arc trading
Complaint 328868 Details

Arc Trading is still active and they are really good.

First contact has been last year. Out of the blue they called, introduced their company and explained a great business chance when investing in BAIDU shares - Chinese Google. They will tell you, you will be able to make around +50% in about 3-6 months. The name of the person was Jean-Paul Valentine, speaking with British or Australian accent.

All sounded good (maybe too good), but I didn´t trust in the whole situation, so I didn´t do anything at that time. I tried to find a personal website on the arctrading.com website, but couldn´t. No matches for a Jean-Paul Valentine in business sector on facebook, linkedIn, etc. Which is strange nowadays, but no crime yet.

Weeks later Jean-Paul called again. This time offering MU (Micron Technology) as main partner of Apple. Their background knowledge is quite good. Again Jean-Paul was offering to gain about 50% within 3 months. There was an answer to each question/problem:

1) They cannot rob the money, because they don´t get the money. The company (MU) would use one of their banks to get the money.
2) Concerns were calmed down by already talking how to react when selling the shares again (You need to listen to me then when selling again, not be too greedy, etc).
3) They created an account on their website where I was able to login and could see when they purchased the shares and for which price.
4) They are offering always 2 packages. For example a package of 500 and a package of 1000 shares. Depending on how much you want to win or can invest.
5) This time they also could refer to the first advise with BAIDU which was about 25-30% in win range.
6) You need to fill a W8 ben form for tax declarations, which looks normal for acting on the stock market.

After Jean-Paul Valentine explained everything, he said the account manager would go through the details with me. His name is Peter Hayes.

I was really close to do this deal as I couldn´t find any informations on the internet, that ARC Trading is a scam/fraud. Everything sounded serious. I got an account on arctrading.com and was able to see the Micron Shares order in it, but still needed to be paid. Jean-Paul Valentine told it would be a bank of Micron somewhere, most likely in Europe like Portugal, etc. But of course they wouldn´t know in advance which bank the company would use.

Then the big surprise: The bank informations have been a bank in China! While business within Europe is quite safe, sending money to China is not a great idea. I was wondering why a company like Micron, based in the USA, buying Elpida in Japan, also ARC Trading based in Japan, would need a bank account in China to collect money. Especially from Europe.

The details have been: SMART POINT OVERSEAS LTD. The bank informations was Pingan Bank Co., LTD in Shenzen, China.

That concerns led to a bigger internet research. First: ARC Trading did a great job in this. They are warning for scams/frauds and so called boiler room sells on their own website. First this built more trust, 2nd and maybe more important for them: Whenever you google "ARC Trading" "Scam" or "Boiler room" you will see the first hits from their own website, just warning about general risks in the global world. The term "boiler room" was new to me and I found it when googling for scams. A new search led me to a weblog about ARC Trading and boilerroom. This guy had a single website just to warn about ARC Trading. He also had listed the names before Arc Trading and he also had the REAL NAMES and also photos of the guys that were involved! Looks like it had been a real passion for him to detect it.

Informations about the boilerroom and different company names:
http://archive.today/0PoGE
http://archive.today/MzBPv

After that informations I was contacted by Peter Hayes a couple of times. I also wrote him an email to [email protected]

I told him when it is serious, then also Jean-Paul Valentine could send me an email with his contact informations. But there was never an email of him, just calls and emails of Peter Hayes.

When logging in to the "account" on the website, the reservation of the Micron shares was still listed months later. Don´t think that this is normal for a regular finances website.

I was calling Micron straight. I was calling US stock market. Guess they should have known or at least find the deal or my order somewhere, but they couldn´t (of course).

Now Jean-Paul Valentine called again this past week. This time they are offering Skyworks. Refering to the big development with BAIDU and Micron that I already have passed. So he was able to show, that his advises have been right (but it still doesn´t help when they don´t invest the money in shares but in their own pockets).
Next concern about seriousity was blown away with a sentence "hey we are still here (so we must be serious)".

Another fact that is is a fraud: I was asked if I still have my login informations for their website. When I said I might have to check Jean-Paul was giving me my password! No other company worker would know your login informations (like in online banking or amazon, etc).

As neither the company of the shares (in that case Micron) was able to "find" my order nor the US stock market (where the order should have been handled) and with all the other informations (2 more complaints here, blog about ARC Trading) I am quite sure that this is a fraud.