Scam empties bank account
St. Albert, AB - On Tuesday, August 9, 2016, St. Albert RCMP received a report of a Fraud that had cost the victim thousands of dollars. Over the period of a couple of weeks, a St. Albert resident made several wire transfers to a company allegedly called Option Giant who appear to be connected to Global Health and Wellness Advisors. The St. Albert resident believed that the wire transfers were investing money in a company that traded foreign currencies and that there would be a full return of the investment with profit in 90 days. Unfortunately, none of the money has been recovered, no profits seen and the investment opportunity appears to be a scam.
Slave Lake RCMP received a similar report of this scam earlier this summer. A resident of their community “invested” undisclosed amounts of money through wire transfers to Option Giant through Stage 3 Alpha, run by Exogen which is a company allegedly run by a Sandra Barnes and a Kevin Robinson. The investor was also recommended to invest in Global Health Wellness Advisors. This victim also lost all money that was invested.
When the RCMP typed “Option Giants” into Google Search, www.optiongiants.com was blocked stating that the site was a phishing scam website.
“Scammers and Fraudsters can sound very legitimate and convincing.” says Cpl. Laurel Kading with the St. Albert RCMP Community Policing Unit. “But no one should invest in companies without doing some homework first. Check them out on the internet and talk to local, legitimate investment companies as they can spot the signs that an investment opportunity is fake.”
In both of these cases, the investment money cannot be recovered as it was wired outside of Canada. “One sign that an investment is possibly fraudulent is when they promise a huge return in a very short time. If you see “You will double your money in 90 days” - Stop! Get Advice! That kind of promise of a return is a huge warning to all investors that something is wrong! It is just too good to be true.”
If you have information about this incident, please call the St. Albert RCMP at 780-458-7700 or call your local police. If you want to remain anonymous, you can contact Crime Stoppers by phone at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), by internet at www.tipsubmit.com, or by SMS (check your local Crime Stoppers www.crimestoppers.ab.ca for instructions).