Possible Investment Scam (SEEMS VERY SOPHISTICATED)

Hey everyone,

I found this site while doing some research on possible scams. I am producing a non-fiction docudrama which I have been looking to raise investment funds for pre through post production on. Because the economy has been harsh on most investors, I've had to go out and look for other possible investors, and made some posts on a Dubai financial forum asking for any interested investors. I am quite familiar with the Nigerian scams we all read about and receive sporadic emails from, but this is something much more sophisticated.

I received an email from someone claiming to be Mr. Abdulrahman Al Jasmi. I still don't know if it really is him or not, but I have reason to suspect that it isn't. A google search will reveal that the real Mr. Al Jasmi is a very accomplished banker and developer in Bahrain. At first everything seemed fine. He proposed a multimillion dollar investment into our company and not once asked for any fees. He only said that his board of directors were to require a "surety bond to guaranty the investment." Well this is very difficult to obtain apparently. When I searched for the surety bond he requested I couldn't find a single firm who could provide it for the scenario we have. I was able to get a completion bond from a leading bond issuer for entertainment, and he said he wanted a bond to guaranty his investment as a whole, and not just the "completion."

This is when a London "consultancy" came into play. We are now being asked to travel to London, where his contacts in London will pick us up and we are to pay over $30K for the surety (in London) and verify his investment in person. I have asked him several times to provide the name of the firm in London and he has not provided me with the information I have requested.

I have also asked him for a telephone number to contact him at and he did not provide one. He called me and his accent did not sound particularly arabic, matter of fact I had the suspicion it sounded more african. I spent alot of time in Kuwait and so I know the sound of an arabic accent.

He has provided me with loan documents from Gulf Holding Company, a company that Mr. Al Jasmi is indeed a chairman of and so we thought everything looked good until we received a document that stated that we were required the following:

LOGISTICS AND REQUIREMENTS  
setting up a corporate offshore escrow account in your favor for the purpose of this transaction with the following:
1) A copy of your international passport  
2) A copy of your corporate registration certificate  
3) An account processing identification verification charge of GBP 2,500 (Great British Pound)  
4) Notary bond to be obtainable on a cover payment of GBP 7,500 (Great British Pound)
5) Insurance bond to cover the funds that will be shipped in from Kuwait which will be obtainable on a cover payment of GBP 10,000 (Great British Pound).
5) Your last utility bill and proof of Tax clearance. 
                                                                     Total- GBP 20,000 (Great British Pounds)

later in document...

Notes: However, for security of your personal information and satisfaction of your curiosity on the legitimacy of the process, you advise to make an arrangement to meet with the processing security/financial brokerage firm in London to enable you access as well as analyze the transactional modalities in person. You are to communicate and contact our fund release coordinator. 


I have tried to contact Mr. Al Jasmi at his offices in Kuwait and Bahrain, but have not been able to get through. It would be great if this were real, as our company is in need of this loan, however I have a bad feeling that it is not real, and someone is impersonating this business and its chairman. Gulf Holding Company is a well known middle east investment firm, and the document that I have from them has their letterhead, a signature from a Mr. Al Jasmi, as well as correct addresses. However, the London group charging over 30K and saying that our "100 percent cooperation is required for the loan" meaning we must fly out to meet with them, and don't even know who they are makes me very wary of the situation.

I can post some of the emails here, but these emails have been ongoing for over two weeks and they are pretty long, and his spelling and grammar for the most part, are quite good.

Any thoughts and/or suggestions from the experts here? Thanks in advance...

PS I almost forgot...the email address that he emailed me from was a gmail email address...more reason to doubt that it really is him. I do have the loan docs that were drawn up from Gulf Holding company, but don't want to post them here for confidentiality reasons. I can discuss them over private message if anyone feels they can be of some assistance.

