ALTR Alternative Fund Managers is running a recovery room scam

A company called ALTR Alternative Fund Managers is cold calling people telling them it can sell the worthless carbon credits they were scammed into buying as an investment. Of course, they’ll need to pay an advance fee. And of course ALTR Alternative Fund Managers is a scam.

The company’s website is the usual hastily thrown together jumble of nonsense that boiler room operations specialise in.

Here’s an example:

Like Alternative Fund Managers Limited, investment trusts have been around for countless years (over 150 in point of truth). And very much like AFM Ltd they play a crucial role in investment decisions and planning for many people around the world. These days, we have one of the largest investment trust ranges in the World.

Memo to potential investors: Never hand over money to a company that describes “over 150” as “countless”.

Needless to say, Alternative Fund Managers has not “been around for countless years”. It’s not even been around for one year. The company’s website was registered on 16 May 2015.

Despite the company’s claims of having “one of the largest investment trust ranges in the World”, a search on Google for “ALTR Alternative Fund Managers” reveals not a single news article about the company.

In fact, apart from the company’s own website, the only other search results were links to a warning that the the Financial Conduct Authority put out on 1 July 2015 against ALTR Alternative Fund Managers. FCA warns:

This is what we call a ‘clone firm’; and fraudsters usually use this tactic when contacting people out of the blue, so you should be especially wary if you have been cold called.

There is no information on ALTR Alternative Fund Managers’ website about who is behind the company, or even who the directors are. There are no registration details on Open Corporates for a company called “ALTR Alternative Fund Managers”. The company’s office address is given as County Armagh, Northern Ireland, but the phone number is a London number. The company address includes the street name, but not the number.

The company’s website was registered by Jay Cannon, who gives an address in Pennsylvania, USA. In May 2015, the Financial Conduct Authority warned about a clone company called Corporate Trust Asset Management. The company’s website was registered by Jay Cannon.

ALTR Alternative Fund Managers’ telesales team explains to the people it cold calls that they can sell their worthless carbon credits for “around the purchase price through the China Investment Corporation”.

If this sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is. The China Investment Corporation does exist. It’s a sovereign wealth fund, created in 2007 with US$200 billion assets. By the end of 2014, its assets were more than US$740 billion.

But why would a Chinese sovereign wealth fund want to buy worthless carbon credits?

And why does ALTR Alternative Fund Managers want to receive a payment before the China Investment Corporation will buy the credits?

If you are cold called by ALTR Alternative Fund Managers (or any other company that claims it can sell your carbon credits), ask them to send the offer in writing. Then report the company to Action Fraud: