Rob Anderson (possible aka's: Robert Stewart, Rob Grossley, Robert John Doueihi) of Brisbane based Tradesmart Technologies claims that over the past 12 months Tradesmart have sold over 1000 copies (at $8000 each, 'Executive Packages' are $11, 000) of their PFD Plus 'sports arbitrage' software. If this is true, that's over $8,000,000, and that's likely just the tip of the iceberg. It's fraud on a massive scale, Tradesmart / Baranstone sell their software by conning people with fraudulent claims about their software's capabilities, bogus money back guarantees and a string of bogus 'review' and 'competitor' websites.
Both Tradesmart and Baranstone appear to be a rename/rehash of Aus Soft and Global Soft and the 'Arb-A-Trader' sports arbitrage software, and it's likely Aus Soft / Global Soft are a re hash of previous sports arbitrage scams. (Below is a link to an article about Arb-A-Trader, this article and others like it may have put the nail in the coffin of Aus Soft / Global Soft, forcing them to reinvent themselves into Tradesmart / Baranstone. http://www.sportsarbitrageguide.com/wordpress/07/11/aussoftglobalsoft-overpromised-under-delivered-expensive-ripoff/).
Tradesmart / Baranstone are the latest and perhaps most sophisticated incarnation of the sports arbitrage scams, Tradesmart appears to have been in operation for 18 months and are still up and running, predominantly targeting small business in Australia and New Zealand. It's likely after the Aus Soft / Global Soft scam was exposed, it was reinvented into Tradesmart / Baranstone. Rob Anderson appears to be the brains behind it all, although he claims to report back to 'directors', it appears likely there are no directors, that he's it, he's certainly responsible for the general running of the operation, 'training', accounts and 'customer support'.
THE BOGUS WEBSITES
I was conned into buying the Tradesmart PFD Plus software 6 months ago. After an initial outlay of $8000, over a period of 4 months I lost a further $671 on supposedly risk free 'trades' 'found' by their PFD Plus software. I was conned by their deceptive and deliberately misrepresentative marketing material, pushy salespeople and by a UK website that kept appearing at the top of my internet searches: http://www.pfdinfo.co.uk/. This website is a supposedly independent review of PFD trading by a 'Geoff Andrews' who awards a very positive rating to Tradesmart. This website was the deciding factor in my decision to buy the Tradesmart software. I've since discovered the site is bogus - a fraudulent creation by Tradesmart / Baranstone, with the sole intention of conning people into believing they're reading an independent review. The other PFD trading companies (Profit From Differences.com and X Software Solutions) listed as lowly competitors on the pfdinfo website, are creations of Tradesmart / Baranstone. At the bottom of this article are their domain registration details, note the contact details are different, but both Profit From Differences.com and X Software Solutions have identical service providers, Registrar of Record details and IP addresses.
http://www.sorttradingguide.co.uk/ is the front for Baranstone (SORT Trading) and it's almost identical to http://www.pfdinfo.co.uk/. On this site a 'Gareth Reynolds' gives a resoundingly positive rating of the Baranstone SORT Trading software over the 'competitors'. The 'competitors' listed on this site are also Tradesmart / Baranstone creations, their websites also share some identical domain registration details, Kinsealy.com shares the same IP address as Profit From Differences and X Software Solutions.
Below are the domain registration details for both the pfdinfo and sorttradingguide sites, note the registrant for both is 'Geoff Andrews'. Also listed at the bottom of this article are the domain registration details of all the bogus competitor sites and the Tradesmart and Baranstone websites. I have no doubt once this information is released, these bogus 'review' sites and the bogus 'competitor' sites will either disappear or their registration details will change, so I've taken the precaution of taking copies of all the sites and collating all their source data and domain registration details as at May 12. If the domain details do change, their history and links to Tradesmart / Baranstone should still be traceable.
Domain name:
pfdinfo.co.uk
Registrant:
Geoff Andrews
Registrant type:
UK Individual
IP Address: 213.171.218.105
Registrant's address:
The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have
their address omitted from the WHOIS service.
Registrar:
Fasthosts Internet Ltd [Tag = FASTHOSTS]
URL: http://www.fasthosts.co.uk
Relevant dates:
Registered on: 21-Aug
Renewal date: 21-Aug
Registration status:
Registered until renewal date.
Name servers:
ns1.livedns.co.uk
ns2.livedns.co.uk
ns3.livedns.co.uk
Domain name:
sorttradingguide.co.uk
Registrant:
Geoff Andrews
Registrant type:
UK Individual
IP Address: 213.171.218.55
Registrant's address:
The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have
their address omitted from the WHOIS service.
