Possible FRAUD Alert - SCAM Alert - please read and respond

[Steve S.]

Hello to all my fellow BPers. I am reaching out to you because I want to know if anyone else has come across something like this recently not only to gain knowledge about the possible fraud and perpetrator, but also to warn people out there that they need to beware and be careful no matter what.

I always strive to provide the absolute best service I possibly can for all of my clients. One way I do this is by always being on the look out for new private money sources that can provide better or additional products to my clients. One of these areas is finding a true Joint Venture lender or investor who will invest in many of my clients' projects. About 3 weeks ago I was contacted by someone who read a thread here on Bigger Pockets where I was looking for a Joint Venture (JV) partner for a client of mine. Everything seemed to be going fine until it was time to get paperwork and time to deliver. At first there was some odd behavior, but I know some private investors operate in an odd fashion. Then things started to not add up.

This individual always called me from a blocked number. This individual used a generic email address (from mail.com). This individual had appraisals ordered to ensure the value was there and then demanded the client pay for it in cash. This individual had a supposed "team" of "girls" working in his office, but they all used his email address only. All of the people that emailed me, including him, all spoke in the same manner and all had the exact same poor grammar and spelling. All of the "girls" in the office all had names that began with the letter "J", including his. 

So at first these things seemed a little strange, but hey you know they can have a plausible explanation.  Then at an appraisal last week this investor who claimed to be from Texas was at an appraisal I ordered in Orange County, CA, in which he demanded it be paid in cash. He just showed up. When confronted about it he lied to me about it and said it was his brother. I was told by both my client and the appraiser that it was him and he introduced himself with the name he always gave me. This to me was a major RED FLAG. 

On the same day lots of documents were do for other clients of mine and I was getting stall tactics and weak responses from him and his "girls". I have many clients I work with that could have used his services. I was going to submit some more files to him and I let him know that and instantly I got responses about ordering a new appraisal for my new projects, without even submitting them yet for approval.

At this point my suspicions early on about questionable behavior turned into suspicions of a much more malevolent kind. Over the past few days communication with them has been non-existent. The strange thing is I don't really know what the scam was? Was he in cahoots with the appraiser to get a few hundred bucks? Seems like a lot of effort to simply get that small reward. Was he setting up a bigger fraud that hadn't happened yet? I don't know. I was always waiting for something really fishy to happen like demanding a major up front fee or something of that nature, but it never happened.

SOOOOO..... has anyone out there been confronted by someone like this? I need to know if people have. Please respond if you too have been looking for financing on here, or Joint Ventures etc... and have been confronted by this person or someone who sounds like him. OR... if you have worked with someone like this and they turned out to be legit than that would be very beneficial as well. I will not use their name yet as I want to be sure before I truly send the warning out. So please help.

DESCRIPTION:

- uses a mail.com email address

- has very thick southern accent, deep south

- sounds very knowledgeable

-demands for appraisals to be paid in cash

- always calls from a blocked number

- talks a really big game about having $30 million - $100 million to invest

If you know anything about this or are contacted by someone like this than please reach out to me. I appreciate it very much. Thank you.

[Charlie Fitzgerald]

Anywhere there is money...there are scammers.  This sounds like a classic case of advance fee scam to me.  Report anything you know about them to the Licensing Authorities in the State you were attempting to do the deal in, as well as any that they advertised as being able to do deals in.  That's how we police and clean up the industry to protect the people that are going to get sucked in by these people if we don't.  As the credible lenders in the space, it's up to us to do it.