>>Subscribe via Email<<

A Current Affair go after Suncity Equities and Investments Scam

Posted by Aegist on October 23rd, 2008

A Current Affair (ACA) have just run a second story on Arbitrage Investment Scams operating out of the Gold Coast - this time focussing on Suncity EI. They ran a story about 4 months ago on the same topic, but focussed their attention on Kent Woodhouse (AFL Arbitrage) - I wrote a short article on that at the time, and you can see it here.

This second installment on this topic was almost identical to the first story, just with different names and stories. There was the same amount of chasing people through offices, and down the street, all while talking to the poor victims of these scammers about how much money they have lost.

I have to admit that I find it a little odd that at no point have ACA contacted either myself, or anyone at ArbForum. You cannot look into this field and not accidently find yourself either here, or on arbforum - combined we have far more information on arbitrage trading, and these arbitrage investment scams than anywhere else online. Yet I still haven’t heard anything from them - which is particularly odd when you consider that I actually contacted ACA (and Today Tonight) myself about these scams over 6 months ago myself - well before they ran the first story.

I guess they aren’t interested in actual information - they just want the hard fast ‘fear’ and ‘hype’ associated with the story. I understand that. The story is too complicated to bother with details when all you really want is for people to know “Arbitrage Companies Bad - avoid at all costs”. It isn’t completely true, but for the most part it is probably the easiest message to get out to the mass public in a useful way.

Their breif clip of someone from the ACCC talking about these scams as “just gambling” was very much like what they said in the first story they ran too. Again, I would like to highlight the fact that what these companies actually do with your money is virtually irrelevent - the scam is that they won’t pay it back as promised. They are Ponzi Scams, and they don’t actually do anything with your money - neither arbitrage, nor gambling.

Anyway, let this stand as YET ANOTHER warning to all of the people who regularly contact me wondering whether they should invest money in company X, Y or Z. Hopefully the answer will be blatently obvious by now…

Here is the ACA Clip:

No Comments »

---

Arbitrage Scam Websites Targetted in Australian Crackdown

Posted by Aegist on September 23rd, 2008

The Sydney Morning Herald ran a story today (below) about the investigation being conducted by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) into Australian websites making ‘too good to be true’ claims. Arbitrage Betting investment schemes, and the over-promising over-priced Arbitrage software companies were mentioned in the investigation, alongside other regular scams like anti-ageing rip offs, other get rich quick schemes, expensive ‘free’ mobile phone services, and genealogy rip offs.

No companies being investigated will be named until after the ACCC finds the company is in breach of trade practices - I look forward to seeing numerous companies which we have discovered and posted about here on SAG being named by the ACCC.

The full SMH article can be read here:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/watchdog-eyes-140-scam-websites/2008/09/23/1221935618431.html

No Comments »

---

Profit From Differences and Progressive Trading

Posted by Aegist on May 14th, 2008

Profit From Differences (PFD Trading) and Progressive Trading (PT Trading…Progressive trading trading?) are two new terms created for sports arbitrage trading by a company trying to sell their own arbitrage alert software for sums in the order of €10000.

There has already been a bit of discussion over at Arbforum in a thread about several companies related to the PFD trading operation (read the thread here).

All I want to say here, is that we have received complaints from customers of several companies
who sell arbitrage software at these highly inflated prices (thousands of dollars/euro/pounds up front). The most common complaint is that the arbs are gone before they can place them, or that the profit is small at best, and that there is no way they will ever make back their investment. I have previously written on the dangers of purchasing arbitrage alert software - something which I consider to be a ’service’ which is delivered over time; not a product which you buy once and take home with you - from companies who only offer the option to buy their software upfront without any need for ongoing fees.

See my original article on the Dangers of Large Upfront Payments for Arbitrage Alert Software.

No Comments »

---

S.O.R.T Trading - Simultaneous Offsetting of Risk Technology (SORT Trading)

Posted by Aegist on March 29th, 2008

Sort Trading, or the ‘Simultaneous Offsetting of Risk Technology‘ Trading (SORT Trading for short of course…), is the latest name given to arbitrage trading by a series of four companies, all connected by a single ‘Independent’ review site. SORT Trading, the phrase, exists only within this tiny insular section of the internet. No one in the arbitrage trading community has ever heard of it, and I doubt anyone anywhere else has ever heard of it, because I am confident that the people behind these 5 websites fabricated the term ‘SORT Trading’ themselves entirely in order to set up these companies and the completely clean slate of positive reviews. No one searching for ‘SORT Trading’ would accidentally stumble across any information to help give them informed opinions, whereas if the companies used the more accurate phrase ‘Arbitrage Trading’, or even Surebetting, or Scalping, then any person reviewing the (rather expensive) opportunity being offered to them (over the phone by friendly helpful customer service people no doubt) would surely find LOTS of information. But by searching Google for “Sort trading” you don’t find anything other than 3 of the companies and the review site (and a couple of other ‘independent’ reviews on the open internet).

The SORT Trading companies are all connected by Sort Trading Guide (sorttradingguide.co.uk), and they are Baranstone, Kinsealy, 247-web, and SORT Traders. With the SortTradingGuide website the only obvious link between the four, you have to wonder why they are trying to look independent, and why the reviewer (goes by the name Gareth Reynolds, although the domain is registered to Geoff Andrews) doesn’t seem to know anything about Arbitrage Trading.

There are a few points to be made about this supposedly independent review:

1. ”Over the last 6-12 months a lot of companies have started to get involved in this highly lucrative SORT Trading industry, It would take me months to compare them all (and I have used most of them) so I’ll stick to the leaders in the industry.”

What other companies? Search Google for Sort Trading and you can’t find one - you just find this lot and a few pages they have created to shill for themselves. As I stated earlier in this article - SORT Trading as a term simply doesn’t exist outside of the fabrication of these companies and this reviewer.

2. ”The reason I put this website up was to make aware of the pitfalls of Sort Trading that were never available to a new traders, not to generate business for the Sort Trading industry.”

Yeah…and because you didn’t know about this site (SportsArbitrageGuide) or ArbForum, or any of the HUNDREDS of other websites on this topic which use recognised names for the process or arbitrage trading - and not to help make Baranstone look like a legitimate business.

As soon as you see the fact that this whole SORT Trading ‘industry’ exists only within this small circle of 5 websites, it is hard to think they are in any way independent. All 4 of the companies use the same style of website - 3 or 4 pages, and a contact form. They are short pages, with very little information, and just there to provide a storefront to refer people to from their phone conversations. The ‘Visual basic’, Java, Cisco, and Mac emblems add that extra flair of “We aren’t related - look, we use different systems!”

These 5 websites have just come out of the blue, created an entire industry name out of thin air (search google to verify this for yourself) and are trying to sell their software for …more than 5.5k euro. Much more. It varies from company to company, but I suspect that 3 of the companies are there just to make one in particular look legitimate.

Anyway, there is a discussion going on over at ArbForum about these websites, have a look at it:

SORT Trading ***SCAM*** SORT Trading

And if this is the first time you have ever heard the term “Arbitrage trading”, then welcome to the real ’secret’ industry that they talking about on those “Sort trading” websites. Arbitrage trading is real, and it does work in much the way they explain it, but you don’t have to have tens of thousands of dollars to buy the software. For a more thorough guide of what arbitrage trading it, read through our guide here:

What is Sports Arbitrage Trading?

And just for a comparison, have a look at the real arbitrage trading companies who sell software and arbitrage alerts here:

Sports Arbitrage Trading Alert Services.

They are significantly cheaper than the thousands of dollars being asked for by these companies.

No Comments »

---

Enter your email address: Delivered by FeedBurner