An “extraordinary” cloning scam targeted at consumers by fraudsters using the name of international advisory firm deVere Group could include a ‘boiler room’ operation based in London which appears to be using the name of a paraplanner at the firm to dupe investors.
Included within its alerts on unauthorised firms and individuals last week, the Financial Conduct Authority issued a warning over a ‘clone’ of deVere’s UK arm which it could be a so-called ‘boiler room’ scam based around aggressive cold-calling sales tactics.
According to the regulator, a firm calling itself deVere Group UK is operating out of an office in Holborn, London.
The clone also appears to be using the name of a deVere employee to convince investors of its credentials. One contact detail the fake firm is using is email address JonathanHarley.deVere-Group@london.com; the real deVere UK employs a Jonathan Harley as a paraplanner.
Last week FTAdviser sister paper Financial Adviser revealed concerns at deVere Group that fraudsters were imitating its UK division, with the firm’s head of financial planning saying the firm had raised concerns to the regulator in May and that it was preparing a “follow-up report”.
Kevin White told the paper: “The fraudsters are going to extraordinary lengths to make their scam look genuine. They are adopting a company name and address which could easily be mistaken for our legitimate ones, they are designing websites, stationery, and business cards to appear like our legitimate ones, and some are even going as far as impersonating our legitimate advisers.
“Unfortunately this type of scam is becoming increasingly common and deVere UK is not the only advisory and investment firm to fall victim to clone firms.”
A notice on deVere UK’s webpage says the firm is aware of another specific clone company using the same name as the Holborn fake and trading out of Swindon, Wiltshire. According to deVere the firm is similarly cold-calling customers and directing them to the authentic website.
Elsewhere the FCA warned last week on another clone firm based in Helsinki and targeting UK investors going by the name of Estlander & Partners Limited, which it says has no connection to authorised firm Estlander & Ronnlund Capital Management, which is also based out of Helsinki.
The FCA also warned against doing business with London-based Next Financial Network, which it believes is offering financial services to UK customers despite not having the authorisation to do so.
Finally, the FCA posted a notice that as of 15 November, Cyprus-based FCP Insurance Consultants Limited is no longer authorised to provide insurance or any other regulatred activities in the UK.
Investors who do business with unauthorised firms will not have recourse to the Financial Ombudsman Services or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme should things go badly.
