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Scam fits on every age and in every industry; it’s like the flu, which never ends because it always mutates. The era of the internet has not only brought new scams and frauds but also allowed local scams to become global, something like the globalization of fraud. The Internet makes the offer of the scammers more attractive while giving them better coverage to protect their identity. It does not mean that we should stop buying on the Internet but we must verify that both sellers and products are real.
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The call came from one of the partners of a company from a distant country. “Good morning detective, our company is preparing the purchase of 1,000 tablets from a dealer in your country. We need you to send an investigator to inspect the shipment, count the tablets, turn on some randomly to check that they really work, check that the model number matches the one that we requested and also we want you to supervise the load to the airport. This is all we want. Can you help us?
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“Of course,” I replied, “this kind of research is usually done in wholesale trade transactions, and of course our work will be discreet.” Then, I passed the budget and the client promise to send me all the information and payment for the service. But several days went by and I did not hear from this client anymore. Almost 10 days later, the man called me back and said “Detective, this has been horrible, my other two partners decided not to hire you because they thought it was not important to verify the products, the seller, nor the shipment. Yesterday, we received the shipment. Only 458 tablets arrived, many of them work but others are broken or not working at all, we received models that did not match the purchase order. We were charged $40,000 for products that are not worth more than $9,000. We are desperate because we already had these tablets sold to retailers in our country and now the seller’s phones are disconnected and we have no other way to make contact with them. We want to sue this company to recover our money. This scam can ruin our business. Can you help us?
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“Yes sir, that is one of my specialties, although I prefer to investigate to avoid fraud,” I replied, we fixed the agreement and we started with the investigation based on the data that appeared in the purchase invoice and the shipment manifesto, the end the only thing my clients had. Identifying the seller at first was not easy, but we succeeded. To start with this supposed seller, Esteban [name has been changed] did not even have a business license, much less export license. Neither had an office or warehouse, the address of the invoice is the address of another wholesale company, not associated with Esteban. The subject had a history of minor fraud and several debts. His real experience in this business was to sell “refurbished” electronic equipment, i.e. used and repaired devices for retail. The people we interviewed knew him well because he bought all the equipment damaged, repaired or that had lost much value due to the entry of new technologies to the market. In other words his specialty was the sale of technological junk. However, in fact, it promoted the sale of new equipment to a value lower than that offered by the average of the distributors; Tempting offer for unwary buyers. We located his residence and also his few properties, some in the name of his wife. His center of operations was his house and his old truck.
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The investigative report that I presented to my clients was a wakeup call because they thought they were in negotiations with a solid distribution company and not with a common scammer. Client stated that if they could not recover from this loss, they would dissolve their company and each partner would take its own way. Starting a civil and criminal lawsuit against Esteban would cost them a few thousand dollars more and these three partners no longer wanted to spend more money. Indeed, shortly afterwards the company dissolved, only one of the partners continued in the wholesale technology business and since then he has contracted my services every time he make a major purchase. As for Esteban I have not heard anything yet, most likely he continues in the same junk and scam business every time he find an unwary buyer.
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For your own safety, always check before making wholesale purchases, avoid buying blindly. Private investigators can be your best solution when it comes to verifying a person, a company, a major purchase, or as in this case avoiding a scam. Due diligence investigations can save you a lot of money, avoid dislikes, stress and even the dissolution of your own business.
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Beware of fraud, but if you need help, call us at 866-224-1245.
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August 5th, 2016
By Private Detective Fernando Alvarez
DIARIO LAS AMERICAS
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Even after so many years as a private detective, I am still amazed by the cunning of scammers and the naivety of many people. I understand that people are focused on their jobs and their lives and that they cannot devote time to learning how to detect fraud and avoid its harmful effects and that is why I hope these articles will help readers identify fraud or at least to feel the need to check before they trust. To confirm the importance of my advice, just remember that according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the year 2015 they received a total of 3,083,379 complaints of fraud, scams and identity theft in the United States.
