I replied to an ad in Entrepreneur Magazine that read $75,000 return on only $5,000 in three weeks and called the 1-800 number. The person-Ely Orozzo-I spoke to was very friendly and professional, which suckered me in. She explained to me that they were a Foreign Exchange Company, with high-end clientele but also was taking in regular customers to help get them started in investments blah, blah, blah-it was all a bunch of lies in the end.
Anyway, she faxed me all kinds of information on the company, and had me fill out this questionaire about myself, which they said had to be approved before they would let me invest (to give me the sense that they were doing me a favor).
After I was approved me put me onto the biggest con artist in the world, a scum bag who told me his name was Lance Thompson. I later found out from the Entrepreneur people that his real name was Lance Zeidman. He sounded very professional and nice, used all the right terminology and to make a long story short, I got suckered in and sent this dirt-bag $5,000.
Did I get $75,000 after my three weeks were up? No, what I git was a disconnected phone line-Lance and Ely had disappeared with the money.
I reported Lance Zeidman to numerous agencies, including the Better Business Bureau in Altamonte Springs, Florida. I also reported this incident to the Bank I wired the money to-First Union Bank in Daytona Beach, Florida. This Bank told me that they couldn't help me as I was not a Bank customer. End of conversation-they didn't care or want to hear that one of their customers had used an account there to rip off an innocent person. Numerous letters sent to them have not been answered.
Numerous letters to Entrepreneur have also not been answered-although after many phone calls one very nice lady told me who had placed the ad. That was all she was allowed to tell me, she said-and her bosses were most unhelpful. Needless to say, I won't be buying their magazine again. I trusted that they were a reputable magazine-maybe not.
Anyway, this Lance Zeidman guy has tried this stunt on many people. He obviously knows a lot about investments. He runs ads in different magazines and newspapers-he really likes to use USA Today. He uses different names-one of which is 'Andy Garcia'. The authorities have told me this much, but so far no one has touched him, and he's still out there pulling these scams.
I know that I was stupid to trust these people, but I've learned my lesson. No matter how much you want it to be, if it sounds too good to be true-it probably is!
Lori
Hamilton, Other
Bermuda
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