Watch out for this classic cold-calling scam!

When the phone calls with "unknown number" on the caller ID just as you are preparing the evening meal, what's the odds that it's someone after your money?

When the phone calls with "unknown number" on the caller ID just as you are preparing the evening meal, what's the odds that it's someone after your money?

And that the "someone" is really a rip-off merchant rather than the usual run of banks and utility companies trying to sell me expensive and unwanted insurance policies. 

Of course, I can't generalise, but that's what all too often happens to me.

So there I am, composing a brilliant pasta sauce when the phone rings. The caller has an English accent - almost public school - and sounds as though he is in his fifties. He says his name is Jeremy Price and he's tells me he's from MacMillan Capital.

I have two immediate reactions. MacMillan what? And how did you get my name and number?

Answering the second question first, Jeremy explains that I filled in a marketing questionnaire some months ago. When I tell him that I can't remember, he says he does not know either but that is the only way he could have obtained my details.

It’s a boiler-room

This, of course, is rubbish.  I know I'm on a “sucker list” - a file of people who are thought susceptible to illegal investment approaches. I'm on it purely for research purposes. Jeremy does not know this, of course.

As to what MacMillan is, Jeremy explains that it is an investment house specialising in both listed and unlisted equity opportunities. Just what that means exactly is not clear as then he started on the standard boiler room routine designed to probe my weaknesses and assess just how much I could be persuaded to part with.

And that it has offices in Brussels, Berlin and Basel. On that basis, there is probably an offshoot in Barcelona, Budapest and Birmingham as well.

First, he discussed my attitude to risk. As he is going to try to sell me something that is off the risk scale (because the company he will try to push me into does not have any existence other than on paper), my responses really do not matter but he wants to show he cares.

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Then it was the classic “how is your portfolio doing?” This is designed to prove to me that he can do better. So if I say it's gained 10%, then he will demonstrate that he can earn more. But there's also other – more psychological – points to this question. By asking after my investments, he hopes that to gain my confidence and, as importantly, break down the barriers that might lie between us.

He then goes through "sectors that have held their own" such as agriculture, gold and pharmaceuticals. He informs me his "senior analysts" are putting together "recommendations for our selected clients" as we talk. It's classic sucker bait.

Delving deeper

But we get chatting. I ask how long he has been with MacMillan. He answers that it's been a few months so I gently probe his past.

He tells me he used to work for Peterson & Jones Associates.

That sounds very high class. It is not. Peterson & Jones purported to be based in the United States but it was actually a dodgy “recovery room” scam firm which offered to buy worthless shares for big money, claiming there was a secret buyer. The only snag was that to get the money, investors had to send up to $10,000 in “release and registration fees”. P&J has now evaporated along with its website. Jeremy moved onto the next boiler room – just as likely, MacMillan is P&J rebadged.

Jeremy then adds that once the  “senior analysts” finish their research and it has “passed through our strict compliance”, the shares will be released for purchase. I ask him to email me with the details.

Unsurprisingly, nothing ever arrived.

Another attempt

That was two weeks ago. Late last week, I received another call from MacMillan – this time as I was eating lunch. But although it sounded like Jeremy, he said his name was Keith.

Oddly, he had no idea that Jeremy had previously called me. Instead, he claimed that he had last spoken to me in March.

That's not true. What really happened is that Keith had a spare moment and decided to work his way through his sucker list just in case he could warm up a few prospects.

Remember that I take these calls so I can warn others. You should slam the phone down – and keep slamming it if they phone back. Showing them any courtesy will only be construed as weakness, increasing their chances of ripping off your savings.

In any case, no legitimate firm would phone in this way – FSA rules ban cold calling for investment purposes.

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