Manchu and Co, Hong Kong based scam!!!!

I have recently been involved in the wrong end of a money scam.

Initially I received an email from a lady named Alanice Humberg, her email address is [email protected]. This woman said to me 'Good day please.I am an offshore transaction facilitator and act on behalf of our High Net-worth individuals (HNI) in Asia & the Middle East, who have access to a pool of funds for high volume investment in your country. My Client has indicated interest to open up communication with you, once you can confirm interest to partner. Please reply without delay.'

I replied to this email and then got put in touch with a group of people. These people were:

Jin Manchu - [email protected]
Jia Cha - [email protected]
Stanley Wang - [email protected]

These men were Hong Kong based investors/lawyers. They were able to provide documents after documents which looked to me as if they were genuine and I had full confidence in them. However it is only recently that, along with a team who are helping me investigate, I have come to the realisation that these documents were all false.

We have also found out that the website they are using (http://manchuandco.com/) is also a website that has false details on it. None of the lawyers listed are genuine, in fact one is even a photo of an American police officer in court. However again, these photo's have been stolen from a different law firm so this is why I initially fell for the scam.

After doing some research into these men and the emails I received day after day we discovered that these men were not actually a Hong Kong based firm as first thought, I had been receiving these emails from an IP address located in Lagos, Nigeria.

Further down the line now. Regrettably after getting drawn into this scheme of sending money with the view of a certain huge return of investment for myself, I am now sitting here with a huge amount of money out of my bank and the reality is I probably won't get this back.

Please let me know if anyone out there has been received the same emails and has been attacked by the same scheme.
The investigation is still ongoing, I am determined to track these criminals down.

Have you filed reports with your local police and Action Fraud? If you haven't, do that as soon as possible. You can file a report online at http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud

The chances of you tracking these criminals down is slim to none. All the details they've provided you are fake. Could you post some of the emails you received with your personal information removed? This will help other victims that may be searching.

Tim Atem,

Have you filed reports with your local police and Action Fraud? If you haven't, do that as soon as possible. You can file a report online at http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud

The chances of you tracking these criminals down is slim to none. All the details they've provided you are fake. Could you post some of the emails you received with your personal information removed? This will help other victims that may be searching.

This is just one email sent:

'Thank you once more for your response, which shows you are serious minded and ready to forge ahead. However I do not need your bank details directly as we will have to go through a process to achieve success.

To the crux of the matter, using my position as an experienced investment banker and a client relationship officer to one of our corporate clients (Hampshire Estates & Investments PLC), negotiated on March 2009, an extra 5% on a long term mutual funds scheme. Hampshire Estates & Investments PLC had agreed for 6% PA, unknown to them, what was approved by virtue of my influence within the treasury department was 11%, leaving a difference of 5%.

Mr John Pipes on behalf of the Hampshire PLC liquidated their investment fully three (3) year after, without rollovers and closed their account completely with my office. We have completely discharged all obligations as agreed with Hampshire Estates & Investment Plc, so owe them nothing. I subsequently used my position to reverse the extra 5% to a separate mutual funds portfolio in favour of Hampshire, as this remained the only option of rollover. However on further investigation, I discovered that the Company had become inactive in the last three years and gone into administration.

The extra 5% negotiated by me without the knowledge of Hampshire Estates & Investments Plc and facilitated by my colleague in the treasury department has culminated to USD10,955,000.00 (Ten Million, Nine Hundred & Fifty Five Thousand United States Dollars), and currently in a segregated bonded floating account. This has been made possible as we have only taken advantage of a glitch in the system, which has been left open for this purpose.

I have contacted you to act in the capacity as a creditor of the company that executed a contract with the company and is been settled on a subsisting Standing Payment Order that was issued by Hampshire Estates and Investments Plc. I have mapped out a 14 days funds transmission from Legal Conversions and Liquidation of Funds to you as a Creditor and the final processing of the Funds Release Order to your account.

This is a normal and conventional practice amongst investment bankers in all financial districts of the world, including London, New York and Geneva. Some banks convert these excesses into fat bonuses, and split amongst themselves to give it a cover, so you have absolutely no worries as it is not only completely full proof, but also has been tested. This is what we classify in banking parlance as an extra legal transaction, which must be guarded discreetly and must remain confidential only to the parties involved.

On receipt of your confirmation to proceed and in my subsequent emails, I will furnish you with my offer as to the sharing pattern and the steps to follow, while keeping you updated on the progress.

Chao Jia'

Thank you - most scammers re-use the same script on multiple victims so posting the email may help prevent others from being scammed.

Do file the police reports as soon as you can.

These are the bank details of the account:

Bankers : Hang Seng Bank Ltd
Bank Address: 83 Des Voeux Road Central Hong Kong
Swift/BIC Code: HASEHKHH
Beneficiary : Xingo Limited
A/c No: 788489243883
Beneficiary Address: 10 Cheung Yue Street, Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong

* Bank Clearing Code : 024 (For Local Transfer Only)



I also suspect that these people are highly skilled with computers as they have tried accessing my emails and computer systems.

