Global DM Licensing sent mailings to UK consumers, under the name The AccuSlim Centre, claiming that the Accu-Slim Bead was a ‘fat burning acupuncture without needles, diets, exercise, or effort’.

It was claimed that by placing one Accu-Slim Bead behind the ear each day users could eat as much as they liked and still lose ‘at least 30 pounds in the next 30 days’ as the bead stimulated the acupressure points that trigger ‘automatic weight loss‘.

Other misleading claims included that the Accu-Slim Bead worked ‘faster than total starvation’ and that users could ‘have the rake-slim body of a size 8 model’.

Accu-Slim Beads were marketed as ‘a safe and proven method to lose all your excess weight once and for all, without the slightest chance of failure’ and the company claimed that permanent results were guaranteed.

Consumer testimonials included in the marketing said some women had lost up to`64lbs in seven weeks.’ Consumers were invited to buy packages of up to 120 beads for £65 (which was stated to be discounted down from £130) to lose 85lbs and more.

The OFT contacted Global DM Licensing to express concerns over the potentially misleading claims being made, and requested evidence to support the claims.

The company responded by providing clinical papers highlighting various studies that had taken place in relation to acupuncture, but did not provide satisfactory proof of the claims made in the mailing. Global DM Licensing admitted that, whilst they believed that sham acupuncture worked as well as acupuncture, they were unable to demonstrate with scientific evidence that all its claims were true and the company gave an assurance that it would stop sending Accu-Slim Bead mailings to UK consumers. The company has also undertaken to adopt stricter policies for the development of future advertising concepts to ensure compliance with UK law.

Mike Haley, OFT Head of Consumer Protection said:

‘Every year thousands of people fall victim to misleading claims about products that promise weight loss without exercise or dieting. The OFT will continue to take action against such companies to stop them from exploiting consumers.’

MICROFINANCE BANK LOANS INVESTMENT .PLC.

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Name:……………………
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Copyright © 1996-2008 Microfinance Bank ® All rights reserved.Terms of
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Apart from the fact that the address is incorrect (the address is of a mortgage company, who have no connection with this scam) – whoever heard of a bank using hotmail for their email! Avoid.

They’ll want a deposit from you and  / or will use your details in identity theft fraud.

The OFT has revoked the consumer credit licence of Matthew St John Crossley trading as the Debt Advisory Company. Through his websites http://www.thedebtadvisorycompany.co.uk and http://www.advisorsondebt.co.uk, Mr Crossley advertised ‘free independent and impartial debt advice’ to consumers with serious debt problems. These web-sites have been closed down.

He is understood to have advised consumers that re-mortgaging would be the best way to solve their debt problems. The consumers then released up to £30,000 equity in their homes and sent this to Mr Crossley so that he could repay creditors on their behalf.

The OFT found that he had:
* failed to return monies to consumers on request
* failed to make payments to any or all of the consumers’ creditors
* charged large initial and ongoing fees that appeared to be disproportionate to the work carried out; and
* made misleading statements and gave misleading advice about the services he provided in order to induce potential clients to enter into a contract.

Such conduct is in clear breach of the OFT’s debt management guidance.

Mr Crossley previously operated across the UK and although his exact current whereabouts are unknown, the OFT has received information suggesting that he may now be living abroad. If he was to continue to offer debt management services to UK consumers he would be committing a criminal offence. He is understood to have previously gone by the names of Matthew Crossley, and Matthew Prevett.

Ray Watson, OFT Director for Consumer Credit, said:
‘This is one of the most serious cases involving debt management services we have encountered. We have evidence that consumers parted with tens of thousands of pounds and suffered increased financial hardship as a result of Mr St John Crossley’s activities.

‘Following their dealings with Mr St John Crossley one consumer was forced to sell his home, another was bankrupted and another found himself facing bankruptcy and the loss of his home.

‘If consumers with debt problems need help in resolving their financial problems, they can obtain free advice from a range of charities and organisations. Under no circumstances should they seek such advice from Mr St John Crossley.’

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In relation to the same one count of conspiracy to defraud received sentences as follow:

Virendra Rastogi [Chairman - d.o.b. 02.02.1968] Nine years and six months’ imprisonment. Disqualified from acting as a company director for fifteen years

Anand Jain [Director - d.o.b. 08.05.65] Eight years and six months’ imprisonment. Disqualified as company director for ten years

Gautam Majumdar [Chief Executive Officer and Director - d.o.b. 17.10.51] Seven years and six months’ imprisonment. Disqualified as company director for ten years

This was a fraud that involved literally billions of dollars, and of the defendants HHJ Wadsworth in passing sentence said today “they created a very impressive front that fooled banks, the metal exchanges in both countries, (UK and USA), and well respected accountancy firms.” The judge also said, “they were involved in years of calculated dishonesty,” and that during the trial “they had shown no shadow of regret or remorse or repentance.”

Background Information

The Allied Deals/RBG Resources fraud was a truly global fraud that cost banks $700 million dollars worldwide but that was ultimately brought down by the pressing of a wrong button on a fax machine.

Between 1996 and 2002, Virendra Rastogi, Anand Jain and Gautam Majumdar, (together with Virendra’s brothers, Narendra who was based in the USA, Ravindra who was based in the UAE and Subhash who was based in Singapore) ran a web of in excess of 300 fake “customers” who were supposedly based in the USA, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, India, France and Italy. The defendants used the supposedly independent customers to create “trades” that were then used as the collateral for cash advances from banks. Whilst the banks thought they were financing a very successful metal trading firm (one so lucrative that Virendra Rastogi appeared in the Sunday Times Rich List and had Jack Cunningham MP, Lord Holme, Lord Woolmer and Lord Gray as advisers) they were actually advancing money to a company that was propped up by dishonesty. The “customers” were actually Rastogi’s paid henchman based in addresses around the world who would falsify documentation and purport to banks and auditors to be independent traders. The truth was however far more audacious. The address of one of the customers was actually a cow shed in India. One SFO witness at trial indicated that another customer in the USA was actually just a laundrette in New Jersey and an investigator who went to locate one of the “customers” found a residential New Jersey housing estate with the house in question owned by an elderly lady who sold scrapbooks. A number of supposedly independent customers actually had the same address and when investigators phoned some of the companies the phones were actually answered by children.