Registrar:
Fasthosts Internet Ltd [Tag = FASTHOSTS]
URL: http://www.fasthosts.co.uk
Relevant dates:
Registered on: 14-Aug
Renewal date: 14-Aug
Registration status:
Registered until renewal date.
Name servers:
ns1.livedns.co.uk
ns2.livedns.co.uk
ns3.livedns.co.uk
THE BOGUS CLAIMS
The Tradesmart brochure claims that with a starting amount of $2000 after 6 months a tax free profit of $34221.48 can be achieved by using their software. The brochure also claims that: "The opportunities (PFD's - Sports Arbitrage Trades) are constant... there will always be PFD's available that you can trade on, every minute of every day. The program displays the PFD opportunities on your PC... all that is left for you to do, is make your trade with the required bookmakers, and your guaranteed profit is in place". In the FAQS section of the brochure, they ask the question: "Do I need to have much knowledge of Sports or Bookmakers", the answer: "Not at all. The program does all the work for you... It simply looks for a discrepancy between two bookmakers and then guides you through the trade."
THE USELESS SOFTWARE
The above claims are just a small selection of Tradesmart's bogus claims and blatant lies. I work from home and over a period of about 4 months I had the software constantly updating on my computer for between 12-15 hours daily. In my experience the software rarely found genuine (3% ) 'Trades / Sports Arbitrage opportunities'. In the majority of instances when the software appeared to show a genuine trade it was either displaying the wrong odds or a mistake had been made by the bookmaker. On the rare occasions when the software did find 'genuine' trades (with correct odds) and I began to go through the bet placing procedure, often either an issue with a bookmaker and/or the logistics/conditions of money transfers turned the 'trade' into a gamble with only one bet standing.
Some of the bookmaker issues I experienced were website communication interruptions, sudden website shutdowns, bookmakers canceling betting on an event but only making this known after confirmation of a bet thus leaving the other placed bet exposed, bookmakers imposing arbitrary limits at their 'discretion', rules on withdrawing funds, and bonuses applied to my account which needed to be rolled over before funds could be withdrawn.
All of this, in combination with the logistics, limits and conditions of transferring money to and from your bank account, to and from the money transfer company (i.e. Moneybookers) and to and from the bookmakers cashier, make it near impossible to complete a successful, profitable 'Trade'. As for consistently making risk free profits and compounding earnings on high value amounts - which according to the Tradesmart marketing material is the achievable and guaranteed objective - it's impossible and their claims are blatant lies. In my experience consistently using the Tradesmart PFD Plus software results in consistently losing money.
THE 'CUSTOMER SUPPORT TEAM'
According to the Tradesmart brochure, "Tradesmart Technologies have a dedicated Technical Support team, who will give you full guidance and training on using PFD Plus to it's best potential. They are available 5 days a week and will provide you with everything you need in order to become a successful trader!".
More lies and half truths. The technical support 'team' did 'help' set me up with the bookmakers and Moneybookers over a number of weeks, but after that I was on my own. Once I began to discover the system wasn't working as they claimed and started calling customer support with negative feedback and curly questions, my calls and emails went unanswered. Tradesmart's tactic at this point appeared to be deliberate avoidance (call screening) and/or deliberate protraction of their dealings with me.
THE BOGUS 'MONEY BACK GUARANTEE'
Another deciding factor in my decision to buy the Tradesmart software was their money back guarantee... a guarantee that I've since discovered means absolutely nothing.
Once I could prove without doubt, the software didn't work as they claimed it did, I requested to be taken off the system and given a refund. To which I was told they would 'review' my request.
That was 6 weeks ago. My calls and emails went unanswered until I sent an email to customer support stating if I didn't receive a refund within 2 days I would report Tradesmart to the Queensland Police and The Office of Fair Trading and expose them on the internet. Rob Anderson was on the phone almost immediately... but only so he could tell me that as soon as I'd downloaded the software onto my computer and it was 'working', the guarantee meant nothing and I would not receive a refund. Basically he was telling me that once I'd loaded the software onto my computer and it was 'working' he/they were untouchable.
However, after I'd uncovered evidence relating to their bogus websites and threatened to expose this on the internet and send the details to the Office of Fair Trading, Rob Anderson then assured me I would receive a refund within a few days, but I would have to sign an agreement stating that once I'd received the refund I would not go public or report them to the authorities. This proved to be just another stalling technique, he took my bank transfer details, but I never received the refund.