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A call came from a humble family, “Detective, we have a problem and we need your help,” The person on the phone continued, “Before the economic depression we bought a house and we kept making the payments until we lost the house due to the lack of work and the high monthly mortgage. For about a year, we have been looking to buy a house again because we are a little more economically stable, but they did not give us loans because when we lost the house our credit was ruined. When we looked for the loan in different financial institutions, someone recommended Elena [name has been changed], a real estate agent who helped the families to get loans and also to find damaged houses, but at a very good price. We called Elena and she came to our house, she explained that her company had already helped many families to get loans and buy houses at better prices. The way she got the loans was paying good lawyers for complicated procedures and through gifts to contacts she had in financial institutions that helped her clients.
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To begin with the process, she requested a series of documents such as driver’s licenses, social security card, birth certificates, last IRS tax reports and copy of the checks we received from our jobs, we also gave you $15,000 in cash. Two weeks later, she brought us some documents to sign and we gave her $7,000 more. It has already been 7 months, we’ve paid $36,000 and she has not shown us the house that she supposedly already has for us. Now we are being asked $11,000 more to complete the process and we can receive the house. We want to investigate if the house really exists and if Elena is being honest with us. Do you think she is scamming us? “
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“It’s too early for me to come to a conclusion like that, but yes, this story sounds like fraud,” I replied to my client. We signed the agreement to begin the investigation. Afterwards, I began to ask my client some information about Elena to identify her and her company. I was amazed to discover that the only information that my clients had was the name of the real estate agent (Elena) without a last name, her cell phone number, a fax number and the name and address of the company, place never visited by the clients. They did not even have a copy of a signed contract, nor a business card from Elena. Unbelievable but true.
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With the little data we had, we began to investigate. The fax was virtual, the office address was from another company not related to Elena and the cell phone number was pre-paid and was not registered in anyone’s name. But we did the best we could to connect the pieces of this puzzle and found Elena’s identity, address, date of birth and multiple civil cases for fraud, illegal work without real estate license, identity theft, application by credit cards on behalf of other people, among other lawsuits for debts. Elena did not even have a home of her own as she had told my clients, but lived in a rented apartment. Elena had not, and had never had a real estate license, had no business of her own, but she had worked for a real estate agency years ago that was suspended for tax fraud.
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When I gave the results to my client, the husband became very angry and the wife burst into tears. They had believed in Elena’s many lies and did not decide to verify it until it was too late. I suggested that they bring the complaint to the prosecution so that justice so Elena can be brought to the court and to stopping her from scamming humble families, I also advised them to hire an identity protection service to prevent Elena from using their identities to commit fraud. They did not respond, their emotions were crushed, I never knew if they filed a police report or if they let themselves be carried away by the pain of being deceived and then decided to bury this matter. If they had hired me or if they had checked thoroughly before trusting Elena they would have saved their $36,000 and 7 months of false hope.
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For your own safety, and I will never stop to give this advice: “Check out people before you trust them”. Do not feel bad or embarrassed to ask for cards and licenses to the professionals you hire, a good professional will not refuse such a request. Visit them at their office, get a copy of each document you sign, find second opinions and at least check the reputation of that professional or company on the internet. Although your verification is basic, it will be much better than doing nothing at all.
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Beware of fraud, but if you need help, call us at 866-224-1245.
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August 28th, 2016
By Private Detective Fernando Alvarez
DIARIO LAS AMERICAS
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Contact us today if you need more information about:
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There are many free and democratic countries in the world. Many of which are very rich and developed, but the country that most attracts immigrants and tourists, is without a doubt, the United States of America. The United States has long been considered as “the land of opportunity”. 20% of the world’s immigration, 45.8 million people, reside in the United States and its attraction comes from it being the most solid and developed economy in the world, has an excellent high education infrastructure and is a multicultural country where people of each and every country of the world coexist. But the desperation of many people to achieve the “American dream” makes them fall into common frauds and scams as we will see below.
