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I am watching American Greed on CNBC World and there's a feature on Boy Band mogul, Lou Pearlman. Just a few weeks ago I watched a feature on Bernie Madoff. Well today I was thinking about some things and I started to remember some scams in South Florida I was a part of (lost a start up $200 back in the early 90s) and others I have heard of that were VERY close to me.
All of a sudden, I remembered a name I used to hear on a local South Florida radio station back in th early 90s. In fact, there was an ambitious Jamaican co-worker of mine who tried to get me to invest with this guy. I refused because it sounded too good to be true. I just Googled "Jamaican investor in Miami scam" and up popped his name - Anthony Blisset, a Jamaican. His claim was that if you invested, say, $2,000, he could fetch you $10,000 in 30 days.
His commercials were played frequently on the local Jamaican station and I think he even went to the station to do a segment to promote his business. I remembered him reaching out to Jamaicans and the rest of the Caribbean community and many of the people were church goers where there is a ready made networking. Well after I Googled him, some 10 years since I last heard his name, and he popped up and as expected, he ran a scam which bilked people out of 31 million. Interestingly enough, he is out of jail (5-year sentence) and is apparently back in a church.
Then I knew of an older Jamaican couple living in an adjacent community from me in South Florida. The man was a "bishop" and through a friend who knew them very well, I found out he just started living extravagantly. I was told they were making money in the real estate business. A few months after I heard about his increasing wealth, the FBI showed up at his house and took him and his wife away in shackles. The story hit the newspapers and they were just 2 people in a ring of scammers writing bogus loans and stealing people's identities to get other people homes while they reap in some fat profits. The head honcho, however, escaped to Jamaica. I'm not sure of her fate at the moment.
Then there is another Jamaican minister down there who has used his church to promote a series of investment ideas. The last one I heard him promoting was investment in land in some rural area of Texas. Not sure how that is going. Prior to that, at a rally at his church for a mother (a personal friend of mine) who lost her two sons in a wrong way crash involving an FBI agent, he was in his office trying to sell participants on an idea to invest in some online travel company. That company, as far as I know, turned out to be a scam.
<span style="font-weight: bold">So what is it? Are people just more trusting in these things once you throw in "god" and biblical "promises?"</span> I also notice that in black circles, there is often an appeal to guilt where one is told, "you see, black people get nowhere because they are afraid to invest. Look at the Jews/white people...blah blah blah."
Of course there has been Amway (now Quixstar) and a few others.
All of a sudden, I remembered a name I used to hear on a local South Florida radio station back in th early 90s. In fact, there was an ambitious Jamaican co-worker of mine who tried to get me to invest with this guy. I refused because it sounded too good to be true. I just Googled "Jamaican investor in Miami scam" and up popped his name - Anthony Blisset, a Jamaican. His claim was that if you invested, say, $2,000, he could fetch you $10,000 in 30 days.
His commercials were played frequently on the local Jamaican station and I think he even went to the station to do a segment to promote his business. I remembered him reaching out to Jamaicans and the rest of the Caribbean community and many of the people were church goers where there is a ready made networking. Well after I Googled him, some 10 years since I last heard his name, and he popped up and as expected, he ran a scam which bilked people out of 31 million. Interestingly enough, he is out of jail (5-year sentence) and is apparently back in a church.
Then I knew of an older Jamaican couple living in an adjacent community from me in South Florida. The man was a "bishop" and through a friend who knew them very well, I found out he just started living extravagantly. I was told they were making money in the real estate business. A few months after I heard about his increasing wealth, the FBI showed up at his house and took him and his wife away in shackles. The story hit the newspapers and they were just 2 people in a ring of scammers writing bogus loans and stealing people's identities to get other people homes while they reap in some fat profits. The head honcho, however, escaped to Jamaica. I'm not sure of her fate at the moment.
Then there is another Jamaican minister down there who has used his church to promote a series of investment ideas. The last one I heard him promoting was investment in land in some rural area of Texas. Not sure how that is going. Prior to that, at a rally at his church for a mother (a personal friend of mine) who lost her two sons in a wrong way crash involving an FBI agent, he was in his office trying to sell participants on an idea to invest in some online travel company. That company, as far as I know, turned out to be a scam.
<span style="font-weight: bold">So what is it? Are people just more trusting in these things once you throw in "god" and biblical "promises?"</span> I also notice that in black circles, there is often an appeal to guilt where one is told, "you see, black people get nowhere because they are afraid to invest. Look at the Jews/white people...blah blah blah."
Of course there has been Amway (now Quixstar) and a few others.
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