Thursday 24 November 2022 09:23 AM Aussie CEO scammed out of $44,000 while investing in electric car company ... trends now
A successful Australian CEO who considers himself 'pretty intelligent' has revealed how he was robbed of $44,000 in two highly sophisticated share scams.
Giving his name only as Lawrence, the man has told his story to warn others that it could happen to them too, no matter how smart or educated they are.
The Melbourne father owns a regulatory compliance firm, has a post-graduate degree and regularly invested in shares.
But he still got scammed by fake companies despite seemingly being approved by ASIC - the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Despite his business success, losing $44,000 still made a large dent in his family's savings and he doesn't want others to go through what he has gone through.
A Melbourne man has told his story of falling victim to a share scam as a warning to others. Pictured is a stock image of a distraught man looking at business information
The scam came about because he wanted to invest in a hip American electric car company called Rivian, which was about to go public in November 2021.
Lawrence searched online for a way to buy Rivian shares and found a supposedly UK company called Invystor that put him in touch with two different brokers.
'They arranged a call from this crowd called Berenson Capital,' he told news.com.au.
Berenson Capital, which claimed to be Australian, had a very slick website.
A man with a British accent who called himself John Alexander spoke with Lawrence and talked him through the process.
It sounded legitimate and he invested $20,000 by transferring the money into a Commonwealth Bank account.
Invystor also introduced Lawrence to another broker, called Kingsway Capital Limited.
He then spoke with a woman, 'Catherine Willows', who, like Alexander, spoke with a British accent.
She told him they had access to some Rivian initial public offering (IPO) shares so Lawrence transferred $24,655, this time to an American bank account.
An Australian man who wanted to invest in electric car maker Rivian's initial public offering was ripped off by $44,000. Pictured are Rivian vehicles
He did not just make the two transfers without thinking - he did
