Magnum Investigations
Australias leading Private Investigator team
The TRUTH is out there – we uncover it
Scams
Phone investment scams
Australians have lost at least $400 million to telephone investment fraud. So beware of phone calls out of the blue selling investments, financial advice and financial products. Cold calling about financial products or services is illegal if the caller does not have an Australian financial services licence from ASIC.
Ask the right questions
If someone cold calls you offering financial services or products, protect yourself by asking these questions: 1. What is your name, address and phone number?
2. Do you hold an Australian financial services licence?
3. What is the name of the company holding the licence?
4. What is the licence number?
5. What is the licence holder's address?
If the caller answers your questions
Make a note of the details so you can check the information after the call.
Before dealing with them any further, do these quick safety checks.
If the caller avoids your questions, or doesn't have a licence
Do not deal with them. Hang up.
If they claim they don't need a licence because:
They are based overseas
Hang up. Anyone ringing a person in Australia and offering financial advice or products must be licensed in Australia to do so.
They are selling real estate
Ask if they hold a real estate agent's licence. Real estate agents do not have to have a financial services licence, so you must judge for yourself if you want to hear more.
They are not selling or advising but 'just inviting you to an information session'.
You will be safer refusing the invitation. See our warnings about seminars.
Magnum Investigations is currently investigating a number of scams. The cost to our clients is in the 100s of thousands of dollars. If you have been the subject of a Turkish carpet ripoff or a financial fund managing fraud please contact us as you may have valuable evidence.This is just a warning to people living in Turkey or traveling to Turkey who want to buy carpets. One year ago I bought a carpet at ABC Carpets in Sultanahmet and was told it is a silk on cotton. It is 3' x 5' and my research tells me it is possible to buy a silk on cotton carpet of this size. I have recently bought kilims in Istanbul and decided to have my first carpet appraised by different dealers to find out if it really is silk on cotton. I did this because the dealer I bought my kilims from told me the Turks don't make floral patterns. These two dealers do not know each other and they live in different cities in Turkey. Both said the same thing and that is my carpet is made of synthetic material and it is made in China!!!!! I live in China! I did not go all the way to Istanbul to buy a Chinese carpet!
ABC Carpets has two locations - one in Sultanahmet and one in the Grand Bazaar by the Davidoff Cafe near Gate 1, the most popular entry point. I urge you, do not buy a carpet from these people. You would not believe the "business deal" they proposed to me when I just stopped in to say hello on my third trip to Istanbul. At this time, I did not know my carpet is a fake worth only 450 USD. I paid more than three times that amount! When I went in, because I had been there twice before and knew everyone by name, Volkan, the owner, tried to get me to do business with him so he could get his carpets into the US without paying the taxes. He is unscrupulous, dishonest, and so are the people who work for him, at least the ones I know. The guys who just show the carpets don't know what's going on, but the guys who sell them do.
I met two other people online who have had problems with ABC Carpets and their salesmen. It is a complete fluke how we met online, but our conversation led us both to tell our Turkish carpet stories, and theirs is even worse than mine and they bought their 6 carpets from the same shop!
I urge you not to shop there if you read this and please tell your friends to do the same.
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