Silent bosses behind boasts of share riches
Probes a world of scams and scandals
D.E.writes: I replied to an advert and received a glossy brochure from D-Corp, offering software guaranteed to make money on the stock market. This was followed by a phone call promising a monthly profit of 12 per cent. I said I was not interested but nevertheless they have requested £4,950.
I KNOW you have no intention of paying, but the payment request itself is interesting. You were told the full price for the miracle software that supplies stock market winners is £9,900, but you only need pay half upfront.
The balance is due only after you make £30,000. This is the company’s guarantee. But there is no guarantee covering the initial £4,950, so if the software is a dud, you lose.
There are a number of businesses with similar names, so let me make it clear that the offer came from D-Cor- poration Limited, which calls itself D-Corp. It claims to have been a leading software company ‘for nearly a decade’ – which is not bad going for a business that told Companies House it was dormant until about six months ago.
Its website – created last September – says: ‘At D-Corp we help people to make money from trading the financial markets.’ But what it cannot legally do is offer investment advice. That would need a licence from the Financial Conduct Authority, which the company does not have.
Despite this, it claims some glittering prizes. It issued a press release saying it had been named ‘one of the UK’s most innovative companies’ by something called the ‘Trading Awards Index’.
It also claimed to have been included in the 2012 awards, despite being dormant, and despite these awards being completely untraceable.
D-Corp also won the best investment software prize at the 2013 International Stock Market Board awards, again despite being dormant. Mind you, the board itself is in dreamland too.
It claims to be ‘one of a number of global institutions that oversees all of the stock exchanges’.
Poppycock! The board even says it is sponsored by HSBC, but the bank tells me it has never heard of it.
And the board’s website is registered to a London phone number that I traced to a completely different company called Stock Market Charting Programs and Data Specialists.
Guess what – it advertises that ‘From £2,950 you can manage your own stock market portfolio with our quality Analytical Charting Software’. Talk about wheels within wheels.
I offered all these businesses the chance to comment. The owner of D-Corporation Limited is Wayne Brennon. I asked for proof his software works. I asked about the mysterious awards he claims his company won.
Since he had never been a company director before last September, I also asked where he gained his investment experience. Sadly, Brennon stayed silent.
The charting and data firm that shares a phone number with the fake regulator is run by Adrian Breckon, 32, from South London. I asked him to explain the connection. He didn’t, or couldn’t.
The website for the bogus board is controlled by Bob Kratz of East London. He would not explain the link with Breckon’s firm either.
So, what we have is a company selling a very expensive computer program with a ridiculous claim of guaranteed profits.
It boasts an award from a stock market regulator that does not exist – and the non-existent regulator shares a phone with another firm that also sells stock market software.
And none of them will talk to me. I wonder why?