No one investing in carbon credits has made any money. That’s the conclusion of a survey by the Financial Conduct Authority. “[M]any investors have told us they are not able to sell or trade the carbon credits they have bought,” FCA states on its website.
The FCA launched an online poll last year to find out whether anyone had profited from buying carbon credits as investments. A spokesperson for FCA told Point Carbon that of the 125 people who responded, none had made any money.
Point Carbon reported FCA’s survey (subscription needed) yesterday, under the headline “Carbon credit investors haven’t made a penny: FCA”:
A survey by Britain’s financial watchdog of people who have bought carbon credits found that not one has made money, leading the agency to repeat warnings about firms using “dubious, high-pressure tactics” to peddle illiquid or near-worthless offsets.
As well as a general warning about investing in carbon credits, FCA specifically warns against investments involving Carbon Neutral Investments or Gemmax Solutions, companies that have appeared several times on REDD-Monitor.
The FCA has put out public warnings about more than 40 of these companies, Point Carbon reports. Since 2011, FCA has opened enquiries into 183 firms accused of cold-calling and persuading people (particularly targeting vulnerable people) to buy carbon credits.
Last week, City of London Police arrested six people as part of an investigation into a suspected boiler room selling carbon credits as investments. In December 2012, the police arrested 11 people involved with fraudulent companies selling carbon credits.
The Insolvency Service has also investigated several of these companies, which have subsequently gone into liquidation.
On its website, FCA explains how the scam works:
Investors are usually called out of the blue by salespeople promoting carbon credits, but contact can also come by email, post, word of mouth or at a seminar or exhibition.
You may be offered carbon credit certificates, voluntary emission reductions (VERs), certified emission reductions (CERs) or an opportunity to invest directly in a ’green‘ scheme or project that generates carbon credits as a return on investment.
Carbon credits and VERs certificates are often labelled as ’certified‘, but this certification is voluntary and involves a wide range of bodies and different quality standards that are not recognised by any UK compensation scheme.
The caller may claim carbon credits are ‘the new big thing’ in commodity trading, industries now have to off-set their emissions, the government is focusing on green developments or that it is a growing market.
But we have seen that investors are not making any money as they cannot sell or trade their carbon credits.
FCA’s website also features advice on “What to do if you are scammed” in the form of seven steps:
- Step 1: Stop sending money
- Step 2: Report the scam to us
- Step 3: Report it to the police
- Step 4: Beware of ongoing scams
- Step 5: Look out for money recovery scams
- Step 6: Beware of fresh scams
- Step 7: Avoid being scammed again
As anyone who has been scammed can tell you (and as revealed in many of the comments on REDD-Monitor), once you’ve lost money you will be targeted again. Here’s what the FCA says about “recovery room” scams that offer exit strategies:
You also might be told you can swap your investment for another deal, with a transfer fee involved, or asked to pay a capital gains tax bill before the large profit you were promised can be released to you, even if it does not exist.
An offer to buy back the shares or investment that you have lost money on, might need an administration fee or insurance deposit to firstly be paid. But you are unlikely to ever receive the money from their supposed sale.
These secondary or ongoing scams are run from what the fraudsters call ‘recovery rooms’ and are often carried out by the same group involved in the first scam, to take more money from victims.
Chris,
I have observed and appreciated your work over the past years. All the more, the preface to your article really shocked me. You cite an anonymous investor as to how “fucked up” the developing world was. If you share this sarcastic view of developing countries, what actually is the residual motivation for your work?
Besides, the fact that some sombre sectors of the financial market do all kinds of dirty tricks on all instruments it is trading is nothing that the developing world as such has any responsibility for.
With best regards,
Michael
To Date I have sold one batch of credits with another pending, I am told , reliably, that the deal will be completed next week.
I bought at around the £4.00 mark, the price at sale is £9.50, so I am making a fair profit.
@Michael Dutschke – Thanks for this, but I think you’ve misunderstood the “reddisms” part of the website. It’s a series of quotations (loosely) about REDD. If you re-load the page you’ll get a different quotation. There is no link between the reddism quotation and any individual posts.
There are more than 100 quotations. I don’t necessarily agree with them all – I think they are interesting. All of the quotations have a link back to the source.
