Thoughts on Finance, Current Affairs and General Consumer Ripoffs - Damn Lies and Statistics

 I've checked my credit card statement this month and found a transaction that I didn't recognise on there that was shown as ENGHERI*Giftcard Hurley. Searching online suggested that this was a clothing store called Hurley that sells giftcards but I'd never shopped there and couldn't find any record of this place in my emails.  Tracking back through I also couldn't find any purchases around the date that the transaction appeared on my statement so it was all a bit of a puzzle. ENGHERI*Giftcard Hurley Credit Card transaction - Scam? Out of nowhere a flash of enlightenment came to me about what I'd spent on that particular day! It was my English Heritage membership renewal that was mainly paid using Tesco Clubcard vouchers with the balance paid by credit card. Very confusing transaction details on the statement which I suspect generates a lot of queries to the banks. ENGHERI = ENGlish HERItage and it's paid as a gift card as the balance was paid using vouchers....

 I've just moved house and the previous resident was with SSE (Southern Electric) so I need to register with them at least for a period of time before moving to another supplier - unlikely in the current climate! Fortunately I know what I am looking for so was very surprised to see that the only 2 tariffs that SSE were offering were fixed rate ones. There was no option at all to take the variable standard tariff that the price cap applies to. Only reason I can see is to stop customers being able to get the best rate. Why are OFGEM allowing this!?

 It's been announced that Fluid ISA Bond Ltd has been placed into liquidation meaning investors are now in the line of creditors to wait for any possible recovery of funds. Unfortunately the administrators have advised that they do not foresee any money being available to distribute to bondholders. It appears that the Fluid ISA website being "down for maintenance" some months ago was the prelude to this as it never actually came back from maintenance. You can see the previous post about lack of redemption payments here Sadly another mini bond saga where investors have lost money, some of whom don't appear to have really known or understood what they were investing their money into. The liquidators will need to assess whether Fluid ISA bond was genuine or whether it was a scam that needs further investigation. You can read the Gazette notice here https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/4046635 Fluid ISA Bond Liquidation - Was it a Scam?

 A firm called Kudona are advertising on Facebook that are offering 3.8% savings interest. This is way above the market rate so is this a scam? Interestingly there is no result returned on Google if you look up "Kudona 3.8% savings Interest" which is very odd. If there is no way to check the info online through Google and Kudona have no online presence then that is a very big warning sign. If you look up Kudona on the FCA website there is no company listed by that name so it would appear that your money is at risk and you will have no recourse to compensation from FSCS. With these warning signs our advice would be to stay well away. If Kudona are genuinely offering 3.8% savings interest on a FSCS protected account we're happy to update this information if they can provide details of the company Kudona 3.8% savings Interest - Is it a Scam? Update - there is a website for Kudona but the same caveats apply. It isn't FSCS protected so your savings are at risk. It appears...

 I received a text message recently telling me that someone I knew had tested positive (presumably for Covid19) and that I needed to order a test kit. The message wasn't shown as coming from the NHS and the website link had no NHS details in the URL but the website displayed was branded to look like NHS. This is a scam and nothing to do with the NHS. The number 07759 129388 / +44 7759 129 388 is used as sender ID but is likely to be a fake number. NHS Covid Omicron Test Kit Scam text If you click on the link you are taken to a website that claims to be an NHS one but has some obvious clues apart from the web address that show it is fake. The tests for Omicron are exactly the same as for other Covid19 variants, there is no suggestion that the variant "appears dormant" as the scammers are claiming. In the UK at least there is no isolation requirement for anyone who is a contact and this is unrelated to having a test or not. The wording of the scam text SMS message is purely...

 We've been made aware of a scam email doing the rounds claiming to be from Money Saving Expert (MSE) Martin Lewis and offering an EON/e-On fixed rate bond paying rates of 3.5% and 5.875%. This scam is nothing to do with MSE, Martin Lewis or e.On. The scammers are just using their names to give some credibility and to gain trust. If you hand money over you will lose it and not hear from the scammers again so give them a very wide berth. Eon MSE Martin Lewis Scam Bond Email

The company name  CPrompt UK Ltd is being used by scammers to target investors in Fluid ISA Bond to recover money from their investment.  C Prompt UK Ltd is a company based in North East UK that has been running since 1993, owned by 2 people and has no website or any obvious online presence. You can check their details on Companies House here: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02876125 The scammers using the C Prompt UK name have no connection to the real company and are claiming to be based in London. It also appears that they have setup a website which again is nothing to do with the real company. They are presumably relying on the fact that C Prompt UK have no contact details online for any Fluid ISA Bond investors to validate or disprove the scam. The scammers are reportedly asking for 5% fees to recover funds from Fluid ISA that they claim has gone into liquidation. There is no information to support this claim. Although the ISA manager NP...

