Limetree Wealth Scam.
An organisation calling itself Limetree Wealth is perpetrating a follow-on-fraud against victims of a number of scams. We are aware of investors in the Essex and London Properties scam (under Police investigation) and the Park First Scam. They have the contact details and investment history of investors.
The scammers claim to be Limetree Wealth Management Ltd, a UK company incorporated in November 2015, but they are not. Limetree Wealth Management Ltd are a victim of identity fraud. The scammers have searched for a credible sounding company which does not have a website and have stolen its identity. The scammers have their own website which for the moment can be found via this link. This website was only built in July 2020 which is a clear indication of a scam. We are hoping that our intervention will result in the website being taken down in the next few days.
Their scam is interesting in that they try to make investors believe that there is some kind of insurance registry. For example, Essex and London Properties was a bond scam. Park First was a parking plot scam. The Limetree Wealth scam is based around there being a fictitious “registry” whereby when the scams are launched, the founders apparently pay money to Limetree Wealth to insure against failure.
When the scam is exposed, Limetree Wealth contacts investors to tell them that the registry is holding funds, but the investor has to pay a fee to have the money released. Of course the whole thing is a complete fabrication. But…. the salespeople, one of whom goes by the false name of Fraser Birch, are very persuasive. We know this because we have a 15-minute recording of his sales patter. We have sent it to a Police Officer who specialises in cyber-crime.
Firstly, it is clear that ‘Fraser’ is a native UK citizen. His accent gives that away. He tells the investor that he can be sure they are genuine because he can check that Limetree Wealth Management Ltd is registered at Companies House. When the investor queried that the Companies House entry shows the company is registered in Yorkshire, but the brochure he has been provided with says “Hanover Square, London” that stumps Fraser a little bit. He wasn’t expecting that. Then when he is told that there is no record of Limetree Wealth being at the London address he gives a less than convincing explanation about Head Office versus satellite offices. He just keeps repeating that Limetree Wealth Management Ltd has been in existence for 5 years and he can see that at Companies House.
Fraser then goes on to explain how the fictitious registry works. Of course, he has to tell the investor that there is only a limited pot of money available and it is being paid out on a first-come first-served basis, therefore the investor should hurry up and make a decision. Fraser tells him that he could probably get a contract out to him in a couple of hours. Then, if the investor can sign it and make payment straightaway, Fraser should be able to get their “legal team” to expedite the claim before the end of the day and the investor would receive the money in three weeks time (we particularly like the fact he said “let me just check when the payment will be made if you pay today” and pretended to go through some paperwork to find the payment date).
When the investor said that he would like to receive the contract and have some time to consider it, Fraser took this onboard and said that he would have the contract sent through by 12.30 and would call back an hour later to see if the investor had made his decision. That’s very considerate of him to give an investor a full hour. Fraser couldn’t resist taking the Limetree Wealth scam a step further by asking if the investor had any spare cash to invest because Limetree apparently have their own specialist advisory team which can tailor an investment to suit the investor. Here’s their rather pathetic sales brochure.
If you are contacted by Limetree Wealth do not pay them anything. It is a scam.
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