Ultimately it was the complicated nature of the fraud, together with the controlling tendencies of Virendra Rastogi that led to the uncovering of the fraud. Mr Rastogi would require copies of the false customer documentation to be sent to the UK for checking by himself. One of his henchmen in Hong Kong, intending to fax a number of false letters from various “customers” to Rastogi for review, inadvertently pressed the wrong button on the fax machine and sent all the material to PricewaterhouseCoopers, who were RBG’s auditors in the UK. Although Rastogi tried to recover the documentation alleging that they were documents that had been sent in error, PwC refused to return them and resigned as RBG’s auditors. This resignation prompted concern amongst the banks. Realising that the banks investigation would reveal the extent of their dishonesty, the defendants and their accomplices went into a panicked attempt to cover up the fraud. Offices were rented, letter headed paper and business cards produced and individuals recruited to sit at desks and pretend to be employees. Investigators found hundreds of customer stamps amongst the fraudster’s papers at their Hong Kong business location, from which a ready inference could be drawn. Why would they own so many of their customer’s stamps unless they controlled them?

RBG Resources also employed a number of genuine metal traders, who were based at RBG’s London offices at 105 Piccadilly. These traders entered into real metal transactions. These traders were not aware that the business conducted by Virendra Rastogi, Anand Jain and Gautam Majumdar was founded on fraud. They were the honest veneer of a business that in many regards was (as described by SFO counsel Richard Latham QC) “rotten to the core”.

Paige Rumble, the lead SFO investigator on the case, said “This was a truly audacious and ruthlessly efficient fraud that ranged from the poorest areas of India to the corporate tower blocks of Manhattan. The RBG Resources empire was a family business founded and driven by fraud. The successful prosecution of this case required a huge and technical analysis by the SFO team that unravelled the truth behind the facade and demonstrated to the jury the full extent of the defendants’ dishonesty”.

3rd Floor

52-58 Tabernacle Street

LONDON EC2A 4NJ

Tel: 020 7549 8359

Fax: 020 7549 7837

Email: venture.capital.group@ntlworld.com

Names Tony G Parker, Senior Partner and Sean O’Driscoll. Also involved with a Nigerian scammer calling himself “Stromm Roberts” (but he often forgets this when you call him) Also known as Ron Overs. Uses telephone numbers 0870 9125910 (+44 8709125910), 07092317681 (+447092317681), 0112348053531092 or 07031931047 (+447031931047) – all of which route to Abuja, Nigeria.

Web: http://www.zyworld.com/vcg/

This outfit allege to help companies around the world to get Venture Capital.

They “achieve” this very quickly but then insist on a £9,000 fee upfront.

We have been unable to find anyone who has received funding – but know of people who have lost £9,000.00

Despite repeated requests for an interview, Mr Parker never returned our calls and the girl on the “switchboard” (who always insists that you “have a really lovely day”) would only confirm that he has changed his mobile number, but that she could not give it out.

They pretend to be in the City, the financial heart of London, but I have been able to confirm via the Managing Agents that they are not in the building shownon the website, which is a respectable building.
They previously pretended to operate from Hindgate House, London as Portland Project Evaluations.

Interestingly, when we shared some info with www.zyworld.com (Minerva House, Pynes Hill, Exeter, Devon, England, EX2 5JL Tel : +44 (0) 1392 209500 Fax : +44 (0) 1392 209510) who host their site and lend credence to the operation, they were only concerned to see if VCG were paying their hosting bill.

As they are making payment, albeit via a differnet address, zyworld lost interest and say they will continue to host their site.

So, if you are looking to host a scam site to give some solid appearance to your rip off scheme, use zyweb – just make sure you pay them ….

________
Update December 2006

Mr Parker has been in touch several times to arrange a meeting to put his case to use, which we have very much welcomed.
He also denied knowing Mr O’Driscoll, but oddly later agreed to a meeting with the 2 of them …
However, each appointment was broken and he has not replied to any of our questions.
We will continue to keep an eye on the company and to try to get answers from Mr Parker.

False investment companies will be able to send you the most detailed and highly polished brochures. Website addresses will lead you to the smiling faces of company members and contain investment advice and history.

Take one case recently reported to us where http://www.maxonglobal.com/asset-management.htm is shown as the website of one such fictitious company.

In this instance a potential customer/victim was contacted by telephone and then sent a glossy magazine profiling the company. In reality the website was entirely false, contents, including details of staff members had been cut and pasted from a legitimate company’s website.

Furthermore, the company attempted to present a reputable standing by claiming membership of a trade organisation.

This trade organisation was quoted as the Offshore Financial Services Association.

If you conduct a worldwide search on Google, of the “Offshore Financial Services Association” you will receive only one hit www.o-fsa.org/.

This solitary hit leads you, not unsurprisingly, to the Offshore Financial Services Association based in Switzerland, which does seem exceptionally strange for an association that claims to have three decades of experience.

The telephone number provided upon the site does not work.

The upshot of such examples is that essential checks need to be made.

The true existence of such companies or trade organisations must be established. Just as a false or hijacked company website may be erected with the utmost simplicity, then so may that of a trade organisation. The moral of this tale is that checks can and must be made through reputable and well known sources.