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I was contacted by the owner of an immigration paper preparation agency, located in a very close country, with the following case: “I have been preparing immigration procedures of many types, but mostly for individuals and families who are seeking to immigrate to the United States. My work is simple, I help people to fill out all the forms and I check that they have all the documents required to apply for the corresponding visa. Three months ago, I found myself losing clients and finally I discovered that it was due to a new competition in town, apparently, this agency has an agreement with people at the US consulate and the visa of their clients gets always approved. If this is true, this would be an illegal activity that must be reported to the United States government because visas cannot be sold. I need you to investigate and document this illegal activity for me.”
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“Of course we can do that,” I replied, but deep down I thought it was just the anger of an older person who was losing clients. We started the research immediately and the core became interesting. Angry or not, my client was right, there was a very good rip-off in progress.
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We began by identifying and verifying the agency and its owners. The agency was very well promoted and its office was very well equipped. Its owners were three people, Milena [name has been changed] her husband, and her son. Milena was the head of the business, had some problems for allegations of fraud and some debts in the past, but had already solved those problems and now was doing very well financially. Since the beginning of the migratory procedures business, the standard of living of the family had changed, now they were enjoying luxuries that before they could not even imagine and were living in the best neighborhood of the city. Because their background was not so bad and apparently the whole business was in order we decided to carry out covert operations to determine the mechanism and magnitude of the scam. It took us 3 weeks but we did it. I can assure you that of all the scams I’ve investigated, as a private detective, this is one of the cleanest and safest I’ve ever seen.
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Milena, her husband and her son performed daily immigration procedures like any other agency, earning honest and stable money, but what made the difference in their income was the “additional and confidential service” offered by their agency. Milena examined each client and if her case qualified for the scam this was offered in secrecy. If the client’s case was a possible visa approval, if the client was desperate and if his or her level of street intelligence was not very high then Milena explained that she worked side by side with the consulate and that for $1,500 dollars she assured him or her that the individual or family visa would be approved. “This service, Milena explained, has to be kept in secret, but it is 100% guaranteed if your visa does not approve, come back and we will refund you back your $1,500.” Customers were amazed and paid the $1,500 dollars without objection. Milena, as we could discover, had no special connection with the consulate, her scam was very simple, she charged the $1,500 dollars and if the visa was approved then the client will not return and she will keep the money, only those whose visa was denied returned to pick up their money. As we could calculate Milena earned about $15,000 per month for the scam, plus the high profits that gave her the services of the agency. In this way, Milena would never receive complaints from her clients because she would refund the money if the visa was not approved. The investigative report was complete and included witnesses, it was left to the client to initiate the complaint to the consumer protection entity to arrest Milena and he did it.
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While there is no a perfect or corruption free government agency, I can assure you that the US immigration system is very difficult to bribe, so be suspicious of fraud every time someone assures you that they have contacts inside that will approve your case no matter what. For your safety always be suspicious or you will end up losing your money.
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Beware of fraud, but if you need help, call us at 866-224-1245.
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September 11th, 2016
By Private Detective Fernando Alvarez
DIARIO LAS AMERICAS
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Scams are a very old type of crime that does adapt itself to each age with the same purpose: to take advantage of the trust of good people. Until two decades ago the scams by postal mail were very frequent but in our Internet age these crimes have tripled due to the facility offered by the internet, however, the postal mail scam has not been extinguished yet and apparently will continue to do damage to unsuspecting buyers. The following case is very recent.
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The call came from a desperate woman with the following case: “I am a working woman, single and with two children to maintain, for several years I have been working as a saleswoman in a department store and I have done well, I like sales and I am very good at selling products. A few weeks ago I saw an advertisement on television about a company that offered franchises selling perfumes and beauty products, I was very interested in the brands, the marketing strategy and the initial investment cost was just $3,000.I called the phone on the screen immediately and they explained to me about the products they included in the package plus an electronic tablet to record the sales and see the growth of this small but exciting business. Interestingly enough, I did not have to pay anything In advance, everything worked on cash-on-delivery (COD), they would send me the package by a private carrier and I should give the postman a money order in the amount of $3,000 to receive the package. This company indicated that the money order should be purchased in the United States Postal Office only, as they did not accept money orders from other institutions. I found it very safe and proceeded to order my investment package. My calculations were for a 50% profit once I sold those products. A few days later the private mail truck arrived, I gave the $3,000 money order and they gave me the box.
