Have You Been Victimized by a Fraud or Scam?
Tuesday, June 05, 2012 5:00AM
On Anderson's show "Life-Scattering Scams: Could It Happen to You?" viewers tell their heartbreaking stories involving custody rights, contractor troubles and more. Scams and fraud are prevalent in our society, and more likely than not, we all experience some type of scam at some point in our lives.
We want to hear the stories about when you have been scammed or victimized by fraud, and it impacted your life in a huge way. Or, tell us the story of someone in your life whose life has been drastically impacted by a scam.
Tell us your story… Have You Been a Victim of Fraud or a Scam?
Filed Under: As Seen On The Show
Comments
Angie's list is a scam in Northwest Indiana. I joined 5 years ago because I was remodeling and loved what Angie's list promised.... Well they listed basically nothing in the home remodeling field, so after one year I discontinued my subscription they never listed businesses for home improvements. This year I joined again, thinking well 5 years has passed and they should have kitchen, bath remodelers and contractors etc.....I was wrong they still listed nothing in northwest, IN ! They listed kitchen remodeling businesses that went out of business over 2 years ago in the area. They listed businesses out in Califorina! It was ridiculousness! I requested a refund, and expressed my distrust and told them about my experience. They refunded me, but I strongly feel they are a sham business.
I have years of experience with Angie's List as a local plumber in Seattle. They have gotten money out of me and gave nothing in return except much trouble from customers that tend to be pretty passive aggressive. Angie's List get paid on both ends - Any contractor listing you see is only visible to you if the contractor is paying Angie's List through the nose. My cost for Angie's List "hot leads" was $300 each. Testing Angie's List cost me $7000 over two years. While paying such high costs for leads may work for a major construction project , it won't work for a service call where we charge by the 1/4 hour.
Google clicks have gotten as high as $38 per click here in Seattle when the search term used is "plumber" or "plumbing". On the average it takes 15 clicks to get a call. Do the math on the cost to the guy ringing your doorbell.
Angie's List cost per job performed was 75% of my company's average invoice total (about $400). My company does over a thousand jobs a year.
Any homeowner service using this advertising method is paying way too much to maintain any integrity in the service. This type of advertising creating an incredible amount of pressure to convert to a commission-based high profit business model for basic traditional services. If I pay Angies List hundreds of dollars just to ring your doorbell how can I treat you fairly when your plumbing problem requires an hours work? I can't so I cancelled my advertising contract with Angies List.
Angie's List uses a unique money making model that actually is a kind of pyramid scheme. They put all the local harvested contractors into their listings but you only will call highly rated ones. In order to be highly rated you must pay Angie Thousands of dollars a year for position in order to be seen AND time in grade is required to accumulate favorable reviews. Only a dozen or so can be in that position. The homeowner only calls the ones at the top so all new advertisers must invest thousands on continuing annual contracts to play the game on Angie's List.
My solution was to put up a free local business directory with the policy of no shills, no fake listings, no paid advertising just so my neighbors and the local small businesses here in Seattle could find each other. (www.SeattleOnly.com) It may take a while for the new directory to get any real traffic as it is dependent upon local participation by local businesses and consumers.
In my opinion, it is time for both local business and consumers to get control over how we find our services and customers as the marketers are hijacking the business to consumer relationship and forcing costs so high that nobody can bear the costs.
Question: Why should we need out-of-state corporations to connect homeowners to services down the street? Surely there is a simple, inexpensive way for us to know our neighbors and small businesses. We all need to put a little thought and effort in that direction.
Hi Anderson I was scammed here in Port Charlotte Fl. Someone made a card up in South Carolina and purchased two I-pads form two different Walmarts then went to Kohls and purchased an $800.00 gift card, so $24.000 was taken all in a half hour.Then to top it off there is NO protection on a "Business Debit Card". so I could not get that money back. I have always wanted and still do want an I-pad but cannot afford it but someone goes and buys 2 with our "swimming pool business card" that put us in such trouble because we are struggling as it is already our business is not very busy these last few months, So we can't finish someones pool because we don't have that money, My problem with this whole thing is why didn't that store ask for a pin # or even a zip code, I get asked all the time and its my card...These people get away with everything and leave people like me in trouble. Thanks for listening Betty in PC
I am a disabled senior citizen and think I may have been scammed. I was invited to a free dinner (last April) at a local restaurant/location and it included a presentation on the need for smoke detectors and carbon dioxide detectors. At the end of the meeting they scheduled coming to my home for a sales presentation. Was I taken advantage of because I bought five devices being installed for $1,856.09! The company was Christian Safety and their website is www.Homefrontalarms.com Should I have gone to Home Depot or Menards and made my purchase(s) for a lot less money?
