T he identity of Asset Recovery Network UK was recently cloned and used in a "recovery room scam". A group of people claiming to be ARNUK came in after a major scam had been exposed and they pretended to be able to recover some or all of a person’s investment. The truth is that this was part of a follow-up scam and its sole aim was to trick investors into paying more money. Recovery room scams tend to focus on persuading investors that their worthless investment had suddenly become a desirable asset and they have found a serious buyer who wants to buy the investment. There is never a buyer for the investment. The investor is sold a story about this mysterious buyer wanting to pay top dollar for the investment but there is just one problem. Before he can complete on the purchase, he needs the investor to pay either the sales commission or the due diligence fees or the tax bill or the admin bill or the legal bill or the platform listing bill or anything else they can think up. Quite often the investor is asked for a small sum at first, which he/she is happy to pay. Then they are asked to pay another sum and then another sum and then another sum and so on. Once the investor pays the first sum they are on the hook and keep paying because they don’t want to lose what they’ve paid. The reality is that they lost it the moment they paid over the money. Each time the payment keeps increasing with larger and larger sums being asked for. With a scam similar to the bogus ARNUK scam, one victim invested £30,000 in a scam investment. He was approached by a recovery room scam in which the company told him they had a buyer. He would only have to pay £700. He paid them. By the time he made contact with us he had paid over £28,000 to the recovery room scam. They were now asking for £14,000 for the next instalment stating that if he didn’t pay, he would lose the money he had already paid. Fortunately, the investigator stopped him making that £14,000 payment but the investigator was too late to stop the £28,000. Other recovery room scammers known to us include: Cordell Groves Phipps Clarke Grainger PV-Merge Barola Asset Management, and NLC Partners. The bogus Asset Recovery Network UK had an unusual twist on the recovery room scam model. They pretended to be Insolvency Practitioners i.e. the liquidators of the scam investment company. The original scam company pretended to have placed itself in liquidation and to have appointed the bogus Asset Recovery Network UK to handle the liquidation. The bogus ARNUK would apparently sell all the assets of the scam company (which are normally a big fat zero) and pay out the proceeds to investors. The bogus Asset Recovery Network UK was apparently able to turn worthless assets into solid gold! According to the bogus ARNUK, they would be able to sell the assets and pay everyone back with a huge profit. There is just one problem … investors would have to pay something upfront first. It doesn’t matter what reason they give you for needing your money – IT IS A SCAM. If you pay scammers them you will never see your money again. The genuine Asset Recovery (UK) Limited , registered in England and Wales at Companies House registration number 10963590 with HQ in North Yorkshire - reported this Recovery Room Scam to the Police on Thursday 21st March 2019: Incident reference number NYP210320190495 Email to send further info to is general.enquiries@northyorkshire.co.pnn.police.uk The people behind the bogus ARNUK even cloned the identity of ARNUK’s CEO, Steve Conley. Here is a photo of the FAKE passport - of the BOGUS STEVE CONLEY!!! If you recognise this man please report him to the police on the contact details above, quoting the incident number.

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