Greetings,
Mr.XXXXXXXXXXXX,
How are you doing today, and I hope I find you in good health and
peace.
I have been discussing since this morning with the principal officer
of the financial consultants in London that I told you about in my
email, we have been discussing regarding our planned partnership
with
XXXXXXX Entertainment, LLC.
They have accepted to write the surety bond and guaranty our
investment in the company and have requested that you meet them in
person, in London by next week for a meeting to discuss this
investment before they write the surety bond and sign the
partnership
agreement.
They also stated that my company will have to provide proof of funds
for you and that it will be more preferable if my company can make
available the investment capital in cash for your confirmation.This
implies that my company will have to ship the investment capital to
London and deposit at the security vault at their office so that you
can confirm the US XXXXX in cash when you arrive London for the
meeting
with them. I have accepted to follow this directive though it will
cost my company some little financial expenses, but we don't mind.
They stated that after your meeting with them, the fund will be
transported to the bank for deposit in a London offshore bank
account
that will be opened for you when you arrive London. That it will
take
at most 3 working days after your meeting, for them to deposit the
fund in your London offshore account. That within the 3 days, they
will acquire and process all necessary financial documentation from
the relevant government financial agencies in London so that they
can
successfully set up your London offshore account. From then on the
funds will be under your control and you can decide to transfer to
any
where more convenient for you.
On a personal level I like to inform you that they have helped me to
close a similar transaction back in 2006, when I invested with a
Russian business man in the Russian oil and gas sector. So they are
tested and competent to successfully carry out this kind of huge
cash
transactions. The amount I invested then was even more than the
amount
I am investing with you now. That transaction was so success and I
know that this investment with you would be a success as well.Their
Principal Officer is well connected in the financial sector in the
U.K
and has huge political influence as well. He will sign all documents
on my behalf in London, and would be as if I have signed them.
I will be giving a directive to my legal assistant to start drafting
the loan agreement so I can forward to you for your review. And so
you
will be receiving it before the end of this week. It will contain
the
terms for this investment in your company and it will be followed
by a
document from the consultants in London stating the minimum
requirement you need to meet up before they can write the surety
bond
and guaranty the investment fund. They will start working on the
document once I confirm to them your willingness to meet with them
in
London by next week.The document from the consultant will be
forwarded
to you prior to your meeting with them.
So you can see that we are making good progress here and your
sincere
and complete cooperation is required if Gulf Holding Company will
investment in XXXXXXXX Entertainment,LLC.

Sincere Regards,
Abdulrahman Al Jasmi

Hi filmexec and welcome to scam warners,

Your account is certainly worthy of further investigation but from the details you've provided so far it is looking decidedly fishy. There will be far more experienced scam warners along to help you soon, no doubt but in the meantime I have found this link: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... i_14017932 which specifically mentions surety bonds. This excerpt is particularly helpful:

...Before purchasing a bond, you should always verify its authenticity, says Forman. To guard against doing business with a nonexistent surety-bond company, "don't use the name and phone number appearing on the bond or accompanying documents," he advises. "Instead, you should refer to the list of surety companies that appears in the authenticity guide [officially called the Ogligee's Guide] published by the Surety Association of America."
The association distributes the guide free of charge...

The link for the Surety Association of America is http://www.surety.org/ please check their information there.

Have they provided you with a UK telephone number prefixed by +4470?This is a free UK phone redirect service. So if you call a number with that prefix, the other party may be anywhere in the world.

Are they using free email services like yahoo, hotmail, gmail, aol or mail.com?

Can you locate the IP addresses in the email headers? This may help to pin down their actual location. Having said that, Dubai is actually a hotpost for internet fraud.

Peta

I just had a quick look but found nothing conclusive, you could hardly call it hard evidence but notice in the email where they talk about the fees.

If they were in the UK, surely they would have the symbol for pounds handy, the also would not call it "7,500 British pound" note the lack of an "S" that is a common mistake Africans make, not legitimate Insurance Brokers in the UK

It's a scam.

