Radio show notes - week beginning 12th February 2018

Source: Wikipedia

1. When a company goes bust

Two very similar emails arrived on the same day.

"I made a laybye purchase in a shop that was operating in Game City. Yesterday I went to the shop wanting to pay the remaining balance so that I could collect the bed I had purchased. Unfortunately I found the shop closed and locked with no sign of operation. I called one of the employees and he told me that the shop had been closed indefinitely and could not provide further details. I have paid P4,500 towards my purchase."

"I purchased a couch from a store in Game City in December 2017 and till this date they have not delivered the couch to me. They keep telling me that the owner of the store has fled the country so they have closed up all his shops as well as his warehouse therefore they can't deliver the couch. This is so unfair to me as I have fully paid for the couch so please assist me on a way forward regarding this matter."

Both related to the same store at Game City. So what can these customers do? If the company has no assets left there'll be nothing to seize, nothing to claim against. Probably best to instruct attorneys and see what they can do.

2. Whose car was it?

"I sold my car. The next day he called me and says my car is overheating. He demands his money back and he says I should take my car back, I told him thats not possible because I have already spend the money. We did not make a written agreement it was verbal. He then called me again complaining that the signatures on the blue book are not the same with the ones on my id copy so they declined to help him change names at transport. The signature is from the previous owner not me. I never changed it when I bought it from the previous owner and never made a written agreement with the guy before. I would really appreciate a way forward to this because this guy is really bothering me."

Who actually owned the car? There was no sale agreement when this guy bought the vehicle and the vehicle registration documents were never updated to show him as the owner. So did he actually own it? Is it possible that it's still owned by the previous owner? If so, was he entitled to sell it? Given that there's no proof of sale, and no updated blue book, who knows?

The danger is that the new "owner", the guy that doesn't want it any longer could get the current "owner" into a lot of trouble. Maybe he could even argue "Obtaining by false pretence"?
It's time to refund the latest buyer and take the car back.

3. Vortex Profits (again)

Vortex Profits claim that they are "an absolutely new revolutionary concept, a remarkable investment platform of a new era with an outstanding track record of 2 years for delivering best of class investment solutions and endless income-generating opportunity".

They say that you can join by paying between $25 and $50,000 (around P250 to P500,000) and that you can then earn returns between 2.5% and 4% return per day. Remember you'll be lucky to get a bank to offer more than 2.5% per year. In fact, if this was true (and it's obviously not) and you "invested" P1,000 today at 2.5% per day, after a year you'd have over P12 million. At 4% per day, you'd have over P3 billion. This is clearly nonsense. Only Ponzi schemes makes these claims.

There are some other clues that this is a scam. Their domain was registered in August 2017 and the company was registered in the Republic of Ireland only in September last year. The physical address the give in Dublin is just an accommodation address shared with many other "companies". The supposed founder of the company, someone they call Griffin Wright, and who they say is a "renowned Entrepreneur" and who has "countless years of experience being a financial Planner" doesn't appear to actually exist. There's no trace of him existing outside this bogus company.

Vortex Profits is a Ponzi scheme. Remember Eurextrade? Its twin brother has arrived.