Email from Jin Manchu:

'Mr
Your transaction remains pending on the basis of an incomplete tax, which you are fully aware of , hence we are unimpressed with the inconsistencies and the breach of timelines.
Your current position of being incommunicado with this law chambers is totally unacceptable considering our very busy schedule, thus we may be requiring your assent very soon to recover our professional fees either directly from you or via the route of invoking a confiscation order on the bonded funds.
Do note that our relationship is limited to our fiduciary position with you and we are under no obligations to carry out duties, not fully spelt out in the mandate as issued by the Bank. please be advised.
We expect to hear from you without delay. Thank you and as always I remain
Yours Truly

Jin Manchu, Esq
MANCHU & CO
TWO EXCHANGE SQUARE, 8b CONNAUGHT PLACE
CENTRAL, HONG KONG
D-Line: +852-8198-1744
Telefax: +852-3017-3433
Email: [email protected]
website: http://www.manchuandco.com'

Email from Jin Manchu:

'Mr
Your transaction remains pending on the basis of an incomplete tax, which you are fully aware of , hence we are unimpressed with the inconsistencies and the breach of timelines.
Your current position of being incommunicado with this law chambers is totally unacceptable considering our very busy schedule, thus we may be requiring your assent very soon to recover our professional fees either directly from you or via the route of invoking a confiscation order on the bonded funds.
Do note that our relationship is limited to our fiduciary position with you and we are under no obligations to carry out duties, not fully spelt out in the mandate as issued by the Bank. please be advised.
We expect to hear from you without delay. Thank you and as always I remain
Yours Truly

Jin Manchu, Esq
MANCHU & CO
TWO EXCHANGE SQUARE, 8b CONNAUGHT PLACE
CENTRAL, HONG KONG
D-Line: +852-8198-1744
Telefax: +852-3017-3433
Email: [email protected]
website: http://www.manchuandco.com'

Also I received a document from Jin Manchu ([email protected]) 2 weeks ago , attached to an email a file which indicated to be details for the release of my funds , when I have opened the attachment it has encrypted all of my files on my computer (including photos of my wife who recently died from cancer) I do not have backups for any of these and a pop up has come up stating i have to pay £500 to get these back, should I pay this? I'm worried even if i do pay it they might not give me files back.

I have today had an alert from my bank that a transaction has gone through from an unknown company overseas to the tune of
£13,000. I can only assume that this is all connected to the same scam
and they obtained my card details through my computer? my personal funds are now all but empty. I am desperate to get this money back, please help me.
My bank will not discuss as I allegedly approved the transactions.

Crud

[AlanJones]

If you pay the scammers, they will not decrypt your files, they will just ask for more. it is very likely that there is a way to decrypt the files without paying - you will either need to search on the Internet to find the type of ransomware you are infected with (search for the text of the message) and removal instructions or find a local computer expert that can assist you.

Regarding the fraudulent transaction on your bank account, you will need to speak to your local law enforcement and advise them of the situation. Also speak to you bank's fraud department (do not waste time with branches or general call centers) and tell them that the transaction was not authorised.

Thank you so much for the advise.
I will make some phone calls. I need to get this data back, can anyone on this forum help me? I will pay any reasonable amount to get this back, my business is online and without these files I may as well shut up shop. I am losing the will to live, these criminals have taken away my livelihood.

even if I recover the files I don't think i'll be doing anything with my computer again, its like someone is hiding inside my house

UPDATE -

My investigation team has found the limited company whom I paid the money to, they are called Xingo Limited and are registered on Hong Kongs company database, they were registered on the 28th January 2016.

Their company reg number is: 2336144

I have looked on hong kongs company register website :

https://www.icris.cr.gov.hk

and found the company. Company registration documents are available to download but unfortunately you have to purchase them ($18) and as i am based in the UK i cannot obtain access with my uk registered bank card.

Can anyone help us? I am sure there are personal addresses linked to this company that will help us in our investigation. I have contacted action fraud who advised me to call back Monday but in the meantime get as many details together as possible.

Once again thank you so much for everyones help and support in this difficult time.

Crud

Give whatever information you have collected through your own investigation to ActionFraud when you talk to them Monday, let them handle it from there. You've done all you can for now.

This will be my last post on here - I have been contacted by someone with a chinese accent today and me and my family have been physically threatened by the scammers as a result of posting on this forum sharing their details. I will not go into details as I fear for our safety.

they know everything about me, my address, all of my contact details, my friends and my family both in the uk and family i have overseas. I believe they have some logging software installed on my main computer as they know everything I have been doing online and who I have been talking to. I feel like smashing the machine up.

This will be my last post on here, I am fearful of their next moves, I feel that these criminals are capable of anything.

I hope that police and action fraud will help bring me peace tomorrow.

Thank you again.

Crud