The particular quotation you are referring to was reported by a journalist at The Economist on her blog in June 2009. A forestry analyst said it, not an investor.
I haven’t read the FCA report, but this claim seems hard to believe considering billions of dollars that have gone into the trading of CDM credits and easy-to-find examples like Wildlife Works’ voluntary REDD projects in Kenya that have sold millions of credits. How is it possible that millions to billions of dollars have changed hands on CDM and VER projects without anybody making a profit? What am I missing here?
@David Diaz – Thanks for this comment. FCA’s survey was about people who had bought carbon credits as investments. It’s not about trading carbon credits (i.e. buying them at one price in, say, Eastern Europe and selling them five minutes later in, say, London for a slightly higher price). Neither is it about project developers like Wildlife Works that sell carbon credits to people or companies who want to offset their emissions.
If you read beyond the headline (although even the headline makes clear that this is about investing in carbon credits), it’s clear that the FCA survey is about companies that cold call people and use high pressure sales tactics to persuade people to buy carbon credits at inflated prices. There are several posts on REDD-Monitor profiling some of these companies, collected here: http://bit.ly/Y2z7YX.
The best introduction to the fraud that I’m aware of is this presentation by Andrew Ager (ex-head of Carbon and Emissions at Bache Commodities) in 2012:
Why you should not buy voluntary carbon credits as an investment: A carbon trader explains
So in Sep 2013, the FCA has completed a survey which tells us that you can’t make a profit by buying Carbon Credit as an investment. Didn’t we know this about a year ago? And its opened enquiries into 183 firms selling credits. How many has it actually done something about I wonder?
I have been contacted recently by a company called Triological Partners Ltd. They claim that they can sell my VERs bought through MH Carbon through the Californian Exchange. The sales take place at auctions which are held every two or three months and are sold to major corporate companies who are looking to buy additional carbon credits in order to meet their emissions targets. In order to take advantage of this service, I have to become a client and purchase an allocation of CRTs amounting to just over £5000.00 plus there is an administration fee of £150.00 to pay.
The attraction is that this is an opportunity to sell currently worthless VERs within the Californian Exchange at a price in excess of what was originally paid. The risk is that I pay out a further £5,000.00 or so pounds and find that no sale takes place, and I end up having lost a further £5,000.00. This sounds like a Recovery Room Scam, I know, but it is different, and their representative sounds very plausable. Plus their procedures sound very detailed and professional.
Has anyone dealt with this company, or has anyone else been contacted by this company or has any knowledge of them. I obviously need to know whether they are jenuine or not. All replies welcome.
C J Cummings
I am very surprised that you are able to sell the credits at profit , would be interesting to know the brokers you are dealing with.
Thanks @Chris Lang for the additional explanation. I suspect many other readers will misinterpret these headlines in the same way I have. My intent was to clarify:
1) that many organizations that have provided funding to develop carbon projects have made a profit (not to mention the many carbon credit traders in the secondary market who have also made profits);
2) that these arrangements are commonly referred to as investments in carbon credits; and
3) that these experiences may be obscured by these headlines which appear to conflict with what many people mean when using the word ‘investment’.
Baz. I know these clowns. Its a scam. Make a note of what they say and send you and report them to Action Fraud.
While people buying carbon credits as investments haven’t made any money, ArcelorMittal has. In 2012, the company raised US$200 million by selling EUAs (pollution permits).
@Baz – Triological Partners Ltd looks an awful lot like yet another one of these scams. Here’s why I believe this to be true:
1. They contacted you. How did Triological know that you had bought carbon credits as an investment? How did they get your contact details? FCA’s website again:
“If you have already bought or invested in carbon credits, be especially careful as fraudsters are likely to target you again. The follow-up contact may be completely separate or related to your previous investment, such as an offer to get your money back, transfer your investment or buy back the carbon credits after you pay an administration fee.”
2. The company want’s money up front. If it were really true that Triological Partners Ltd could sell your VERs on the Californian Exchange, couldn’t they just do so, take their cut and give you the rest of the money?
