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There are other complaints elsewhere on this website about this scam company but I want to give you more detail so you can be aware of what can happen. READ IT ALL CAREFULLY!
1. I don't know how UKGrants got wind of our interest in obtaining a grant in the first place. We never contacted them, we didn't even know about them, we applied to a bona fide company called BizBritain, then a short while after, THEY (UK Grants), contacted US! I do not believe that BizBritain have done anything wrong or are connected with UK Grants in any way. However I do have issues (which I have taken up with BizBritain) about how they communicate with prospective clients.
2. After the initial contact UK Grants went through a number of different domain-named email addresses which I give below:
[protected]@ukgrants.org.uk
[protected]@thebusinessloansdirectory.com
[protected]@the-loan-company.com
This is all to muddy the waters. The last two are not even websites, they are just set up to send and receive emails. The numerous emails had various signatures, no doubt to make it look like we were dealing with a large company with numerous employees. However the last email was signed, rather cheekily, by 'Daniel Thorn'. When you consider that the person behind the website, the company, and the email addresses is called Kieran Daniel Thornton... well you can see what I'm getting at.
The payment (of a £175 'setup fee') to UK Grants was made as a result of an invoice attached to an email. The invoice was in the name of 'Global ID Solutions Ltd' which is registered at Company House and has Kieran Thornton as its' sole Director. The bank details for the internet or telephone banking transaction (which the invoice insists on) are:
Co-op Bank
Sort code - 08 71 99
Acc no - [protected]
On phoning the Co-op Bank, I was told that although they are aware of this, the Sort Code is not theirs, but that of:
APS Financial Ltd
Cottons Centre
Cottons Lane
London SE1 2QG
Once again, APS Financial are a bona fide organisation and are not doing anything illegal as far as I am aware. However the account they are or were running has been or is still being used to receive the proceeds of crime. I have made APS Financial aware of my concerns but have never received a reply from them. At the time of writing this I awaiting a response from the Financial Ombudsman but I'm not holding my breath.
3. Action Fraud. Some people call them 'N0-Action Fraud' I can quite see why. In July of 2014 the Guardian published an article about UK Grants in which they stated that they had tracked Thornton down to Thailand, where he seemed to be living the life of Riley on his ill-gotten gains and bragging about it on Facebook. The article concluded by saying that they had passed on their findings to Action Fraud. That was around the time when I was submitting my first report to Action Fraud. The trail of time wasting and incompetence demonstrated by Action Fraud is truly amazing and there isn't room to detail it all here. Suffice to say that in exasperation I finally penned a letter to Cmdr Stephen Head, the officer in charge of Action Fraud. He passed it to his subordinate, D.C.S. Dave Clark, Head of the Economic Crime Directorate. Around a month ago I got an apologetic letter from him, in which he pledged to "follow this letter with detailed findings when I have them and in any event by follow up before April 1st". Maybe he meant April 1st next year, because I'm still waiting.
PLEASE DONT GET CAUGHT OUT BY THIS:
Business Loan Companies don't ask you for Setup Fees - if they do, smell a rat!
BE WARNED, IF YOU DO FALL FOR IT, THE FORCES OF LAW AND ORDER CANT HELP YOU!
I am one of the founders and directors of BizBritain, who unfortunately are being connected within the article to the company/companies who are clearly bordering on fraudulent and at best taking money from people unaware of the grants systems (or lack of them). We do not have any connection to these companies and have made people aware of our view on several occasions.
You may wish to use more relevant links in the future:-
http://smallbusiness.co.uk/financing/government-grants/
https://www.startuploans.co.uk/business-advice/get-small-business-government-grant/
https://www.gov.uk/business-finance-support
We do not provide grants as a company, though we do support start up business as a bone fide delivery partner of the Government backed Start Up Loans Company with personal loans for business purposes - check here https://www.startuploans.co.uk/delivery-partners/.
