Last week I got a letter from a Sydney law firm representing Phil Travers.
A number of commenters on this blog, including former employees, have named Phil Travers as one of the principals in the JBC, ESL, CFS, OP Solutions, GTA, etc, etc stock trading software scams.
The letter noted that these comments were causing Phil to lose business. If your business is ripping off unsuspecting Australians, then that’s great! The less business you get, the better place the world will be.
My response to that letter is below.
Incidentally, as others have noted, the Queensland Fraud Squad is finally taking this scam seriously. If you have been scammed by JBC, OP Solutions, GTA, CFS or any of the other incarnations of this ripoff, please contact them. Ask for Detective Sergeant Melinda Kleidon.
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Dear Ms … ,
ALLEGED DEFAMATION OF PHILLIP TRAVERS
I am sure you are a good person, and your firm seems reputable, but your if your client is the Phil Travers associated with the stock market trading software scams I have warned about, then he is a rancid piece of slime who deserves everything he gets.
Were I of a more frivolous frame of mind, I would be inclined to refer you to the response given by the defendants in Arkell v Pressdram (1971). However, your client’s behaviour warrants more than a frivolous response. He has made a very good living stealing from some of the most vulnerable members of society. As you quite rightly note, it is difficult to imagine anything more reprehensible.
It is not an excuse to claim, as he or some of his chums have done during their 2am phone calls threatening me and my family, that anyone who is dumb enough to buy their product is gullible and has only themselves to blame. Gullible is just another word for decent and trusting, something your client is definitely not.
According to my search of the White Pages there are at least forty-six persons named P. Travers residing in Australia. If your client has nothing to do with the Gold Coast rip-off schemes which have been the subject of my blog posts, and which are the subject of ongoing police investigations, then all he has to do when someone asks, is to say “Do you mean the slimeball, scumbag, louse-infested, psychopath, rip-off merchant, rotten, commo, poofter, mongrel bastard Phil Travers? No, different guy.” Just as if my name were Larry Pickering and someone said to me “Hey, you’re Larry Pickering.” I could say “Do you mean the former smut cartoonist turned sports and stock trading software shyster and political pundit? No, different guy.”
Of course, if your client is the slimeball, scumbag, louse-infested, psychopath, rip-off merchant, rotten, commo, poofter, mongrel bastard Phil Travers, then he is unable to use that option. Instead he seems to be claiming that his continuing sales of fake stock trading software, repackaged every couple of years as word gets around, complete with fake reviews and fake awards to lull the “gullible” into a false sense of security, is actually a perfectly legitimate way of conducting business, and that anyone who complains about this or talks to someone else about it, is like, really mean. Or something.
So if your client decides to initiate some sort of legal action over this, I can only say how pleased I would be. It would be the most ill-advised litigation since Oscar Wilde took a swipe at the Marquess of Queensberry. I have an extensive list of people from all walks of life, including elderly and disabled persons, who would be delighted to have a day in court to explain publicly how their life savings have been stolen and their lives destroyed by schemes operated by your client and his chums.
Nonetheless, and despite the foregoing, I am indeed willing to make your client an offer. It is this. If he contacts investigating police and offers them his full co-operation, and arranges for every person affected by the JBC, ESL, OP Solutions, etc, scams to be fully refunded, with a public apology, and then commits to earning an honest living, I will gladly remove any references to him in quotes from victims or former workers in my blog posts, or in any comments.
Yours sincerely,
etc
Its great to see that you are standing up to this dropkick and his wife of very poor judgment who I hear due to her professional background has some time ago issued cease and desist letters to the media attempting to report this scam.
They probably are hoping that just because they have wound up the scam for the time being that the heat will die down. But I think this time there is a fair chance that they may be held accountable. I have done a lot of personal research and I can tie the following names in to the on the ground operation that was shut down suddenly on August 17th.
Troy Moncrieff, C*, T*, Ashlee Brown, K*, *, Kat Johnson, Kirsty Wallbanks, Georgia Gilson, Taylor Bourke, Ben Wilko, (Travis White now left the country). There are numerous others as well that I’m not sure of.
I should hasten to add although I was not scammed by this crowd they did attempt to scam me some time ago during the GTA Australia phase.
These people are all culpable. They cannot have spent any time at all in that boiler room environment without being fully aware that they were breaking the law.They couldnt be that stupid! But they had the false comfort of thinking that they would never under any circumstances be held to account.