I think it must be fraud because i would not think the anderson show would screw me over by not telling me who the winner is for certain things....not just its over.....i loved how anderson said....'i feel like i'm doing something while i am asleep'.....'
luv it
I recently watched a show where it was about mothers giving away children up for adoption without the father knowing. I myself am in this same situation, in order to get my daughter back I have to fight the adoptive parents for custody. I took all the steps necessary to halt this process: putative registry & filed for DNA testing but now I am stuck because I don't have the money to hire an attorney to fight for her. There aren't any pro bono attorneys that deal with this situation in Lorain county (Lorain,Ohio), so I guess my Question is who can I call on to help with with this situation.:(
OH YES WE WERE! By a contractor, named Bill Waltos. 22 years ago. We have never financially recuperated from this. We were building our new house. We signed the 2 banks draw checks, and gave them to him. He was in a scam with a teller at Merchants Bank, where he took us to get the mortgage.. (A US Marshall came, and confirmed we weren't the first he had scammed. Turned out he was loan officer there, and was fired for asking for sexual favors to grant loans.) He then used the teller to cash the checks with him not co-signing them and pocked the money. The lesson to be learned, is go to the bank with the contractor and WATCH him co sign the building draw check! 3 years we fought with him and the bank. In the meantime, our lawyer went in on the scam, and helped him steal our house! That story is too long to get into. MAKE THEM CO-SIGN in front of YOU! It looked like we had signed the checks and not paid the contract. What a nightmare.
My son to lost his daughter the same way. We want her to be with us. It tears us up knowing that our hands were tied. My son was heartbroken to. Then we found out this was the second child given up this way by my sons girlfriend. When I talked with the agency and also the girlfriend, I was told these woman are given money to help them get back on their feet after the birth. Is this not selling your baby legally. How can this be without the fathers consent. We are heartbroken!
My mom was strong, a widow that put herself through nursing school to raise four kids. In the 1980's after she retired. Mom hired a contractor to renovate a bathroom. He did a terrible job and charged her top price. The city of Pittsburgh was aware of this guy's scamming seniors but found it hard to get any to press charges. Mom agreed and he was made to either return her money or fix the work.
Much more than taking their money, these scams artists rob people of their dignity and self-respect. Seniors especially feel embarrassed and stupid. My mom lost some of her spirit to this scam. She never quite seemed to recover. Her ability to trust in others was almost ****tered. That was the true tragedy and lose of this scam.
I watched your show the other day regarding scams fraud. I am so hoping that someone can help. My husband bought a hot tub from a company almost 2 years ago. He checked the BBB and at the time of purchase there were no issues. But after several months we had not received our hot tub, I started doing searches and found out that the company took our money and had no intention of sending us a product. We sent them a check for $9,000 and report the company to the BBB and all they said was that they would cancel our order (the one we placed a year and a hal****o) and because they didn't have the funds they would pay us monthly. Here we are almost 2 years late - no money and no hot tub. The companies name is Direct to Home Appliances - aka Choose Direct.com, aka choosedirecthottubs.com and now they have opened another company and their web page is chooseportablehottubs.com
The owners name is Steve Barbarich - there are several reports about this individual all over the internet and Facebook, yet after people continue to report to the BBB - nothing is still done about him. He needs to be in jail for all the people that he has ripped off.
My husband has been too embarrassed to do anything about this but I am not giving up until Steve Barbarich made to pay back the people he scammed or is put in jail so that he cannot hurt anyone else.
PLEASE HELP!!!!
Sincerely,
Cindy Mennicke
I was scammed out of my sex organs after going to my gynecologist of 20 years for sudden onset of abdominal pain. He used ovarian cancer scare tactics and rushed me into surgery. Although the frozen section of the ovary/cyst was benign, he and two gynecology residents proceeded to remove my other ovary and my uterus. My health (and even my appearance) deteriorated rapidly afterwards even with hormone replacement. A review of my medical records showed lies and deceit. And research revealed the patient "hazards" of residency programs. Residents have to meet surgical requirements to graduate and I was a "guinea pig." Ironically, this was done at a Catholic hospital that has moral issues with contraceptives yet they perform many hysterectomies, a form of permanent birth control! Hospital discharge data shows that 42% of women in my state have had a hysterectomy for benign conditions!
Women are going into operating rooms without full knowledge of the many endocrine, anatomical, and skeletal harm caused by hysterectomy (with or without ovary removal). The uterus and ovaries have lifelong functions as detailed here -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff5IOSj1l7w.
In 50-73% of cases (depending on area of the U.S.), healthy ovaries are removed (castration) at the time of hysterectomy regardless of what was agreed upon prior to surgery.
ACOG issued a report 12 years ago stating that 76% of hysterectomies don't meet their criteria yet the rates haven't declined. The adverse effects of hysterectomy have far-reaching economic and societal impact. No amount of money can compensate for the harm caused by hysterectomy but don't victims deserve some sort of justice like the victims of forced sterilization?
I now need doctors more than ever yet I have little faith in them.
It can happen to anyone. I had a friend who's email account was hacked who knew just enough to scam everyone on my friends list. As far as I know I was the only one who fell for it. I received an email saying she was stranded in England and lost her ID. I replied and said I could help but only had my rent money and would need to get that back as soon as she got back in town as she indicated she would do. I was assured that would not be a problem so headed down to my local western union. In Canada we have a security hook that includes answering a skill testing question before picking up any money sent. In the UK no such law exists. Luckily for me I had a happy ending as I talked to someone who said yeah don't fall for that it's a scam. I called my the woman I had spoken with at the western union office and asked her if she could get it back as I had been scammed. It hadn't been picked up yet so I did get it returned. Also Interpol would not investigate any further than taking my complaint because I had not actually been the victim of a crime because I got my money back. Kind of silly since they could have found this person I think and put a stop to at least one who would be willing to take a single grandmothers rent money without compunction. Love the show and watch when I can.
There have been many scams in my life. I receive calls stating that our Timeshare is sold and they need legal fees "up front." I know many people have lost much more than I have but there seems to be a network out there to contact us to sell our time share. Not So! There aught to be a law!
Several years ago when I was a young wife and mother we were looking for a house to rent. One day a girlfriend and I were walking to another friends house and saw this empty one. There were people sitting out that summer day so I asked them if they knew the owner they informed me that a Pastor owned it that lived right up the street. Since it was early evening I went to his housse and asked him about the property, he told me he could meet me there the next day. So I was there on time and so was he the house was somewhat nice but needed some repairs he then told me if we did the repairs the rent would be 250.00 and if he did them it would be 400. Now at the time I lived in a city where the cost of living was'nt high so this was a steal. I opted for us to do the repairs ourselves, since my then husband was a jack of all trades, and could fix anything. It was obvious the roof leaked since there was a hole in the ceiling my then husband fixed that. The floor aound the toilet was deteriorating so my then husband fixed that. The water pipes had been taken out of the house so of course we replaced them not to leave out that the house needed rewiring so of course we did that as well. The back door and frames around it was brittle so my then husband repaired the frame and hung a new solid core door. This took us the entire summer to get this work done. So now we move in and attempt to get the utilities well we couldnt not that at that point and time the gas had been stolen prior to us moving in and it was this humongous bill and we we went to the Pastor/owner he said there was nothing he could do, so we were stuck having to pay this bill in order to have heat we didnt have 3000.00 to do this so we spent the winter with no heat. Later in march of that year I had my last child after my son was three weeks old I had a stroke (I recovered)anyway while I was in the hospital my sister cam to visit and informed me that there was a sign on the house that said "THIS HOUSE BEING SOLD FOR TAXES" when I got home sure enought there was the sign on the house. I went to talk to the Pastor and he told me that since I had not paid the rent before I went into the hospital he couldnt pay the taxes, but if I gave him the rent he would go and pay the taxes. Well that didnt sound right so I kept my money. By me being young at the time I didnt know about these things and neither did my then husband. When I finally found out what was going on and what to do it was the night of the auction. Needless to say we ended up having to move and lost all our money we had invested in this house. I should have known something was up to par with this pastor you see he supposed to be apostolic and he was gay. This is my religion as well and we dont condone that kind of behavior in the church. Well to make a long story short a few years after he had scaammed us they found him dead in his car shot in the chest.
Let me tell you how I was scammed out of my life savings,Lost my home,and my bankruptcy is set for June 18th. I have always wanted to own my own restauant. So I found a franchise that I liked. It was called Wings-Pizza-N-things out of Dallas Texas. The man I was in touch with was Francis"Joe" Spillman. He took my $125,000.00 for franchise and equipment. I signed a contract after my lawyer read it over and over. He promised me equipment,which I never recieved.I will not go into his other breach of contract. I sued got a judgement of $175,000.00 He will not pay. I have contractor bills and rent bills to the tune of $125.000.00 I put my house up for the bank note and my husbands retirement money.Need I say I lost it all. BecauseI could not get the needed equipment my restaurant closed after 3 months.Now I am forced to file bankruptcy. My husband is in a nursing home, my one daughter blames me for his illness and has not spoken to me in 2 years.Scammed?? Damn right This is just the tip of what Joe Spillmn did to me