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I was very happy when I started to open the box to start organizing my sales and to my surprise, the products included were not from the promised brands but from brands of very poor quality, did not contain the quantity of products promised and did not include the tablet. The value of the products in the box did not exceed $100. I immediately called the company to ask for an explanation but when I introduced myself they hung up the phone and did not take any of my calls and finally disconnected the phone a few days later. When I realized the scam I filed a complaint with the police and then with the copy of the complaint I filed another complaint at the postal office to stop the money order of $3,000 but I was informed that according to their policies they can only stop the payment until after 60 days of purchase. I explained to them that it would be too late because by that time the fraudsters would have taken the money, but the reply of the Postal Office remained negative. I then showed up at the private carrier office to file a complaint and request that they stop the delivery of the money order but they told me that legally who paid for the mail services was the sender and therefore they have to make the delivery and were unable to stop it, that they could only carry out an investigation until much later. I cannot believe that the system will not allow me to recover my money. I cannot believe that the system protects these criminals more than honest people. Do you think we can locate these criminals?
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“We have to try,” I replied. The system is designed for an ideal world and so it works but as it is known, criminals use the benefits of the system for their own benefit and to harm third parties and the system is very slow to detect these type of crimes and re-adjust to avoid them. It is sad but that is the reality and I do not think it will change much, because criminals will always look for a way to be one step ahead of justice. At the same time, I congratulated her for having proceeded to file the complaints with the police, postal office, and the private carrier. Many people do not do it out of shame without realizing that is precisely what the criminals want.
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We began the investigation with the few data the client had, a couple of phone numbers, the TV ad information, the sender’s address and other data she had collected while making the complaints. The supposed office phones were actually pre-paid cell phones that were not registered, television ads as we could confirm were paid in cash and the name registered was more common than the stones. The address of the sender was located in a warehouse within a junky area of a city located at the other side of the country. This store was not associated with the company that had ripped off my client, and maybe many more people. With the information of the private mail, we were able to determine the date on which they should deliver the money order in that warehouse and we established surveillance from very early in the morning. The private carrier truck arrived at about 11.30am, but the warehouse remained empty, the postman approached the door and rang a doorbell that had a video camera and an intercom, after exchanging a few words with the other party the postman left the mail in an external mailbox. After the postman left, Enrique [name has been changed] arrived walking to the warehouse and picked up the correspondence, from there he walked a few minutes and entered an apartment building, a building that look like the ones used on horror movies. Hours later Enrique left the building, boarded a vehicle parked in the street and left. Minutes later he arrived to a post office and cashed several money orders without any problem. The following hours of surveillance provided a lot of interesting data. Enrique was a convicted felon who had already purged some years of jail, but he was not the head of this business but only the person who collected the money in exchange for a percentage. My client was satisfied with the information obtained but although I suggested that we continue with the investigation she preferred to hand over the evidence we had obtained to the authorities and demand them to continue with the investigation. Police arrested Enrique a few weeks later.
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For your own safety, do not rely on every offer you see on the advertisements on the television, radio, magazines or the internet. Verify them before paying. Remember that hundreds of scams happen every day.
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Beware of fraud, but if you need help, call us at 866-224-1245.
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October 13th, 2016
By Private Detective Fernando Alvarez
DIARIO LAS AMERICAS
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Contact us today if you need more information about:
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Scams and fraud come in many different forms and can shake the business world to small, medium and large-sized companies. Although, one of the most expensive is, without a doubt, work-related injury fraud which is also known as false workers compensation claims. This type of fraud costs millions of dollars to businesses and, especially, to insurance companies across the country every year.
