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It starts off with a call from a charming female that easily gets you to accept the no-obligation profile of an investment company called Strathclyde Associates to be sent by mail. This company information arrives in a high quality document and reference to a well-presented web page. You are also informed that should any interesting investment materialise, you would be contacted.
Sure enough, such a call comes from a very enthusiastic individual with promises of a quick-return and stock (Advance Media Group) that is about to go mega from a merger/buy-out from a large conglomerate. The purchase sum is low, < Euro10, 000, so one thinks why not. Not long after the stock indeed starts to move up and all looks well. Then another call comes with another deal that again promises significant gains over a short period, but the initial investment is slightly more; the purchase is made and indeed the stock (GreenCell Technologies) starts to climb. Then comes another call that additional stock has been secured from the last purchase and it would be foolhardy to pass such an opportunity, especially since the stock is already making significant gains, this time the buy-in is significantly more. At this point I was already suspicious and decided to call it a day. To test the water, I requested that the stock purchased to-date be sold off thus “consolidating the gains” made to date. However, the water was indeed hot and I got burnt. The individual became quite agitated at my refusal to invest any further, and that was the end of any further dialogue, certainly from Strathclyde Associates.
Thereafter, by investigating further (which I should have done in the first instance) I found several references to Strathcyde Associates – all negative, including similar feedback from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK.
Unfortunately Strathclyde Associates are difficult to trace and claim to operate out of South Korea and with no means of recourse, they also use IP phones to call you, although after my last call I did receive notification that they had a new direct contact number (+[protected]). Their web address also changed from www.strathclydeassociates.com to www.strathclydeassociates.net, they bank with Maybank in Labuan, Malaysia. Some of the names, aliases, I came across were:
Hendrik Andersson – CEO
Henry Philips – Chief Operations Officer
James Beaufort – Senior VP for Corporate Affairs
Adam Blake – Sr Investment Advisor (the agitated fat ugly one)
Jessica Walker – Accounts Department
Mikaela Holland – Accounts Department
If Strathclyde Associate do indeed operate out of South Korea, it would appear that legislation there allows all sorts of low life to breed. Recently another investment company contacted me using exactly the same MO, so I went along to see how they would proceed. I was amazed that when the “broker” called, again the same MO, but not only that, was offering the same stock – so be aware, this company called themselves Shaw Capital Investment and also operated out of South Korea.
VB. No further response and certainly no money!
The same happened to me... exactly the same story, same names. So far I did not get back my money. Vaughan Bonnell, any news about your money...did you get anything back?
They have also started to use a new company name and calling them self Springhill Group and url http:.//springhillgroup.com http://springhillgroup.com/
Be careful with dealing with either of the so called financial investment companies, they are all scams.
strathclyde associated
shaw capital investments
Springhill group
Spring hill group
Check the latest listing at: http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Doing/Regulated/Law/Alerts/overseas.shtml#s
I have submitted springhill to be added to the list, but could be a while as this is the brand new name they are using.
Has anyone got photgraphs of them ...if so please let INTERPOL know of the scam !
Indeed, they call themselves now the Springhill Group, based in South Korea. I was contacted by Thomas Rogan, a so-called trader. A very aggressive salesperson. Please be very careful. I will also ask for Sprinhill Group to be added to the FSA list. Their so-called CEO is Peter V. Klinsmann. Their phone number is +[protected]. They proposed me to buy shares of Norton Scientific, a Canadian company. Whenever you try to call them back you will only end up in a voice mail, simply impossible to contact them.
Please watch out, don't trust them for a minute.
Same situation.
I have no idea how they got my number (specially since they called on my work phone which i never disclose) nor my work address in Singapore.
Had a short first call (which I cant really remember) and then received a high quality ad from Springhill, based in South Korea.
Then a new call (done by VOIP phone) with a very aggressive sales person trying to have me buy Norton Scientific shares because there was some huge deal in progress (Bayer going to buy Norton Scientific) which has not been disclosed yet.