Refunding is simply not on Rob Anderson's agenda, he seems to genuinely believe he/they are doing nothing wrong, that the claims made in the marketing material arent false and that theres nothing wrong or illegal creating a bunch of bogus review and competitor websites in order to sell their product. In a recent phone conversation he told me one minute that the bogus websites and false claims were legitimate, the next minute he blatantly lied that he was in the process of transferring my refund money.
CONCLUSION
If you're approached by either Tradesmart or Baranstone, steer well clear. This is a sophisticated, in depth and well thought out rip off, with many layers of deceit. The fraudulent claims of their marketing material, the bogus websites, the smooth talking unflappable sales people/customer support, the bogus money back guarantee. They make it all sound so simple, easy, plausible and risk free. The cunning lies in the fact that it can take many months of 'set-up', 'training' and trades gone wrong before you come to the realization you've been duped and their claims are baseless lies.By which time they hope the majority of purchasers will simply tire, let it go, take the loss and right it off on tax. Their aim is to drag out there dealings with any one individual for as long as possible, in which time they can sell as many programs as possible before the cumulative affect of too many disgruntled customers forces them to shut down and/or reinvent themselves.
Please be aware that the positive replies to the many complaints on this site and others are undoubtedly being made by Tradesmart themselves. However, there does appear to be one or two individuals not related to Tradesmart who have written positive replies on other complaints boards. My first question is why, if it's all going well, are you looking at these sites in the first place? Secondly, can you provide proof that the program works as Tradesmart has claimed i.e. you have consistently made profitable trades and compounded your earnings on high value amounts, $20, 000 plus?
Domain Name: TRADESMARTTECHNOLOGIES.COM
Server Type: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
IP Address: 216.32.60.237
IP Location: United States - Savvis
Response Code: 200
Blacklist Status: Clear
SSL Cert: secure.tradesmarttechnologies.com expires in 145 days.
Domain Status: Registered And Active Website
NS History: 2 changes on 3 unique name servers over 1 year.
IP History: 3 changes on 4 unique name servers over 1 years.
Whois History: 5 records have been archived since 01-11.
Dedicated Hosting: tradesmarttechnologies.com is hosted on a dedicated server.
Reseller...: PlanetDomain
Created on...: 21 Aug 16:00:42 EST
Expires on...: 21 Aug 16:00:42 EST
Record last updated on: 21 Aug 16:00:42 EST
Status...: ACTIVE
Owner, Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Billing Contact:
Tradesmart Technologies
Kevin Reid (ID00320201)
Level 2
147 Coronation Drive
Milton, Queensland 4064
Australia
Phone: 61.731055981
Email:
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.DISCOUNTASP.NET
NS2.DISCOUNTASP.NET
Domain name: BARANSTONE.COM
Server Type: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
IP Address: 213.171.218.36
IP Location: England - London
Response Code: 200
Blacklist Status: Clear
Domain Status: Registered And Active Website
NS History: 1 change on 2 unique name servers over 1 year.
IP History: 2 changes on 2 unique name servers over 1 years.
Whois History: 4 records have been archived since 12-20.
Reverse IP: 428 other sites hosted on this server.
Administrative Contact:
Cartwright, Adam [email protected]
ICELT Lower Mayor St
Internetional Finance Services Centre
Dublin 1, Dublin DUBLIN
IE
35316901900
Technical Contact:
Cartwright, Adam [email protected]
ICELT Lower Mayor St
Internetional Finance Services Centre
Dublin 1, Dublin DUBLIN
IE
35316901900
Registration Service Provider:
UK Reg, [email protected]
44 1452 541252
44 1452 538485 (fax)
http://www.ukreg.com/
Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 31-Jan.
Record expires on 31-Jul.
Record created on 31-Jul.
Registrar Domain Name Help Center:
http://domainhelp.tucows.com
Domain servers in listed order:
NS3.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
NS1.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
NS2.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
Domain name: XSOFTWARESOLUTIONS.COM
IP Address: 213.171.218.107
NS History: 1 change on 2 unique name servers over 1 year.
Whois History: 1 record has been archived since 01-12.
Reverse IP: 1, 232 other sites hosted on this server.
Registrant:
XSoft
High Street
Guildford
Guildford, Surrey GU1 3BJ
GB
Administrative Contact:
Doyle, Paul [email protected]
High Street
Guildford
Guildford, Surrey GU1 3BJ
GB
441883574559
Technical Contact:
Doyle, Paul [email protected]
High Street
Guildford
Guildford, Surrey GU1 3BJ
GB
441883574559
Registration Service Provider:
UK Reg, [email protected]
44 1452 541252
44 1452 538485 (fax)
http://www.ukreg.com/
Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 08-Jan.
