Could this Tsuen Wan International investment company be a fraud or scam? No idea. However I didn’t want to risk it. It all started with some calls coming in via the office and mobile phone. I didn’t think too much about the phishing tactic and gave some information when the caller was requesting for risk assessment aptitude and what kind of investment that I did. Later I tried to do some research about this TW International but couldn’t find much info except one.
I also read several websites about 419 scams and International Cold Calling Investment scam report by Australian Securities, though the report was old (19 June 2002) it fits the bill and modus operandi of this company.
There were two cold calls asking about my investment style whether I would be aggressive or conservative. Then they would check whether you have investment locally such as stocks, shares and properties. Once they have figured that you looked like an “investor” they would request for your permission to call you later to provide an opportunity to hear out their sales pitch for an investment opportunity.
The sales brokerage would then call you and pitch his sales about two companies that did well in the stock market, one was something like silicon power (didn’t quite catch the name) and the second was Baidu, the China popular search company. And they went on to introduce their next venture, Barrick, a gold producing company. Since gold prices is on the uptrend so was a gold producing company like Barrick.
The sales pitch sounded rather smooth, but it was a hard sell, giving you some idea that you can get back about 30% returns (with some disclaimer of course!) pushing you and leaving you not much time to think in order to close the deal and of course eventually you would bank in your hard earned money into their bank account.
I wasn’t very keen to put my money onto some investment company overseas because it is difficult to control and communicate. If I really wanted to invest on oversea shares, I could look for a local investment company to do just that. Why should I invest to Tsuen Wan International Hong Kong? Besides there are a lot of fraudulent companies from Hong Kong having shifted their base from Nigeria to other countries in order to look more legitimate. I’m not saying Tsuan Wan is not legitimate, but I would rather be more prudent than to invest in an overseas set up.
The closest I could find about a fraud or scam was from this site:
Artis Against 419 Fake Bank View – Tsuen Wan International
Where tsuenwaninternational.com was considered a scam website (now suspended). However tw-international.com was not in any list although checking it up with WHOIS it looked like a very newly set up domain (about 2 years) with several changes to its registrar.
Anyway, it is better to be safe than sorry. So what if I missed an opportunity? Never be greedy. Better to have a bird in hand than two in the bush as they would say. If you are looking for investment opportunity, do it locally where at least you can understand the market better and the chances of getting burned lower. If you rely on remisier or Brokerage Company to manage your funds look for one near you, at least you will know who they are and more secure especially if you go with large reputable ones.
So Tsuen Wan International investment scheme via their cold calling investment tactic, sorry no go. I don’t buy in to this, could be a scam or fraud. I’ll keep the money to myself thank you. Besides I have better idea than this so called investment opportunity.
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