Firstly, the word "modalities" is a dead giveaway. It's a word used almost exclusively by African scammers. It's a word that is viewed as such a daft one in the context that they use it, that we ended up taking the word and using it ourselves when we refer to a scammer's method and format. Just Google "modality + scam" and see how many hits you get!!!

Also, the British Pound is always referred to as "Pound Sterling" in business. Not "Great British Pound".

You can also find parts of the script he's using on the internet.

http://ccolelewis.wordpress.com/2008/07 ... ing-funds/

Feel free to post what you've got, Filmexec.
The more you post, the likelier any prospective victim can Google, find their way here and see that it's a scam.
You don't need to post your side of the email conversation or any of your details. A full header from one of the scammer's emails would be very useful though.

How are you doing today, and I hope I find you in good health and
peace.

Many Nigerian scammers starts their emails with that sentence. Is it one an Arab businessman would be likely to use?
It is elaborate, as you say, but it sounds like an advance fee fraud to me, one specially tailored to your business.

it sounds like an advance fee fraud

It doesn't sound like Advance Fee Fraud.
It is Advance Fee Fraud.

Scam for sure. I don't know how much you are trying to borrow, but 20k GBP sounds like a hefty up front fee.

Did I miss the part where they evaluate your business plan, credit history, and financial resources? Most creditors want some assurance they will get their money back.

Ask them if it's OK if you invest the money in aglet futures instead of your film. I'll bet they won't mind.

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the input, and verifying what I had already feared. I'm going to post the email correspondence that I had with this "gentleman."

And you are correct, normally an Arabic businessman would not greet in this manner. I am going to post my email correspondence with him, but I am going to remove my information for security reasons.

He did review our business plan and our budget, however, we have not provided any confidential information in regards to financial or personal information. All he has is our business address and names.

Thanks so much for all of your expert help. I find the info here strangely intriguing, and if I wasn't looking for legitimate investors I'd spend alot more time here reading about these frauds.

On 11/5/08, Abdulrahman Jasmi <abdulrahman> wrote:
Greetings,

Thanks for your cooperation so far and I just received a document from the consultants in London stating the minimum requirements you need to meet up before they write the surety bond to guaranty the loan. The document has been attached to this email and you are to review it and confirm your readiness towards the arrangement so that I can give you the direct contact to their fund release coordinator for an introduction before either you or Mr.xxxxxxxx arrive London for the meeting and subsequent fund release.
I will also email you a draft copy of the amended agreement that you will take along with you to London, including all the other requested documents for the meeting.
You are to note that you are entitled to a refund of all the financial expenses you make towards the release of the investment fund just as stated in the loan agreement and once you confirm your readiness to be in London as requested the I will give the directive for the US$4.5M shipment to leave Kuwait late Sunday night and arrive London Monday morning, a day before your meeting with the consultants.
I also want you to note that my company is offeringxxxxxxxxx LLC this loan on the basis that the consultants in London write a surety bond to guaranty the loan, and so you are to offer them 100% cooperation if this loan must be made.

I looking forward to a long term partnership with xxxxx, LLC.

Warm Regards,
Abdulrahman Al Jasmi



On 11/4/08,
Mr. Abdulrahman Al Jasmi,

I trust you are well, and in peace today. I am just following up with you to make sure that you received the signed agreement. Let me know if you need us to resend it, and when you have the information from the group in London.

Take care.

Best regards,



NOTICE: This e-mail is confidential, may be legally priveleged, and is for the intended recipient(s) only. Any disclosure, copying, distribution, or reliance on any of it by anyone else is strictly prohibited and may be a criminal offense. If you have received this message in error, or are not the intended recipient(s) please delete and e-mail confirmation to the sender.

