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Australian Shareholder Centre

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I just wish I had found this thread six months ago. I did a web search on the “Australian Stockholder Centre” but somehow only material put out by the company itself came up.

Early this year I was contacted by a very smooth talking and plausible representative of this company who persuaded me to pay them quite a lot of money ($5,000) to become one of their “clients". As some people may already know, the ASC has a rather slick-looking website which provides purported detailed data on their past investments. Before I agreed to become a client I went through the “Trade Statements” section of the ASC website carefully, and after adding and subtracting a lot of figures for the previous 6 months, it seemed to demonstrate that the company had in fact obtained good returns, in agreement with the graphs and statistics they showed for their performance over the past 6 years or so. I also carried out a search of the web looking for any comments about the performance of 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 as they were “doing so well out their financial involvement with the ASC”.

However, since I have been with them their dealings have been almost uniformly disastrous, and to date I have lost almost $10,000 on the ASX and US sharemarket transactions they have carried out on my behalf.

I now think I may have made a huge mistake and after reading your comments it seems like a good idea to try to bail out of my “client” relationship with the ASC as soon as possible.

I am now also wondering whether the Trade Statement section of their website has been in some way manipulated so that the returns 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); whereas existing clients like myself who login to the site using their own details are the only ones allowed to see the actual very poor results. Would it in fact be possible for the developers of the website to do this?
 
I've just glanced through this page of the thread and was curious enough to google the company name.
I'd dismiss it instantly just on the basis that no access to any detail is available unless you register with your personal details.

Yeah, right. So they can subsequently harass you with sales offers.

To those who feel dudded, what do you intend to do about it? It's fine to complain here but ASF can't actually help you. Do you feel sufficiently ripped off to report them to ASIC?
 
Re: Australian Shareholder Centre.


$8000 down in 2 months. Would like to recoup my membership costs. Any ideas?
 
Re: Australian Shareholder Centre.

Propertypro said:
$8000 down in 2 months. Would like to recoup my membership costs. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Just discovered that the people running this dodgy business have changed their name yet again – they are now calling themselves "Share Centre". Their 'new' website (www.sharecentre.com.au) is virtually identical to the one that was running under the banner "Australian Shareholders Centre". The methods they have been using to fleece money from unsuspecting small investors are almost certainly exactly the same as before.

Seems pretty obvious that they have done this because their name was getting a really bad smell, as more people who have lost serious amounts of money with them are now starting to spread the word.
 

Thanks for the advice, they rang me today and sounded like they could make me lots of money,but i wasent sure so , I asked someone at work, who said I should look at this sight,after read what everone else was saying ,Ill think stay away. Thanks
 
Timf said:
Thanks for the advice, they rang me today and sounded like they could make me lots of money,but i wasent sure so , I asked someone at work, who said I should look at this sight,after read what everone else was saying ,Ill think stay away. Thanks
Click to expand...
. That is a sensible decision. I can tell you today after being with them for one month, I have instructed Halifax (the broker) to cancel my account and take no more instructions from ShareCentre. I have lost about $4000 in that short time. I was tentative about dealing with them in the first place, but decided I could afford to risk $10000. Bad decision. Wish I could have found this forum with the searches I did originally before I went with them.
 
I have been with Australian Shareholder Centre for only a month or so, trading in Category B CFDs, and I have already lost nearly $2,000 from a $10,000 investment. Then there was the $4,990 initial membership fee as well. The account was doing okay for the first couple of weeks, hovering between $9,500 and $10,100, but then in the third week it dropped down to $9,000 and in the 4th week it dropped down to $8,100. That's around $2,000 losses in just 2 weeks !

I quickly rang their brokers, Halifax, and told them to immediately cease trading on my account. I then sent an email to the smooth ASC sales representative that rang me in the first place, telling him in no uncertain terms that this performance was not as indicated during the tour of their website. I concluded my email saying that I am thinking of pulling all my money out and ending my relationship with them. A derivatives analyst rang me back and said that it was just the nature of Category B trades they they go up and down quite a lot. I then asked him what had gone so wrong in the last 2 weeks compared to the first 2 weeks when my account was doing okay. He replied with some long-winded mumbo jumbo that basically went over my head. He sounded like a used car salesmen. He then said that I could switch to Category A which is much safer (more conservative) than Category B. He said that during the month I had been in Category B, I would have actually made $425 on my $10,000 investment if I had been in Category A. So basically I had the choice of either moving my remaining 8 grand into Category A, or pulling out of ASC entirely. I have chosen to switch to Category A but I will be monitoring my account closely and if it continues to slide backwards then I will pull out of ASC completely.

I am thinking of reporting them to ASIC or ACCC, since I believe they misrepresented their results on their website.

Another thing now that I think of it: I am on the Do Not Call telephone register, so didnt they break the law by calling me in the first place ?
 
Sherwood60 said:
I have been with Australian Shareholder Centre for only a month or so, trading in Category B CFDs, and I have already lost nearly $2,000 from a $10,000 investment.That's around $2,000 losses in just 2 weeks !
Click to expand...

