Russell,

Hello and thank you for entrusting me to answer your question. My goal is to answer your question completely and thoroughly and to provide excellent service.

This is quite certainly an advance fee stock purchase scam. Scams of this kind are quite common and are operated by scammers who get a hold of old shareholder lists, cold call the shareholders and ask to buy their worthless stock claiming it is now very valuable. The scammer then requires the victim to pay various transfer fees, banking fees, or processing fees before the transaction can go through, exactly as you have described. Of course, the scammer has no intent of ever purchasing the shares or sending any money, and this is just an attempt to get the victim's advanced payment.

Regent Consolidated does not appear to be a legitimate company. The domain registry for this business's website indicates that their site has been operational for less than three months. Obviously, this is an INCREDIBLY short period of time for a company to be in business and indicative of a scam, since scammers frequently change business names to avoid detection. Furthermore, Regent implies they have been in business for years, as they state on their "About Us" page: "Over the years Regent Consolidated has been able to deliver a consistently high level of service..."

The website is also registered through a domain proxy, which conceals the true identity of the website owner. While there are sometimes legitimate reasons for registering one's site through a proxy service, this is also the sign of a scam whose perpetrator does not want to be tracked down.

They claim to have offices all over the world, but only list one office address. Furthermore, the address given appears to be a virtual office location, meaning that it's just an address used for receiving mail and shared by numerous other businesses. At best this means the people who run this business are working from home, but at worst it means that they may not even have any association with that address at all. More likely the latter in the given instances, since they don't exactly present themselves as a "small shop" business.

Further still, I can find no record of a business by the name of Regent Consolidated registered in the state of New York.

Finally, I can find no reviews or real information regarding this business and they are not accredited by the Better Business Bureau.

So, in light of the fact that Regent Consolidated has apparently been operational for less than 3 months, have their site registered through a proxy, do not appear to have a physical address, and are not a registered business in the state of New York, I think you would be extremely wise to stay FAR, far away from this business, as their proposal fits the standard mold for an advance fee stock purchase scam.

I sincerely XXXXX XXXXX this information helps you and I wish you the best.

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Thank you and very kindest regards.