Wollenberg International (www.wollenberginternational.com), part 2

Wollenberg International claims to be based in Panama. The address they give is (click for larger picture):



Searching with this address, one finds that this is exactly the same address used by another fraudulent investment web site: Scandinavian Networking Group (www.snginvest.com), which has been exposed at sng-scam.info. Here is an excerpt of the Panamanian documents of SNG (taken from moneymakergroup):


As one will notice, the address is the same as for Wollenberg. So, either Wollenberg ING copied it from SNG, or they are the same operation. In either case, this looks like a scam.

The same address is used by what looks like yet another dubious investment site, siaminvestcorp.com (Siam Gain S.A.):



Siaminvestcorp has links to Hatfield Oak International, which in turn had links with SNGinvest (see sng-scam.info).

Then there is a representative of the a3union.com based in this apartment:


Furthere, we find an application form under vmover.com listing Hatfield Oak's address in the same place:

although Hatfield seems to have another address:


Vmover.com itself is an advertisement board for such sites as AmityFunds, SNGInvest, A3Union, ExclusiveCircle, FantasticPay, FeederFund, FX Club and more.

Sewercash has previously exposed Amityfunds as also being located in the same place Findings on Amityfunds

And people involved in Amityfunds and SNGinvest are prosecuted:


If you look at the Torre Cosmos Floor plans, the apartment tower where the address is, you will find that it contains 2- and 3-bedroom apartments, and four 2-bedroom penthouses on top. Apartment A on the 13th floor is a 3-bedroom apartment.
Well, well, this little apartment in Panama is pretty crowded...

Hence, Wollenberg is lying about being in Panama, or it's part of the SNGinvest/Amityfunds circle of fraudulent companies.

Escrow fraud, modul-transport

I've come across two more useful web sites, scamfraudalert.com and escrow-fraud.com (see links on the side).

One example of a fraudulent escrow service is Modul Transport (modul-transport.com). They made the name very similar to another logistics company, www.modultransport.com. However, as their contact address they list yet another, legitimate logistics company (Pro-Logistics, daughter of AIRLOG GROUP) located in Helsingborg, Sweden. In their contact section they only modified the phone numbers slightly to some other phone number.



Further, modul-transport.com copied the CEO and employee images from the Contact section of the real company AIRLOG GROUP (http://www.airlog.se/), changed the names and put them on their web site. Here are the fake images (compare with the real ones
at Airlog:

New variants of the postcard/e-cards

New versions of the spam emails pretenting to be postcards/e-cards from friends/colleages etc. are spreading. Here are some examples:

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Colleague(xxxx@xxxxx.org) has created Animated postcard for you at birthdaycards.com.

To see your custom Animated postcard, simply click on the following Internet address (if your mail program doesn't support this feature you will need to COPY and PASTE the address into your browser's address box):

http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (IP removed)

Send a FREE greeting card from birthdaycards.com whenever you want by visiting us at:
http://birthdaycards.com/
This service is provided and hosted by birthdaycards.com.

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Colleague has created a greeting ecard for you at E-Cards.Com,
the Internet's most popular greeting card service.
Your greeting card ID is: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To see your custom greeting card, simply click on the link below:
http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (IP removed)

Send greeting cards from E-Cards.Com whenever you want by visiting us at: http://E-Cards.Com/
Copyright (c) 1996-2007 E-Cards.Com All Rights Reserved

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The aim of these emails is to guide you to a web site that will infect your computer with a virus.
Particularly, if you use a version of the Windows operating system, it is highly recommended that you keep your computer updated with the latest patches and with the latest anti-virus and anti-spyware software.
It is also helpful to use alternative Web browsers, such as Firefox or Opera, instead of Internet Explorer.

Another fraudulent investment scheme: Wollenberg International

While looking at colonyinvest, I also came across another suspect site: www.wollenbergfunds.com. This "company" has now undergone a substantial overhaul and markets itself as Wollenberg International marketing group (ING) at www.wollenberginternational.com. In an "advertisement" on one of the quick money scheme web forums, they claim "new ceo, new staff, totally new concept":






Let's look at the whois data of the old site, pretty much all information about www.wollenbergfunds.com seems to have been erased, but the whois data is still available:

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The new whois entry for www.wollenberginternational.com is this:




As one can see, the first administrator was Krzysztof Giemza in Tarnow, Poland, who registered the web site in Australia??!
The second administrator is now an "Arnold Wollenberg". However, as you will notice, this person is also in Tarnow, Poland, and the telephone number (+48 502 683982) is the same. Arnold Wollenberg is Krzysztof Giemza! The overhauled domain is simply the attempt to hide who he really is.