On Nov 1, 2008, at 12:17 PM, Abdulrahman Jasmi <abdulrahman> wrote:

Greetings,

How are you today and how is business? I hope I find you in good
health and peace.
The loan agreement is attached to this email and you will review it
and direct your questions and responses to me. Once we are in accord
with the agreement I will inform the consultants in London so they can
forward the document stating the minimum requirements your company
needs to meet up before they can meet with you to write the surety
bond and guaranty the loan.
I have interest in investing in film and television like I informed
you in earlier email and making this investment through my company.
And if this first investment is successful my company will then be in
position to make much bigger investments.
So you will try your best to ensure that you do all you can to make
this first investment go through successfully because I just sold the
idea of this investment to my board members and they have accepted on
the basis that we get a surety.
My Company is planning on diversifying into new sectors and if we can
build a good working relation in trust and fidelity through this first
investment then your company will become one of our major
partners. And you can tell what that will mean.
I need you to provide the needed information in the agreement so that
we can add it to the amended copy that will be emailed to you before
you leave for London to meet with the consultants.
Thanks for your understanding and anticipated cooperation.

Sincere Regards,
Abdulrahman Al Jasmi

On 10/31/08,
Mr. Abdulrahman Al Jasmi,

Thanks again for all of your help. I look forward to receiving the
loan documents from Gulf Holding Company in regards to the 4.5 Million
US Dollar, investment loan you have proposed for our television
series, and our company. We will await
further instructions from you.

I am available to take phone calls 24 hours a day 7 days a week for
your convenience, as I know the time difference can make things
difficult. Is there someone at your offices that we can also leave
messages with, should urgent matters arise? We will also wait on
further documentation from your contacts in London. What is the name
of their company in London? Also, there are still several companies
here in the United States who are working on providing the surety
bond, and I am waiting for their proposals.

On another note, what can you tell me about Gulf Holding Company and
its interests in investing in film and television here in the United
States? Is there further interest in getting involved in film and
other television projects?

Thanks again, for all of your help.

Best Regards,



On Oct 31, 2008, at 11:10 AM, Abdulrahman Jasmi wrote:

Greetings,
Thanks for your reply and enthusiasm. The loan agreement will be
emailed to you by tomorrow and then you will note the terms am
proposing for this loan. I assure you that we are prepared to offer
our full support towards this loan and your total cooperation will be
needed too.
The phone numbers on our website are for our front desks and I prefer
to be the one calling for now. And so you should expect my call again
any moment.

Warm Regards,
Abdulrahman Al Jasmi

Mr. Abdulrahman Al Jasmi,

Thanks for getting back to me, and I trust that you are also in good
health. What is proposed here sounds reasonable. We are prepared to
cooperate and prepared to make the arrangements for a meeting in
London. Please get back to me with more information on the
consultancy firm in London and what they require. I will look
forward
to receiving that document, as well as the loan documents.

It is unfortunate that you will not be there to oversee the
transaction. We were looking forward to meeting you. Gulf Holding
Company's contact info in Bahrain is listed at Tel.: +973 17 102 102,
and in Kuwait at Tel.: +965 224 39 93. What would be the best time
to
call, and which office would you prefer that we call?

Thanks again for all of your help, and I look forward to hearing from
you.

Best Regards,



On Oct 30, 2008, at 11:55 AM, Abdulrahman Jasmi wrote:

