Wanna make a Million, Buddy?Huttonian has never been the victim of a stock market 'Boiler Room' scam unlike a nearish neighbour in the Borders-the Berwickshire's story is
here and I think I am unlikely to be taken in by a smooth cold caller however plausible his pitch. It seems, anyhow, a somewhat odd time for persuading any one to invest in shares and I am told that people are still taken in by phishing e-mails and even by Nigerian 'Chief Cashiers' offering you millions belonging to recently deceased clients in exchange for the temporary use of your bank account.
Mind you I am not all that smart. I parted in the early 1990s with a couple of grand to invest in two barrels of malt whisky. Following an item in the FT Weekend section, (no less)After 5 years or so you could either sell the barrel on to a broker or pay the duty and bottle your own brand-500 bottles at a relatively low retail cost-what a happy old age to look forward to! After I had paid my first cellarage charge (first two years free) to this very prestigious broker I came across a reference to a Whisky Scam-and found I was right in it. The well known (sounding) distillery in whose cellars my barrels were happily maturing had apparently not functioned since the 1970s ( now a leisure centre no doubt) and the smooth Old Etonian* who had taken my cheques (not to mention many others from equally credulous 'alternative investors') was now living the life of Reilly in the Cayman Islands or somewhere, his company with its Park Lane address, bankrupt and declining to return home to help the Fraud Squad with their inquiries. Lesson One-What appears in the FT is not necessarily Kosher and Two: distilleries with nice sounding names like Aber something in deepest Perthshire are not necessarily distilling away.
All of which explains why, when a horny handed 'road contractor', knocked on the Old Manse door and offered to resurface Kirk Lane with very cheap high quality tar 'left over from another job' (which he happened to have handy parked in front of the Village Hall), I was
rather brusque with him
* Not sure about this. He could have gone to Berwickshire High)
Labels: Boiler Room, Frauds, Whisky Scams
