Scams - slightly off-topic, but a timely reminder

[Iggy_Type_R]

Hi guys,

This is a bit left-field, but I just felt I had to share this with you all. I was poking around ASIC website today and stumbled upon the "Pie in the Sky" award, which they give to the biggest rip-off scam of the year as a reminder of who and what is out there.

Last year's winner is someone I actually knew of, and it brought back some painful memories and a vivid lesson. I was one of the first 20 people to be offered this scam about 2 years ago, and although it looked so TEMPTING (I was younger much more naivee) I declined. Reading that these guys are now in jail is comforting, but I bet not to the 220 people who parted with their $$$.

I am working my way to a point, to just stay with it for a second...

About 2-3 years ago was an interesting time for me personally, mainly because of the people I became involved with, both on a personal level and as business partners. For "some reason" in that time period I received so many of these offers, such as one to invest $100k in foreign exchange market scheme and get 200k back in 30 days. many many many of these came across my desk. Unfortunately, I did not avoid all of them and ended up parting with several hunderd thousand dollars.

So my point then - please please please be very weary of "This is an exclusive offer only for you to make xxx% return in 30-90 days"

This is especially for the younger people on the forum, people like me, in their early/mid 20s. It may seem like you stumbled upon something that somehow NO ONE knows about... if that's the case, either ask 5 people for their opinon (including on here) or run in the other direction as fast as you can. I though I was smarter than everyone when I was 22/23 and came about as close to loosing everything I have and most of what the people closest to me have because of that. Don't make the same mistake.

My second point is that when you come across these schemes, take a look at the people involved and ask yourself - "Why aren't the most successful in Australia people involved in this? If its' so good, wouldn't THEY have their money/time/whatever in this?" For some reason that question never occured to me when I was going through that time period... hmmmm.

I hope this helps...

 

[vandalic]

Thank you for the insight. I certainly feel sorry for the people that have to learn the hard way from such scams.

 

[The Y-man]

Live and Learn.....

Our first property deal was a scam - the development was fine. The guy "selling" it was a crim. We got sucked into paying him the 10% deposit and he disappeared.... leaving us with a binding contract.

Cheers,

The Y-man

 

[Simon]

Live and Learn.....

Our first property deal was a scam - the development was fine. The guy "selling" it was a crim. We got sucked into paying him the 10% deposit and he disappeared.... leaving us with a binding contract.

Cheers,

The Y-man

Was this resolved? Or did he get away with it?

Can you post more info as this is a story we can all learn from.

Thanks

 

[The Y-man]

Was this resolved? Or did he get away with it?

Can you post more info as this is a story we can all learn from.

Thanks

Resolved: Yes.
Did he get away with it: For while. The law eventually caught up with him.
Story we can all learn from: as in how to trick people out of there money?

My personal opinion is that the person in question may have started with good intentions. It was the late nineties, and he started one of those "investment advisory" services. i.e. would run your numbers thru a program and come up with some recommendations on a property you could buy as an investment. He would also recommend a broker and conveyancer, and best of all: no cost to you!! (i.e. ran off commissions from developers).

To cut a long story short, he recommended an apartment which we signed up for $300,000 (Big money then! Still big money!! ). Here's where the story goes a bit funny.

The person asks for the 10% deposit to be made to his advisory company. He will then pass this onto the developer Being young and naive we both accepted this on face value.

Of course, after signing up several other people, he never passed it on to the developer, and did a runner.

We were stuck with a $300k contract to be settled on completion. The conveyancing lawyers the guy introduced us to were fortunately very good (we still use them to this day) - and at the end of a long negotiation with the developers, they wrote off the deposit (i.e. we only needed to settle $270k).

Some years later, ASIC investigators (finally!!) came to interview us, took some statements - I believe they caught him in the end.

So for beginners:
1. Make sure the person selling you the property/development is authorised to do so.
2. Be careful who you pay the deposit to. Cash is hard to track.
3. Keep copies of all correspondence.

Cheers,

The Y-man