Greetings,
How are you doing today, and I hope I find you in good health and
peace.
I have been discussing since this morning with the principal officer
of the financial consultants in London that I told you about in my
email, we have been discussing regarding our planned partnership
with
XXXX,LLC.
They have accepted to write the surety bond and guaranty our
investment in the company and have requested that you meet them in
person, in London by next week for a meeting to discuss this
investment before they write the surety bond and sign the
partnership
agreement.
They also stated that my company will have to provide proof of funds
for you and that it will be more preferable if my company can make
available the investment capital in cash for your confirmation.This
implies that my company will have to ship the investment capital to
London and deposit at the security vault at their office so that you
can confirm the US$4.5M in cash when you arrive London for the
meeting
with them. I have accepted to follow this directive though it will
cost my company some little financial expenses, but we don't mind.
They stated that after your meeting with them, the fund will be
transported to the bank for deposit in a London offshore bank
account
that will be opened for you when you arrive London. That it will
take
at most 3 working days after your meeting, for them to deposit the
fund in your London offshore account. That within the 3 days, they
will acquire and process all necessary financial documentation from
the relevant government financial agencies in London so that they
can
successfully set up your London offshore account. From then on the
funds will be under your control and you can decide to transfer to
any
where more convenient for you.
On a personal level I like to inform you that they have helped me to
close a similar transaction back in 2006, when I invested with a
Russian business man in the Russian oil and gas sector. So they are
tested and competent to successfully carry out this kind of huge
cash
transactions. The amount I invested then was even more than the
amount
I am investing with you now. That transaction was so success and I
know that this investment with you would be a success as well.Their
Principal Officer is well connected in the financial sector in the
U.K
and has huge political influence as well. He will sign all documents
on my behalf in London, and would be as if I have signed them.
I will be giving a directive to my legal assistant to start drafting
the loan agreement so I can forward to you for your review. And so
you
will be receiving it before the end of this week. It will contain
the
terms for this investment in your company and it will be followed
by a
document from the consultants in London stating the minimum
requirement you need to meet up before they can write the surety
bond
and guaranty the investment fund. They will start working on the
document once I confirm to them your willingness to meet with them
in
London by next week.The document from the consultant will be
forwarded
to you prior to your meeting with them.
So you can see that we are making good progress here and your
sincere
and complete cooperation is required if Gulf Holding Company will
investment in XXXX.

Sincere Regards,
Abdulrahman Al Jasmi

On 10/29/08,
Mr. Abdulrahman Al Jasmi,

I have informed the other producers as well
your proposal to work with the London based firm. What is the name
of
the firm in London? Also, you had mentioned that it would not take
long to obtain the surety from them, what kind of timeline do you
normally expect?

Thanks again, and look forward to talking soon.

Best Regards,



On Oct 29, 2008, at 11:43 AM, Abdulrahman Jasmi wrote:

Greetings,
Thanks for your email and I have reviewed the letter of intent you
attached. The surety that my company wants is the one that will
guaranty the investment as a whole. The surety will ensure that
xxxxxxxxxx, LLC repay the loan on the agreed terms. The LOI you
have sent is good in the sense that the surety will be more
willing to
write the surety bond and guaranty the loan.
I have been discussing with the consultants in London that will
write
the surety bond and guaranty the loan and I will give you the
details
of our discussion by tomorrow. We will be working with them in
closing
this transaction with your company.

Regards,
Abdulrahman Al Jasmi.

On 10/28/08, wrote:
Mr. Abdulrahman Al Jasmi

This is my personal email address. Attached you will
find
the LOI for the completion bond from Film Finances, a leading
completion bond issuer for entertainment. Let me know how you
would
like to proceed with them. I am sending you this email from my
phone,
so let me know if you have problems with the PDF attachment.
Take
care, and look forward to talking soon.

Best regards,

Here's a full header:


Delivered-To:
Received: by 10.142.44.7 with SMTP id r7cs221143wfr;
Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:45:11 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.103.239.10 with SMTP id q10mr3586766mur.82.1225219509431;
Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:45:09 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.103.242.6 with HTTP; Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:45:09 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <60a5c34b0810281145o1f04196frcb6f6d4479ecf78>
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:45:09 -0700
From: "Abdulrahman Jasmi" <abdulrahman>
To:
Subject: Re: RE-Emmy Award Winning Producer
In-Reply-To: <6e7173e40810271820l4c4939b1qbe336d153f133685>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline
References: <60a5c34b0810190840i3da52fe7v980a37997c6a0b92>
<60a5c34b0810211242u194d9b86r4b04ca5cb7dc433>
<2D5C1DA5>
<60a5c34b0810221209ybc6cbf9k31421466b575a13f>
<FEE78251>
<60a5c34b0810231152k4101e080k4924b90381a7a54f>
<5A46FACF>
<60a5c34b0810240707y7261effcyd0edfccc5ca8c09e>
<60a5c34b0810271317t40165b41i88d8fad5be287532>
<6e7173e40810271820l4c4939b1qbe336d153f133685>

