Design 21: Social Design Network

http://chirpstory.com/li/63295

T.D.writes: I invested in carbon credits that I bought from MH Carbon Limited, after the company told me that businesses buy these credits. Mine were supposed to be sold in October.

When October came I was told that while I stood to make a 20 per cent profit, if I waited until November this would rise to 25 per cent. It seemed sensible to wait, but then in November, MH Carbon told me no one was buying.

The company added that in April the Government would be introducing legislation that would force businesses to buy carbon credits or face heavy fines. I invested all my savings, so now I am extremely worried.

I have yet to see any ordinary investor make a penny from trading in carbon credits, and I am afraid you are not going to be the first – though I do have some good news for you.

MH Carbon, based in the City of London, is run by its sole director Jeffrey Razaq, so I asked him whether it was true you were first told your credits were showing a 20 per cent profit, with a promise of more to come, yet suddenly they could not be sold at all.

He told me he had bought the company on November 14 last year, and that the broker who dealt with you had already left by then. There was no record of what you had been told, he said.

Well, I asked, what about the idea that the Government was going to force companies to buy carbon credits from investors like you? Razaq came up with an announcement made last June, but he had the honesty to admit that ...

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2009/08/clean-energy-scams-and-what-to-do-about-them

international asia global alternative energy fraud watch

As a clean energy installer, it really infuriates me when I read inflated and bogus marketing claims put forth by obvious scammers. What do you think we, as an industry, should do about this? Why don't you expose them? – Bill C., Clean Energy Installer Bill, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard this question and now that we are in a clean energy renaissance, I expect it won’t be the last. To others out there, please feel free to send me examples by emailing solarsklar@aol.com along with any questions for further columns. To answer Bill’s question, I’d like to address both the installer and the consumer. Here’s my double response: Dear clean energy business: If you see a store being robbed, you call the police. If you believe you are seeing a fraudulent business making bogus claims, drop a note to your State Attorney General’s Office. Some states have consumer offices or trade commissions that deal with deceptive advertising. The best notification is a short note including a scanned PDF of the ad or promotional materials with a letter from your company saying you noticed this, have been in the clean energy business for X years. Include the URL to a publication or report that addresses an aspect of their claim. If you have a state SEIA, ASES or other clean energy group in the state, CC them as well. Dear consumer:...