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Recent Comments
The GTC Group Billion Dollar Trust
Status: Scam
Here's an offer that has scam written all over it. The GTC Group (I'm kind of reluctant to link to their website, on the off chance that I'll help send a victim their way, but here it is) claims that if you agree to establish a trading account in their name (no money or fees required!), they will pay you, and 5000 other lucky volunteers, $24,000. They're circulating this claim via email. Here's how they explain the deal on their website:

Our client is a family trust with $1B to invest. We recently presented them with an investment opportunity to make a return of 18% without risk. Unfortunately, this opportunity involves the purchase of certain restricted financial instruments in the Asian markets. Due to regulation, the purchase of these instruments is restricted to $200,000 per person (or trust or any other entity). We are therefore unable to invest any more than $200,000 of our client's funds. We presented our client with a possible solution, to which they were agreeable. Our solution is very simple, as I'm sure you may have preempted already. We require 5,000 people who would like the opportunity to earn a share of the return WITHOUT any investment required. Once we reach this number, each person will have a trading account established in their name. Each account will be funded with $200,000. The trading cycle will then begin, which lasts for just over one month. At this stage, the profit will be split between our client and the participants. Of the 18% return our client will receive 5%.

You don't really need to read any further than "a return of 18% without risk" to know it's a scam. There's no way to make an 18% return on anything, let alone $1B, without risk. There's also the fact that they claim to be a billion-dollar trading outfit, but they can only afford a rinky-dink website. And we're expected to believe that some "family trust" is going to entrust them with $1B? Even though they claim no fees are required, I'm sure people who sign up will be asked to pay 'unanticipated fees' somewhere down the line. I'm also sure no one will ever see that $24,000. According to the registration info for the domain name, the GTC Group is run by some guy named George Davies out of Stanbrook House, 2-5 Old Bond Street, London. (Thanks to Harvey Wharfield for forwarding me the link to this thing.)
Categories: Con Artists, Email Hoaxes
Posted by Alex on Tue Jan 17, 2006		 Comments (23)
More from the Hoax Museum Archives:
Comments
OK, I've sent the email to sign up. I'll report back.

They also have a program where you can earn $2000 by finding another chump. I'll try to get to a library to sign up later today. (I have a fixed IP address and don't want them tracking me down.)
Posted by Mark Willcox  on  Tue Jan 17, 2006  at  04:24 AM
On the same server (In Malaysia) are these websites:

www.4xinvest.com/
www.petermacfarlane.net/ (No website apparent)

The SSL Certificate is registered (And expired) to www.snakeoil.dom/ Dom??? tried .com, it is an empty page

Snakeoil - gosh that inspires confidence doesn't it.

It's got to be a "By-the-way... we accidently didn't realise you do have to send money, bank details, cc details, etc, etc so if you would send etc etc.
Posted by Peter  on  Tue Jan 17, 2006  at  07:47 AM
they could just be harvesting user names and passwords-regardless of their instructions, most folks use the same combination.
Posted by Evan  on  Tue Jan 17, 2006  at  09:41 AM
Also note that they have a Yahoo email address.
Posted by AqueousBoy  on  Tue Jan 17, 2006  at  10:57 AM
The SSL certificate for snakeoil.com is a sample value included in the install package for the Apache SSL module.
Posted by Terry Austin  in  Surf City USA  on  Tue Jan 17, 2006  at  02:00 PM
Sounds to me like a way of getting people to legally commit to the financial group. When the whole thing goes belly up, the 'liquidators' will be called in to settle outstanding debts, and everyone involved will be liable to cover any outstanding monies. Could result in $'000s for anyone with their name legally connected.
Posted by Jo  in  Australia  on  Tue Jan 17, 2006  at  06:39 PM
I think this scam may be a way of tricking people into laundering money aquired through credit card fraud etc.