I have no interest in earning money through shares, so just spent 20 minutes listening to him for the fun. He did become very agitated ("you don't understand... you must be young and stupid to pass something like that) blablabla.
If I wanted to buy shares why in hell would I do it through a South Korea company (considering I live in Singapore).
Had an interesting call from Alex Clark from Springhill. No idea how they got my number, but wanted me to invest in Norton Scientific based on the same huge Bayer deal.
They are at it again. Got call from "Reliance Financial" saying they had company wanting to buy my (useless) AMG shares for high price. Several phone calls later they advise me there is a "lien" on the shares. (Lien being I cannot sell them). They say lawyer will have lien lifted but must pay retainer in advance (Several thousand Euro). Ha effing ha.
Hi I have also been contacted by Alex Clarke from springhill group about Norton scientific and Bayer. I was gullible enough to believe him and agreed to buy 5000 Euro of stock. Luckily I have found this info and others before I have transferred any money. There were a number of red flags now that I think about it, the vague answers to taxation was the biggest. they out rightly tell you that you don7t need to declare anything as its all off shore...yeah right. My only question now is that they have been on recorded conversation agreeing to purchase the stock, but hey as its a scam they not exactly going to take legal action are they? I will have to put up with numerous calls and emails no doubt, but that's better than being ripped off 5000 euro.
In addition their address is listed as a temporary executive suite here:
http://www.moveandstay.com/seoul-s-tower-vertex-korea-executive-suite-31163-office.php
Thanks for these posts. whilst on the telephone to a 'Chris Archer' aussie bloke by the sounds of him; i googled his springhill group and this big deal with Bayer and Norton. found this site.
alarm bells were already ringing! and you guys confirmed it. cheers and steer clear
Around 2 months ago a parcel was delivered to me at work. The envelope was containing a nice brochure from this investing firm so called SpringHill based in Korea and that was it. The same thing happened to several of my colleagues. Around 10 am this morning i received a phone call to my work phone number from some broker from Spring Hill called Michael something. Such Such an aggressive sales person! First of all i do not know who he got the number and how he was able to know my nationality. I had spent 45 mins on the phone with him while during this time he had repeatedly tried to convince me to invest in Norton Scientific which supposedly had recently signed a 50 billion contract with Bayer. I repeatedly and repeatedly said to him that i was not interested. I did not wanted to put the phone down on him so i carried on listening and listening for almost an hour until he gave up. Very skilled sales person tough! Afterwards i took 5 mins to google such deal between the two company. What i actually found was the above complaints from people who went trough my same experience. I would have never ever gave a single cent to those guys no matter how convincing they are. I am sure that some people have actually invested this 5.000 Euro with them. Do not let them fool you around and hang up on them as i should have done instead of wasting 1 hour of my time. Cheers
Same happens to me just now. I've got the company information in a nice brochure for a while. The past few days I had a missed call during my lunch everyday on my cellphone without number. Today I received a phone call to my office phone number from a very aggressive person. I also don't know how they got my company address and phone number. The sales person told me same story about Bayer and Norton Scientific. He also said this info is not in public yet. So I ask him whether is this a insider deal and therefore illegal. The person became quite agitated "why do I not take him seriously" and hangs up the phone. Afterwards I found the above complaints via google. I also traced the web domain and found following information:
springhillgroup.com
IP: 203.223.152.146
City: Kuala Lumpur
Country: MY (Malaysia)
State: 14 (Wilayah Persekutuan)
Latitude: 3.1667
Longitude: 101.7000
Just now got a call from them. A very talented gentleman operating under the name of Alexander something. That was actually his second call. Indeed, same fellow called me back in December, proposing at that time to take part in a good deal involving company Amazon Gold. I passed out on that one. Cleverly, today his introduction was all about what i missed last time by not investing with him. He said since last december, share had climbed from 0, 80 EUR to 1, 07 EUR, more than 35% in 5 month time. Making me feel i should have trusted him. Then, he moved on the new hot topic of the day that was proposing me to invest in the Norton deal, about to be taken over by big German Bayer, undisclosed news. Putting forward the following figures. Today's entry rate secured at 1, 15 EUR and supposed to touch 2 EUR in 3 month time. My God, even better than first offer back in December...
