Knowing if your lender or investor is a fraud

[Michael Roman]

Hello BP community,

I find that there are lots of sub-par companies and people out there and from our initial conversations with certain lenders or investors, I suspect them of being fraudulent.  Their emails feel copy pasted, there are lots of spelling errors, terms seem too favorable, requirements are vague, etc...

Does anyone have constructive advice on how to weed out potential lenders and investors or does anyone have any experience with a fraudulent investor/lender and wouldn't mind sharing their story?

Note that this is not applying to institutional money as that is easily verifiable.