Has anyone else been contact by this person and group?
Apparently he says that he has 3 people interested in backing your project, has you fly out to California to meet with him and pay a $5000 - $7000 retainer fee. Then nothing materializes. I was able to avoid this by reading posts on other blogs from several people who had the same exact experience of this guy taking their money.
Monday, November 20, 2006
Venture Capital Brokers & The Up Front Fee & Agreement Scam
http://www.eagletraders.com/venture_capital/venture_fraud.htm
Venture Capital Brokers & The Up Front Fee & Agreement ScamScams To Watch For (If you are seeking investment)
If you use a planning to deal with a Venture Capital broker or a middleman to try find you an investor or a venture capitalist, you may be asked to pay a large up front fee in advance before any financing has been obtained.The fee may be called a processing fee, finders fee, or credit application fee. In some cases you will be told the financing is in place in which your asked to pay for insurance to insure the loan or the financing. This scam is known as the insurance fee scam.
Prior to being told about the up front fee you will be put through an exhaustive array of frustrating paper work which will include credit applications, the business plan, references, co-signers, numerous interviews etc..Even if you are told the fee is completely refundable you may very well have trouble collecting the fee (through the court system) if the middleman has no assets.
Just know in this scenario there are thousands of fraudulent companies and fraudulent middlemen who make their living scamming for these processing fees. The agreement between you will be so fine that you may find yourself in the cold as a result of some unconditional clause in the contract. There are hundreds of reasons why you could be denied independent financing under the contact.This processing fee scam has gotten so bad there has been new legislation written in many States and Provinces to protect consumers from such scams. This scam is most commonly found in the mortgage broker and loan broker field.
Have the broker give you the names of 10 to 20 companies where financing has been successfully obtained. NOT REFERENCES. It must be people or companies who can confirm they have obtained financing through the broker.Pick up the phone and call out to these individuals. If you don't get a list of company names assume its a scam and move on. Beware of email addresses without web site extensions that may be hard to trace:(i.e. @hotmail.com @aol.com)
If you are nervous about paying the refundable processing fee insist the money be paid to your lawyer "in trust" who will disburse the funds only when the financing is in place. It must be your lawyer, and not the lawyer acting for the middleman.
There are a number of legitimate middlemen out their who work on a No Find No Fee basis your going to have to call around. A reputable real estate lawyer or securities lawyer should be able to refer you to someone.We are not stereotyping these middlemen. We suggest that if you are dealing with an individual or a company of whom you don't know you must check references. You may even wish to perform a litigation search to see if the middleman has ever been a defendant in a law suit. This basic search should cost you no more than $100.00.
Venture Capital Brokers & The Up Front Fee & Agreement ScamScams To Watch For (If you are seeking investment)
If you use a planning to deal with a Venture Capital broker or a middleman to try find you an investor or a venture capitalist, you may be asked to pay a large up front fee in advance before any financing has been obtained.The fee may be called a processing fee, finders fee, or credit application fee. In some cases you will be told the financing is in place in which your asked to pay for insurance to insure the loan or the financing. This scam is known as the insurance fee scam.
Prior to being told about the up front fee you will be put through an exhaustive array of frustrating paper work which will include credit applications, the business plan, references, co-signers, numerous interviews etc..Even if you are told the fee is completely refundable you may very well have trouble collecting the fee (through the court system) if the middleman has no assets.
Just know in this scenario there are thousands of fraudulent companies and fraudulent middlemen who make their living scamming for these processing fees. The agreement between you will be so fine that you may find yourself in the cold as a result of some unconditional clause in the contract. There are hundreds of reasons why you could be denied independent financing under the contact.This processing fee scam has gotten so bad there has been new legislation written in many States and Provinces to protect consumers from such scams. This scam is most commonly found in the mortgage broker and loan broker field.
Have the broker give you the names of 10 to 20 companies where financing has been successfully obtained. NOT REFERENCES. It must be people or companies who can confirm they have obtained financing through the broker.Pick up the phone and call out to these individuals. If you don't get a list of company names assume its a scam and move on. Beware of email addresses without web site extensions that may be hard to trace:(i.e. @hotmail.com @aol.com)
If you are nervous about paying the refundable processing fee insist the money be paid to your lawyer "in trust" who will disburse the funds only when the financing is in place. It must be your lawyer, and not the lawyer acting for the middleman.
There are a number of legitimate middlemen out their who work on a No Find No Fee basis your going to have to call around. A reputable real estate lawyer or securities lawyer should be able to refer you to someone.We are not stereotyping these middlemen. We suggest that if you are dealing with an individual or a company of whom you don't know you must check references. You may even wish to perform a litigation search to see if the middleman has ever been a defendant in a law suit. This basic search should cost you no more than $100.00.
PM Connections - Pam Batchelder
This blog has been created to help aspiring entrepreneurs avoid the various venture capital scams that are defrauding them of their hard earned money. This is my story.
I was recently defrauded of almost $100,000 by this PM Connections of South Hadley, MA and Keene, NH. Pam Batchelder called me from my profile on MyCapital.com, told me she had a private investor willing to back my project. I made my first mistake by advancing funds when she said she had an investor lined up (now I know to never pay ANY up front fees without consulting an attorney skilled in dealing with these transactions). She said she had an investor who would provide a $5 million line of credit.
The con went on from there. Everything appeared to going smoothly, a closing date was supposedly set, and as the date approached, everything started falling apart (probably because it was never going to close).
IF ANYONE IS WORKING WITH, THINKING OF WORKING WITH, OR HAS BEEN DEFRAUDED BY PAM BATCHELDER / PM CONNECTIONS PLEASE EMAIL VENTURECAPITALSCAMS@HOTMAIL.COM. THE FBI IS LOOKING FOR ANYONE ELSE WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THIS SCAM.
I was recently defrauded of almost $100,000 by this PM Connections of South Hadley, MA and Keene, NH. Pam Batchelder called me from my profile on MyCapital.com, told me she had a private investor willing to back my project. I made my first mistake by advancing funds when she said she had an investor lined up (now I know to never pay ANY up front fees without consulting an attorney skilled in dealing with these transactions). She said she had an investor who would provide a $5 million line of credit.
The con went on from there. Everything appeared to going smoothly, a closing date was supposedly set, and as the date approached, everything started falling apart (probably because it was never going to close).
IF ANYONE IS WORKING WITH, THINKING OF WORKING WITH, OR HAS BEEN DEFRAUDED BY PAM BATCHELDER / PM CONNECTIONS PLEASE EMAIL VENTURECAPITALSCAMS@HOTMAIL.COM. THE FBI IS LOOKING FOR ANYONE ELSE WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THIS SCAM.
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