That fellow has not been rude a single time, and i kept him on line more than half an hour, listening carefully to his well built-up story, and questioning him on many details. Alex is very patient and convincing guy who will explain you that he's been doing this for long, that he agrees it seems strange to deal over phone, but 95% of his business is like this only. He will insist on the fact that it is important to him to prove you a great success on that first deal, so that it would build our trust and confidence.
Today, Alex was trying hard to get me in for about 5000 EUR. I tried to buy bit time, telling him i needed to crosscheck couple things with some reserch on Internet, blablabla. He warned me i didn't have much time to catch this deal, and probably wouldn't find confirmation on his information about NT3 and Bayer as he and his company were having priviledged undisclosed information. To make my life easier, he himself told me a few websites to check-out.
www.springhillgroup.com
www.norsci.ca
www.boerse-frankfurt.de
Certainly to make me feel all these companies exist and are serious...
I am just so HAPPY i came through this blog, and definitely will cut it short with Alex when he calls me later on... It does stink of big SCAM!
Just received a call from them. Very pushy "broker" who made me waste a lot of time, I was checking on the web for info. I got here. I received exactly the same details as Waipi99. Beware...
I received a call recently by an odd man going by the name of T_Strath, He stated he is very famous on the Internet, and regular talks to himself. very sad, I would just visit Clyde's dating agency online, lots of fishy birds who like it in the springy hills of Espan---yaaaa
I suppose it makes more sense to just invest xfire.com, you get free fake gaming credits, & Tyler from Clyde's would get to play games Strath online, whilst your thinking about your last poem, and checking to see if your friends are coming over to invest in Amazon.
Just now I received a call from the Springhill group with the very same sales pitch as Waipi99 describes.
Luckily I didn't agree to anything and I am really happy to have found this blog.
Now I have some really good questions to the salesman (scam artist) when he calls again next week.
Thanks, Peter
+1
Same details as previous commenters; Cold called, brochure, then sales call wanting EUR10, 000 in Norton Scientific (NT3) due to sign deal with Bayer. Caller claimed to be an American, Mathew Ryan, +[protected] working out of Seoul. Will not be investing so cannot confirm fraud but sales technique is fatally hurt by their growing reputation.
Springhill groups + Scam is now 3rd on google search. Well done guys. Lets hope as many ppl as possible see this before more get scammed.
Just had a call from Mathew Ryan at Springhill after receiving the package a week ago. Spent 40mins saying no to the Norton Scientific deal for 1.05 eur even though the current price is 1.078. And the trends on the company are a little different, especially in market volume to what the guy was saying. And he also mentioned that he was under no obligation to report anything to any country's tax offices. I dont see my signature written down anywhere for this deal, and im pretty sure thats all that matters. If he gets his promised 60-100% gains in 3 months, good on him.
My business partner was approached by a girl during a trade show in HK. She said she was working for a magazine that specialized on our line of business (green energy) and she would call him to see if we wanted to advertise on their magazine.
I got the called from that girl and gave her my office and mobile phone, plus our office address (which she already had) and said that she was going to send one of her magazines for us to take a look. Guess what I've got on the mail a week later, Spring Hill brochure.
It had my name on it but I was puzzled as to how they got my information and who they were. Did not pay much attention to it until a few weeks later, I got a phone call from a very aggressive salesman trying to sell the Amazon stock deal to me. I said I did not wanted it several times, until the guy finally gave up before stating I was not very clever because I did not jump in.
Now, just two days ago, I started getting phone call from another sales person (pretty sure is Alex) trying to get me to buy shares on NT3 due to the upcoming buy from Bayer. Thanks to the forum, now I know what to tell him next time he calls, thanks!
And thanks to everyone here for making the search of words Springhill Group + Scam number search result. That should definitely save more people!