3. The company was only registered in February 2013.
4. The company address is 52 High Street, Pinner, Middlesex, HA5 5PW – a nice enough place, but hardly a financial centre. Here it is on google maps:
When we look up the company on companiesintheuk.co.uk, we find that there are 502 other companies also registered at that address: “This is probably a mail forwarding service address”.
5. The company website looks like it was thrown together in an afternoon. The only useful information is the small print:
“Carbon credit purchasing carries a significant level of risk and may not be suitable for all persons. Before you decide to purchase carbon credits, carefully consider why you want to own carbon credits, your financial objectives, discipline level, experience level, and risk tolerance. Potential buyers of carbon credits are advised to carefully consider the opinions and analysis offered by outside information sources in the context of the potential buyer’s individual analysis and decision making. None of the outside sources of information is to be considered as constituting a track record. Past performance is no guarantee of future results and Triological Partners specifically advises its potential buyers to carefully review all claims and representations made by independent sales representatives before making a commitment to use funds to buy carbon credits for the purpose of holding.”
6. Triological Partners Ltd’s website was registered by Peter Mustafa of Galerie International.com Ltd. I’ve no idea who he is, but the website consists only of an address and links to: Monte Pego Villa Rental, Rotapower, and propertiesabroad.com.
@ C J Cumming
I and many others would be interested to know which trader or broker has managed to sell batches of your credits for you !! I think it may be the same people i have signed up with but so far 4mths on they have not traded any of mine . Could you contact me if possible [email protected]
@David Diaz – Thanks. I’m glad to see that you’re admitting to having misinterpreted the headline and not the article. Anyone who bothers to read the article would be in no doubt that it’s about carbon credits sold fraudulently as investments.
Have you written to Point Carbon as well about their headline: “Carbon credit investors haven’t made a penny: FCA”?
To respond to your three points:
1) Providing funding to develop carbon projects is not the same as investing in carbon credits. Neither is trading carbon credits on the secondary market. (And as I’m sure you are aware there is no secondary market for voluntary carbon credits.)
2) I’m not convinced that funding a carbon project is referred to as an investment in carbon credits. It’s an investment in a project that subsequently sells carbon credits to people or organisations that want to offset their emissions.
3) I disagree. The article is clearly about people who had the misfortune of buying carbon credits as investments. It is not about funding projects or selling carbon credits.
Carbon credit frauds – Has anyone come across William Perkins who are offering deals on Carbon Credits?
The deal offered to me is that, if I buy £5000 of CER’s at 28p (current trading price 55p)they will sell these on to a major client at market value and also include my VER’s at £8.01 each! The sale goes through on 31 October!
This sounds too good to be true – but I cannot see the catch.
Comments invited.
Harry Cloud
Interesting article. Maybe someone should tell Carbon-Expert, who have just appointed a “Client Liaison Officer” presumably to take the heat off their main salespeople – enabling them to continue calling existing victims with offers of “exits” for an upfront fee. I would suggest that any companies seeking “carbon consultancy” to carefully think whether they want to do business with this outfit.
Proving the “scam” part is the difficult bit. Buried in the original contract small print are statements along the lines of “a markup may be applied to the price of purchased carbon credits”. It seems that Carbonex of Luxemburg (website now unavailable) was the “sourcing” company for credits for many of the boiler rooms operating in the UK. At some point a markup was applied to the price of the credits purchased and it seems likely that a sizable part of this markup was returned in the form of a “commission” to the original company – bingo, instantly laundered money.
Junk. Writing to the companies who have accepted ‘carbon consultancy’ from outfits who also sell credits as investments is a good tactic. After all, the companies go ‘carbon neutral’ largely for PR purposes and it won’t do them much good if it becomes apparent they are associated with fraudsters. Hence the blogs and Chris efforts on the Formula 1 team and AGT.
Also money laundering is quite likely to be behind the larger scams which may well be tied up with organised crime. In fact the police may well prosecute for money laundering as its generally easier to prove than fraud.
I too am interested in C. J. Cumming’s post. Can I ask C. J. have you actually received the proceeds from this sale and did you have to pay a registration fee or buy some other certificates first?
Or is C. J. one of these scammers who has found a way of convincing a lot more of us to cough up more money?
Tony.
