Hello Everyone,
It feels like this is a "I have been scammed Anonymous" group. It's great people are reporting them here. This is very effective way to help filter out potential scams.
I am also a victim of a very large organized scam. $14000.00 that is!. This was back in 1998. Everyone in this Venture capital group was arrested by the FBI for over 200 felony counts of fraud.
Me and my business partners traveled all the way from Texas to West Virginia to meet this Venture capital group. The business was established in a very nice white antique house. When we entered, we were greeted and offered tea or coffee by a nice man in a business suit. In fact, there was nearly 10 men and women dressed professionally walking around looking busy.
The man we spoke to was an elder man in a very high class business suit. I noticed a picture on the wall with him shaking hands with President Reagan (which later found out was 100% real). We sat down with him and had a long talk about our business plan that resulted in a consultation fee of $14k to compile funds from a pool of investors. Before we moved forward, we did a background check and requested client references. Everything checked out ok.
We returned to Texas and for a month we called to check the progress every week. Within the next couple of days after our last check in, we get a call from the FBI that this Venture capital group was under a huge investigation and they regret to inform us we were one of the 200^th^ victims.
We later found out the references we previously checked were in fact real. They helped a couple of companies in the beginning of their operation get funded to help build these references.
Building a scammer database is a very good idea. It should list phone numbers, names, state, and company names. This could help people cross reference easily.
It would also be good to have some type of certification by some type of trusted organization. Like a seal of approval.
Maybe talking to Bank of America to create this scammer database checking system.
For now these are a couple of ways to filter out potential scams. If these investors are real, they will understand potential clients would like to do these checks.
- 1. Checking references is still good. Always request it.
- 2. Do background checks.
- 3. Do a search in google for any other reported scams (Check the people's names and companies).
- 4. Dun and Bradstreet check
- 5. Check this forum for listed frauds
- 6. Avoid all European transactions unless you know them personally
- 7. Eventually meet with them in the public to discuss your business plan. Make sure to bring someone with you. If you can afford it, maybe your attorney.
- 8. Check in with the police (based on what state their established) if the company is already under investigation
Even though a lot of these scams come from Europe, they're also here in the US. See my notes below regarding scams taking place in every state.
Do this keyword search in google.com based on every state. You will find these scams in every state.
For example:
"Venture capital scam Texas"
"Venture capital scam New Hampshire"
"Venture capital scam Montana"
Good luck to all!
