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

 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