Thursday, March 15, 2007

Beware Of This Scam

There are folks in the area, primarily working with some guys in Canada (Calgary/Lethbridge area) who are running what appears to be a scam. Here's how it works.

A person might approach you to invest in a ticket selling outfit. The idea is that you loan money to the ticket jobber, and they use the money to buy tickets to various events; concerts, sporting events, whatever. While they have your money they pay you some really nice interest rate; 8% per month in one case, and I've heard of others that pay from 5 - 10% per month. Which works out to 96%, 60%, and 120% yearly. You can take the monthly interest, or leave it in to compound. In the first example, your 8% monthly would compound to 152% annually. Pretty sweet.

At this point you're thinking "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

What the hook is, is that people who invest actually get the monthly interest, at least for a while So your friend, relative or neighbor, who you know and trust, will tell you about this great investment and report how he or she has actually been getting monthly checks.

The scam usually requires at least a $10,000 investment, so your neighbor might tell you how she's been getting $800 for the last few months. It looks like the investment is sound. The ticket jobber supposedly uses money to buy bulk tickets at a discount, then sells them at face price, making great money. They even have websites that look like they're legit.

It seems like right now the scam is in the expansion phase, and new investor cash flow allows the scammers to pay the older investors interest, so an ever growing network of people are recommending investing. At some point, the scammers are going to quit and run with the money.

If you know of anyone who has been approached for this scheme, I'd like to know about it. Please leave me a comment, or email me at idablue(at)cableone(dot)net.

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