Our reputation is important to us and we do care if people make negative comments so ask anyone who searches on BizBritain reviews in Google, takes time to look at the other reviews we have too. For reference some of these can be found here:-
https://bizbritainfinance.bookingtroll.com/feedback/list
http://bizbritain.simplybook.me/feedback/list
https://www.bizbritain.com/testimonials
We're always willing to support business people start and grow their businesses and willing to help where we can.
Thanks for reading. Gary Lennon, BizBritain Finance Ltd
I too was deceived into sending them £349.00 for their worthless list of available grants. I cancelled my payment with my credit card company within hours of receiving their information. After a period of time my credit card refused to credit the amount back to my account, so I wrote to Citizens Advice, Financial Conduct Authority, Action Fraud and the Financial Ombudsman Service.
The F.O.S. then wrote to my credit card company who were given 8 weeks in which to respond, within a couple of days I received an email from my credit card company to say they were refunding me the full amount, which has now been credited to my account.
On no account give this company any money, it is a TOTAL CON.
I have recently been scammed by the same people, I came across this form by chance when googled the payee name that they said must be entered when transferring funds to "mybusinessmastercard.com" clearing running a different scam but was asked to enter the same payee name W RUENGPHOL.
They emailed us asking if we might be interested in a grant as our company is only small and not long started trading, I decided after researching the company (apparently not enough) that they seemed legit I had loads of documentations of them, they had a total of 3 different websites which were meant to be different companies involved in the process.
Think Financial - Supplying the grant
Mybusinessmastercard - which is where the grant would be stored.
BusinessGrantFoundation- Initial contact and to help guide you through the process.
They said that we would need to deposit 30% of the total amount we wanted to have for the grant.
Upon doing so the funds appeared on the mastercard account as they were meant to.
A few days later the website had been torn down for both Think Financial and mybusinessmastercard.
For some reason the BusinessGrantFoundations site is still up and running however there email address apparently no longer exists.
I have reported the matter the my bank and the action fraud.
I have recently been scammed by the same people, I came across this form by chance when googled the payee name that they said must be entered when transferring funds to "mybusinessmastercard.com" clearing running a different scam but was asked to enter the same payee name W RUENGPHOL.
They emailed us asking if we might be interested in a grant as our company is only small and not long started trading, I decided after researching the company (apparently not enough) that they seemed legit I had loads of documentations of them, they had a total of 3 different websites which were meant to be different companies involved in the process.
Think Financial - Supplying the grant
Mybusinessmastercard - which is where the grant would be stored.
BusinessGrantFoundation- Initial contact and to help guide you through the process.
They said that we would need to deposit 30% of the total amount we wanted to have for the grant.
Upon doing so the funds appeared on the mastercard account as they were meant to.
A few days later the website had been torn down for both Think Financial and mybusinessmastercard.
For some reason the BusinessGrantFoundations site is still up and running however there email address apparently no longer exists.
I have reported the matter the my bank and the action fraud.
Hope someone see's this before they manage to scam someone else but i doubt they'll use the same name.
Hi guy's,
I too have received the same emails etc from Grant Raisers. I was expecting my money last and then the delay...
I don't think there is much i can do but im on my wzy to the bank to discuss with them.
Again like most of yourselves ut is for £400.
Was really needing the so called finances for my company.
These people have no shame and I am gutted that I let myself be conned this way.
Jim
They seemed so professional and legit, did loads of research, but still got stung. There seems to be a lot of us in the same boat. We all need the money to start up or move on with a business. Taking advantage of vulnerable people is a disgrace. Someone should get 'rough traders' from watch dog on board! Xx
Hi,
We are now closed for Christmas and are currently having our website updated, therefore our normal emails will be down.
We have therefore setup this email address which will be monitored until we re-open in the second week of January.
In regards to your funding we have had a letter this morning to our office to state that all funding has unfortunately been withdrawn due to the loss of their financial partners.
This matter is completely out of our hands and we therefore regretfully have to inform you that the funding has been cancelled by the program we put you forward to.
We understand you will be upset at the loss of the funding and also for the admin fee which was paid to us for the work that went into getting you your grant acceptance.