Hi Tony
I have indeed been paid for 2 lots of credits, paid straight into my bank account.
I have nothing to hide I am just one punter that was taken in by the hype and purchased over 20,000 credits.
I paid a registration fee up front but not as much was requested it amounted to £1075.00.
I can assure you that I am not some sort of plant to encourage others as at the present time CNTE are not looking for new clients until they have fulfilled their obligations to existing clients, first in first out.
If I’ve purchased carbon credits from a company that is no longer trading what can I do to confirm that I do actually own what I’ve paid for ?? In the hope that maybe one day I can sell these bloody things ??
I too was contacted by Triological with the same proposal, however I decided that, with the guidance of CNTE it was a scam.
As I understand it there is only one company that has the ability to sell VER credits and that is CNTE.
Companies name is Carbon Neutral Offsets
You will have to gain access to the APX registry where all ver,s are held.
Some brokers have been selling credits but they have not been registered an APX, which in effect, makes them worthless.
Mike: Thanks, I may well do what you suggested. CJ Cummings: as you might imagine, lots of posters here have been ripped off so there is a lot of scepticism about your claims. It’d be really useful if you could give further details of your trades – were your carbon credits VERs, CERs or something else? Which companies bought your credits (I mean the companies seeking to offset their emissions, not your broker)? Which projects were your credits from and when did you buy them? Did you use a third party escrow agent (e.g. Colemans solicitors) to handle the transactions?Were your credits originally sourced by the company Carbonex in Luxembourg? Thanks in advance.
I registered with CNTE (Now Carbon Offset) early in the year after someone at another blog said they had sold some of his credits. Frankly, soon after I wrote it off as another recovery room scam.
However, since then I have received regular updates from the company explaining some of the issues they have encountered, including with the registries and how they have been adapting their business model. Certainly not the usual spiel about guaranteed exits etc.
Note that they have not sold any of my credits yet, though I am told to expect a small sale shortly when the settlement date has been agreed with the buyer.
This is not a recommendation and I could be wrong, but I am of the opinion that Carbon Offset are genuinely offering carbon consultancy and exiting individuals holdings where possible. Whether they can make a business of this is another matter. They have clearly not been as successful as they hoped, and as CJ Cummings points out are no longer taking on any more clients until they can clear some of the backlog and provide clients with a chance of exiting within a reasonable timescale.
Only time will tell, but if this proves to be genuine, we should applaud it and promote it. However, even if it works it can’t be a solution for all as they simply won’t be able to shift credits in the volumes that have been sold to all of us.
Obvious questions about CNTE (Carbon Offset) are: why would companies buy the type of credits we have been sold (which we know to be often from projects generating large volumes and often of an older vintage), and at a price that would generate a profit?
The answer to this question lies in the nature of the companies and their motivation. Large multi-nationals will tend to be more specific about the projects they use. They want to be associated with specific, probably recent projects in countries which maximise their PR.
Smaller companies are less concerned about these specifics. Their PR is simply about being demonstrably Carbon Neutral. A large hydro projects in India is as good for them as a small Biomass project in the US or cooking stoves in Africa.
Also the price they pay is wrapped up in the whole deal. They don’t have the time or expertise to research prices and get involved in the registration, retirement and certification process. This is done for them by the consultancy. This is not unusual. Other consultancies (that do not sell carbon credits as investments) such as Carbon Footprint sell credits to their (corporate) clients at prices much higher than they are available ‘wholesale’, again as part of the overall deal.
Like many of you, I have been scammed in buying CRTs. Cold call, from a very friendly, and seemingly knowledgeable chap from a company called Carbon Growth. And yes, Carbon-Ex in Luxembourg was behind it. Having parted with some hard-earned money, I stupidly fell for the same guy after being told that the price is going up and that if I buy now, I stand to make a killing. I guess, in the end, it’s the greed or chance to make a quick buck that gets us scammed, hey guys? Anyhow, and needless to say, I am also very interested to understand how C J Cumming managed to sell his CRTs as I would jump at this opportunity. I will, like many others, look into CNTE, but with more caution than before!
