Anybody worked with Elue Lee with El Solutions LLC for funding?

Question

I was contacted by a woman named Faith Lee on Linked In. She works for El Solutions LLC. The website for them shows they do payday type loans, small amounts. I told her I don't think there would be any need since I need RE funding. She then says that they do as well at favorable terms. I researched a bit more and found info on the owner name of Eleu Lee. He is on Connected Investors, the lower quality RE site. His company name is on there as well. I gave Faith some info on funding I am needing and had Eleu call me. He had a hard accent and the company is based in CA but his number was from Minnesota, not that that is a big deal as people bring their numbers from other areas. So I am just a bit sketchy as I would like to vet them better. The NMLS # for Faith on her Linked in profile, I did a search for that and it pulled up a different name for someone in IA. So that alone makes me even more suspicious, I can see if there was a typo or something that could cause the error.

So, has anybody heard of or even better, worked with these people? I have to lean toward staying away from them unless there is somebody here that can prove they have worked with them and had a good experience. Thanks!

Tim Swierczek · Answer

@Don Spafford reputable lenders and loan officers usually check out quite easily. And while I agree a single typo on an NMLS# would be easy to do and would return an incorrect result, The NMLS allows search by name. I searched for Faith Lee and not one person came up with that name. This sounds like a classic scam artist to me. They are ether after good faith deposit money which wil cost you thousands, or your identity which could cost you 10X the deposit. Run from these folks unless you have given them your personal data, inwhich case I recommend you get law enforcement involved.

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

its this exact broken / bad english that is the tell for all these scammers. On top of that to legally lend money and be based in the Bay Area CA you must either be a licensed RE broker Like me.. NMLS like meor Consumer finance license which i dont have.. and i suspect none of these folks have any of those. NMLS is a great search took very accurate all you need is correct spelling and you pull up the licensee and their history

Don Spafford · Answer

Account Closed Thanks for chiming in. However, it does also seem suspicious that you are a new member on BP and your first and only post is to support this lender. So I don't think you have helped the case for El Solutions. I hope you are legit and just happened to stumble on this post after joining. But I already told them that I did not feel comfortable doing business with them. Ms Lee's picture was much like yours in a way, I would expect to hear a certain voice based on the picture. Like if I spoke with you and the photo you have as your image here on BP I would not expect a strong Middle Eastern accent, European maybe could pass if there was any accent.

Don Spafford · Answer

Just to follow up here. I asked "Faith" to call me. Her profile pic on Linked In looks too perfect. When she called, the voice/accent on the phone did not even come close to matching what one would expect based on the picture. I have nothing against accents, my wife is from South America and has an accent as well, perfectly fine, but her accent would match what you would expect. Faith's most certainly did not. So just put this warning out there to anybody to do as much vetting on any "financial" lender as you possibly can. Think outside the box to find out if they match their profile and if there are red flags, you will be better off to walk away than to get scammed. In this case I asked to do a skype call as well so I could see her talking as well to verify the profile. She said she would send me her skype id to call. I doubt that will happen. If she does I will still call just for fun. I like to call these loser scammers out.

Don Spafford · Answer

@Tim Swierczek Thanks. yes, I used that same site to search for the NMLS#, didn't think to search by name as there could potentially be many. But thanks for searching anyway. Could definitely be that some scammers work hard to display a reputable image on professional sites like Linked In for those not willing to research. And no, I have not given then any personal info.

John Woodrich · Answer

I am not sure what your goals are but I wouldn't pursue these odd financing types unless I was desperate or if I couldn't get it done another way. Stick to your local institutional loans and local HMLs when needed. Through networking you may find additional resources but I wouldn't be jumping states to secure financing, if it is a good deal you won't have trouble finding it.

