Earlier this summer Family Money reported on a share-dealing scheme in which prominent and ordinary business people, most of whom were listed in various business telephone directories, were being cold-called either at the workplace or at home by so-called "share advisers". These sharp operators, calling from serviced offices in London, Antwerp, Basle and New York, offer the business person the proverbial "opportunity of a lifetime" to buy into publicly quoted companies whose share price, they say, is about to soar due to a merger, takeover, major product launch or other development. For a mere 5 per cent commission, the share adviser (as opposed to "stockbroker", a title that carries considerable legal consequences) will part with these wonder shares.
The catch is that although the shares may very well be listed, the listing can sometimes be a minor one on a small companies exchange, and the shares may be seldom traded, thus making them very difficult to dispose of. A number of readers contacted us with their stories of the fast-talking salesmen from two of the more persistent so-called share investment advisory companies, Dow Templeton and Dalton Kent, neither of which appear to have regularly staffed offices or permanent addresses. All communication is done with telephone answering services which only give recorded messages.
None of our readers responded positively to the hard share sell, except one, a computer consultant Mr F, who, after reading our story, became so intrigued by their glib sales patter - and lack of credibility - that he encouraged the calls in order to find out more about the companies they represented. Mr F has been contacted nearly a dozen times since early this year by the so-called share advisers who, he says, sometimes identified themselves as representing Dow Templeton, sometimes as being from the firm Dalton Kent. The pitch was always the same: "They would claim to have inside information about a stock - one of them told me he knew that Gateway was about to taken over by another huge computer company - this was around the time of President Clinton's visit. Another pitched Boeing - saying he knew its share price was going to go up 33 per cent in 90 days.
"When the stock markets crashed a few weeks ago, they switched their tactics and identified themselves as underwriters for a California entertainment company that operates a chain of karate schools there and produced a television series about a boxing kangaroo."
Mr F, who was hoping to get enough information about these companies to pass some concrete information over to the Stock Exchange and the Garda, told Family Money he was never able to pin down where the caller was calling from, or their exact address or direct telephone numbers. Any telephone numbers that were provided - which Family Money has also tried to reach - have either been out of service or are answering machines. Dow Templeton's website is nothing more than a mishmash of old financial press clippings and is without a single address, telephone number or director's name. Its own company information site is perpetually "under construction". As of last week, however, Dalton Kent, the alleged New York securities company has, according to a recorded message at the New York city number Mr F was given, "ceased trading".
"The only reason these people are so persistent and are still calling Irish numbers is because there are still people out there falling for them," says Mr Brendan O'Connor of the Dublin stockbrokers Campbell O'Connor. His advice hasn't changed since we first wrote about them - don't give them any money or any information about yourself. Report them to the Garda Fraud Bureau.
