Shun this shiny scam

Tony Levene is offered the opportunity to invest in gold...

Not all that glisters is gold, said Thomas Gray, the eighteenth century poet contemplating his old school, Eton. True then, and even truer now with gold hitting record prices.

Is the $1,500 gold price a bubble about to burst? Or is this just the start? Way back in the mid-1980s the Aden sisters in Costa Rica predicted Mystic Meg-like that the value of the yellow metal would soar to $3,000 an ounce in double quick time. It didn't.

But the only real answer to the gold up or gold down question is that I don't know – and nor does anyone else with any more certainty than taking a bet on all three 2012 Premier League relegation places.

Still, there's no uncertainty from the scamsters who call me out of the blue. They've come up with some “golden shares” over the past few days that, whatever they say, will enrich them and make victims substantially poorer.

Take Raj Mittal (no relation to the fabulously rich Indian steel owning family) who phoned me from Pinnacle Finance, apparently in Berlin but only contactable by an 0845 UK phone number. There is no address on its website which was set up on 11 April this year. He could have called from anywhere.

He told me Pinnacle (no relation to a number of legitimate financial and other companies with that name) offers a mix of long and short-term recommendations. But the last recommendation soared 31% in two months. While never naming this wonder stock, he told me that “our clients are not greedy. We got them out with about 20 to 30% short-term gains.”

He wanted me to invest about £15,000 in Nazca Mining which was about to float on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Mittal told me he was a “junior analyst” so a few days later, “senior analyst” Warren Anderson phoned. He told me Nazca was about to float at €1.50 and would go to €2.00 in three to four weeks. Nasca Mining, based in Canada and set up in November 2010, has some apparent interest in gold mines in Peru. Its website claims the Frankfurt listing would happen in late May. It did not.

A Frankfurt listing sounds impressive – the cream of German industry is quoted there – until you realise that it means the Frankfurt Open Market, a wild west area which makes our own “light touch regulated” AIM and PLUS markets look like the very epitome of decorum.

Unsurprisingly I asked for documentation such as a flotation prospectus or a set of accounts before investing. After all, most investors want to see evidence of a company before handing over money.

Anderson said I could have all that, but only once I had purchased the shares and initialled each and every page of a ten page Stock Purchase Agreement. Then I would then be sent the 18 page Nasca memorandum (whatever that is). The insistence on paperwork was so the “FSA registered compliance officer” could check everything. There is no such person, needless to say.

Anderson then put me on hold, to ask the “compliance officer” if he could make an exception in my case. A few minutes later, he said he was sorry but those details cannot be sent out. The call was then terminated.

A few days later, it's Stephen Corrigan from Switzer Capital, which says it is based in Frankfurt. He is selling shares in Eldora Gold which claims an “environment friendly” way of recycling gold mine waste to recover more gold from “tailings”. There is an impressive website and Eldora Gold is already on the Frankfurt market (the “open” to all version).

Corrigan is very enthusiastic and is surprised how a “serious investor” (that's me!) is not already heavily into Frankfurt shares and, even worse, I have never heard of the “legendary Jack Ramsey” who works with him and who put the deal together.

Eldora Gold shares have already been punted by Fisher Capital (no relation to a legitimate UK firm of a similar name) and Shaw Capital. These two firms say they are based in Seoul, South Korea. Shaw is already on the FSA warning list.

Switzer Capital claims it was set up in 2003. But its website only dates back to April Fool's Day this year.

Now here is an amazing coincidence. The Switzer website was created by a Martin Quintero of calle San Francisco 67, in Panama City.

Now you may recall A-Z Markets, about which I wrote a few weeks ago. It is a boiler room trying to push Glencore shares, claiming they would soar. The shares did not exist and, incidentially, Glencore didn't soar. The A-Z website was created was created 12 days after that of Switzer also by a Martin Quintero, also of calle San Francisco 67, Panama City. Could they by any chance be related?

Follow me on twitter at @tonylevene1

Award-winning scams expert Tony Levene explains why he's writing a blog about scams and why he is The Scam Magnet!