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

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 ...