The other thing is that they are nearly all dual nationals with UK,Irish or New Zealand citizenship. So they can just remove themselves from Australian jurisdiction at the drop of a hat.
Of course the biggest culprits remain the ringleader Phil Travers and his sucked in wife *. I also think that Todd Johnson has been involved in the lead generation work. I discovered that his business MOQ Group has the same virtual address in Gordon NSW as API Associates which is tied in with Travers. His brother is Glen Johnson (Gangsta Surf and Mondo Pizza). His name (with another birth date appears as a dummy director for Quest Marketing Agency Pty Ltd
Of course Phil Travers has attempted to establish the AMP endorsed *. I believe that they are all under internal investigation from the powers that be at AMP because it is clearly a pathetic excuse for some sort of pretend legitimacy. I assume its a money laundering exercise as I am sure is * pathetic excuse for a business.
You probably know all this stuff.
Regards,Geraldine Fitzgerald
I have been asked to remove a couple of names from the above comment, and I have done so.
If anyone is interested in putting an end to these scams, and has information relating to business activities involving any of perpetrators, please pass on your concerns to appropriate authorities. For example, Police, Consumer services, or if you believe AMP’s name is being used to give credibility to those who deserve none, contact AMP and ensure they are aware of the issues.
Meanwhile, please feel free to comment and add information here. The more names and links we have, the easier it will be for authorities to follow up and bring these thieves to justice.
In regard to the comments made by Geraldine Fitzgerald on October 17, 2015 at 9:12pm what gives her the right to name and shame the above people due to her PERSONAL RESEARCH in regards to the ALLEGED ONGOING OF BUSINESS MAN PHILLIP TRAVERS, there is such a thing as defamation laws.
What gives her the right to select individuals without any proof that any on these individuals are involved with this comapany let along list their names.
You are not only allowing Geraldine Fitzgerald to defame these individauls reputation and livileyhoods and her say only. what givers her the right to be Judge and Jury naming and shaming people without any proof of their involvement ll the above indiviadauls names should be removed not a select few.
So Tania you are more offended by someone warning people about these shysters than you are about them ripping of hundreds of people?
Nice morality you’ve got there.
I have plenty of morality thank you very much ALEX(No Name)I deal in facts. It seemS that Geraldine Fitzgerald research is a bit more personal, as how would she even know that certain people have left the country, this individual has no proof that the people she has listed were actually fully aware and privy to all the companies’ dealings.
THESE COMPANIES ARE WELL KNOWN FOR NOT USING REAL NAMES SO HOW DOES SOEMONE OBTAIN AND LISTED ABOVE NAMES LET ALONE A NAME OF A PERSON WHO WAS NOT EVEN MAKING CALLS – I know for a fact that at least one person named and shamed was only an ordinarily office worker who worked there for a month or two and now their name is link to this scam.
I believe in going after the big fish running these scams and naming and shamming them but to take one persons word that the people she has listed are so deeply involved is actually morally wrong.
the internet has allow freedom of speech but at what cost to name and shame people without having proof is not the way to go thats why we have legal systems and laws in place.
Companies like these also prey on people whom need a job and many of these companies employ people from overseas who just need work and think that they actually working for honest company, these people do not just take off at the drop of a hat some of them are trying to make a life here in Australia.
It is a difficult balance Tania.
There are a lot of justifiably very angry people out there. And very angry people do not always, and cannot be expected to, respond with calm rationality.
It is not right that the people who run these scams should continue to get away with them, or to face no consequences, even if they have now decided to start running some legitimate businesses.
It is simply not credible that people could work in that place for any length of time and have no understanding of what was going on. If they know criminal activity is taking place, that people are being cheated, then they are complicit – even if they simply leave and say nothing.
People who have inside information, as you appear to have, have an absolute obligation to report wrong-doing to the relevant authorities, and in particular, to the Queensland Fraud Squad, and to do what they can to warn people not to be taken in.
On the other hand, if there are people who have been named in any comment on this blog who believe it is unfair for them to be named in that way, all they need to do is email me and I will remove their name. Except, of course, for the known ring-leaders. Anyone else who emails me I simply take their word for it that they are not/were not involved, and/or did not know what they were doing, or are already co-operating with the police. I just hope that that what they are telling me is true.
It seems to me that is the fairest way to give people the benefit of the doubt, while at the same time warning innocent people who are at risk of losing their life savings.
