I received a cold call from a company of intermediaries. I don’t know how my number was obtained as I use the telephone preference service.

In their website (which I was told the address) they say they are based in London and are not FSA regulated and there is no UK protection for any services provided by them. They say that there is no statutory registration or licence requirement for the business they contemplate. They claim to provide full service investment banking services worldwide to private investors and institutional investors.

Their pitch is that you invest your money direct in company x and sell when they tell you to. They charge 2% on any profit you make. I’m not clear how this would work if all investments are in your own name and I haven’t seen any paperwork from them. Their website comes out top on a google web search of the business name but that is the only hit , there are no other hits on any other search engines I have tried. I would have expected to have obtained some other hits either good or bad from a business that has been trading for sometime – the person I spoke to said he had worked for the company for a year and that his senior advisors for several years.

Any ideas on where I can find out additional information on this business to establish whether it is reputable or just a scam. If the latter to whom can I report them to. Their website contains a UK address in London and London phone number which I called and hung up after someone answered, though the phone call to me was number withheld and it sounded like the caller was in a large office with the background noise/calls being made

scowlsandgrowls

Anybody performing any kind of 'investment banking service' in the UK has to be regulated. An exemption exists where a company is raising money directly but this company is charging a commission so must be an intermedary, they even call themselves that.

Ask them about the 'Financial Promotion Rules' if they call again and then tell the FSA. Again, ANY company making a call which leads to an investment in ANY type of security, collective investment or derivatives of those must be regulated. Exemptions exists for 'phyical' products which can be delievered, but there are zero exemptions for investments into securities or derivative based products.

It sounds like a "boiler room" scam - they cold call, claim to be represent an investments company with a good track record, then basically burn your money buying useless shares.

There has been a lot of publicity about this recently - it's a scam, and any money you put with such companies is as good as lost.

Any company offering investments in the UK has to be regulated by the FSA.