Investment fraud: Scams, schemes and me

Here’s why I don’t like to write about fraud:

It’s always the same story over and over again.

Somebody with bad intent swindles an investor because the investor didn’t look into the person, the brokerage or the investment. The investor trusted. Asked no others for advice. Didn’t check the background. Assumed because the person was on the radio or in his church that it was all good. Never heard a negative word about the person.

Second reason I don’t like to write about fraud: There’s too much of it. It could be all I ever write about.

Last week, an official with the Securities and Exchange Commission said the SEC has “dozens” of investigations underway, looking for fraud in hedge funds, in derivatives, in mortgages, in homebuilders.

Fraud surrounds us, especially in South Florida, where daily, it seems, court cases and law enforcement officials have a growing, never-ending stream of cases.

Each one is important.

And that’s why, even though I don’t like it, I write fraud stories anyway.
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Comments

Do you have anything on a co. that sells portals and will set up a website for iphone owners to download from your site free music etc. It's called thephonewiz.com and www.allappsportal.com/mbrAdmin/login.htm their phones don't work and they have stock returnletters to answer email that don't answer your questons. It certainly seems like fraud to me. VG

Posted by: vivian glass | March 24, 2009 1:05 PM

No, I haven't heard about them. But keep trying. I had an experience like that with an email firm that didn't seem real, but it turned out they were....
hjb

Posted by: Harriet Johnson Brackey | March 24, 2009 1:45 PM

In this time of financial crisis, we really have to be cautious with our transactions specially online to avoid fraudulence. Remember, every centavo counts. :)

Posted by: eq2 plat | March 24, 2009 11:50 PM

WHAT IS A PONZI SCHEME?
According to SEC filing dated October 30, 2006 - Sidney D. "Trip" Camper was fired from Elandia Inc. when the Ahkoy family fell victim to investment fraud headed by Elandia's Allen Stanford and Trip Camper. Forced to resign by Allen Stanford himself (see SEC link below), Trip Camper moved on to his next victim, a private company in Los Angeles. In true School of Stanford form, Trip Camper promised to take the private company public. Instead, Trip Camper recruited a new partner in crime, Ed Berkhof and together they formed a "shell" holding company, milked the private company of thousands of dollars, illegally obtained company stock and pretended to be the company owners- and owners of all the assets. By pretending to own the company's assets, Trip Camper and Ed Berkhof worked to dupe private investors out of capitol that they used to pay themselves and their creditors. This is a Ponzi Scheme. Instead of taking the company public, Trip Camper and Ed Berkhof spent thousands of dollars, took a trip to London on a company American Express card, performed a hostile takeover, and ruined the honest, profitable company. Since then, the Ahkoy family is suing Elandia Inc., Allen Stanford is in Federal prison, and the FBI is seeking out Allen Stanford's network of thieves. Don't let this happen to you.

http://www.secinfo.com/d14D5a.v6Q98.c.htm

Posted by: gerald | July 30, 2009 7:50 PM