However after a meeting with the directors this morning we feel that we completed the work which was required to get you the funding and therefore are not legally obliged to refund the admin payment.
The fee which was paid to us was for the paperwork completion and this was in fact completed on time. The grant funds have been withdrawn after our work was already completed and this is completely out of our hands, something which we can only apologise for.
We will however keep your details on file and will continue to look for funding on your behalf. Once we find suitable funding for you we will then complete all of the paperwork free of charge so that you will still receive the funding with no extra fees payable on your part.
We hope this will eventually lead to a satisfactory outcome for you and your company and wish you a very happy Christmas.
We will be in touch next year once we find another source of suitable funding for you.
Many Thanks
The Management Team
Grant Raisers.
Me as well £385. I spoke to the accountants of BUSINESS GRANTS NORTH WEST LIMITED - [protected] who explained that they are getting lots of phone calls in relation to this.
We got stung too, I wonder how many £375.00 they got! Merry blooming Christmas x
I too was scammed by them, £375.
Don;t pay the registration fee. I have just been duped out of £400 literally just now from an organisation called Grantraisers email address - admin@grantraisers.co.uk and now this email address is no longer working. I wish I found these comments earlier. Conned out of 400 quid just before Christmas to a bank in Bangkok, they don't want you to pay over the counter because the full details of the bank account will appear as Bangkok Bank Public Company account W RUENGPHOL Sort code: 60 93 98 Acc [protected]. Its a con.
Names being used are as follows:BUSINESS GRANTS NORTH WEST LIMITED - [protected]
Enterprise House, The Courtyard, Bromborough, Merseyside, CH62 4UE
Sample email address: We are just about to send off the final paperwork by recorded delivery which will secure your grant, however we have not had confirmation of the administration fee payment, can you please email myself back or call the office to confirm, otherwise we will have to cancel the funding.
Thank You.
Kind Regards
Sarah Morris/ David Duncan.
Administration Manager
Grant Raisers
T: [protected]
E: admin@grantraisers.co.uk
BUSINESS GRANTS NORTH WEST LIMITED - [protected]
Enterprise House, The Courtyard, Bromborough, Merseyside, CH62 4UE
If you have received this e-mail in error please notify the originator of the message.
Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender specifies and with authority, states them to be the views of the Company.
Sample:
Sarah Morris
Administration Manager
Grant Raisers
T: [protected]
E: admin@grantraisers.co.uk
Business owners beaware, its funny how people will go to such lengths for £400, but once you make the payment, the email address and the telephone number stops working from any portal and you can't get your money back because its in Bangkok. Thieves.
Any one heard of Grant Raisers? Sounds like it is all very similar to what I am currently deciphering.. The money is so appealing but the through of paying the admin fee is un-nerving..~HELP
Scam, stay well clear.
All bellow are sams: pls be aware:
Hi,
I reported your scam to Metropolitan Fraud Investigation team, I will take you to the court as well, I gathers all your information now. I need my money back i.e. £375 otherwise i wouldn't let you go without taking my money back. I can only withdraw my case from Fraud department once i receive my money in full and in one go i.e. £375.
Please pay me in full ASAP.
SUSPECIOUS NAMES AS THEY SAY:
HELEN
DAVID MOORE
SARAH MOORE
Nile Wilson
Thomas Gordan
etc
Websites:
www.ukbusinessgrants.org
www.ukgrants.org.uk
Grant Raisers,
UK Grants,
nil@hqfinance.org,
helen@hqfinance.org
I have been dealing with bvg enterprises and have been getting emails from them adressed admin@ukgrants.org.uk... Got fone call from them today to say my grant has been accepted for £5000 for my plumbing and heating business.. Had to print off acceptance letter sign it and send it back to them via email and i am now awaiting email for payment instructions of an admin fee for £345... Is this a scam because i have all my hopes built up on this?
Alan macdonald
I have also been scammed by this company! They have now stopped corresponding. They took £345 fee for this loan and not giving me my money back despite promising they would should I not receive funding. I have also reported to action fraud and it amazes me that they are getting away with this!