Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Google should AXA fake website ads Scammers pay internet giant to promote sites that target savers
THE good news is that I’ve helped get a bent investment website taken down.
The bad news is that there are plenty of others just as bad that will try to snare savers.
And thanks to help from Googleads, they often appear high up in search results if you’re looking for ISAS, bonds, or other types of savings with seemingly decent interest rates.
One Googlead I spotted was for fixed-rate bonds and promised an impressive – if unlikely – return of 11% a year and the assurance of “100% guaranteed protection”.
Clicking on it led to the site of Crowncompare.co.uk, which claimed to have more than a decade of experience in bonds – even though the website was only registered earlier this month.
It promised that investors would have “full protection with guaranteed security up to £85,000”, the amount covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
I filled in its “free advisory consultation” form and got an email back from axagb.com, the website of AXA Global Broker – or so it seemed.
Henry Cohen, apparently a senior account manager, wrote: “All of our bonds we represent our (sic) covered under the FSCS scheme up to £85,000 per person or per institution.
“The bonds are as secure an investment you are going to see.”
The bottom of the email claimed that AXA Global Brokers, which is part of the giant AXA Insurance Group, is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Which it is – but axagb.com is a clone website which offers no FSCS protection at all.
“AXA runs a global monitoring service which searches for sites taking advantage of the AXA brand, however in some instances these websites slip through the net,” said an AXA spokeswoman on Tuesday.
“From our initial investigations, it seems this website may be fraudulent. The issue has been escalated to AXA Group Security.”
Yesterday she updated me: “As of last night axagb.com has been taken down. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.” Crowncompare.co.uk has been added to the alert list of unauthorised firms published by the FCA but I’m not sure how much good that will do, with so many others ready to take its place.
Like comparefree.co.uk. “Build your financial & investment portfolio with stable, secure fixed-rate bonds today,” gushed its Googlead.
Its website said it would compare different fixed-rate bonds, but after I completed its online enquiry form I was directed to just one website, Nateus.co.uk.
I was emailed by a James Reeves, another senior account manager, who recommended that I buy Prudential PLC bonds, which are sold on the London Stock Exchange and offer almost 7% interest. “Bonds listed on an exchange carry the benefit of FSCS cover,” he claimed.
This is not true. Corporate bonds, sometimes known as mini-bonds, are not covered by the compensation scheme.
And while Prudential bonds are genuine enough, Nateus.co.uk itself is not.
It uses the name Nateus Group and provides an address in central London, while the legitimate firm listed by the FCA register is called Nateus NV and has an address in Antwerp, Belgium.
Google acknowledges
“there are businesses who purposely set out to mislead consumers” and says it is combating them, last year taking down more than 10 million “bad ads” a day.
It would be better if it never took money for posting them in the first place.