It would be really interesting to hear CJ’s reply…..and maybe have some proof….but….he has already given the game away. What he is saying is that it is OK to pay this company a registration fee. IT IS NOT. Not unless you want to lose another £1,000.
If the carbon credits were tradeable (my parents have lost in this) then there would be lots of companies willing to sell them for a % with no upfront costs. To date I have not found one. Think about it.
Come on CJ… Sell my parents’ carbon credits for me at £9.50 and I will give you 15% commission…but no registration fee.
You do not say how many you sold by the way… Out of the 20,000 did you sell 5,000? 1,000? 200? Have you bought anything else?
Hey Peter, got this reply from Carl Assmundson, Carbon Sourcing Analyst
http://www.carbonneutral.com recently:
Dear Mr. Conradie,
Thank you for your enquiry. Unfortunately we cannot help you as our client requirements mean we only purchase carbon credits from businesses rather than individuals.
Unfortunately we are not able to connect you to a broker for your needs.
I can not find anyone even vaguely interested in helping my sell my CRTs, or even willing to advise as to who can. I’m also nervous that who-ever I engage with on this, will just take me for another ride. One company wanted me to invest another 5k GBP before they would take on my account, yeah right!
I just popped off another email to [email protected], which I think is the company CJ referred to. We’ll see what they have to say, but I’m not holding out much hope.
I am now at the point where I have to decide whether to write off my “investment” as school fees and move on, or keep going in the hope that I will one day get back at least something. It’s like Homer Simpson going through the four phases after receiving bad news: denial, fear, bargaining, acceptance. I’m between 3 and 4 now.
Another fact is that these scoundrels just don’t give up. No sooner than I was caught with this scam, I was phoned up by another broker selling biofuels shares. It turned out that his colleague was the same monkey who sold me my CRTs, and the admin lady was also involved with the previous company. I.e. once they have you on the hook, and before you wisen up on their scam, they take you for another ride, and so on. I was even referred from one crook to another. I have now vowed to never speak to anyone again using the cold-call tactics, and if not registered with the FCA. Also, no dealing with companies with addresses in the Seychelles, Luxembourg, and the like! Google them to death before you make your scribble.
At least this blog helps me vent some anger and work through it somehow, and maybe, just maybe we can somehow figure out something together.
@Pieter – Thanks for this. Today’s post lists some of the things you can do if you’ve been scammed into buying carbon credits as investments: http://bit.ly/1at2RJa
Contacting Carbon Neutral Offsets isn’t on the list…
Answer from Admin manager Carbon-Neutral-Offsets: “We only specialise in the offsetting of VER credits as we help small to medium companies become carbon neutral”. Now part of this scam is the terms they throw about, expecting the lay-person to understand them. Then, not wanting to appear too foolish, you grunt as if you know what they’re talking about. I was under the impression that my CRTs would be sellable when the time comes, and even reading up about it more recently, it still is not clear to me whether what I’ve bought is worth anything. I think that I have verified, at least, that I do in fact own about 3100 tons of CO2! Anyone else understand the carbon trading lingo better and can explain or point me to a site that might help? P.S. Chris, I have now logged this with the ActionFraud.
Further response from Carbon-Neutral-Offsets: “As a company we do not buy or sell credits and we do not act or associate with brokers due to the disregard they have caused the industry, we only specialise in carbon reduction, carbon reporting and offsetting. We can look to use a clients credits for offsetting purposes but only VER in the voluntary market, I would suggest you contact your original broker regarding the exchange. Our issue is their is no mean price currently for a CRT and as it is on an American registry we do not access to the full details to be able to confirm if it is active or retired.”
Can others comment on what type of credits they were con-ned into buying?
Regards,
Pieter
Apparently Carbon-Ex SARL still exists. Some excerpts from their latest email:
Your purchase of your order from Carbon-Ex Sarl was introduced by Carbon Growth and Seagreen Global. (Both have gone bust!)
In this instance you should refer to your introducers for advice as Carbon-Ex SarL only procures the order and delivers according to instructions passed to us by introducers on clients’ behalf. (Not easy to do when they have stopped trading, and Carbon-Ex refuse to advise me on an alternative, I suspect because none exist anymore).