Same story here. I live/work in China, 2 weeks ago lady with bad english called to see large envelope arrived. I said sure, and if I need any more help I would contact them. Today Chris ...? Called from the "Springhill Group" Korea. I think Australian, fast talking, Norton Scientific & Bayer story. Wanting 50k~5k for investment. 20 min later still talking, but I was not buying. All :) ended call. On finishing call, looked up these jokers and found all these FRAUD DETAILS...It is funny as Chris said he spent time in China and knew some local land marks which were true, but when mentioning kim-chee (Korea's national food) he did not seem to know this...yet he lives there? I spent 3 years in Korea and this is available breakfast/lunch/dinner. Where did they get my address? My business cards do not have the land line number on them, only my cell phone, so how did they get the landline number? Thanks guys for all your feedback on these LOW LIFES...karma is a wonderful thing...!
I went to their office in Korea last week, as I got a lot of calls from them and they are really agressive in selling. As I am also living in China, the last thing I want is to get into a fraud... happens in China anyway often. So had some business to do and dropped by to say "hello".
What a surprise: There is no office in Korea. The address is a company called Vertex. A few nice ladies where there. They explained me that the company Springhills never operated out of an office from Vertex. Vertex is renting office space but you can also run a virtual office. This is what Springhill is doing there. Further the lady told me that the company Springhill never had any real office there. In case you call that number mentioned many times in this blog, you will get one of such nice ladies from Vertex which tells you that she is from Springhill (thats this virtual office service :-) ). They explained this to me a bit.
So you tell her whom you are and to whom you like to talk and whe sends the message over to another place (wherever this is). They mentioned they do not really know where Springhill is located (which might even be, as they get money on their bank accoutns from somewhere for such virtual office space).
They said maybe in Australia. Also they said that they never ever have seen one of the guys in Korea.
The nice sales guy called me today again. He said that Springhill office in Korea has over 35 people working there. He further explained me to call the number in Korea and many times only the assistance picks up and give him the message, as most of the people are always in calls and cannot pick up often incoming direct calls (what a lier).
He further said he cannot give me his mobile number, because his company is reliable and they need to record the calls with the clients and thats why the always busy agents cannot be reached by mobile phone directly.
Judge if you like to invest there :-P
Hi all
Yes we all get a phone call from this group, first the glossy brochures, the the introductory phone call and then the agressive sales pitch. I like to play games with these people if I have the time, and today I did have the time. I lied and told him I have a closet full of EURs and that I would be interested. However, he was to email me some references so that I could begin. He said that he would not divulge personal information, so, knowing I would visit Sth Korea for work soon, I asked if he and I could meet, face to face. He declined saying that speed here was off essence and that he would meet with me later, perhaps in Shanghai.
I would dearly love to meet this man, take down his pants, his very small jockeys and paddle his butt.
Needless to say Im still contemplating investing in Norton Scientific since they are trading at 1.15 EUR and in 3 months time will be trading at 1.8 EUR. So much for a perfect market with perfect information.
Well same story here, I was taken hook line and sinker, and they have used their company money to purchase Norton Scientific shares (5000.00 euros) on my behalf. I have searched the stock markets to see the trade, but nothing, I then found this blog, thank god! I have not transferred any money but was on the verge of doing so. The Springhill consultants name was James Williams, very aggressive sales pitch!
Just today Springhill have rung me offering the same deal as noted above - so they are obviously still trying. The sales man wanted an immediate answer and was difficult to get rid and he somehow has my office land line number! Beware!
Same here. Springhill group offered me a wonderful deal and is asking for 5000 for NT3 shares. Claimed they were registered in US. I went to FDIC page where I did find Springhill bank which went out of business in 1998. Also if you make a who-is on sprinhillgroup.net you see servers in malaysia and blocked contact details. Sprinhillgroup.com does not even respond. They were pushing me and made a trade for me. But before I sent anything I made these checks and concluded it was a scam. This board is confirming my choice! Unfortunately they got my phone and email but I guess I will just block them out.