They'll take off with the money and leave you with to face the police.
Posted by Peter L.  in  Australia  on  Tue Jan 17, 2006  at  10:04 PM
What I find funniest is the last sentence: "Of the 18% return our client will receive 5%." Hello?!
Posted by Gutza  on  Wed Jan 18, 2006  at  09:29 AM
2 - 5 Old Bond Street is full of dozens of small companies and even advertises "Office Space To Rent" outside.

This website lists some of them (along with other Old Bond Street addresses):

http://www.locallife.co.uk/westminster/street3.asp?town=London&street=Old+Bond+Street
Posted by Killer Bob  in  London, UK  on  Wed Jan 18, 2006  at  12:07 PM
If you give these people your money (or personal information or password or whatever), I can more or less guarantee that somebody's going to make an 18% or better return on investment. (Hint: It isn't you.)
Posted by Big Gary  in  Dallas, Texas, USA  on  Wed Jan 18, 2006  at  06:15 PM
visit me!! dance dance revolution! [url=http://www.sivcode.com]http://www.sivcode.com BreakBeat Uruguay [/url]
Posted by Andres Serron  in  ??  on  Wed Mar 01, 2006  at  10:44 PM
Sounds like a good deal, sign me up, LOL
Posted by Freedom-FOREX  in  US  on  Tue Apr 04, 2006  at  03:17 PM
Snakeoil.com & Snakeoil.dom are Israeli created Downloader/Trojans designed to steal your personal and financial information.

Once contracted, the reside in your Operating System's .dll files, and will continually re-install themselves, appearing whenever you attempt to access Paypal, e-gold, Alertpay and a number of other online financial services.

In the case of Paypal, if you accept the certificate, the virus will proffer a fraudulent "Paypal needs to verify your information" form.

Since Israel has no laws regarding online theft (in fact, the government of Israel ENCOURAGES international theft), the website and server have not been shut down, and are actively working to gather whatever information you may unwittingly make them privvy to.

You will have no recourse whatsoever; what's stolen by Israel stays in Israel.

The only antivirus which seems effective against this trojan is Kaspersky, but it is only about 50%, because so many mutations of the virus are now in circulation.

One word of caution: if you ever see a certificate which says Snakeoil on it: DO NOT ACCEPT IT!

Walter Addison
Posted by Walter Addison  in  Tiburon, California  on  Sun Jul 01, 2007  at  03:10 AM
Thnx, bery useful!
Posted by Max  on  Fri Aug 07, 2009  at  08:30 AM
thank you for the information you provide
Posted by fx  in  germany  on  Sun Jan 03, 2010  at  08:06 PM
Money laundering right now is against the law. It's a crime like no other like E-Gold, which was closed 2 years ago due to money laundering. We must be careful guys and thanks for posting this information to the public, so that they might be aware of something.
Posted by Jeffrey Smith  in  USA  on  Mon Jan 25, 2010  at  10:59 PM
I think this scam may be a way of tricking people into laundering money aquired through credit card fraud etc.
Posted by whyforex  in  USA  on  Sun Mar 07, 2010  at  09:13 PM
I'm sure people who sign up will be asked to pay 'unanticipated fees' somewhere down the line.
Posted by avg free download  in  usa  on  Wed May 12, 2010  at  12:39 AM
we accidently didn't realise you do have to send money, bank details, cc details, etc, etc so if you would send etc etc.
Posted by websites  in  usa  on  Tue May 25, 2010  at  07:28 AM
Wow! 18%, without risk? Boy, have I been doing it wrong!
Posted by 401k advice  in  Arkansas  on  Fri Jun 18, 2010  at  11:48 PM
Something suspicious, I would be very good all weighed before working with this company, I always need the warranty.
Posted by Dmitry  in  Ukraine  on  Sat Aug 21, 2010  at  05:32 PM
We must be careful with this kind and thanks for posting this stuff to the public, so that they might be aware of something they want.
Posted by ziad K.Abdelnour  in  United States  on  Wed Nov 17, 2010  at  06:48 AM
very good
Posted by Engin  in  T  on  Fri Apr 29, 2011  at  04:46 AM
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