Financial Service Scam

Note: The following is an old post written in 2017. The name of the service has been removed since the person who used to run the service seems to have sold the service, presumably to an unsuspecting mark.

For those who can recognize the service, it was an Excel-spreadsheet based service called *** ****** *****.

Unfortunately, the preponderance of such scammers online casts a shadow on legitimate financial services.

In fact, there is now another service called ***-*** ****** that seems to employ similar tactics; both as observed personally and as reported by others. 

- Original Post -

There is strong reason to believe that the Value Investing website that calls itself *** ****** ***** is a scam.

Some of the most concerning issues seen on the site are:

1. A lot of claims shown on the front page are fraudulent.

Some of the referral links lead to nowhere in particular. Most of the other claims are hard to verify. But the claims are made confidently enough to look convincing. There is obviously no one to contest the false assertions, and most visitors would not bother verifying claims that are made so boldly.

2. The so-called Demo site is fake.

The demo site is basically a hard-coded list of 3 stocks. It looks like a real software tool to the untrained eye. But the truth is that there is no real software on ***.

What you get for almost $500 in annual subscription fees, is an MS-Excel file for studying a stock.

3. Constant assertions of faith and integrity.

For anyone aware of the nature of manipulative people, this one is a dead giveaway. Repeated references to integrity, family and religion at the workplace are usually a sign of overcompensation. The constant need to project honesty stems from the fear that one's true nature may get exposed.

4. Aggressive salesmanship.

The site is marketed very heavily with a continuous stream of online articles and link referrals that rank it highly on Google. The language on the website used to be extremely aggressive, but has since been toned down.

The founder of the site is a skilled communicator, and appears to be of a very dishonest nature.  Misdirecting users from valid questions to unrelated issues, deleting comments that point out inconsistencies and inaccuracies etc, are common practice on the site.

Being a Discerning Consumer

In many ways, the internet is the ultimate free market. It's almost completely unregulated; and whatever little isn't, will soon be.

So whatever sells, survives. But sales usually depend less on product quality, and more on clever salesmanship.  Misdirection and false confidence are common tools of the aggressive salesman.

This is why it is so important to be a discerning consumer. We have to look beyond deceptive salesmanship, and look carefully for good quality products and services.