I was also contacted today with the same pitch. I commited to by 5000 euros NT3. I have been contacted again and confirmed verbally to proceed with a compliance officer. I am expecting documents to be emailed to me confirming the transaction, account details, and invoice.
Of course following this blog, there is no way I will transfer any money.
I am concerned by giving specific verbal permission to proceed I am liable to pay.
Is this a legal agreement? Must I pay?
Thanks in advance.
Yes, I was done today as well by a Matthew Ryan. Then a call from an english guy to confirm things recorded, then a scottish guy explaining the forms.
Glad I found this blog! Bank is now in cyprus. What a scam!
Hi DohaGavin Same happened to me yesterday, I agreed verbally, and today i was going to make bank transaction while i thought to check on internet before doing it...I know is only 5000€, but it takes tome to accumulate it for a normal worker like me.
I am not expecting to pay anything since the agreement was given on a false information, a lie, provided by a very likely un-existing broker...Waiting to be contact back by them asking for a face to face appointment!
Hi, unfortunately I found this forum to late and I have transferred already several time money to them (Springhill Group). Any recommendation which possibility I have to get my investment back? Your feedback is very much appreciated.
Yup. Same deal for me. Expensive looking brochure to work address, phone calls, pushy ### of a salesman but I smelt a rat. Told him I'd track NT3 ( the Bayer story again!) and if it does well I'd give him a bell and listen to his next big deal. Today NT3 is junk - overnight. Having gone from a high of 1.4 several months ago ( he was selling at 1.15 when it was already trading at 1.2) it's now 0.99 EUR. I pity those that fell for this ( I am in Singapore too so theres some link - maybe leaving business card in a restaurant for free meal kind of thing ).
Bottom line - if they are registered in Labuan they can have their license revoked. Individuals will be STOPPED from registering new companies in Labuan if they are shown to have offended before.
Yes, I was done today as well by a Matthew Ryan. Girl called to send brochure and Now they are trying with Gold Stock
ok I found this 15000 to late and to all of you experts who now think I'm a fool your right, I've no excuse I got it wrong.
The M.O. was identical to the above the first cold call was from a Pilipino girl re sending out a brochure, then the Mathew Ryan call then the re Norton Scientific then the call about the Blackhawk gold. Then the you need to give us MORE another 28K to get in on the main deal etc at this point I said no and now want Revenge any one got any suggestions?
BE AWARE - they have just set up a new company - Ackerman & Co in Jakarta. These people need to be put in prison - it is pure theft.
I am in the same state as gotakn and H. Hermann, several k€ already transferred.
Any success in recovering funds ? I know I can dream, but just in case
same situation for me, too many euros already transferred. Who to contact for complaint, interpol ? Shall victims team-up anyhow ?
same situation for me, too many euros already transferred. Who to contact for complain?
what to do now and how to get the money back? can somebody advise?
From this source : http://www.norsci.ca/investors/ special attention to the last sentence of second paragraph...
Anyone interested in filling complain with InterPol ?
QUOTE
Following the closure of the Frankfurt Borse First Quotation Board on December 15th, 2012 and the consequential de-listing, the board of Norton Scientific Inc (NT3) have been considering the options that exist to best meet the capital requirements of the Corporation and the interests of shareholders in the future.
With the turbulence and regulatory uncertainty encountered following our listing in May 2011 set to continue and potentially intensify in the short to medium term, the board believes that a fresh listing on another market would not be successful in raising capital. It would also be a costly distraction as we seek to expand sales and continue product R&D. The negative effect on our reputation created by certain unauthorized brokers using our listing details to sell counterfeit shares has also been a factor in this decision.
As a result, the board of directors feel it is in the best interests of all stakeholders for the Corporation to focus on raising money for R&D and sales distribution channel expansion from private investors and not pursue a publicly quoted listing for the foreseeable future.
UNQUOTE
I am about to post a mail to Interpol. So yes, I am interesting to team-up with anyone that has been victim. If several persons complain, it might have a stronger impact.