Tokyo-based scammers targeting gullible UK investors in Nigerian-style scam

This is pretty shady, but I wonder if they are really even in Tokyo?

Phil, a Financial Mail on Sunday reader from Berkshire, was contacted by Calderton Capital Partners, a Tokyo firm that offers investment advice as well as acting as middlemen in mergers and acquisitions.

Calderton had some good news for Phil. It wanted to buy his holding of shares in a small American company called TBXR, and it was willing to pay $130,000 (about £90,000). This priced his holding of just over 31,000 shares at more than $4 apiece – even though the last time Phil had checked the shares were closer to five cents (less than 4p). Still, it was certainly a generous offer. In fact, it topped the almost equally generous offer made to another reader, John from Cheshire, who was also contacted from Tokyo.

This time the contact came from a firm called Cook Capital Partners, and the caller told a curious story. John held shares in an American company called Accupoll that had filed for bankruptcy in 2006. But the caller said Accupoll had been taken over by a different company, Rudy Nutrition, and he represented a bidder who was willing to pay over $98,000 (about £68,000) for John’s shares.

Cook Capital Partners certainly seems to be a busy firm. At the same time as contacting John, it was also in touch with another Financial Mail on Sunday reader, Roger, wanting to buy his shares in yet another company, Genmed Holding Corporation.

And this was the biggest offer of them all – a mouthwatering $240,000 (£166,000) for shares that Roger had every reason to believe were actually worthless!

Now for the snags. Roger, John and Phil were all told that the shares they held carried a legal restriction that stopped the deal going through. But the good news was this restriction could be removed, if they paid legal fees up front.

The up-front fees were not quite the only snags though. According to investigators at Japan’s watchdog Financial Services Agency, Cook Capital Partners is a scam. It is not registered with the FSA or licensed to carry out shares deals. There is even doubt that it is actually at its Tokyo address and telephone number.

19 thoughts on “Tokyo-based scammers targeting gullible UK investors in Nigerian-style scam”

  1. “There is even doubt that it is actually at its Tokyo address and telephone number.”

    Apparently “Tokyo” is a small town in Nigeria….

  2. Hmmm. I’m thinking of opening a account with Shinsei – I like the idea of being able to use cash cards in ATMs overseas, for one thing. Also the fee-free konbini withdrawals sound nice. But I guess I better make sure I open it with the *right* Shinsei….

  3. Shinsei is still pretty convenient, but I’m annoyed that they lowered the free online money transfer from 3/month to only 1/month. But doing furikomi online is a LOT nicer than going to a goddamn ATM. The convenient withdrawals are only in 7/11, but you can usually find one of those in Japan… The overseas cash card is certainly good though.

  4. “The convenient withdrawals are only in 7/11, but you can usually find one of those in Japan… ”

    Bugger. Not a single 7-11 anywhere near where I live. And I don’t just mean not within 5 mins walk either. Nowhere.

    Ah, I can use: ゆうちょ銀行および郵便局のCD・ATM
    and
    全都市銀行・信託銀行等の提携金融機関のCD・ATM

  5. “Nowhere.”

    Yeah, there are whole huge areas of the country without 7-11s. I was in Japan for over 6 months before I saw one. There are also so few around where I usually stay, that I make a point of going to them when I hit Kansai or Kanto.

  6. I find it kind of odd that Shinsei ATM cards work better outside Japan than within Japan.

    I’m in the process of getting a Suruga account now so I can compare how their VISA debit/ATM card performs, although the application has been a royal pain in the arse so far–they’ve returned it twice because they didn’t like the way I wrote my name.

  7. “I make a point of going to them when I hit Kansai or Kanto.”

    Yeah – you really get the “we’re not in Kansas any more” feeling.

    And just so long as they actually DO eventually refund you…..

  8. “they’ve returned it twice because they didn’t like the way I wrote my name.”
    Shinsei did that on some form I filled out because I had signed my name like

    Roy
    Berman

    to fit it inside the box instead of
    Roy Berman

    They told me I had to sign the form with my name all on one line or it wouldn’t count.

  9. I often find that forms that are supposed to be filled in either won’t accept 半角文字 (on the net – I once had real trouble renewing my insurance thanks to the site not being able to conceive of anyone not having a kanji name) or don’t give enough room to write things out in Roman letters – the Extension of Period of Stay is a classic, when they get you to write your home address in about 3cm. No doubt there are some who will claim this is subtle discrimination….

    With the Shinsei form, I think I understand (some of) their reasoning: this has to be your normal signature, and you don’t write it vertically normally. That is, they will record that signature as a single image for authentication purposes.

  10. Yes, I completely understand the logic but it was still pretty annoying. It indirectly led to me getting double billed for a month’s rent and having to get a refund from my landlord. Pain in the ass.

    “I once had real trouble renewing my insurance thanks to the site not being able to conceive of anyone not having a kanji name”

    Maybe you should get one of those legal kanji aliases Joe was talking about recently. In fact, maybe I should.

  11. I just canceled my Suruga application in frustration after a phone agent tried to argue that “Jones” is actually my first name (the reason: it appears first on my gaijin card).

  12. Well, Jade (玉) is a good start. Although it is a girl’s name… I have a Taiwanese friend from Taiwan* whose first name is Yu (玉) who the English name of Lucy before she went to study in England, when she decided to go by “Yu” in English. I asked her why she didn’t just go by “Jade” in the first place.

    *When I saw “friend from Taiwan” I mean the friendship is from Taiwan, not the person. I also have Japanese, French, Costa Rican etc. friends from Taiwan, and as well as “Taiwanese friends from Japan.”

  13. Well, ‘Jade’ is not my real name (duh). When I took Chinese my prof gave me a ‘Chinese’ name so I could use that. I don’t recall the given name offhand (慈明 from memory), but the surname was contracted to 飛, which I thought was cool. But again, these are just phonetic.

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