Australians - use the Financial Ombudsman Service to hold your bank accountable

So if I understand this correctly, if your Australian bank assists in transferring money to international criminals (like Banc de Binary), the Aussie FOS will actually let you file a complaint against the bank for failing to notice that it's actively assisting scammers in robbing you???

If so, this ROCKS!!! (and also provides something some UK victims may want to try with their own FOS)

Exactly! All regulated banks must act in a prudent way. They must conduct their business with a duty of care to their customers. The general consensus is that the person conducting a transaction using a bank in Australia, that bank has due diligence and a duty of care on their conscience when processing the transaction to a KNOWN FRAUDULENT COMPANY.

If a company is on the list on ASICs MoneySmart website as a known scam, ASIC notifies all banks through email alert of the company name and known connected bank accounts. if the bank does not act to follow the alert given and stop transactions to those accounts, the bank is not acting with honesty, integrity, transparency and using information to protect their customers, then the bank is liable for the fraud.

IT DOES ROCK HEY!!!!! I wonder if the UK holds their banks accountable like this?
 
Hi Gang-following on from Aussie Scammed excellent work-I will paste in a section of my ferocious reply to My Bank(Nab) after they knocked back my FOS claim- It's a bit long -sorry-got all fired up!!!!

I stand to be corrected re the date ASIC added OFM to their hit list. My bank is now using this as a reason to knock back my FOS claim,saying OFM was added after my scam.
They also blame me for allowing the transactions to take place!

Please feel free to cut and paste any sections applicable to your scam.

Where the transactions authorized?

Whilst it is true I allowed the deposits to take place, I was tricked and coerced into doing so. There is ample evidence available on how it was done- These so called brokers are professionally trained. They are the best of the best and it is in their interest to do so. Please read the insert below.

I dare say that many of your own staff would be easy prey for these predators! Furthermore, I reiterate that they said their offices were in England (false). Everything about them is false. They were specifically trained to steal from decent hard working people at an Israeli call center. They were not trained at all to make money for their clients! This was one v the reasons for a Charge Back attempt(not providing promised service)

Below is a quote from the link below #1, to reinforce these points-

http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-wolves-of-tel-aviv-israels-vast-amoral-binary-options-scam-exposed/

# 1“:For instance, every salesperson was asked to invent a fake name and biography. The call center used Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, which displayed a local phone number to customers anywhere in the world. The company’s website listed an address in Cyprus.

“I was told to tell people I had years of experience in the market, that I had studied at Oxford and worked for the Bank of Scotland.”

Guralnek says he was told to present himself as a broker who made a commission on the trades and to emphasize how much money the customer could make while downplaying the risk. In fact, rather than helping customers to make smart trades, the “broker’s” true interest was for them to make unsuccessful predictions and lose their money.

Guralnek says he was also increasingly disquieted by what happened when the clients tried to quit. That’s when they would be asked for a lot of paperwork.

“We would say, ‘You want to withdraw? OK. We need to verify your identity before we can release the funds. You need to send us a photocopy of your utility bill, your driver’s license, your passport, your credit card’” — requirements, needless to say, that had not been mentioned when the client put money in.

While the customer was gathering and submitting this paperwork, a “retention” agent would call them and go through their trades, purportedly figuring out what went wrong and convincing them to continue trading. “We could delay that withdrawal for a long time.”

If a customer was persistent, says Guralnek, very often the company would stop taking their calls, or send them an email saying ‘we suspect you of fraud’ and freeze all their funds. Because the customer didn’t know the real name or location of their salesperson, “they had nowhere to turn to get their money back,” explains Guralnek.

I find one of the most disturbing aspect of this whole ordeal is- that Australian Banks pretend they didn’t have a clue on how the scams were taking place. I find it intolerable that after the first few chargebacks or complaints that they couldn’t see a pattern emerging. I have spoken to many clients in Australia and we all saw the same pattern.

I don’t think I could have been clearer in my chargeback situation, and yet the investment amount was returned to OFM. Again I believe that Nab did see these patterns, but deny it.

Did the bank take any measures in preventing the transactions taking place?

The Banks- complacency then and now is no match for these professional scammers whom work 3 shifts 24/7. It took 3 phone calls to the bank to make any sense of how to make a chargeback. Eventually I found a FAQ sheet on line that had the answers. Surely a well trained staff would have known to mention that to me!

The fraud squad stood no chance in making a persuasive argument against these professional scammers, because the scammers had a well-rehearsed argument for every situation!

You must realize also that I was primed to let the deposits take place, because the fraudsters know how to entice clients with a few winning trades.

This has also been well documented in the above article!

Not one Bank representative presented a well thought out or convincing argument that I should not be dealing with OFM.

A) No mention of identity theft
B) No mention of the risks of Binary Options
C) No mention of how many clients from the Bank had been scammed-or of how much!
D) No mention at all about ASIC or who they were!
E) No mention of the perils of Binary Options trading on the Bank’s website
F) No adverse advertising visible in any of their branches re Binary Options.

