And they really called!

In my last post I mentioned a lengthy chat I had with a pretty nice guy from one of the world's leading "investment management firms", the well known "Okuma Group". Roughly 45 seconds past the time scheduled, he called (anonymously again) and offered me a premium investment opportunity.

I am a suspicious bastard, so I asked him about his number not being displayed on my phone and he explained to me that he was calling from Japan and the Japs were continuously having problems getting that right. I think, I've heard that somewhere before.

The deal itself sounded pretty hot. Of course I checked the company described in the profile I received yesterday. The company checked out rock solid and the quote was already rising fast. But that was not a major problem to me because the Okuma Group have excellent connections and were able to acquire a substantial amount of shares at an amazingly low price. Some of these shares were still available for purchase, so I did not think twice.

I checked my petty cash and signed in for xxx shares. After some serious ID confirmation business on the phone, they promised to provide me with the necessary documents within the next few hours. They kept their word.

I am now holding the necessary documents in my very hands. Well, not quite. It's all pdf, I guess, so I'd have to print that to really hold it in my hands.

Boring? Sounds like real business. So why do I write about that? Well....there was.....one thing that made me wonder.

The last Email contained a "money transfer form" which finally managed to blow all my alarm whistles. I should direct my payment (of some thousand Euros) to a clearing agent in Cyprus. That's the document (click for king size view):

OMG. Hear the alarm bell ringing? Needless to say that I could not find any evidence about the mere existence of this alleged clearing agency. So I dug in deeper and I found something.

I found the very same document I had, available for download in a german blog. Well my German is about as good as my Italian (ciao, pronto, amore, scopare), but Google translator gave me an overview. From what I understood, the guy (or Girl? *sigh*) had done quite some investigation before she (or he) was urged (supposedly by "Okuma Group") to take down the posts.

That was the point where I decided to contact her (or him?) to find the background story. I was lucky. Just two hours later I got a reply where he (*argh*) told me - first of all - to edit some details out of my two posts which could reveal my identity. He also offered me to have a talk on the phone as long as I called him with proper caller ID. Tomorrow I'll tell you about our phone call...