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The call came from an entrepreneur who had been referred to my agency. “Detective, two months ago an employee of mine Gonzalo [name have been changed], stopped attending work, when we called him said that he had injured while working the week before and that his doctor had sent him to rest. Few days later we received a notification that Gonzalo had filed a worker’s compensation insurance claims stating that he had fallen during work at my company and that his back and shoulder pain did not allow him to have a normal life anymore. The security cameras of the company did not observe the fall either, although it is true that they do not cover the entire perimeter. All our employees have compensation insurance for cases like this, so it is the insurance company who will cover the expenses for his medical recovery but we were informed that the insurance will subsequently raise our premiums. We believe Gonzalo is lying about his accident and his medical condition. If it is a fraud we want to get enough evidence to unmask it. Can you help us?”
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“Of course,” I replied, “if it’s fraud, we’re going to find out.” We started the investigation watching Gonzalo at his house, but no activity was observed in the first two days of surveillance. We proceeded to establish the simultaneous surveillance in his house and in the medical clinic where he was attending because we obtained information about a scheduled appointment with his doctor. Gonzalo entered the clinic shortly before 11:00 am but he was never observed leaving his house, which showed that Gonzalo was lying about his residence. As he left the clinic, Gonzalo walked slowly and with difficulty, he advanced a block, entered his vehicle and then departed, not before making several laps in a circle to be sure no one would follow him, but we are already prepared to handle these tricks. We followed him for almost two hours to a residence in a small town; hours later we confirmed that this was the real residence of Gonzalo’s. The next day, we watched Gonzalo washing his vehicle, which included crouching, bending his knees, bending his back, and moving his shoulders a lot, quite the opposite of what a person should do with the supposed pains that he said he was suffering. Of course, everything was recorded in high definition video. Maybe this evidence was enough, but a good hunter must have patience and we do not lack any. About 6:00pm, Gonzalo came out of his house in sportswear, first walking, then began to run as a good athlete would and minutes later, he arrived at a second residence, his friend’s house, and in the courtyard of the same home, both were observed lifting dumbbells. Everything was recorded in detail, to the point that the video clearly showed the maximum of 270 pounds that Gonzalo raised in one of his many physical exercises. Bingo! Now we were ready to proof Gonzalo’s fraudulent claim.
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Once we completed the reports, videos and photographs, they were delivered to the client, who was very happy. The client met with the workers’ compensation insurance representative and handed him the results of our investigation, which proved in irrefutable evidence of the lies Gonzalo faked in his fraudulent claim. A few weeks later, during a meeting with the insurance lawyers and Gonzalo’s lawyers, the evidence was presented and in the light of it all, Gonzalo had no choice but to withdraw his claim and disappeared with his tail between his legs, so to speak. Our investigation had saved the insurance company more than $50,000 and hundreds of dollars from our client in an imminent rise of the insurance premium.
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Whether or not you have compensation insurance for your employees, it is always a good idea to investigate these claims. While many are justified claims, there are people who get involved with clinics and lawyers of dubious reputations to defraud insurance companies and businesses. This type of fraud affects us all because the greater the number of frauds, the greater the premiums of our insurance. For the well being of you and your company, always investigate these claims.
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Beware of fraud, but if you need help, call us at 866-224-1245.
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October 16th, 2016
By Private Detective Fernando Alvarez
DIARIO LAS AMERICAS
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Contact us today if you need more information about:
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The economic crisis that began a few years ago brought many problems for people of all ages and socioeconomic levels, depression affected us all in one way or another. The crises create economic losses, job layoffs, scarce resources and all these generate in turn much desperation and confusion in the population. Unfortunately, many people were left to be convinced by offers that were contrary to the “common sense”, offers too good to be true. As the saying goes, ” It’s good fishing in troubled waters.” Although, in this case its only good for scammers.
