The Trend is Blue: A carbon credit boiler room turns to the recovery room scam

By Chris Lang

The Trend is Blue is a company that used to sell near-worthless carbon credits as investments. That’s the boiler room part of the carbon credits scam. Now the company rings people up to tell them that they have a buyer for their near-worthless carbon credits. For an advance fee, no doubt. That’s the recovery room part of the scam.

Two people have commented about The Trend is Blue on REDD-Monitor. In August 2013, following a post about Enviro Associates, “Paul Newmann” wrote:

I have also been unlucky enough to join the above. I purchased through a company called “The Trend is Blue”. The MD is a guy called Simon Andrews who went on to involve me in another investment. I am now being pestered by Enviro Assc. and a company called “The Carbon Trading Exchange” both of whom can’t wait to help me sell my credits.( For a price of course ). None of these people can be trusted.

Then in June 2014, “Gary Kennedy” wrote:

Has anyone had any dealings with Trend is Blue. They rang me today (Jun 20 2014) to say they may have a buyer for my Carbon Credits. They will confirm on Monday. They say they will charge me 1 point 5 per cent for selling them. Needless to say I will not be putting any money up front if that is what is required but if they have a buyer, and I get paid a reasonable price for the credits. I will be happy to pay them their cut from the money I bank. Apparently the market is supposedly opening up in America as their firms have to offset their carbon emissions with credits by the end of the year or be fined. I will keep you informed of what happens next week but in the meantime, has anybody had dealings with “Trend is Blue” in the past?

The company’s website is currently behind a password, with a note explaining that “The Client Login tab is only applicable to CNI Emission Reduction Unit holders.” The Trend is Blue was one of Carbon Neutral Investments’ Clearing Members. If that’s not a warning sign, I don’t know what is.

Here are archived copies of parts of The Trend is Blue’s website. It’s full of the usual nonsense produced by boiler rooms looking to con people into buying carbon credits as investments. There’s a stream of well-known company logos across the middle of the company’s website. Here’s a screenshot:

It would be reassuring, except for the fact that there is no explanation of why these logos are on The Trend is Blue’s website.

And there’s a lovely testimonial from a company called Guaranteed Asphalt:

We have been greatly impressed by the nature of your organisation: your team of international experts, the global presence of your company and your important contacts at government level. Your practical no-nonsense style really impressed us.

Funnily enough, there’s no mention of The Trend is Blue on Guaranteed Asphalt’s website. I asked the company whether the letter is genuine. I’m still waiting for a response.

The Trend is Blue’s Twitter account has been dormant since December 2013 as has its Facebook account.

The company’s sole director is a 36 year old called Simon Andrews. He is also the sole director of a company called Income Capital Store Limited, which promotes investments in a storage company called Store First. Tony Hetherington, a journalist at the Daily Mail, looked into this company in November 2013, and described the “investment” scheme as a “fascinating network of companies, all sounding alarm bells for various reasons”.

If The Trend is Blue sold you carbon credits, or if the company contacts you with too good to be true tales of having found a buyer for your carbon credits, my advice would be to take careful note of what they say, before putting the phone down and reporting the details to Action Fraud: