Inside Money: More horsing around from Aussie opportunists

The selling of vaguely-defined investment products are coming back laments Inside Money blogger David Chaplin. Photo / Thinkstock

Yes, the investment opportunity sounded very interesting, I told her.

And no, the $10,000 minimum didn't bother me.

But why, I asked her, was she calling me in particular with such an extraordinary offer.

"We're calling everyone in New Zealand," she said.

"What, all 4 million of us?" I said.

"Um, yeah," she said.

"That's very ambitious," I said. "Please send me your brochure."

I like brochures.

As expected, this brochure turned out to be very similar to a publication I reviewed in a 2011 blog: shorter, maybe, fewer full-colour images but essentially the same kind of vaguely-defined underlying "investment" product.

Although it takes a while to get to the point in its brochure, GMS (Aust) Pty Ltd is flogging a TAB-beating, horse-picking "technology" that sounds identical to that offered to me in 2011 by OLM Pty Ltd.

Whether GMS is a reincarnation of OLM, I can't say for sure - the Australian corporate information system is much less open and user-friendly than New Zealand's fabulous Companies Office website.

However, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) company information site does reveal OLM was deregistered in August 2012 while GMS was registered in December 2012.

(A respondent to my 2011 blog commented that OLM was previously known as FLI indicating a corporate preference for the three-letter acronym trick.)

The people behind GMS (or OLM or FLI) remain, for now, mysterious. You won't find any identity clues on the GMS website, which in itself is a strong avoid signal.

But given that everyone in the country will be getting a call from the GMS stooges any day now, I thought it prudent to issue my own early warning.

Please read this advice from the Australian government in preparation.

Or, just remember that the answer to the question posed in the GMS brochure - "What have you got to lose?" - is $10,000.