I would like to report my very bad experience with the Australian Shareholder Centre (ASC).
The ASC is a company based on the Gold Coast (Queensland, Australia) that offers small investors the opportunity to utilise their supposedly expert and proven services to trade on the Australian and USA stock markets using CFDs (contracts for difference). To do so you need to pay them a substantial one-off "client fee", ranging from around $5,000 – their so-called "special offer" – up to almost $7,000.
I was looking for a way for an inexperienced investor like myself to get some advice about share trading, and came across their website while doing an internet search in January this year. In order to look at any material on the site you are obliged to fill in a "free registration", which requests your name and a contact phone number.
A few days later a very smooth-talking and plausible representative of the ASC telephoned me, and subsequently took me through a lengthy sales pitch and a guided tour of the their website. The material on the website looks impressive, and among other things, it provides what looks like detailed data on their past performance with their clients' investments. Together with the rep's persuasive spiel, this managed to convince me that the ASC was a well-established, reputable company with an excellent track record.
I was given a short period (about 12 hours) of free access to the "client area" of the ASC website. So before I agreed to become a client I went through the “Trade Statements” section carefully, and after adding and subtracting a lot of figures for the previous 6-7 months, it seemed to demonstrate that the company had in fact obtained good returns, in agreement with the graphs and statistics that was displayed on the website regarding their supposed performance over the past 6 years or so since 2007.
I also carried out a search of the web looking for any comments, reviews or complaints about the ASC, but couldn’t find any, adverse or otherwise. The company rep told me that this was because none of their past or existing clients had any complaints to air since they were “doing so well out their financial involvement with the ASC”.
In early February I eventually agreed to pay them $4,900 to become one of their “clients". However, since I have been with them their dealings have been almost uniformly disastrous, and to date I have lost over $8,000 on the Australian and US share market transactions they have carried out on my behalf. This figure also includes brokerage costs (which I was aware of) as well as the broker's monthly "finance fees" – amounts of up to $200 per month – that I didn't know about until they started appearing on my account. Despite being given reassurances from the ASC that this very poor result was just a temporary downturn due to the current volatility of the stock market, I realised I had made a huge mistake and immediately suspended my account with the ASC's brokers (a company called Halifax Investments based in Melbourne, Australia).
Having done some more extensive internet research, and spoken to and read comments from people with a lot more stock market knowledge than I have (the Aussie Stock Forums website was very useful), it now seems likely that the people running the ASC have two other failed companies behind them with exactly the same business model (or scam). The names of these companies are "Active Traders" and "Australian Stock Investment Group". Active Traders have received very poor reviews on this website from people with similar experiences to mine.
In my opinion it seems very likely that the Trade Statement section of the ASC website has been in some way manipulated so that the returns on the trades look very good to prospective clients, who are only able to login for about 24 hours while considering their decision to become a client or not, using the company rep’s details. It is only when you have parted with your $5,000-7,000 to become a client, and log onto the website using your own details, that you are allowed to see the actual very poor results.
My advice to anyone who is considering becoming a client of the ASC is to stay well away from it. It is almost certain that you will loose a lot of money in a very short time.
Share Centre Reviews
I would like to report my very bad experience with the Australian Shareholder Centre (ASC).
The ASC is a company based on the Gold Coast (Queensland, Australia) that offers small investors the opportunity to utilise their supposedly expert and proven services to trade on the Australian and USA stock markets using CFDs (contracts for difference). To do so you need to pay them a substantial one-off "client fee", ranging from around $5,000 – their so-called "special offer" – up to almost $7,000.
I was looking for a way for an inexperienced investor like myself to get some advice about share trading, and came across their website while doing an internet search in January this year. In order to look at any material on the site you are obliged to fill in a "free registration", which requests your name and a contact phone number.
A few days later a very smooth-talking and plausible representative of the ASC telephoned me, and subsequently took me through a lengthy sales pitch and a guided tour of the their website. The material on the website looks impressive, and among other things, it provides what looks like detailed data on their past performance with their clients' investments. Together with the rep's persuasive spiel, this managed to convince me that the ASC was a well-established, reputable company with an excellent track record.
I was given a short period (about 12 hours) of free access to the "client area" of the ASC website. So before I agreed to become a client I went through the “Trade Statements” section carefully, and after adding and subtracting a lot of figures for the previous 6-7 months, it seemed to demonstrate that the company had in fact obtained good returns, in agreement with the graphs and statistics that was displayed on the website regarding their supposed performance over the past 6 years or so since 2007.
I also carried out a search of the web looking for any comments, reviews or complaints about the ASC, but couldn’t find any, adverse or otherwise. The company rep told me that this was because none of their past or existing clients had any complaints to air since they were “doing so well out their financial involvement with the ASC”.
In early February I eventually agreed to pay them $4,900 to become one of their “clients". However, since I have been with them their dealings have been almost uniformly disastrous, and to date I have lost over $8,000 on the Australian and US share market transactions they have carried out on my behalf. This figure also includes brokerage costs (which I was aware of) as well as the broker's monthly "finance fees" – amounts of up to $200 per month – that I didn't know about until they started appearing on my account. Despite being given reassurances from the ASC that this very poor result was just a temporary downturn due to the current volatility of the stock market, I realised I had made a huge mistake and immediately suspended my account with the ASC's brokers (a company called Halifax Investments based in Melbourne, Australia).
Having done some more extensive internet research, and spoken to and read comments from people with a lot more stock market knowledge than I have (the Aussie Stock Forums website was very useful), it now seems likely that the people running the ASC have two other failed companies behind them with exactly the same business model (or scam). The names of these companies are "Active Traders" and "Australian Stock Investment Group". Active Traders have received very poor reviews on this website from people with similar experiences to mine.
In my opinion it seems very likely that the Trade Statement section of the ASC website has been in some way manipulated so that the returns on the trades look very good to prospective clients, who are only able to login for about 24 hours while considering their decision to become a client or not, using the company rep’s details. It is only when you have parted with your $5,000-7,000 to become a client, and log onto the website using your own details, that you are allowed to see the actual very poor results.
My advice to anyone who is considering becoming a client of the ASC is to stay well away from it. It is almost certain that you will loose a lot of money in a very short time.