Greetings,
I have read your post for an investor in your new television
series and am interested. I like watching TV and will love to be a
sponsore of a television program in the United States. I am an
industrialist based in the middle east and am able to invest the
stated amount of capital.
If you can send me a reply with more details of this investment, we
can get started.

Abdulrahman Al Jasmi



After I sent the business plan he responded with

Thanks for your reply. This investment inxxxxxxxx, LLC
will be a simply one and I am proposing that we put the investment
capital at US$4.5 Million just for convinience.
I am proposing that I loan you the investment capital against your
equity offer and see if you can re-pay in a maximum duration of 5
years at a rate of 7% interest per annum.
I also want to know who will be in position to sign the loan
agreement.
Once I get a positive response from you, I will bring up the matter
in
my company board meeting to get their aproval before I transfer to
fund to you.

Regards,
Abdulrahman Al jasmi


I did think the original message was a bit strange, but figured that perhaps he didn't speak very good English. After asking him for his phone number, he required that "he be the one to call us." This is when I started to get suspicious and I wanted to make absolutely sure that he was the real Al Jasmi, which I think is pretty obvious he is not.

I also want to add that when he did finally call, he had a very coarse voice, to which my secretary even said he sounded "kind of rude." Not something I'd expect from an accomplished middle eastern business man. His accent was not arabic, and suspiciously something else (maybe African, not sure) and he was calling to ensure that I did plan to travel to London. I did find some scam advisory sites that detailed a similar situation where a businessman would travel to Nigeria only to be kidnapped and held for ransom. I don't know if this happens in London, but at any rate, we can see how dangerous this particular type of scam can get. Thanks again, you all may have saved my life

To answer your questions, he has been using Gmail which according to the resources I've found online, is impossible to trace IP addresses from. The headers in the emails do not contain an IP address. He still has yet to send me any detailed information on the people in London, phone numbers or names. When I asked him for it when he called he tripped over his words as if he didn't know how to answer it. At that point I was convinced it is fraud. I'm just irritated because he has wasted my time, but am thankful to you all and the resources, and my gut instinct for keeping us from a possible disaster.

On another note, anyone know of any investors interested in investing in an Emmy winning team (from Deadliest Catch) for a new television series?

Thanks for sharing,

You are correct, Gmail hides the IP address of the sender.

Scammers dont seem to be fully aware of this fact and usually have a variety of email addresses that they use.

I have done a search on his username and added gmail, presuming that is his email address and found lots of results Click here to see them.

I will take a look through them when I have a little more time to see if I can find anything else

My producing partner and I have had two similar experiences. We are trying to find funding for a feature film. Two prominent Middle Eastern businessmen have contacted us, a Sheik Qassimi and a Saudi engineer, both very high profile, both with an excellent reputation and numerous websites. They both have approved a multi-million dollar investment. However, we must travel to London to sign documents, and we must put up a surety bond of $25,000. I assumed the bond would be paid on the same day as the contracts were signed and the deal closed. However we have gotten mixed messages. My suspicions were aroused when they were pressuring us to close the deal quickly...and to travel to their location. I am glad you have posted this, I will share it with my partner. I would be interested in continuing communication with you, because it seems like we're in the same boat. My partner is planning to go to London to do this deal in the next few weeks, and I'm afraid for her if it is a scam.

Abbi

It certainly sounds like a scam from what you have posted and your friend should be discouraged from going to see them until you have absolute proof these people are who they say they are