A company called Hunter Jones Investments are advertising on Facebook for bonds that they claim are paying 24% fixed return over 24 months for a managed property portfolio bond. It makes no mention that it is now breaking the law to sell unregulated bonds to retail investors. So is this investment opportunity from Hunter Jones a scam or genuine investment?  Hunter Jones Facebook advert - Is it a Scam? The name makes it sound like you're dealing with a person called Hunter Jones but it's actually a trading name for a company called  Osborne Baldwin Limited.  There is no mention of any risks involved in lending money to Hunter Jones investments - if you think you are putting money into safe savings as per a bank then you are at risk of being misled. Hunter Jones are not FCA regulated. There is no FSCS protection and you could lose 100% of your money if the company you lend money to was to fail. From information online there are unhappy previous Hunter Jones investors who us...

I got called by one of the scammers giving the name Nigel Adams calling from 0800 802 1986 and he was pretty convincing answering my questions as you'd expect from a well practiced scammer.  After promoting fake bonds for Sky Zero the scammers are doing an almost identical thing offering bonds supposedly by Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) with different rates on offer.  As with the Sky Zero and Wells Fargo these are nothing to do with the companies mentioned and once you hand over your money you are unlikely to hear anything more from them. The addresses they use are either fake (a shopping centre in Tunbridge Wells) or the real company that has no knowledge of the people you were dealing with. The bonds they mention may actually exist but are traded on stock exchanges and you will not be buying the bonds giving the rates they mention. If you really want to buy bonds then you can use a genuine stockbroker or even your bank but the interest payments will be on a par with sa...

In addition to the Sky Zero bond scam that is doing the rounds scammers are also using Wells Fargo, a US bank to try to scam unsuspecting people out of their money. One name used is James Marriott from Wells Fargo - but it's not the real James Marriott. Wells Fargo is a genuine bank but is based in the USA and has no business in the UK selling bonds to retail customers so anyone contacting you to sell such products is a scammer regardless of how convincing they are. Someone has reported their call being from a person claiming to be Nigel Adams, Managing Director of Wells Fargo Securities International but there is no director of this name. Do you really think a Managing Director of a company like Wells Fargo would be making sales calls to investors? Wells Fargo Securities International Bond Scam Review

  Latest UPDATE   Feb 2024  - Marshbell being struck off - act now!    There have been quite a few investors in Marshbell reporting that their interest payments have ceased and they've not been able to get their capital returned or get in contact with the company to find out what is happening. The FCA have put out a warning about Marshbell Limited trading as Marshbell Group operating illegally in the UK so they may be struggling to get investors on board with the warning on FCA website. Looking at the accounts for Marshbell Limited they appear to be in a difficult financial position with negative assets of almost £700,000 for 2020. This means that they owe people over £700,000 more than the assets they actually own and would explain why they have stopped interest payments. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10450516/filing-history The creditors which is presumably bond holders are owed over £2 million so unless the company makes...

 Sky Zero is a genuine incentive for Sky to reduce their carbon footprint and hit net zero emissions by 2030. The Sky Zero bond offer being sent out in their name is not. In addition the same scammers are now using SSE and Wells Fargo names for their scams . https://www.skygroup.sky/sky-zero However scammers are using the Sky Zero name to email out bond offers to unsuspecting investors offering up to 3.75% for investments of over £50,000 for 12 months. REMEMBER - it is illegal for companies to sell bonds directly to the public now so this scam is not genuine. These investments are nothing to do with Sky or Sky Zero and are scammers taking advantage of the Sky Zero name to persuade people to part with their money for worthless bonds. If you hand cash over you are unlikely to ever see it again and the scammers will have disappeared in 12 months when you want to get your money back! It appears that they are trying to confuse the green/climate bonds that are being legitimately offered ...