Share Pushers, Sharks and Charlatans

Every so often, I receive a delightful email from an individual who has clearly recognised my discretion and trustworthiness. Indeed, such is the high es teem in which I am held by these individuals, whom I have never met, that they seek to entrust tens, if not hundreds, of millions of pounds in my bank account. They describe how they have managed to obtain such vast sums, either as a result of someone with my surname who has died without an heir, or money from an oil contract that got "accidentally" left behind in an account, or because their late husband (the former president, dictator,father of the people) had managed to amass a sizable pension equivalent to half the nation's wealth.

It is so refreshing that, in these times of cynicism and suspicion, an individual (often a senior state official) is so willing to place their faith in a stranger in a foreign land. So, Mr Michael Mills("Head,Audit Committee of a reputable and well known Financial Trust in Isle of Man"), Mr.Vlado Cherkez,("Head: Enterprise Wide Risk and member of the executive and risk commit tees of Central Bank,SCG")and all the others, 1 thank you. You have restored my belief in the kindness of strangers.

I am afraid that I cannotsend you ail my full bank account details, private telephone number or any of the other information you have requested. You see I lack your faith, and have a nagging doubt that you just might be a conman. It appears that even if the money you have of fered was genuine it is the proceeds of a crime and I have no wish to find myself involved in money launder ing. Nevertheless I would like to thank you for considering me.

In any event I don't need to respond to such emails, as I have won the lottery! well several in fact. Again, such surprising news arrives on my desk via the email. The latest from the UK,where a Mr Paul Mills(any relation of Michael above?) tells me 1 am £600,000 better off!

1 have now won lotteries in

1 can just imagine the conversa tion;

Wife: "But darling, we have spent the children's' birthday money on the lottery, what happens if we lose, again?"

Husband: "Of course we will win, this Killick's luck can't go on forever, 1 mean, how many tickets must he buy each week?"

No, 1 am sorry, 1 just can't do it. Therefore, to those telling me 1 have won, please stop. The guilt is destroying me.Don't put my name, email address or anything else into the hat. 1 can't tell you personally (as that would require an email back) but 1 am sure 1 can do so through my public pronounce ment here.

Anyway I now have another group of friends anxious to propel me into wealth and prosperity. Occasionally a friendly, if pushy, young man or woman(whom I did not know) would ring me about a share (of which 1 had never heard) telling me it was the next hot shot. The company had discovered oil in Birmingham or had developed a new drug, fuel or system for perpetual motion and when this was publicly announced the shares would sky rocket.

1 always wondered, why ring me? Was this an early incarnation of my later lottery luck? Again I can imagine the conversation in some boiler room in Amsterdam:

Dealer 1 -."This share's going to make a fortune, who shall we tell?"

Dealer 2: "I know, Killick"

Dealer 1 "Who's he?"

Dealer 2"No idea, the name just popped into my head, let's dial some numbers at random and I bet when it is answered it will be him" (dialling of numbers then occurs)

Killick "Hello?"

Sadly, those calls have dried up. Not that I boughtany shares. Again the little sparrow of doubt sat on my shoulder. If the shares were so hot, why didn't they buy them for themselves, or, at least tell their friends and family first? Perhaps they had no friends, 1 don't know.

Anyway I did hear from people who had bought the shares. As you can guess, as a regulator, they weren't contacting me to say how fantastically the shares had done. Rather they were looking to see if I knew where the company or broker had vanished to.

Some had been rung again after the first investment to tell them the shares had doubled and asking if they wanted to buy more. Indeed theshares alwaysseemed todo well until the investor wanted to sell and get his money back. Suddenly the salesman wasn't so friendly.

On occasions a new individual would ring saying they had been

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appointed by other shareholders to recover their money. The money was there, but it was going to be complicated. All the investor had to do was pay over more money to get their original investment back. It was always weird that these new individuals were not lawyers or liquidators, but other investment firms located near the first. Sometimes the voices of the new person sounded remarkably like the original one.

But we are now in the age of the email. 1 still get tips, but they lack the panache of the phone call. "If you don't buy now you will miss the opportunity ofa lifetime" is still better said than written. So folks, I will skip on your "hot stock",I will not "invest now" but will rather "regret of it". I will sit back and "watch the stock go higher and higher", but not with my money in it.

Maybe, you do just send these emails to me (on my lucky lottery principle), but I suspect you send them to thousands of people. Who regulates you? Ifyouaresogoodas a broker, why do you need to cold call? Please excuse again the lack of a personalised response, but you can take it from me,I am not wortli the effort. You may also want to stop for another reason, unlicensed operators targeting people in Gi braltar, can be a criminal offence, just so you know.

The development of email has created the opportunity for conmen to prey upon a much wider group then previously. The scams have not changed much,sales in a company putting together a "per petual motion machine" were sold during the South Sea Bubble in the early 18th Century.The scams work because people can be so blinded by the possibility of profit that they fail to ask simple questions. There are some that a reasonable person could fall for(we can all be a victim of fraud), but the above ones should not fool anyone.Don't respond, you can send them to us if they mention Gibraltar or are particularly novel(yes the conmen do send them directly to us as well). But don't fall for them. ctiasformed a strategicpartnershlp^with Bardays Bartk SA we are now in a position to offer their mortgage products )r property purchase in Spain. Whether you are thinking of buying a new property or purchasing with a view to renting,then look no further.

Finally, while we are on the subject of asking people to stop sending other types of emails, I don't care how cheap it is, I don't need anything rejuvenated or extended!

You have the dream,we will help you make It a reality!

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