Carbon-Ex SarL has been in contact with the Climate Reserve in California and we will be shortly communicating to purchasers of CRTs with the option of opening their own registry accounts in order to give them better control over and access to their purchases. (Last time I checked, it would cost $500 per annum to maintain an account at the Climate Reserve as in individual, not something I am likely to want to do).
Seems like this blog is running out of steam. Losses cut by most, I suspect.
Cheers,
Pieter
@Pieter: Carbonex-SARL must have passed a sizable portion of the money you paid for your credits back to Carbon Growth and Seagreen Global – I’m not sure what they would call this, an introducer’s fee perhaps? Carbon-Expert also used Carbonex-SARL as their broker. Carbon-Expert have stated that details of any fee paid from Carbonex-SARL to Carbon-Expert was “confidential information”.
@Pieter – Thanks for your comments. Richard Smith at Naked Capitalism picked up on your comment about Carbon-ex S.à r.l.’s latest email, in this post:
How a British Carbon Credit Pusher Got a Listing on a Danish Stock Exchange, Brokered by a New Zealand Financial Company Run by an Australian Residing in Switzerland
I brought carbon credits from new frontiers advisory, not fsa regulated. Approximately 2 years ago.
They disappeared but seem to have left my carbon credits on a registry which I am now informed by the registry company which has nothing to do with any iof the companies involved so they say(including eco synergies nominees ltd )that I must pay a year,y registry fee.
I feel this is pointless as the carbon credits are worthless.
Should I pay, do I have to?
I had the same thing. Carbon Ex S.A.R.L informed me that my credits are held by a nominee company, but due to a non-disclosure agreement they cannot let me know who this company is. I then contacted Nigel Tarrant at Colemans-CTTS who actually parted me with my money (Escrow agents) asking him about this, and got the same answer. So, apparently I own these worthless credits, but no-one wants to tell me where they are held. As I posted on 22 Nov, they told me that I will be informed on how to open my own account in order to better manage my “investment”. I am still waiting, but this sounds like the same situation you are finding yourself in? Who is the registry company they referred you to Jo?
I too bought from carbonex through colemans, i have found that my credits were logged on the APX registry, try them.
The project I supposedly bought credits from is listed on the Climate Action Reserve registry. My concern is not that the credits don’t exist, but that I actually own some of them. What I want to find out is which company has the account with the CAR, and through whom I can arrange to one day sell these things. This information is being withheld from my by both Carbon-Ex and Colemans.
I to have purchased Carbon Credits from MH Carbon. I am retired! I am looking for a safe way of disposing of them without to much of a loss
Dear All,
For anyone who has invested into this product (or anything similar) via a SIPP, regulated advisor or through any solicitor, we have acted for a number of investors in numerous other projects/investments and believe there may be possible redress for this product.
Our firm specialises in financial services law and has a high success rate where we have been successful in claims on behalf of investors where they have lost their money through similar sorts of funds.
For an informal chat to discuss if there is any way to see a return of your investment please contact me:
Tobias Haynes
t: 01384 889900
e: [email protected]
Regulatory Legal Solicitors
1 Hagley Court South
Waterfront East
Brerley Hill
West Midlands
DY5 1XE
I look forward to hearing from you and assisting where possible.
Kindest regards
Tobias
Anyone had any luck with Tobias? I contacted him twice now, but still waiting to hear back from him.
I was one of the unfortunate people,to be caught in the carbon credit trap the company i Dealt with was carbon neutral inv then was re named liberty alt investment the broker was Michael Kemp cant get hold of the company or the gentlemen. so iam stuck with vcr which is held by gemmax solution . Does any 1 know how can i sell these or not.
From the long silence, I assume we have all resigned ourselves to the fact that we are writing off our money?
@Pieter,
I think that’s the case (at least, that’s what I tell the cold-callers that offer to “help” me).
1) The CO2 market shows no sign of picking up any time soon. The latest price for green CERs is a pitiful EUR 0.17, according to EEX.
Meanwhile, our VERs – already older vintages in many cases – continue to age.