In your letter you fail to mention a lot of the evidence supplied by the Lawyers of OFM has BdB tags on bottom, a clear sign that they are one and the same.

You say that ASIC added OFM to its list of scammers in Jan 2017. I know that BdB was in fact mentioned back in May 2015. Complaints about them had been circulating since May 2014.

What information has been supplied by the merchant? What was the outcome?

I would like to point out the obvious. If OFM’s address is not valid, their employees are fictitious, and their whole business is a lie- THEN- HOW CAN ANY MERCHANT STATEMENTS BE VALID?????

I would also ask this question of you? BdB/OFM has ceased its operations-please tell me why?

I have totally rejected the Bank’s conclusion and have decided to push on with FOS regardless.
To prove my point, I would now request through the FOI Act- answers to the following questions.(Freedom Of Information Act)

a) How many Aussie Bank clients were scammed by the Binary Options people? 100-1,000 or 10,000
b) What was the staggering amount of their losses? $10,000,000 0r $100,000,000

I am sure these answers will be very revealing for me and all your clients-thank you!-or will it take a tragic suicide incident like the one in Canada- to shake the banks into action?

Tolly:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
 
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I left a review for GBOCapital that they are a total scam and they are involved with fraudulent activities.

In summary, I use to trade with Primebrokerz (broker named John Adams) and invested $30K and won about $130K. The GBOCapital took over Primbrokerz and totally block my access to my account and long term investment. I have sent several emails and ask for an explanation. GBOCapital gave me a case number but never replied to my follows up emails and restore my access. Basically, they took my money and left nothing for me.

I strongly suggest notifying your member to stay away from these scammers. Also, I would appreciate if you advise how to chase them down both Primbrokerz and GBOCapital.
Regards, Mike
 
I left a review for GBOCapital that they are a total scam and they are involved with fraudulent activities.

In summary, I use to trade with Primebrokerz (broker named John Adams) and invested $30K and won about $130K. The GBOCapital took over Primbrokerz and totally block my access to my account and long term investment. I have sent several emails and ask for an explanation. GBOCapital gave me a case number but never replied to my follows up emails and restore my access. Basically, they took my money and left nothing for me.

I strongly suggest notifying your member to stay away from these scammers. Also, I would appreciate if you advise how to chase them down both Primbrokerz and GBOCapital.
Regards, Mike
Hi mikejavadi-wellcome to FPA-I strongly recommend you open up a new thread-call it GBOCapital scammers or something similar-A lot more members will see it and help u better. Just hold mouse on Community Icon above-Click Scam alerts-Read and report-then click Post New Thread. Tell us your story. Where are you from, when it happened and what happened. Just cut and paste your last thread if need- be. Give it a few days and you'll get some really good advice from some very experienced warriors!!!!!!
Ta Tolly
 
Is UK ombudsman doing anything like Australian authorities. Any suggestions to deal with UK banks. I have been fighting with my bank for a year now and now through UK ombudsman.
 
The Banks are the 800 lb Gorilla needed, to take the money out of the illegal accounts and send it back to the original victim investor.
 
Hi Gang-following on from Aussie Scammed excellent work-I will paste in a section of my ferocious reply to My Bank(Nab) after they knocked back my FOS claim- It's a bit long -sorry-got all fired up!!!!

I stand to be corrected re the date ASIC added OFM to their hit list. My bank is now using this as a reason to knock back my FOS claim,saying OFM was added after my scam.
They also blame me for allowing the transactions to take place!

Please feel free to cut and paste any sections applicable to your scam.

Where the transactions authorized?

Whilst it is true I allowed the deposits to take place, I was tricked and coerced into doing so. There is ample evidence available on how it was done- These so called brokers are professionally trained. They are the best of the best and it is in their interest to do so. Please read the insert below.

I dare say that many of your own staff would be easy prey for these predators! Furthermore, I reiterate that they said their offices were in England (false). Everything about them is false. They were specifically trained to steal from decent hard working people at an Israeli call center. They were not trained at all to make money for their clients! This was one v the reasons for a Charge Back attempt(not providing promised service)

Below is a quote from the link below #1, to reinforce these points-

http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-wolves-of-tel-aviv-israels-vast-amoral-binary-options-scam-exposed/

# 1“:For instance, every salesperson was asked to invent a fake name and biography. The call center used Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, which displayed a local phone number to customers anywhere in the world. The company’s website listed an address in Cyprus.

“I was told to tell people I had years of experience in the market, that I had studied at Oxford and worked for the Bank of Scotland.”

Guralnek says he was told to present himself as a broker who made a commission on the trades and to emphasize how much money the customer could make while downplaying the risk. In fact, rather than helping customers to make smart trades, the “broker’s” true interest was for them to make unsuccessful predictions and lose their money.

Guralnek says he was also increasingly disquieted by what happened when the clients tried to quit. That’s when they would be asked for a lot of paperwork.