Think of your experience and loss as a very well priced lesson in how NOT to profit from the stock market and its derivatives, $2000 well spent as long as you learn a valuable lesson.
 

Shouldn't you pull out completely?
 
luutzu said:
Shouldn't you pull out completely?
Click to expand...


Their senior derivatives advisor said that Category A (which is more conservative) returned a positive 4.25% during the month that I was in Category B. Category A doesnt trade in Forex, and has only 1 or 2 trades per month. So I thought that maybe I could recover some of my money by moving over to Category A.....

Or are you suggesting that he was lying about Category A's recent performance ?

Quite possibly he was, since they obviously lied to me about their previous returns in Category B.

Anyway, I have downloaded and printed the complaint reports for both the ACCC (Scamwatch) and ASIC. I intend to complete and return both forms. The company has an ASIC financial licence and an ABN, so ASIC should be able to do something about them. They have offices in Crows Nest, Sydney, and the Gold Coast, Queensland.

If I dont lodge formal reports with the ACCC and ASIC, then the company will just keep on swindling other consumers to support their lavish lifestyles driving around in Ferraris and sailing on yachts.

By the way, luutzu, I liked your previous post about why should a financial advisor work hard to make you rich when you have no control over his work ethic. Financial advisors, investment houses, and brokers are only in it for themselves, as my experience as shown. They cannot be trusted.

If I can get my $4,990 "life-long" membership back I will be happy. The ACCC and ASIC may be able to help me in this regard. The öther 2 grand of trading losses I will probably have to chalk up to experience.

I would be interested to know if any of the previous posters want to join me in lodging complaints with ACCC and ASIC. The more complaints they get, the more likely they will do something about it.

Cheers.
 

If it's my money I would get it out completely.

I don't know the details or what ASC does exactly but it sounds fishy and I think you already knew that, but maybe just like all of us you're a bit hopeful that they would only lie to you once.

Don't rely on ACCC or ASIC to get your money back man... maybe try to smooth or tough talk to ASC somehow to get what you can back, then report.
 



I rang ASC today and they offered to put an extra $500 into my account. Maybe if I threatened to report them to the ACCC and the ASIC they give me back some more ?

Why dont you believe that the ACCC or ASIC will help me and others out ? Especially if a few of us lodge reports together ? Isnt that what they are there for ?
 

Number 1 rule, capital preservation!

Withdraw what you have remaining and you will also have the added bonus of knowing whether you actually do
have $8000 left in your account.

Even if there was an investigation, they can take a long time, long enough for all your money to disappear.

You are paying a so called professional to manage your money and they lose 20% in two weeks? You can
park your money in an online bank account and receive a guaranteed 4% return, no knowledge needed.
 
Got a call today from the Australian Investor Centre, they want to do a half hour presentation tomorrow.
I will have to do a little digging but I think they may be the same mob.
 
How do these organizations get your phone number in the first place?
 
pixel said:
Why not read up on https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29596 and compile a list of questions to put to them.
Alternative: Take plenty of notes or even record their shpiel, then ask ASIC's opinion.
Click to expand...

Good idea, I don't know how to record a phone call on a landline but I will be very interested in how they answer my questions on risk.

nulla nulla said:
How do these organizations get your phone number in the first place?
Click to expand...

My own stupid fault, I was trying to look at the MTU webcast presentation

"CEO Interim Results Webcast. 10:30am, Monday 23 February, 2015.
Go to ht tp://m2.com.au/investor-centre/calendar-of-events/ OR
ht tp://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=924274&s=1&k=A9F30B5531E89F31C015E7823CC76693"

Good old helpful Google said

Did you mean: http://m2.com.au/investor-centre/calendar-of-events

And I ended up here

http://www.australianinvestorcentre...8cmcqNQ6jQskdLc35MtM16eURrXP6lOCFAaAiPH8P8HAQ
 
Well I got my little presentation. They wanted to trade my money for me on CFD's with Aussie Blue Chips, International Shares, Currencies and Commodities. We went through stop losses, CFD's.
The ASIC disclaimer was read to me. My questions were all about risk management, frictional costs and brokerage.
I was shown a pretty chart of the ASX underperforming China, USA and European stock markets over a 1 and 10 year period. I asked if it was the accumulation index and they admitted it wasn't. I was shown a couple of trades, 1 winner and 1 loser. The sales pitch was very scripted and slick. It was stressed they look a the markets 24/7 I asked about a the risk of using such leverage in a GFC like situation and was told well it didn't happen over night you could see it coming. Then we moved on to their use of short selling. When I talked about risk we came back to stop losses again.
Anyway a bit over half an hour in I was asked if I would sleep well at night risking $200.00 on a trade with them. (they use CFD's and tight stop losses) I said no, not unless the returns were fantastic. The script wouldn't let us move forward without a yes. After asking the same question in a couple of different ways and casting some doubt on my risk management practices the call ended with some disappointment in the sales persons voice.
 
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