Taylor McKenzie – Scam

I got a phone call a few days ago from someone named Peter from Taylor McKenzie. He had a British accent and sounded very British, so I was pretty sure he is from a company called Taylor McKenzie in the UK. I went to listen what he has to say.

He offered me to invest in a company called Novocure (Stock symbol: NVCR), explaining the company is going to announce a multi billion contract in the very near future, that is some inside information they have and it hasn’t gone to the public yet, so they are offering me to buy the stock with them, they managed to get it at a price of $28 (current price was $31) and they charge 1% commission and whilst they cannot guarantee their goal is to make me money.

Basically, Peter said he is so sure the stock would go up so they need 90 days, they would monitor the stock for me, they would put a stop loss of 10% so I won’t lose more than 10% in the very worse case and he would call me to tell me when to sell the stock. Now I see indeed the stock has gone up in value but it did sound suspicious they have an inside information about it, I mean after all if they know something before the market – why would they share it with the public?!

Anyway I went to Taylor McKenzie website in the UK (TaylorMcKenzie.co.uk) and I even spoke to them over the phone – that was their official response:

So that was the first red flag, as Taylor McKenzie in the UK, based on their experience with other people – claimed it is “a fraudulent attempt to get money from investors”.

Then I looked up the phone number they called me from and did further Google searches – see these 2 links:

https://www.tellows.com/num/%2B81398225473 (This is the number they called me from)
https://www.numberlookup.com.au/number/816695684235 (Another number they used previously)

If you check the comments there you would come across comments such as this:

And check this out:

Apparently they were saying the same thing in October 2017 (It’s June 2018 now!)

In my last phone conversation with Peter I asked him where he is calling from, and he said Japan and the phone showed a Japanese phone number, so I looked up this company in Google and found they use the same name just with a dot net domain.

So I emailed the company asking if they have a Peter guy working for them – I sent my email to info@taylormckenzie.net because that is the only website I could find for this company in Japan – their response was as follows:

We can confirm that we do have a Peter working here. We can also confirm
that we are an institutional brokerage firm.

Jennifer Hsu
Accounts Department

Taylor McKenzie
Izumi Garden Tower
1 Chome-6-1 Roppongi
Minato-ku, Tokyo
106-0032 Japan
Tel.: +81 3 4579 5691

Okay, so I replied & asked – Thanks, can I have Peter’s email address please?

Their replied as follows:

Please find attached business card.

Regards,

Mr. Peter Heywood
Director of Institutional Trading

That looked extremely suspicious – firstly the first email was signed under Jennifer Hsu and several hours later under Peter Heywood. This is the business card that was enclosed to the email:

This looked already extremely suspicious and sounds like a scam – whoever wrote that email didn’t say “Hey, we spoke on the phone, if you have more questions let me know” … just sent a business cards as if they are trying to convince me they are a genuine company.

So I replied as follows:

Hi Peter,

I came across this link:

https://www.numberlookup.com.au/number/816695684235

There are lots of complaints there, someone pointing out the website (taylormckenzie.net) is only 9 months old (now 11).

Looks like the same thing I was told (worth investing in Novocure) was told to them in October 2017.

Do you have any information on your company? How long is it in business? How can I ensure the company is reliable and not a scam?

Appreciate answers in writing.

Regards,

XXXXXXXXXX

And I’ve never heard back from them.

I am not too sure how they got my phone number and my first name, but one thing I am sure of – this is 100% a scam … Please consider all these red flags:

• The domain name of the company (TaylorMcKenzie.net) is only 11 months old, it has no credibility and it contains some Application Form to perhaps show some credibility but you have no real information about this company, its owners etc.
• Why a Japanese company is using the exact same name of a reliable company in the UK with a very good feedback and reliability?
• Why the UK company is advising not to trust this company?
• Why if you google “Taylor McKenzie Japan” you would come across many articles with “Taylor McKenzie Warning” containing generic articles for SEO purposes (because if someone would be able to google and see straightforward results about them – no one would do business with them – so they are masking any bad reviews using SEO tactics)
• Check the 2 links I provided above with lots of comments from people who received similar phone calls and are saying this is a scam as well.

This is not something anyone can trust, not with 100%, not with 50% and not even with 1% – this is a scam, pure and simple.

If you ever come across this – please share this article with others to they can be informed as well.