2) Many investors have their credits stuck on the CDC Climat registry, which closed in 2012. The holding companies (eg. Gemmax) have said they are undergoing audits to enable the transfer to ‘live’ registries (which has taken months so far). Nothing to do now but wait… and wait…
3) Many of the carbon credit brokers have closed / been forced out of business (which at least means fewer victims these days).
So, in summary: there are no legitimate buyers of our credits, and if there were some way to get ‘value’ from them, they usually cannot be sold or retired.
By this I mean, for example, building a website to offset individuals’ emmisions (air travel etc.). I started such a website and stopped working on it some time ago. Until I can retire my credits there’s no point.
Mark.
Could you please tell me some projects can sell carbon credit(The types of project.
Mr t Michael G.E.C is contacting a friend who is really old saying he can sell his carbon credits how can I tell him this man is a scam or is he genuine please help
@Jo – This post may help:
What to do if you’ve been scammed into buying carbon credits as an investment
In particular the final point: “Do not hand over more money to companies who claim that they can sell your credits, no matter how convincing they sound. That is the Recovery Room part of the scam.”
You can read more about recovery room scams (or advance fee scams) here.
GEC is running a recovery room scam – how did they know that your friend had bought carbon credits as an investment? (The answer is that he or she is on a suckers list – a list of people who have been scammed, that fraud companies collect and sell to other fraud companies).
Michael Kemp “broker”,
Any information on this person’s whereabouts would be very much appreciated….
Has any one information on the whereabouts of one Ben Bristo
Hi l was sold £5000 of carbon credits the company was the 360 group, l have 1000 shares and have been contacted by a company called Verified Carbon Solutions to sell these for me they are in U. S. A. Also l have been contacted by another company called Kentisburytrust. Com offering to sell them for me who are in Sweden is this just another scam do you think. Many thanks Michael Hickman
@Michael Hickman – Thanks for this. Both are scams. They contacted you out of the blue. These companies have your name and contact details from a “suckers list”. These companies are recovery room scams.
A search on Open Corporates reveals that there is no company called Verified Carbon Solutions registered in the USA.
Neither is there a company called Kentisbury Trust registered in Sweden.
Kentisbury Trust claims to have “has earned an unprecedented reputation in the investment industry for developing and managing private and corporate clients since our inception in 2008.” But the website was only registered (anonymously) last year.
A search for “Kentisbury Trust” reveals precisely two results on Google. That’s odd for a company that claims an “unprecedented reputation”.
Please report both companies to Action Fraud – 0300 123 2040.
Thank you for this I shall steer clear now.
Michael Hickman
Thanks Mike. I also receive a call from a John Smith asking for details and telling me that they’re trying to put together a package for a client in Canada via this company in Sweden. I was very surprised to hear on this topic, 7 years after writing it off as “school fees”. I also couldn’t give him any useful info as no-one I dealt with back then are still operating. Just wondering how he got hold of my details, as he had the specifics correct, number of credits, etc. I was never going to pay then more money, so was interested to see how they would be perpetuating this scam? Probably trying to contact me into buying a few more credits to make up a full pack, or such like. I’m getting worked up just thinking about it, and shall stop here. Regards, Peter
@Pieter Conradie – Thanks for this comment. If you’ve been scammed once, your name, contact details and information about how you were scammed is stored on a “sucker list”. These are traded between boiler room scammers. The scammers are working on the unfortunate reality that people who have been scammed are more likely, rather than less likely, to be scammed again.
In this case, the scam is a recovery room scam – the scammers claim that they can sell your carbon credits, but you’ll need to hand over money first (whether it’s to buy more credits, to make it an even 1,500, or as insurance, or as a deposit, or whatever fanciful excuse they can dream up). If you hand over the money, you’ll never see it again.
There’s more about recovery rooms and sucker lists in this post:
That is exactly the same approach they used on me,one person ringing from USA and the other from Sweden telling me they were selling in Canada.One company is Verified Carbon solutions and the other Kentisbury trust AG.They are not registered anywhere,it’s a real con.Best Wishes Mick
I to have had kentisbury trust and verified carbon solutions contact me wanting more money from credits I bought 8 years ago.
@false name – Thanks for this. Anything you can send me about Kentisbury Trust would be very useful. I’m working on a new post about this scam. Send anything you can to [email protected]. Thanks!