u/CCC-TOR-KOR

Hi everyone, I wanted to share a suspicious situation our company recently experienced so other business owners can be careful.

We run a dessert franchise business based in Toronto. A company claiming to be Saulire-Invest contacted us and said they were a Swiss investment company that had been operating for around 50 years. They said an investor liked our concept and wanted to buy/bring our brand into Switzerland.

Their proposed plan sounded very exciting: start with 3 locations in Switzerland and eventually expand up to 26 locations.

At first, it felt like a serious opportunity, so we had several meetings and calls with them.

They said they were acting as the middleman for the investor. I asked if we could meet the actual investor directly because we wanted to know who would be carrying our brand, which location they visited, and whether they had the right ambition and operational mindset. They refused and said we could not meet the investor until the final deal stage because they were handling everything as the middleman.

The offer started around $780,000 CAD as a bottom-line amount. Since they said there would be no royalty or marketing fee added to the deal, we countered with $1.2 million CAD.

The next day, they came back and said yes to the $1.2 million. But then they explained that because they were the middleman, they needed to take commission. Their proposal was:

The investor would pay us $1.4 million CAD, and after we received the money, we would pay $200,000 CAD back to them as their commission.

That felt like a major red flag.

Then they asked us to fly to Switzerland to sign the deal. They said their CEO was an older man and did not like discussing deals over phone or Zoom. I asked for a Zoom call before we flew internationally, but they hesitated and did not clearly agree.

Luckily, I have a friend who lives in Geneva. I asked her to check the address they gave us:

Boulevard Carl-Vogt 47, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland

She went there in person, checked the building and mailbox, and even spoke with the owner of the store on the first floor, who had apparently been running a business there for over 40 years. According to what she found, there was no visible company by that name in the building, and the store owner did not recognize the company.

After that, I called them and told them we checked the address but could not find their company. Instead of giving a clear explanation, they suddenly said they would come to Toronto. When I asked again for clarification about the address, they avoided answering and even tried showing family photos, which made no sense in the context of a business acquisition.

At that point, we became very concerned.

I want to be careful here: I am not making a final legal accusation, and I do not know whether they were impersonating a real company or using a company name/address improperly. But the behaviour was extremely suspicious.

Main red flags we noticed:

1. They would not let us meet the actual investor.
2. They offered a very large acquisition/expansion deal very quickly.
3. They accepted our counteroffer almost immediately.
4. They wanted us to receive $1.4M and then pay $200K back to them as “commission.”
5. They wanted us to fly internationally before doing a proper Zoom/video verification.
6. The address they provided could not be verified in person.
7. They avoided giving a clear explanation when questioned about the address.
8. Their story changed from “come to Switzerland” to “we will come to Toronto.”
9. Their behaviour did not feel like a normal professional acquisition or investment process.

We are a small-to-mid-sized business, and like many business owners, we want to grow and expand. I feel like scammers may be targeting companies by using their hope and ambition for international expansion.

Thankfully, we checked the address before spending money on flights or moving further.

I’m posting this so other business owners, franchise brands, restaurant owners, and entrepreneurs can be careful.

Before taking any international acquisition or investment offer seriously, please verify everything independently:

• Confirm the company through official government registries.
• Ask for video calls with real decision-makers.
• Do not travel internationally without strong verification.
• Be careful with “middleman commission” structures.
• Verify the office address through someone local if possible.
• Talk to your lawyer before signing or paying anything.
• Be very cautious if they rush the process or avoid direct answers.

Has anyone else seen similar scams where fake investors or “investment companies” approach small businesses with international expansion offers?