Now, we can find out more about Mr Giemza. Using the phone number to search, we find that he posted an advertisement to do house sitting in London! So, the successful investement company CEO is looking for housesitting jobs?!!












He provides a client testimonial on the sitecube.com web site, the flash software he used to develop the new wollenberginternational web site:


Also, on a web site in Poland, he listed his credentials looking for jobs:


We can see he speaks English and German, was a fitness instructor for 12 years, and a martial arts instructor for 19 years, and insurance agent for 1 year, and working in trading/enterprise for 4 years. Worked as English translator for 15 years. He also had some computer courses. Now he is operating an investment company supposedly based in Panama, but all contacts are in Poland? This sounds all very fishy. This is all in line with someone trying to make some fast money, not through investment, but with other people's money. Stay away!

More shady dealings of colonyinvest in Vietnam, part5

A Vietnamese newspaper tracked down the local representative of colonyinvest. See their article at
www.thanhniennews.com/features/?catid=10&newsid=30717.
How shady is it for a supposedly reputable business with investments yielding 100 percent gains per month to distribute info in a photocopy shop?! And to meet a representative of colony investment the newspaper had to go to a coffee shop. It is also very revealing that the colonyinvest representative claims that they get their money from investments in casinos, foreign exchange, and normal stock markets (high-tech/blue-chip). This clearly shows that this business cannot be legitimate, since, for example, no deals in foreign exchange currencies can yield such profits. It is very clear however, that the top colonyinvest representatives at this meeting get their money from the investment of other people. The normal “investor” is left with e-money that supposedly increases in a computer account. The real problem will start when they want to withdraw some real money… Tellingly, when the journalists wanted to borrow some e-money, the colonyinvest representatives said “no”. If Colony Invest can generate money so easily with their scheme, why can’t they lend a little e-money? Clearly, this is all about cheating people out of their real money. Stay away from this fraud!

Several taken down schemes: Phoenixsurf.com, FrancSwiss, SwissCash

While fraudulent schemes pop up everywhere, government agencies are making progress to catch them. The more people report them, the faster they will fall.

Here is a report on Phoenixsurf.com:

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SEC Charges Operators of Phoenixsurf.com Web Site With Conducting a Massive Internet Ponzi Scheme

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2007-141
Washington, D.C., July 24, 2007 - The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed securities fraud charges against the operators of an Internet-based Ponzi scheme that raised $41.9 million in just four months from more than 20,000 investors worldwide.

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For the full report see www.sec.gov/news/press/2007/2007-141.htm

Or for FrancSwiss internet fraud see http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view_article.php?article_id=75039

And for SwissCash or Swiss Mutual Fund Web frauds (www.swissmutualfund.biz.) see http://www.todayonline.com/articles/167644.asp . Of course, a Swiss company based in the Commonwealth of Dominica should have raised alarm bells with investors.

Also, check out the Web site of the Monetary AUthority of Singapore, the maintain a list of fraudulent sites:
http://www.moneysense.gov.sg/check_our_list/Consumer_Portal_IAL.html . But because of the fast changing nature of these fraud internet sites, such list will never be complete.

Colony Invest fraud moves around, part4

Colony Invest (colonyinvest) operates also at colonyinvest.net. Their other - identicial - web site, www.colonyinvest.com, is presently not responsive. No reputable company would keep their ".com" down or inactive. They could reroute to the other. Perhaps they are on the move to hide from old investors.
Also, it seems they moved their blog entry to colonythailand.blogspot.com to attract Thai people into their scam. Colonythailand is the same fraud! They also have a web site geared towards Vietnamese at http://music.easyvn.com/colonyinvest/. The contact person associated with this Web site is a Nguyen Kinh Luan. It has a nice description of their pyramid scheme:



As one can see, this is a rather overcomplicated scheme, nobody is really supposed to understand the details, all that matters is that it promises extra percentages of profit for each new member that you can recruit. No investment company would offer such a pyramid scheme. In fact Colony Invest is both a pyramid and Ponzi scheme. This is illegal and does not work (see for example the Wikipedia entries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme).

Perhaps some people will get some money, but most will loose. Do not invest!