The Carbon Credit Registry carbon credit “reformatting” scam continues: A company calling itself Williams & Gray is running a recovery room scam

By Chris Lang

Earlier this week, REDD-Monitor received an email from “John”. John had been cold called by Simon Humphries, who claimed to be from a company called Williams & Gray. Humphries told John that Williams & Gray could sell the carbon credits he had been scammed into buying years ago for more than £20 each. But John would first have to pay a “reformatting” fee of 74 pence per credit.

On 12 October 2020, Colin Cumming left a comment on REDD-Monitor:

Just been contacted by a company called Williams & Gray ltd saying that they can reformat ver’s to EEA’s for £2.81 and sell them on the European market for £22.55 another scammer?

This is a ridiculously obvious scam. Here are the red flags:

Humphries asked asked John to contact the Carbon Credit Registry to “verify all details”. The Carbon Credit Registry is a recovery room scam. REDD-Monitor wrote about the scam two weeks ago:

Following REDD-Monitor’s post, the Carbon Credit Registry’s website has been suspended, but the scammers are still running the same scam.

A company called Williams & Gray Limited does exist. It was registered in 1922. According to the company’s 2019 Financial Statement, the company “operates two Honda main dealership franchises based in Clitheroe and Blackburn”.

But that’s not the company that is cold calling people about their worthless carbon credits. The scammers have cloned Williams & Gray. REDD-Monitor has written to Williams & Gray’s solicitors and accountants to let them know.

The scammers’ website was registered in September 2020. The website was registered anonymously. Needless to say, there’s nothing on the website about selling Honda cars. Instead, it’s full of the usual nonsense found on boiler room websites.

Much of the text on the website is cut and pasted from other companies’ websites. Here are a couple of examples:

The clone Williams & Gray website is on the left, with the original text on Jupiter Fund Management’s website and London & Capital’s website on the right.

The scammers behind the clone Williams & Gray sent John a six-page document titled “Terms of Service”. I think it’s safe to say that the scammers are working on the assumption that “no one reads terms of service”.

A large part of the Terms of Service is gobbledygook. For example, here’s a section titled “Terms and Conditions”:

The terms of agreement is to enable the asset to be released from current ownership unless the governing body formally terminates the project or there is mutual written consent of both parties. Upton Five business days This Agreement may be terminated at any time by the Issuer, upon five business days’ prior notice to such effect to the Underwriter, or by the Underwriter upon five business days’ prior notice to such effect to the Issuer.

Williams & Gray is not registered by the Financial Conduct Authority. Investors who hand their money over to companies not registered by the Financial Conduct Authority have no recourse to the Financial Ombudsman Service or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

The scammers’ Terms of Service includes the following lie:

If your are the sole owner of the assets and they are attached to your name you should fit the criteria of the Financial services Compensation Scheme entitling you to a full refund of any payable agency fee.

Williams & Gray is the most recent company to have been cloned as part of this recovery room scam. Some of the companies cloned (so far) include Charles Dickens, W.J.Tatem, Chloride Eastern, and Carbon Credit Registry. No doubt more companies will be cloned. The Financial Conduct Authority has taken no action whatsoever against the scammers, and has not even bothered to list the cloned companies on its website.

If you are contacted by “Williams & Gray”, “Charles Dickens”, “W.J.Tatem”, “Chloride Eastern”, “Carbon Credit Registry” (or any other company that claims to be able to sell the carbon credits that you were scammed into buying as an investment) please report them to Action Fraud, and the Financial Conduct Authority. Do not send the company money under any circumstances.