# Canada good hunting ground for scam artists?



## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Watched another repeat segment on W5 last night on scam artists exposed.

This one (Unorthodox loans) was about a "mortgage broker" in the GTA that operated an online business (CFC Canadian Funding Corporation)and promised financing on those kind of high ratio mortgage business deals that regular banks or financiers wouldn't touch for one reason or another. 

The catch in this scam was that in order to get the mortgage financing, the person applying had to pay an up front fee of several thousand (or even millions, in the case of Florida condominium developer that came to him for financing.)

http://www.throng.ca/w5/w5-investigates-convicted-fraudster-behind-money-lending-scheme-march-19-ctv

A PEI couple that went to him, to secure financing for a nursing home got burnt for over 30K in up front fees, and he never came through with any money for them.
They got the financing they needed eventually from another source,
and sued CFC, won their case, but so far haven't been able to collect 1 cent from this criminal that keeps changing his name, identity and even religion. He changed
his name to Moshe <?> and Judaism and donated some money to the synagogue.

At first the Rabbi believed in him, as he claimed he was repentant for his former life and fraudulent ways, and wanted to change. Can a leopard change his spots? 

The Rabbi believed him, even defended him in court over a major law suit that
Hutchens caused a "paint ball business"owner who wanted to expand, to lose everything including his car, so in the end he only got 2 years of house arrest instead of prison.

While in house arrest, he just opened up another mortgage fraud business and resumed his evil ways of defrauding people. The Rabbi on tv interview, mentioned
he returned any money not yet spent, and kicked Hutchens out of the synagogue.
But he just changes his business name and continues defrauding people. 
He even bilked a cancer survivor of $40,000. 

I bet he doesn't pay any income tax on the fraudulent fees he collects either. 

It seems that this is quite common now across Canada.


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## financialnoob (Feb 26, 2011)

I think this ties in with the financial responsibility thread in many ways. I feel bad for those who are scammed, but this type of thing happens all over the world way more than it should, and while governments can toughen laws and prioritize enforcement, it ultimately comes down to the individuals involved. No one is forcing them to do anything with their money.

I saw a woman talking to an "Edward Jones investment advisor" at the mall. I put that in quotes because I have no idea if he was legit. That's just what his name tag said, along with whatever his name was. He was standing outside of the Body Shop with a suitcase, showing her glossy charts, and I was just shaking my head. I don't know if that was a scam or not, but seriously lady, WTF.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

financialnoob said:


> it ultimately comes down to the individuals involved. No one is forcing them to do anything with their money.


FN; I understand the the fact that no one is forcing them to do anything with their money..but this is not a case of investment fraud..like the 
"all that glitters..is not gold" segment, where gullible investors (ok seniors)
tempted by huge returns of 35% on their money, commit hundreds of thousands without doing due diligence. That couple mentioned they were embarrassed for 
being so naive and falling for the scam...Greed. 

In this W5 segment "Unorthodox loans"..(obviously a pun on the fact that he
became an orthodox Jew to perhaps throw the authorties off his tail, 
since he was already known as a criminal), he deliberately scammed those
LOOKING for money to expand their business. In the case of the PEI
couple, who looked after seniors inside their home (as a business) wanted
to buy a seniors residence, when it came up for sale at 1 million. Being a
young couple, they did not have the collateral assets or combined income
to qualify with regular lending institutions.

This is when they came to him. I think their accountant was involved in
selecting this fraud artist (CFC), but not sure about the extent he was 
involved, maybe just a recommendation and they found the scam artist
online. When the fraud artist wanted money up front to arrange the
loan or mortgage in this case, they had to borrow over 30K from
family and friends, and write him a check. 

They never got their money back, even though they sued and the courts
passed judgement on CFC, which simply folded up and started again under
another name. 



> I saw a woman talking to an "Edward Jones investment advisor" at the mall. I put that in quotes because I have no idea if he was legit. That's just what his name tag said, along with whatever his name was. He was standing outside of the Body Shop with a suitcase, showing her glossy charts, and I was just shaking my head. I don't know if that was a scam or not, but seriously lady, WTF.


I've had those guys come to my door too.
I think they hired solicitors, paid by Edward Jones, to try to drum up business. I told the guy that came to my door (with the name tag and attache case) "No thanks, I don't have any money to invest anymore...
my ex and divorce lawyers got to it first".


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

The problem is that the consumer organizations are provincial so if he based in Ontario and scamming people in Florida or the Maritimes, there is little incentive.

Also these loans things actually say that you commit the fee but they don't commit to the funding. So there is nothing illegal about taking fees.

In the US, the FBI can chase them if they operate out-of-state.The main protection is Caveat Emptor.


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## Karen (Jul 24, 2010)

Perhaps I'm being too harsh, but I find it very difficult to sympathize with people who fall for these scams. With the massive amount of publicity that has appeared in the media over the last few years, how can people possibly not know to be suspicious? I watched another elderly woman on the news recently who had lost $30,000 to someone who phoned her, claiming to be her grandson who was in trouble with the law and needed help - she actually wired him the $30,000 and only began to wonder later whether it really was a grandson! And people are still falling for the Nigeria-type scams - what is wrong with their heads?

I had a phone call a few weeks ago from someone claiming to be calling from Microsoft about a virus that he said had been discovered on my computer. Common sense told me that there was something seriously wrong with that scenario, and I hung up the phone. Then it came out a few days ago that this is the latest major scam. It's based in India, and it allows the scammers to gain complete control of their victims' computers. 

You don't need to be a genius to sense that there's something not right about any of these kinds of situations. It's greed, accompanied by stupidity, in some cases, or, as in the case of the elderly woman, it's loneliness accompanied by stupidity. The common thread in any of these situations is the stupidity factor; it's a case of its being impossible to protect people from their own foolishness.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

It seems like a lot of the scammers find churches and religious organizations fertile ground to find victims.

It is easy for the scammer to "join" a church, make friends with everyone, and then slowly apply the pressure on them. Perhaps at dinner.....following the service. Or maybe while doing "God's work". Religious people are encouraged to trust, and to question the ethics of a fellow believer would be unconconsionable. 

There was a website on the internet, advertising "Car Title Loans". All you had to do was call, provide the information and help was on the way.

I know a guy who owns a payday loan type of store. He was approached by the guy with the internet site, to provide funding for loans. The guy didn't have either an office or any money. He just wanted to pass the loan onto someone else and collect a fee.

There is a "tax reduction" website on the internet, that bilked millions out of people. They are supposed to be "partners in a business", which give them business losses to deduct from their personal income taxes. A 10,000 investment can return 50,000 in business losses. The promoters know the CRA will allow the deductions at first blush........and then reassess. It is years later when the poo hits the fan, and the CRA declare the deductions void and demand their money back.......plus interest. Various Provincial regulators have found them guilty of fraudulently selling a security, but the maximum fine is 1 Million............so they make out like bandits even if they get caught and prosecuted.

What we need in this country is stiff prison sentences.

If the Harper government is serious about minimum sentencing, how about we start with financial fraud?


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

sags said:


> What we need in this country is stiff prison sentences.


But the scammers are not legitimate businesses, so they can pack up operations and lay quiet for a while if the law is after them. Some even use aliases and phony addresses to throw off the authorities, especially if they set up a virtual business online. They know all the tricks in the book. 

Take this story on the mortgage-loan scammer. He was known as Craig
Hutchens and some other aliases as well. Then he changed his name to Moshe
Alexander when he "converted" to Judaism. These tactics make it
hard to prosecute them, if they keep changing identity. They don't have
day jobs working for legitimate firms where they can be arrested much
easier.

If they were honest mortgage brokers-financiers, they wouldn't have to change their identity every time a victim initiated court action against them.



> If the Harper government is serious about minimum sentencing, how about we start with financial fraud?


I thought Harper was building some more superjails to house all the upcoming
serial killers and scammers?

Why not then, throw the scammers in general population with the serial killers and let things work out for themselves?


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## Addy (Mar 12, 2010)

sags said:


> If the Harper government is serious about minimum sentencing, how about we start with financial fraud?


As much as I think Harper is a scumbag, I don't think he's that dumb. That move would put at least some of his sponsors executives in jail no doubt.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Addy said:


> As much as I think Harper is a scumbag, I don't think he's that dumb. That move would put at least some of his sponsors executives in jail no doubt.


Lets face it, Harper seems to at least "know" that some shady characters 
seem to drift in an out of his PMO in the background.
Take for instance...the big media frenzy early this year about the lobbyist Carson affair...graft? (He was a former lawyer disbarred and convicted of
fraud on at least 3 counts.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/09/23/pol-carson-update.html?cmp=rss

Now, what about the $50 million dollar infrastructure fund?... that Tony Clement
(Treasury Board then), threw money around in his riding like he had
undisputed access to the gov'ts money printing presses?

<quote from online sources>
The $50-million fund was set up to finance more than 30 projects in Clement's riding north of Toronto and is a source of controversy. Opposition MPs call it a boondoggle and a slush fund meant to help Clement's reputation in the riding.

The federal government provided close to $30 million for the G8 centre project, which expanded an existing community centre, adding an Olympic-sized skating rink and other upgrades. It was originally intended to serve as the media centre during the June 2010 meeting, but media ended up using a larger facility in Toronto where the G20 meeting was held. The summit centre hosted a youth conference instead during the summit of world leaders.
<end of online extraction.

They can argue job creation all they want..but why did most of the money
from the infrastructure slush fund end up in Tony Clement's riding?...hmm?

Partisan politics..the artful dodger...confusing the press..
they are very good at it!

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/p...-artful-dodger/article2189289/?service=mobile


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## Pigzfly (Dec 2, 2010)

I had a great laugh today on this subject. Apparently there's a practice called "scambaiting." AKA messing with scammers.
IE - this thread on tricking a Nigerian email scammer into transcribing an entire Harry Potter book by hand!
http://www.419eater.com/html/joyce_ozioma.htm

I'm sure there's other interesting stuff on the site, but I had to get back to work.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

I have been to the scam baiting sites.

Some of the stories are hilarious, but some are pretty sad.

One guy actually convinced the scammer from Nigeria, that he needed a small deposit to pay a fee to release the funds. The scammer actually sent HIM money. The sad part is that the scammer probably borrowed the money from a tribal leader or something, and may have paid with his life for his mistake.


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