Record expires on 20-Sep.
Record created on 20-Sep.
Registrar Domain Name Help Center:
http://domainhelp.tucows.com
Domain servers in listed order:
NS3.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
NS1.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
NS2.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
Domain name: PROFITFROMDIFFERENCES.COM
IP Address: 213.171.218.107
NS History: 1 change on 2 unique name servers over 1 year.
Whois History: 1 record has been archived since 01-12.
Reverse IP: 1, 232 other sites hosted on this server.
Registrant:
profit from differences
18-25 the Square
Botley Road
Oxford, Oxford OX2 0HA
GB
Administrative Contact:
Peters, Steve [email protected]
18-25 the Square
Botley Road
Oxford, Oxford OX2 0HA
GB
441483572059
Technical Contact:
Peters, Steve [email protected]
18-25 the Square
Botley Road
Oxford, Oxford OX2 0HA
GB
441483572059
Registration Service Provider:
UK Reg, [email protected]
44 1452 541252
44 1452 538485 (fax)
http://www.ukreg.com/
Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 08-Jan.
Record expires on 20-Sep.
Record created on 20-Sep.
Registrar Domain Name Help Center:
http://domainhelp.tucows.com
Domain servers in listed order:
NS3.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
NS1.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
NS2.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
Domain name: KINSEALY.COM
IP Address: 213.171.218.107
NS History: 3 changes on 3 unique name servers over 2 years.
IP History: 9 changes on 7 unique name servers over 2 years.
Whois History: 1 record has been archived since 11-12.
Registrant:
Kinsealy Software
Kinsealy Software
Croydon, London CR9 1SE
GB
Administrative Contact:
Brentworth, Damien [email protected]
Kinsealy Software
Croydon, London CR9 1SE
GB
02086866886
Technical Contact:
Brentworth, Damien [email protected]
Kinsealy Software
Croydon, London CR9 1SE
GB
02086866886
Registration Service Provider:
UK Reg, [email protected]
44 1452 541252
44 1452 538485 (fax)
http://www.ukreg.com/
Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 06-Mar.
Record expires on 21-Jul.
Record created on 21-Jul.
Registrar Domain Name Help Center:
http://domainhelp.tucows.com
Domain servers in listed order:
NS3.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
NS1.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
NS2.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
Domain name: SORTTRADERS.COM
IP Address: 213.171.218.106
NS History: 1 change on 2 unique name servers over 1 year.
IP History: 2 changes on 3 unique name servers over 1 years.
Whois History: 2 records have been archived since 01-15.
Reverse IP: 956 other sites hosted on this server.
Registrant:
SORT Traders
Rise Buswiness Park
Reading, Reading 19606
US
Administrative Contact:
Laney, Tim [email protected]
Rise Buswiness Park
Reading, Reading 19606
US
449759654823
Technical Contact:
Laney, Tim [email protected]
Rise Buswiness Park
Reading, Reading 19606
US
449759654823
Registration Service Provider:
UK Reg, [email protected]
44 1452 541252
44 1452 538485 (fax)
http://www.ukreg.com/
Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 16-Jan.
Record expires on 10-Sep.
Record created on 10-Sep.
Registrar Domain Name Help Center:
http://domainhelp.tucows.com
Domain servers in listed order:
NS3.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
NS1.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
NS2.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
Domain name: 247-WEB.COM
IP Address: 213.171.218.105
NS History: 11 changes on 5 unique name servers over 5 years.
IP History: 10 changes on 6 unique name servers over 4 years.
Whois History: 1 record has been archived since 11-12.
Reverse IP: 1, 027 other sites hosted on this server.
Registrant:
Web-247
Web-247
Luton, Bedfordshire LU1 2TE
GB
Administrative Contact:
Thornton, Deb [email protected]
Web-247
Luton, Bedfordshire LU1 2TE
GB
01582455114
Technical Contact:
Thornton, Deb [email protected]
Web-247
Luton, Bedfordshire LU1 2TE
GB
01582455114
Registration Service Provider:
UK Reg, [email protected]
44 1452 541252
44 1452 538485 (fax)
http://www.ukreg.com/
Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 06-Mar.
Record expires on 21-Jul.
Record created on 21-Jul.
Registrar Domain Name Help Center:
http://domainhelp.tucows.com
Domain servers in listed order:
NS3.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
NS1.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
NS2.LIVEDNS.CO.UK
David
Port Melbourne
Australia
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