Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Turning up the heat on aggressive cold callers THE ART OF RIPPING OFF THE VULNERABLE
A second bunch of bullying scammers touted investments in art by painters including Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali.
In a moving post on an online forum, one man told of the experience of his 82-year-old mother, a “usually very savvy lady” who was caught at a vulnerable time due to illness.
It began with a cold caller saying that company shares were underperforming while in contrast art could return 15% over six months.
“Their sales technique seems to be to keep talking until the weary recipient agrees to having some paperwork sent to them, if only to get the cold caller off the phone,” he said.
“The company then courier over a fine art purchase agreement, sent from Spain, a couple of days later and follow it up with another call.
“If the recipient rejects the agreement during this call they are immediately threatened with legal action, as the company claims that verbally agreeing to have paperwork sent through constitutes a legally binding contract.
“This bullying, intimidating behaviour is a disgrace.”
These Spain and
Morocco-based scammers traded as Asset Consulting
Services and Asset Consulting Group but used UK companies to receive and forward investor money. Two of them have now been put into compulsory liquidation in the public interest.
Gem Tobin Ltd, based in Warrington, Cheshire, moved £700,000, while Dionysus Design Services Ltd shifted £200,000.
The director of Dionysus is Stephen Lynn, known in the Manchester art scene for his prints of rock stars. He did not respond to requests for comment.
“These companies have acted cynically in accepting almost a million pounds from members of the public, many of whom are elderly and vulnerable people, with no evidence to indicate that the investment being offered had any value or was likely to generate any return for the investors,” said David Hope, chief investigator for the Insolvency Service.
In March, two other companies involved in the same scam – Halifax Mannin Ltd and Hey Design Services Ltd – were shut down by the High Court after siphoning off £1.4million from investors.