Dear Peter can you please suppy your email address
Dear Tania,
Hopefully the raids, seizures of property and taking into custody of a 53 year old man and a 22 year old man on the Gold Coast in connection with the TRP scam today will sober up your misplaced indignation about poor old Geraldine Fitzgerald’s comments,personal research and naming of names.(She may not be old but there’s a fair chance she could be!)
For all you know she may have personally had a lot of money stolen as a result of the misleading and deceptive practices from the scammers.She may know somebody close to her to whom that has happened. Whatever the case for her to put those names up on the blog she seems to be the sort of person who thinks “dont get angry – just get even”.
As mentioned above by Peter nobody who worked in that boiler room environment could have seriously thought that this was a legitimate business.
Perhaps one or two of the younger and more naive employees could be forgiven for not realising what they were involving themselves in.
But in future employment if they think it looks like a dead fish and smells like a dead fish then they should assume it is a dead fish.
As for you Tania you certainly seem to have inside knowledge of the scam from the comments you have made above. You understandably may be feeling very nervous about the fact that even an angry little old lady like Geraldine Fitzgerald may have worked out your true identity.If I was you (which thankfully I am not!) I would go to the police before they come to you.
I agree. Everyone should be treated fairly. Now is the time to be more concerned about those who have ripped off, and not so much about those who have been doing the ripping off.
Yes Arkell you are right. Seems to be a departure from history here. That is not what Pressdram said to Arkell in 1971! lol
On a more serious note it is very gratifying to know that the police do genuinely seem to be honed in on these boiler room activities (both current and past). “Tania” obviously knows so much that she must presumably be an insider. I should think any insider to these scams past and present would be fair game for the attention of the police nowadays. And I dont think it is possible to hide behind false names anymore. I think the police may already have known her and others true names even before ‘Geraldine Fitzgerald’ let loose with that salvo of names.
Had this email exchange with Tory Rybarczyk this morning. I have removed his name from the comment above as he requested. As for the rest, well, you can judge for yourselves. In answer to his question about how he was supposed to know anything was wrong, the answer is simple. If you are required to lie to people, something is wrong.
Update: I have also, after threats from Troy and his solicitor, removed all of my comments and communications in this sequence of emails. The only words below are Troy’s. They convey the story well enough without my replies to him, and obviously, his own words about his own views and experiences cannot possibly be defamatory of him.
> Hi Peter,
>
> My name is Troy Rybarczyk, I’m unfairly and incorrectly listed on your
> website, under this stock trading scam, I had worked there for a very
> short period of time that’s true keep in mind for myself this is now
> years ago so I have no idea or clue what they are doing now or have
> done in the last years, but had no idea what was goes on in the back
> ground even when was there.
>
> I was just merely hired as a sales person I have no financial interest
> in the business, no authority in the business, no say what so ever in
> its workings apart from me deciding to no longer work there for my own
> personal reasons…… I can also assure you that other people listed
> too are in the same boat as myself. I as a sales person who worked
> there for a very short period can not be held accountable for
> practises
the business engaged in.
>
> I most definitely have already contacted my own legal representation
> and have been assured I myself (not talking for management or others
> involved at different levels) have a clear cut defamation case as I
> was just merely an employee who found a job on seek and tried it out
> years ago ….. So I do hope you make the right decision and remove my
> name from any type of defamatory writing.
>
> Honestly imagine if you were caught up in this and had taken a “job”
> off seek as Normal people do… Had quit… Now being thrown in this
> like it was some how your fault? That’s not acceptable.
>
> Please contact me immediately as this needs an immediate resolve. Or
> legal action will be taken.
>
> Troy.
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Morning,
There would have literally been hundreds of people working there, I’m left on there as I’m some type of ring leader? I wasn’t knowingly ripping people off at all. I worked there for a short period, sold one product which I was told works not this plethora of products you are listing, I was told I wasn’t allowed to buy it for “insider trading” type information that we may end up using and jeopardise the workings of it. I work in sales I’m not an avid investor I was told I’m selling a software package with support? We did not have calls coming back in with complaints? How am I to know.
The best analogy is if you were a real estate agent and you sold a house that you later found was riddled with termites is that your fault? No.. You didn’t own the house… You didn’t put he termites there or cover them up… Do you feel horrible if all that’s true? Absolutely……But you were just in the middle. So you can see where I am going with that.
