International Law

Perfect4u Scam

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From the UK's This Money on Perfect4u:

Question: Have you come across a cashback scheme operated by a firm called Perfect4u?

It appears to be connected to some big-name banks such as Alliance & Leicester and HSBC, but as it costs nothing to join I am wondering whether there is a catch?

Answer: Well spotted. The cashback scheme is a sprat to catch a mackerel and the people behind Perfect4u are hoping to reel you in as a member of a scheme that involves paying a large lump sum upfront in return for the promise of future discounts on various goods and services.

Who are those people? They are Robert Fitzpatrick and a man who calls himself both George S. Basra and George Singh.

Both have a record for scams involving exactly this sort of scheme.

From the Motley Fools Board on Perfect4u:

Here's how Robert Fitzpatrick's scam works:

"As you can see from the list below, he has been selling the Perfect4u fraud for years using different names.  

The operation is always the same. The promise of a closed user group discounts, using pyramid selling.

Then the company will either go bust, or be closed down and everyone will be owed commissions.

He will claim victim status and say he can't payout. This includes hotels, travel agents, security, printers, web designers etc.

Any money that is left in the accounts (if not frozen) he will spend on lawyers As far as he is concerned, it's heads I win - tails you lose!

Any problems during the running of the business he will blame on the small group of « yes men goons » that he surrounds himself with, or the last person that left the deal. After a short while he will have changed company name and opened up in a different part of the world... "

(Let me point out that this FitzPatrick is not the Robert L. FitzPatrick who runs the Pyramid Alert website!)

Full post as published by Misleading Advertising Law on January 30, 2009 (boomark / email).