“We would say, ‘You want to withdraw? OK. We need to verify your identity before we can release the funds. You need to send us a photocopy of your utility bill, your driver’s license, your passport, your credit card’” — requirements, needless to say, that had not been mentioned when the client put money in.

While the customer was gathering and submitting this paperwork, a “retention” agent would call them and go through their trades, purportedly figuring out what went wrong and convincing them to continue trading. “We could delay that withdrawal for a long time.”

If a customer was persistent, says Guralnek, very often the company would stop taking their calls, or send them an email saying ‘we suspect you of fraud’ and freeze all their funds. Because the customer didn’t know the real name or location of their salesperson, “they had nowhere to turn to get their money back,” explains Guralnek.

I find one of the most disturbing aspect of this whole ordeal is- that Australian Banks pretend they didn’t have a clue on how the scams were taking place. I find it intolerable that after the first few chargebacks or complaints that they couldn’t see a pattern emerging. I have spoken to many clients in Australia and we all saw the same pattern.

I don’t think I could have been clearer in my chargeback situation, and yet the investment amount was returned to OFM. Again I believe that Nab did see these patterns, but deny it.

Did the bank take any measures in preventing the transactions taking place?

The Banks- complacency then and now is no match for these professional scammers whom work 3 shifts 24/7. It took 3 phone calls to the bank to make any sense of how to make a chargeback. Eventually I found a FAQ sheet on line that had the answers. Surely a well trained staff would have known to mention that to me!

The fraud squad stood no chance in making a persuasive argument against these professional scammers, because the scammers had a well-rehearsed argument for every situation!

You must realize also that I was primed to let the deposits take place, because the fraudsters know how to entice clients with a few winning trades.

This has also been well documented in the above article!

Not one Bank representative presented a well thought out or convincing argument that I should not be dealing with OFM.

A) No mention of identity theft
B) No mention of the risks of Binary Options
C) No mention of how many clients from the Bank had been scammed-or of how much!
D) No mention at all about ASIC or who they were!
E) No mention of the perils of Binary Options trading on the Bank’s website
F) No adverse advertising visible in any of their branches re Binary Options.

In your letter you fail to mention a lot of the evidence supplied by the Lawyers of OFM has BdB tags on bottom, a clear sign that they are one and the same.

You say that ASIC added OFM to its list of scammers in Jan 2017. I know that BdB was in fact mentioned back in May 2015. Complaints about them had been circulating since May 2014.

What information has been supplied by the merchant? What was the outcome?

I would like to point out the obvious. If OFM’s address is not valid, their employees are fictitious, and their whole business is a lie- THEN- HOW CAN ANY MERCHANT STATEMENTS BE VALID?????

I would also ask this question of you? BdB/OFM has ceased its operations-please tell me why?

I have totally rejected the Bank’s conclusion and have decided to push on with FOS regardless.
To prove my point, I would now request through the FOI Act- answers to the following questions.(Freedom Of Information Act)

a) How many Aussie Bank clients were scammed by the Binary Options people? 100-1,000 or 10,000
b) What was the staggering amount of their losses? $10,000,000 0r $100,000,000

I am sure these answers will be very revealing for me and all your clients-thank you!-or will it take a tragic suicide incident like the one in Canada- to shake the banks into action?

Tolly:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Seems like Im always one step behind you Tolly. Finally FOS aus had got in touch with me . They had mentioned they had dealt with a few cases of binary option cases by now so I'm hoping there will be more chances. Im stressing out how to write a strong case and build my timeline. The blelow are the points FOS is looking at with my case!

1/FOS will question the bank if they had comply with chargeback obligation

2/ Was the bank on notice that Option.fm maybe a scam? If so did the bank have an obligation to block the transaction?
3/Have I suffered a lost that should br compensated?

I hope a lot more people will lodge with fos to build a strong case!

Im thinking of lodging with the fos Cyprus as well. Will i be wasting my time or I this should also increase my chances?
 
Hang in there burnt-Use #13 above for a guide if u havn't already done so-but put in your own facts -they were so p**ssed of with me they offered $4,500 which I knocked back on principle. They set up a 3 way conference between their lawyer, you, and FOS. That will test u out. Google the latest ASIC report on the losses for 2016. Its a huge amount and insert the sum in your story. Show them u mean business. You have to weed out their rubbish -for instance they said their fraud squad put a stop on my deposit to OFM and yet I said to let it go thru- I produced the txt msg and said it didn't mention anything re scam-I thought it was just a transfer mix up. Do your homework first. The Banks are under lots v pressure at the mo and so is FOS. It takes time to do but send out as many complaints as you can. Each one actually focusses your thoughts which is good.- I'm on the final countdown now with FOS. I am not expecting much positive from them-but someone had to throw a torch their way. They know I'm shooting for the little man(us), and I'm just one of many. I did FBI also- just for fun-tra-la- la -ta-la-la----------------------------------------------------yea BIG FUN -take care :
the arrests have started and will continue for some time yet-tolly
 
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