Sterling Holdings Scam.
A group of scammers is carrying out a follow-on-fraud against people who have lost money in investment scams. They are using the name of Sterling Holdings. There is a genuine Sterling Holdings Ltd in the UK, but these scammers are not that company. The letterhead paper they use (as can be seen below) shows the UK company registration number at the bottom. That is not the registration number of Sterling Holdings Ltd. It is the registration number for a company called Sterling PCC Holdings Ltd. These scammers are not that company either.
They use the domain name of sterlingholdingsltd.com.
The Sterling Holdings scam is the usual model whereby the scammers claim to have a buyer for the intended victim’s investment. The investment could have been anything – carbon credits, bonds, diamonds, binary options, rare earth metals etc. The bottom line is that the investment companies have all gone because they were running scams. The investor was left with nothing.
The scammers claim that there is a buyer for these investments and that the money has been placed in escrow. All the investor has to do is to pay the escrow fees and the money will be released to them. They attempt to provide reassurance for the investor by stating that Sterling Holdings will act as Guarantor for the transaction. The Sterling Holdings scammers are persistent and will keep calling their intended victim asking when the escrow fee will be paid. It is unusual in that both men and women are involved in the scam.
Here is an example of one of their emails:
Should you have any further question please feel free to ask your advisor
Kind Regards,
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Here is the letter they attach to their email (with investor details redacted to protect his/her identity):
Sterling Holdings Scam_Under-Written Guarantee_REDACTED
If you receive any letters claiming there is a buyer for your collapsed investment and that the money is being held in escrow until you have paid a fee, it is always a scam, even if they claim to have a Guarantor to protect your money. It’s a very common follow-on-fraud.
Unfortunately we have been contacted by a person who has fallen victim to this Sterling Holdings scam. We have advised him to report it to Action Fraud. He is 78 years old.
As usual, the scammers were using a money mule account to receive payment. In this case it was:
Bank Name: HSBC
Account Name: J Kammiri
Sort Code: 40 09 00
Account Number: 14429990
We believe this victim may be able to get a refund from the bank. We have reported the matter to the Police and hopefully Mr or Mrs Kammiri will be getting a knock at the door.