Zehnder Consultants Scam

Zehnder Consultants Scam.

Scammers have been telephoning people who invested in Westway Holdings bonds and Blackmore bonds with a new attempt at a follow-on-fraud.  The Zehnder Consultants scam could easily have been titled the Securities Best Inc scam because the initial approach is made under the name of ‘Securities Best Inc’.  If they get a response from an intended victim they pass that person over to ‘Zehnder Consultants’, but the two bogus organisations will continue to work together to perpetrate the scam.

Securities Best claims to be based in New York and is using the fake share model.  A man calling himself Stuart Jones contacts investors telling them that shares in a company called International Bonds have been reserved for them.  Stuart sends out a fake share certificate in the intended victim’s name and tells him/her that the certificate is “currently restricted” because the investor has to sign some documents.  Stuart tells the victim that he/she will be contacted by Zehnder Consultants who can arrange to have the restriction lifted, but there is a fee to be paid.  If they pay the fee they will end up owning the shares and will be able to sell them.  Stuart says that International Bonds is expecting to be paid for the shares, but they already have a buyer in place who has agreed to pay a lot more than the investor has to pay.

If the intended victim says they’ve never heard of International Bonds and cannot understand why they have shares in it, Stuart tells them that International Bonds has bought up the bonds issued by companies like Westway Holdings and Blackmore and that is how the investor has this chance to get shares in the company at a bargain price and immediately sell them to their buyer.

Here’s the follow-up email which arrives after the first call from Securities Best.

From:  [email protected]

Following our conversation, please find attached, the documentation required for you to complete and sign to process the sale of your shares.

i. Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
ii. Private Share Purchase Agreement (PSPA)
iii. Payment Settlement Agreement (PSA)

Important  –  Please confirm receipt of this email.

After your perusal, we ask that you initial each page and sign each document where indicated this will allow us to process your sale and execute all legal processes.

Once all documents have been completed please send back the signed copies to the email address stated.  Send your signed documents in good legible order.

Once your documents have been returned they will be submitted to the compliance department to ensure all is in good order.

If however, you do not wish to actively pursue the sale,  then please notify us by return so we can forward you a Notice of Default which you need to complete and return so we may notify the relevant parties involved that you do not wish to proceed.

We are currently processing a large number of applications regarding this matter and therefore we are facing specific deadlines and would ask that you return your paperwork promptly so as not to delay proceedings.

Should you have any questions regarding the completion of these documents, please contact feel free to contact me back.

Regards,

Stuart Jones

Acquisition Adviser

Securities Best Inc

www.securities-best.com

134 Broadway, Brooklyn, New York, 11211

Tel. +1 (917) 200 9541

This is a transmission from Securities Best Inc and may contain information that is privileged, confidential, and protected by the attorney-client or attorney work-product privileges. If you are not the addressee, note that any disclosure, copying, distribution, or use of the contents of this email is prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please delete it and notify us immediately at our telephone number +1 (917) 200 9541

The Securities-Best website domain name was purchased three months ago in May 2021.

As promised, the intended victim then receives a call from Zehnder Consultants and the follow-up email below:

From:  [email protected]

Following our conversation, I’ve since been in contact with your legal representative Mr Stuart Jones in New York. I’ve expressed my concerns regarding potential deadlines with Stuart and he’s scheduled an appointment for me to speak to the head of accounts over the next hour. Therefore, I’m hoping to try and implement some security measures for you within this transaction.

I will update you accordingly, however, should you need any assistance or any questions answered then feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Alan Jones

Senior Portfolio Manager

Zehnder Consultants

www.zehnderconsultants.com

So now the Securities-Best guy has apparently become the intended victim’s “legal representative”.

Within 24 hours the Zehnder Consultants scammers are back with good news (see below):

From:  [email protected]

I have now received back a signed copy of the Advanced Payment Guarantee from Securities Best Inc.

Once signed and returned by you it will mean that funds can be pre-booked in Escrow under your name, meaning, that at this stage all risk regarding time frame and available funds in Escrow has been eliminated.

I am hoping to receive some form of a response from Transfer Agents today and will update you accordingly. If you have any queries regarding the Advanced Payment Guarantee or anything else then, please feel free to contact me at any time.

Regards,

Alan Jones

Senior Portfolio Manager

Zehnder Consultants

Here is a LINK to the Zehnder Consultants scam website.  The domain name of zehnderconsultants.com was purchased in November 2020.  The gap between the dates of the two websites (Zehnder Consultants in Nov 2020 and Securities-Best Inc in May 2021) suggests that Zehnder Consultants was being used in other scams before the same team of scammers moved on to using the name of Securities Best Inc.

Here is an excerpt from the Zehnder Consultants website:

Zehnder Consultants was incorporation in July 2006 and is today considered one of the world’s leading global venture capital and private equity institutions.

Here at Zehnder Consultants we have an International team of financial experts who are all dedicated to our client’s success. With multiple offices located around the world, we attend to all global markets and cover every corner of the globe.

So, “one of the world’s leading global venture capital and private equity institutions”, which claims it was established in 2006, didn’t buy a website domain until the end of 2020 !  Pull the other one.  The website is plush and believable.  They’ve spent some money on establishing their scam profile.  The company claims to offer shares in Alibaba, Tesla, Alphabet, nVidia, Apple etc but the reality is that it is all a complete scam.

How does the scam work ?  The initial effort is designed to get the intended victim to pay the fee to lift the restriction on the shares, but they aren’t satisfied with just the one fee from their victim.  In the first email they attached three documents.  One was a NDA.  This is designed to prevent the intended victim from discussing this with anyone else and is often used to frighten the victim later on to stop them seeking help.  The other two documents were the PSPA and the PSA.

The PSPA (Private Share Purchase Agreement) effectively commits the intended victim to purchasing the shares. They are told that the shares have to be paid for, but they don’t have to worry because the funds are being provided by their buyer.  The PSA (Payment Settlement Agreement) lays out the terms of how and when the payment for the shares will be made. It is the intended victim who signs these contracts, not the mysterious buyer.

In other identical fake share scams which use the same model, the victims have later been informed that the buyer has withdrawn its offer to buy the shares.  The scammers told their victims that they signed the PSA and PSPA so the company, International Bonds, is expecting to be paid for those shares.  They have insisted that the victim has to pay.  Most victims never realise that this was always a scam. The scammers agree to accept a low first payment to help the victim out, but this is just a smokescreen. They come back time after time for more money. When the investor refuses to pay they bring in a bogus law firm allegedly based in the USA.  This firm threatens legal action in the USA against the victim for breach of contract.

This fake share scam model is particularly nasty and can cause a lot of anguish for the people who fall victim to it.

Zehnder Consultants Scam.