Don Spafford · Answer

@Eleu Lee I am not bashing you, nor did I even bash the imposter. I simply asked a question. Its unfortunate your friends didn't respond when the post was fresh several months ago. And I was not duped, thankfully. I am just here adding to a post that was started months ago after you brought it back to the front. You have made yourself clear that you are the victim and that is fine. Everyone who reads this will see you faithfully defending yourself. You do not however need to make threats against me through PM, as that is how it came across, nor do I need to call you as honestly, that will not prove anything. I am busy, as I'm sure you are, and find it difficult to find time to have a conversation about a problem I did not cause. We won't meet in person and therefore I would not know who is on the other end of the line anyway. Anybody could just as easily call you at the number on your website pretending to be me and you would not know if it was me or not either. You should just leave it as-is since you have done your part and anybody who looks this up will see that there was this problem you had and it has since been cleared up. So all is well and therefore as you say your reputation will be enough to continue having people work with you.Again, I'm sorry you had to go through that horrible experience, I would not wish that on anybody. It is a terrible thing. Unfortunately bad people are out there and take advantage like that.Also, I do not see a way to remove the post anyway. All I can do is update, quote, or ignore user. Nothing more. It would seem that only Administrators at BiggerPockets can remove a post. Feel free to contact them and have them review it and remove it at their discretion.

Eleu Lee · Answer

Hey, Don. Let's talk. You keep referencing the real Eleu Lee as if you don't believe me or my friends. Here is my real LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eleu-lee/ This is where I keep most of my professional contacts. 29 Years of hard work, Fortune 100 employers, references, solid education and global networking summed up in a single profile. FYI - Brad is one of SF's finest 1st responders with a wife and life full of integrity; and investing is what brought our minds together. We have 3 active deals along with investors who know us, believe in us, and trust us. Since becoming aware of this post last week, I have sent you multiple private messages though you seem to trivialize your posting rather than seeing the damage it has caused. I have been fighting this scammer for almost a 12 months, submitted 4 FBI reports via IC3.gov, 2 reports to FTC, multiple reports to local law enforcement here in NorCal, as well as reports to LinkedIn, ConnectedInvestors, MyHouseDeals.com... and I thought it was over when their site was taken down. I even physically moved to safeguard my family and home. You still think this is trivial? If one of my partners had not seen your post last week, I would still not know about your post which was active in 4 months ago. Call me. You have my phone number. Use it. Then you can retract your post and admit you were duped. In the end, I will still have the burden of knowing there still may be others who were duped by this fraudster/scammer. Eleu Lee

Don Spafford · Answer

@Brad Setterlund I hope you are a real person and speaking the truth. I have been waiting to post this to see if anybody else would chime in ad to monitor your activity.However I think your comment here does more harm than good. Just as the person above from several months ago who has since been removed, your ONE and ONLY comment or post on BP was on this specific thread to defend the person named. That to me seems suspicious. just as it did with the last person who did it and has since been removed.As for doing due diligence, that is exactly what I was doing by coming to BP to find out if anybody has ever worked with that person or the company. I reviewed the NMLS # provided, I even looked into the address which was apparently inside a mall. As was mentioned above, the company website was spoofed, email, etc. So therefore going to your website would not have get me anywhere more than what it did when I researched it. And even now, there is more than one EL Solutions company name and more than one Eleu Lee on LinkedIn, neither one with a profile picture. That Faith Lee person has since also been removed from LinkedIn as we have pointed out that fraud here, likely is still there using a different alias. I do hope that the Eleu above is for real and telling the truth. And again, I did search for that name here in BP when this all came up but nothing appeared, which is again why I asked about it in this thread. The funny thing is that the photo image used looks exactly like the same type of too perfect picture that Faith Lee's profile used on LinkedIn. Not like a good professional picture, but too much like a stock image pulled from the internet.Again, I am not speaking good or bad I am just here asking and making known my experience. the fact is, the "real" Eleu above has come here and stated that he was a victim of fraud. That is unfortunate and I am sorry for that, however people should be aware that there is a fraudster out there using that name and people should be cautious and do their due diligence.What I have yet to see is an ACTIVE BP member add to this thread sharing their positive experience with the real person/company.Therefore, I will not remove this post, if I even can I've not sure. BP can. So if there is an issue it can be sent to BP to have them look into it and remove it if they feel it is unfounded. Anybody that is going to work with anybody on an investment deal should ALWAYS look into the person they are working with BEFORE providing any personal info or money/property.

Caleb Heimsoth · Answer

@Don Spafford. This will always be a scam. No lender ever is going to contact you on LinkedIn or BP or Facebook or whatever. Want to know the easiest way to figure out it’s a scam, each and every time? Just tell them you have a 900 credit score. If they say anything besides “that’s impossible” (which it is) you know it’s a scam.