I also haven’t been there for years and certainly wasn’t there for any type of shut down. So it is false what’s being said about me as I wasn’t there when some of those people were and also as stated I was “no one” there you can’t try and slander someone’s name as if I knowingly did something that was unsavoury when I had taken a legitimate job off of seek.
I trust you will take my name off there and anywhere else it may be, you know you are being slanderous with incorrect information about my name. Legal action has commenced im just giving you the chance to be decent as I’ve been thrown in to something unfairly that I did not orchestrate or even know was anything other than a normal sales job/ sales process was going on.
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They are threatening you from a position of lower ground, I am not.
“If all what you say is true” (I’m not a judge and do not posses a judicial party with enough facts to ascertain guilt) then the owners (who I don’t even know) who have threatened you are wrong and wouldn’t have a chance at slander or libel charges. As they are “covering up” “changing names” operating under a false pretence. (If all this is true) I’m not though. I like hundreds of other people just took a job off seek, went in sold a product and left as I had personal arguments with bosses over time off as I had a hernia… I wasn’t allowed time off to heal so I quit. Now I’m being slandered on the Internet as if I have orchestrated some scam?
As for the spiel, look mate even Telstra Foxtel and all sales companies say things like “I’ll ask my manager” “oh we only have so many positions left” things like that it’s sales tactic as old as sales itself. But your still missing the point;
I was no one with any authority there
It was years ago and only a short period
I sold one product and quit it this list of products you are referring to.
How am I to be fairly named under a pretence of knowingly doing something unsavoury at best, abhorrent at worst. We get told to sell a product on things we are told. That was it.
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I might have been the one product Troy sold, which cost my elderly father and me most of the money we needed to modify his huse so he could stay home rather go into a nursing home.
He seems to think lying is part of any selling job, and that makes what he did OK.
Not intellectually handicapped, just morally handicapped.
Troy’s comments are very interesting. Troy seems to me like the sort of person who most likely has very strong views about what is right and what is wrong as it applies to other peoples actions and activities around him. But somewhere along the line he has allowed himself to enjoy the benefits of working for this crowd whilst knowingly ripping off victims.He obviously finds it confronting that he is being accused of wrongdoing. But he and many others like him who have worked for this criminal organisation choose to ignore the elephant in the room whilst accepting their monthly bonuses that are basically given to them as hush money.He has knowingly been involved in misleading and deceptive behaviour in his attempt to sell a product that he effectively admits he doesn’t have any first hand knowledge of!His misleading and deceptive actions are a contravention of the Australian Consumer Law (Schedule 2 Offences Chapter 4 Offences relating to unfair practices Part 4-1 Sections 155 and 159)
Also according to the ACCC misleading and deceptive conduct can give rise to liability even if:
1. It has not actually misled anyone. All that is necessary is that the conduct is likely to mislead or deceive people.
2. The person making the representation acted honestly and reasonably. All that is necessary for liability to arise is that conduct did in fact mislead or deceive and
3. The affected person did not make proper enquiries or could have discovered that the conduct was misleading or deceptive had they investigated the matter.
It seems ironical to me that after all of this Troy is only intent on blowing off about being defamed!Perhaps for him its just as well he had left this organisation “years ago”(lol) and wasn’t actually caught red handed during the recent boiler room raid. Even so you would think that he might like to tell the police what he knows!
I have been asked to remove a few names from some of the comments on this post, and with a couple of exceptions I have done so.
Some people have told me they had no association with the Eurosoft/CFS/GTA/TRP scam. Others have said they did, but got out as soon as they realised what was happening. Some have claimed to be co-operating with police in their investigations. I don’t know whether these claims are true, but I have accepted people at their word.
On the other hand, if someone acknowledged having worked for them, acknowledged having lied and exaggerated to make sales, and did not see any problem with this because, he or she claimed, every sales job does the same thing, if this person also seemed more concerned about possible inconvenience to him or her self than about the harm done to the people who were scammed, then it might be reasonable to conclude that such a person had some sort of moral or intellectual deficiency. Ordinary people might reasonably desire to avoid business interaction with such a person.
To note what is true, even if someone finds it inconvenient or annoying, is not defamation.
Hi Peter
Any chance I could email you privately.
Regards
Pressdram
Troy Moncrieff knew exactly what this scam was about. I hope he serves a long sentence the grub. Willing stole, moved company names, no response, spent money on luxury waterfront property amd large luxury boats. But oh please he presumes hes innocent lmfao. Follow the money.