Bogus “Request For Transfer” Forms - Alain Colpin

Published on: 02 November 2006

This notice is issued by the Financial Supervision Commission (“the Commission”) in accordance with the powers conferred upon it under Section 22 of the Financial Supervision Act 1988.

Bogus “Request For Transfer” Forms

Alain Colpin

The Commission has recently become aware of forms, received by members of the public, falsely purporting to originate from Close Private Bank on the Isle of Man.

The Commission has previously issued general advice regarding bogus correspondence falsely purporting to have been issued by genuine Isle of Man institutions. The earlier advice may be read on the following link /lib/docs/iomfsa/PublicWarnings/bogusLetters.pdf

The aforementioned forms are headed with an attempted facsimile of the letterhead of the genuine Close Private Bank.

The facsimile letter head contains the following notable differences from that of the genuine Close Private Bank:

a) The text of the facsimile includes references to both “Close Private Bank” and “Close private bank” (ie. Lower case is incorrectly used in places for the words “private” and “bank”).

b) The facsimile contains the telephone number “+44 703 189 7617” and the fax number “+44 703 189 7618”. These numbers are not those of the genuine Close Private Bank nor are they numbers located on the Isle of Man.

c) The facsimile contains the email address internationalclearingdept@gmail.com. This email address has no connection or association with the genuine Close Private Bank.

d) The facsimile contains the postal address “55, Upper Church Street, Douglas, IM99 1RB, Isle of Man (UK).” This appears to contain elements of the address of the genuine Close Private Bank but is invalid.

The bogus forms are headed “Request For Transfer” and seek considerable sensitive personal and financial information of the recipient. The are marked “Attention: Mr Alain Colpin, Director of Foreign Operations, Close Private Bank”

There is not, nor has there ever been a person by the name of Alain Colpin employed as “Director of Foreign Operations or in any other role by the genuine Close Private Bank.

In order to more fully assist in identifying these bogus forms we would draw attention, in particular, to the following text which appears on them and which we would not anticipate apopearing on any form from the genuine Close Private Bank:

a) “I hereby fill the form below and sign below to proof the legality of the information” (sic)

b) Sir, I will like you to act in accordance with your tailored mannered service and respond to my demand, so that the fund can be transferred into my account details.” (sic)

The genuine Close Private Bank is a registered business name on the Isle of Man of Close Bank (Isle of Man) Limited. Close Bank (Isle of Man) Limited are licensed by the Commission to undertake Banking Business. Details of all genuine licence holders of the Commission are available via our website on the following direct link http://www.iomfsa.im/licence/.

Under the circumstances the Commission feels that these bogus forms are being issued to either tempt the recipient into becoming the victim of an Advance Fee Fraud (see explanatory notice issued by the Commission at:

http://www.iomfsa.im/ViewNews.gov?page=lib/news/iomfsa/westafricanfraud.xml&menuid=11570)

or are an attempt at gaining personal data from the recipient in order to steal their identity (see explanatory notice issued by the Commission at:

http://www.iomfsa.im/ViewNews.gov?page=lib/news/iomfsa/identitytheft.xml&menuid=11570)

Under the circumstances the Commission would encourage people receiving documents matching the above description to refrain from responding to them in any way.

Any persons who are already involved in any dealings resulting from the above documents and who have concerns should contact the Enforcement Division on +44 1624 689313 or by email to fsc@gov.im.

Any persons who have paid out funds in relation to the above forms or who have provided personal financial details to 3rd parties in relation to the above forms, should consider contacting their local police fraud unit without delay.

For the complete avoidance of doubt the sole subject of this Public Warning is documentation matching the above description.

This Public Warning does not relate to the genuine Isle of Man Banking licence holder Close Bank (Isle of Man) Limited trading as Close Private Bank.

Any persons who may have concerns as to whether or not they are dealing with the genuine Close Private Bank or a genuine associated company may wish to satisfy themselves by contacting the genuine Close Private Bank. Details of the genuine postal addresses of licence holders of the Commission may also be found via aforementioned link to the Commission website .Other contact details for the genuine Close Private Bank are available via their website at www.closepb.com . The commission would recommend that, as with all bank websites, you should manually type this address into your browser rather than following a hyperlink. This will help to reduce the chances of your browser being hijacked and diverted to a bogus website.

FSC Reference: JPM/53/2006