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Losing our business – we didn’t see it coming

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Re: Losing our business – we didn’t see it coming

#11

Post by simonswords82 »

binarymax wrote: post #6

Surprised HMRC hadn't caught up with them, preventing them from being directors or secretaries on any other companies.

I've seen so many so called Phoenix companies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_company) spun up out of the ashes of "insolvent" companies that leave behind unpaid employees, suppliers etc that it doesn't surprise me nobody has caught up with the ad sales guy.

This guy is ridiculously easy to find on the Companies House website if anybody else wants to avoid doing business with him. All five of his registered companies are dissolved:

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/officers/bJDe8K2KIPyGpgvp...

Re: Losing our business – we didn’t see it coming

#12

Post by gwern »

brianwawok wrote: post #2

I literally do not understand. What is the other side of the story? Why would someone go through all this trouble of a fake investment? Clearing buying 10% of a company for 200k with no check is a game that only lasts for a few weeks???

There's at least one possible motive: they never got the money from the ads he was selling on their behalf, which were affiliate links. So he kept all the revenue from that. The longer they kept his ads enabled, the more ad revenue he could steal. Of course, when the mark finally figures it out, they can sue him for fraud... at least, if they still have money for lawyers. One way to distract them and stop them from checking the invoices or raising capital for lawyers is to drag out a fake investment. Seems to've worked. The startup went out of business and he kept all the money. Given how much they told him and were friendly with him, and as part of the due diligence, he probably knew pretty exactly how much they had left in the bank and were burning per month.

Re: Losing our business – we didn’t see it coming

#13

Post by baking »

brianwawok wrote: post #2

I literally do not understand. What is the other side of the story? Why would someone go through all this trouble of a fake investment? Clearing buying 10% of a company for 200k with no check is a game that only lasts for a few weeks???

Presumably, collecting money from advertisers, not paying expenses (rent, employees, invoices) and stalling the inevitable by proposing ever increasing investments.

Re: Losing our business – we didn’t see it coming

#15

Post by compiler-guy »

brianwawok wrote: post #2

I literally do not understand. What is the other side of the story? Why would someone go through all this trouble of a fake investment? Clearing buying 10% of a company for 200k with no check is a game that only lasts for a few weeks???

The sales scam is

A) sell the ad-space to random companies B) collect the money from the advertisers C) don't pay the host

The investment scam is:

Eventually own the web site without paying for it. Risk? Low: the owners don't have any money to pursue a legal judgement. It looks like he is getting away with it.

Re: Losing our business – we didn’t see it coming

#16

Post by simonswords82 »

nullcipher wrote: post #9

Why do companies wait till the dying moments before informing employees? I have seen many articles now which read like 'we went to back to the drawing board to realize that we have to close down in 2 days. Our bank was empty'. Is this just dramatization? I cannot believe people can run business without something so basic. Like paratroopers jumping out of an aeroplane and then saying 'we checked before hitting the gro…

When a founder doesn't know that they don't have money to pay their employees it's unforgivable.

When a founder concludes they might have to fight to save their company and might not be able to pay employees in X months time that's an entirely different proposition. You can be upfront with your employees and hope that they stick around. Or you can keep quiet and do everything necessary to save the company and hope the employees never need to know.

It's a gamble either way but I suspect the majority of founders opt for keeping quiet in the hope they can snatch success from the jaws of defeat.

Re: Losing our business – we didn’t see it coming

#17

Post by codingdave »

brianwawok wrote: post #2

I literally do not understand. What is the other side of the story? Why would someone go through all this trouble of a fake investment? Clearing buying 10% of a company for 200k with no check is a game that only lasts for a few weeks???

The Simon guy never got to the last step, which almost certainly would have involved some variation on them just having to pay some closing fees to make the deal go through. It is a scam... just conning them until they say, "Oh, sure, for 350K, we can pay 10K in fees." And he runs away with that check.

Re: Losing our business – we didn’t see it coming

#18

Post by wingerlang »

beachstartup wrote: post #4
brianwawok wrote: post #2

I literally do not understand. What is the other side of the story? Why would someone go through all this trouble of a fake investment? Clearing buying 10% of a company for 200k with no check is a game that only lasts for a few weeks???

there's nothing to "understand". you assume there is a logic to their actions. there isn't. the guy was a scammy bullshit artist, a wannabe business man who talked his way into others' confidence, and probably has mental issues. these people are out there, and you need to watch out for them. on a side note, it takes guts to post a story like this. most people don't admit when they are taken like this. they're lucky h…

I think he is asking how that guy cashed in on this.

And I believe the answer was that these guys basically displayed affiliate links that gave him cash when clicked.

Re: Losing our business – we didn’t see it coming

#19

Post by gnaritas »

beachstartup wrote: post #4
brianwawok wrote: post #2

I literally do not understand. What is the other side of the story? Why would someone go through all this trouble of a fake investment? Clearing buying 10% of a company for 200k with no check is a game that only lasts for a few weeks???

there's nothing to "understand". you assume there is a logic to their actions. there isn't. the guy was a scammy bullshit artist, a wannabe business man who talked his way into others' confidence, and probably has mental issues. these people are out there, and you need to watch out for them. on a side note, it takes guts to post a story like this. most people don't admit when they are taken like this. they're lucky h…

There was logic to his actions, he stole their ad revenues and kept the money while dangling a carrot of big investment to keep them from noticing. Scammy bullshit artists still have goals.
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