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It was a humble family who requested my services and began to tell their story, “Detective, since we arrived in this city, we have been living with our relatives, who have given us all the help we need and although our economy is precarious due to the lack of better jobs, It was already time for us to rent an apartment of our own. We started to look for but the monthly payments they requested were too high in the areas we wanted to live. We desperately searched in areas farther away from the city where prices were more adjusted to our possibilities. While we were visiting places for rent we observed a poster on the street offering an apartment with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathroom, patio and parking for two vehicles, located in an area much closer to the area that we wanted and at an incredible price, only $1,100 per month. We called the phone number and Rodolfo [name changed], the real estate agent who answered it, set us up to see the apartment that same Saturday evening at 7:30pm. We were so excited that we arrived before 7:00pm, Rodolfo arrived at about 7:30pm and we entered the apartment. It was impeccable and very spacious, really a bargain, as the price of similar apartments exceeded $1,500 in that area. He told us that if we wanted to occupy it immediately we should pay it in money order or cash because if we write a check then it would take a week for him to give us the keys. The total to pay was $3,300 to cover the first month, the last month and the security deposit. We agreed without thinking, because we were afraid of him renting it to another person, we paid the $3,300 in cash and signed the contract. Rodolfo handed over the keys to us while apologizing for having been able to fix the front door lock. The truth is that we did not realize when entering that the lock was broken due to having been forced, the key did not worked. He asked us to change the lock ourselves and to pass the bill to him for a refund. We were so happy that we did not give much importance to that little problem. The next day, we started with the move. On Monday morning a man dressed in a suit with the police arrived and asked us what we were doing in the apartment. It was a very unpleasant situation. Everything was a fraud, Rodolfo was not the real estate agent assigned to that property, the rent was $1,700 per month and the contract was false. We had simply been scammed. The police took the statement for their report and informed us that such frauds were occurring very frequently in that area. We called Rodolfo’s phone but it was already disconnected. We want to locate Rodolfo to seek justice. Can you help us?”
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“Everything indicates that it was a well-planned scam, by someone who has done it in the past, but we can still investigate to see what we find,” I responded to this desperate family, who had fallen into the trap of a cunning swindler. Although the chances of success were very low because they only had a disconnected phone, a probably false name, the photograph of the advertisement and a contract that was more false than a $4 bill.
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The initial investigation did not take long to confirm that the phone was prepaid and that there were several Rodolfo who were real estate agents in that area, but their photographs were not identified by my clients as the scammer. There was not enough information in this case, but I passed the photo of the street poster to my investigators in the field just in case they observed similar posters while doing other investigations. In three days, my investigators collected photos of 11 listings of rentals too cheap to be real. We proceeded to call each of the phones and chose 2 which seemed interesting due to the similarity with the characteristics of Rodolfo. Our customers identified Rodolfo’s voice, proceeded to prepare a bait operation and effectively my plan did not fail. Rodolfo quoted us to the apartment on the advertisement; we recorded everything with hidden cameras. As part of the plan we did not reach to an agreement and Rodolfo left in his vehicle, subtly followed by our investigators. After 2 hours and many laps Rodolfo arrived to a very nice house and parked the vehicle in the garage, inside we could observe another vehicle and write down the plates. The vehicle used by Rodolfo to attend the appointment used unregistered plates but the second vehicle observed in the garage of his house was in the name of who was later identified as his female partner. Rodolfo, whose last name was different, had been a real estate agent long ago in another city but had lost his license for lawsuits and complaints received by his clients. Although Rodolfo came to play bottom economically to the point of declaring bankruptcy the previous year, he now lived very well. As we were able to find out later, Rodolfo had an accomplice, a young criminal to whom Rodolfo paid to break the locks of empty apartments before shows them to possible clients, so Rodolfo could enter the apartment and show it without problem, always in the afternoon when it was safer.
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The report and evidence was presented to my clients and later to the police. My clients went further by filing a small claim in court and a complaint to the prosecution office. I do not know what happened later to Rodolfo, but nothing good could have ended because his crime was not only that of scam but also that of trespassing.
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For your own safety never act under the effects of desperation, analyze the situation coldly and stop if you notice that the offer is too good to be true. Check the licenses of the professionals you hire visit them in their offices and be sure to sign a contract that is real. If you are hesitant to rent, contact a real estate agent with good references to act as your agent. Think before you act.
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Beware of fraud, but if you need help please contact us at 866-224-1245.
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October 30, 2016
By Private Detective Fernando Álvarez
DIARIO LAS AMERICA
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