INVESTORS and businessmen have been warned they could lose thousands of pounds by joining a top secret money-making scheme sweeping across the North West.

New recruits invited by word of mouth to the business club, called Titan, are promised large cash returns in return for a down payment of £2,500.

Organisers employ their own security men to maintain secrecy at meetings, which have been attended by hundreds of people at a time.

But Lancashire's chief trading standards officer Jim Potts has warned that people risk losing everything if they gamble their cash on the pyramid marketing scheme.

He said: "If you want to write off £2,500 to experience there are a lot of better investments than this, including going to a race track and betting." Titan has been sweeping across Lancashire, Cheshire, Staffordshire and Manchester in recent months.

Recruits, or "partners" as they are known, are told they can recoup their money by encouraging other people to join and receiving a cut of their investments.

Nobody is allowed to enter or leave the room while recruitment presentations are in progress.

Potential investors from East Lancashire were among an audience at Tatton Park, Cheshire, last week.

The latest meeting is believed to have been held in Bury over the weekend.

The scheme is thought to be the brainchild of a company based in Hamburg, Germany, although local organisers are believed to have been recruited throughout the region.

Police in Lancashire, Cheshire and Manchester are aware of Titan.

Mr Potts said: "This is giving us some concern about the risk of potential partners losing sums of money.

"On the face of it, it appears to be legal, although our experience with any similar scheme is that they are not sustainable and have failed.

"The principle remains exactly the same. There is no product or service, just taking a cut of other people's money.

"Invariably these things implode, leaving people who have paid £2,500 with nothing."

The Department of Trade and Industry is currently looking at legislation to outlaw schemes similar to Titan.

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