Share scam?

June 10, 2008 6:20 AM

A man who says he represents a Boston company called Bayside Equity Group is offering me an astounding amount for some shares I was persuaded against better judgement (my wifes) to invest in some years ago. What's the catch?

October 2004 I bought 1000 shares in a company called Anagram Plus at $5 each. They were proffered by an outfit called Witter Walwyn. I found out later they were on the the Swedish Finance Inspectors black list. (I live in Sweden)
Initially they quickly rose to $9 though I refused an offer to buy more.
Then they dwindled down to $2-3. I only have copies of the certificates.
April this year I was contacted by the swedish police (anti-fraud squad) who were conducting an inquiry into Witter Walwyn. I supplied the details of my dealings - and assumed I'd been swindled. My wife ceretainly thinks so.
Now last week I was contacted by a man (telephone) saying his company Bayside Equity Group wantd to buy all my (worthless) shares
in Anagram Plus for an incredible $25-30. An offer I cant refuse?
What is the catch here? Am I being had again. Should I refuse all dealings? The temptation to redeem my losses looms large.

posted by jan murray to work & money (7 comments total)

setup for an advance fee fraud?
posted by russm at 6:39 AM on June 10

Looks bad to me (scroll to the bottom).
posted by Partial Law at 6:42 AM on June 10

Also, the text on their web page seems to mostly be lifted from a different, legitimate company's page.

Compare:
About Us - About Us
Career - Careers (pay extra attention to where the email link on the Bayside page goes).
posted by Partial Law at 6:47 AM on June 10

If you're still unsure, I happen to be pretty near 225 Franklin St., and can swing by sometime this afternoon to see if "Suite 1402" exists at all, or is inhabited by such a company.
posted by Partial Law at 6:49 AM on June 10

Ok, to avoid problems the first question I'd put to your gentleman caller would be to ask if they are authorised by the Finansinspektionen (Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority) to conduct business in Sweden.

Don't worry about messing up your deal; if they are legit (unlikely from what you've said so but, let's run with it) they'll find a way to contact you. Either they are authorised or not. If not they'll get a local proxy, not a problem. I get contacted a lot by state side scammers (I'm American but live in the UK and my name is on lots of professional registries, etc) and usually asking about FSA authorisation to conduct business in the UK lets them know that I know what the score is. A few persist, but asking them to pitch in writing shuts them up pretty quick. But anyway, lets get back to your question.

So price. Did he mention that range? Very unusual. Now if an entity were acquiring all outstanding shares of this company, its not obligated to offer market. A very common subterfuge - perfectly legal mind you - is to contact shareholders of record, offering less than market for small shareholdings. Often an elderly person will own shares and over time loose track of purchase or even market prices. So any offer, any offer looks good.

The price is suspicious, doubly so if he's offering a range like that.

While Bayside is clean on google (I've got acquaintances at bucket shops and their firms names are all over the internet), the domain was just registered last October. Not a good sign, especially so as its gonna expire in October of this year. Most credible enterprises would register for more than one year at a time.

But Witter Walwyn is a different matter, and they have been having problems all over Europe it would seem. But at least you got your share certificates as other folks are complaining about paying for shares but getting nothing in return, or selling shares, remitting certificates as part of normal settlement but receiving - what a surprise - nothing!

Now onto Anagram.

The good news is there is a liquid market in their shares, the bad news is bid is about $3, and its trading near the top of its 52 week range.

So was that offer a scam? More than likely. I explain below what I think is going on, but in any case they aren't gonna offer that much for shares they can get off the Pink Sheets for $3. Sorry about this. But you're not alone - TMF has some chatter about it, with related firms that might come a calling to you (as a past customer) as well.

This does sound suspiciously like a pump and dump to me. How does it work? Well, Anagram only has a market cap of about $21M, which may sound like a lot but its actually chump change in the equity markets.

What a lot of unsavory types do is put up enough cash to purchase a large chunk of shares of a relatively cheap company listed on NASDAQ or OTCBB.

Once you've got the shares start to sell (aka pump- hard!! Call folks and talk that company up. Make money off commissions, all the while watching the value of your shares skyrocket. And then, after you've kited the shares up to a level deemed appropriate, you sell your shares (aka dump), stop the pumping and watch that share price plumment!!

Note that the company often is not party to this fraud, and gets hurt as well.

So more than likely a scam. I bet they just want your share certificates so they can be resold. You'll never get a dime from these folks if you sell through them. If you'd like to sell your shares, you've got other companys you can turn to.

Best of luck!
posted by Mutant at 7:22 AM on June 10 [2 favorites]

A little more digging raised what might be some good news for you.

Apparently Anagram had a four for one stock split last year.

Apr 23, 2007
Pink OTC Markets News Service

Boca Raton, FL — Anagram Plus, Inc.'s Board of Directors has determined it is in the best interest of the Corporation to declare a stock dividend, payable on May 1, 2007, to stockholders of record at the close of business on April 30, 2007. The stockholders of the Corporation will be receiving three (3) new shares of common stock for every one (1) share of common stock, of the Corporation, which they currently hold.

The above news release has been provided by the above company via Pink Sheets News Service. Issuers of news releases and not Pink Sheets are solely responsible for the accuracy of such news releases.



Have you had any contact from registrar? It would seem you're sitting on four thousand shares, not one thousand. Meaning your investment is now worth some $12K.

Best course of action at this point would be to contact Anagram directly.

Anagram Plus, Inc.
2700 N. Military Trail
Suite 100
Boca Raton, FL 33431
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Explain your situation (prolly don't mention the scammer as its not germane) and ask about the split.
posted by Mutant at 7:46 AM on June 10 [1 favorite]

Mutant's got you covered on the current status of your stock (assuming your shares are legitimate, of course), but I just wanted to check back in and let you know that I swung by 225 Franklin St. this afternoon and it is a large, prominent, office building, but unfortunately their front entrance (which would normally have a large board identifying their tenants and their respective floors) is under construction.
The back entrance has no good identifying information, but most of their tenants appear to occupy one or more floors and tend to identify themselves as being, for example, "12th floor" or "Suite 2300." While a "suite 1402" may be possible, it doesn't seem terribly likely (and again, the ripped-off website text and complete lack of Google hits are enough for me to become very skeptical of this Bayside Equity Group, even if they do turn out to have real office space).
posted by Partial Law at 2:42 PM on June 10