scam - I guess the more people that look at this search the better aswell….
Andy - this is to confirm that I have reported the matter to Staffordshire Police, have an incident number and will be giving an interview shortly and passing on the relevant information. HSBC are also pursuing the matter via the Hang Seng Bank in Hong Kong. If the Pearlgate International Account is still in use, hopefully not for much longer.
“We need to do some work to get higher on Google for a straight ” Anderson Munro ” search ”
I have now stated work on - http://www.internetintelligenceagency.net/ where I am dedicating a full page for each scam company.
What I intend is a fact file for each company in an easy layed out format so we need to collate facts we know on each one.
Based on my work in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) I am fairly confident in getting on the first page of Google for each desired name.
I am adding a form so info can be mailed directly. Collecting links directly to the press releases would be a good start.
Good stuff Brian. I will promote this as widely as possible through my social networks
( which are pretty extensive ) etc and give you some good links etc. Anything specific that you need please let me/us know.
Please note the following post on my M & A Rainmaker Blog :
http://mandarainmaker.co.uk/wordpress/2009/12/02/anderson-munro-invests-in-internet-veneer-of-respectability/
Regards, Chris.
e police take down websites
http://cms.met.police.uk/news/policy_organisational_news_and_general_information/mps_e_crime_unit_takes_down_scam_websites
Interesting !!!
2nd meeting with the police this afternoon.
Thier report will go forward to the Economic Crime Directorate
http://www.cityoflondon.police.uk/CityPolice/ECD/
They have a very good reputation for success.
Once reported to the local police this is probably where you want your case to go.
time is running very short for them now, one of the scammers is now “cooperating” with the
investigation team.
Will keep you informed
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