financial investments consumer fraud protective ag

[Bill]

Does anyone know of any local or otherwise protective government
agencies or like Better Business bureaus or international agencies who might help one with a complaint such as for example
you invested money with a local dominican agency to buy commercial paper and then they won't answer you - for example
you are afraid they stole your money?

 

[ECH, M.D.]

Re: financial investments consumer fraud protectiv

You have got to be kidding.......consumer protection....a concept that is totally foreign to the D.R. . This is one reason there are not more small and medium sized businesses here....no legal protection.

 

[Grahame Bush]

Re: financial investments consumer fraud protectiv

Tell me more Bill. Who? Where? When? Drop me a line on my e-mail & if it is local to Puerto Plata I will do my best to come up with some answers. G ^_^

 

[Sean]

Caveat Emptor

You are now asking questions you should have asked prior to making the investment. It something seems too good to be true it's because it is too good to be true. Caveat emptor.

 

[Dolores1]

Re: financial investments consumer fraud protectiv

The Bolsa de Valores de Santo Domingo, from whom I assume you purchased your commercial papers, has a good reputation. I suggest you post your question on the DR1 Business Forum. Frederic Emam Zade was one of the founders of the institution and should be able to direct you to the right persons to take your complaint.

 

[Gregory Wales]

Re: financial investments consumer fraud protectiv

Please keep all the readers of this thread informed on the developements of this situation!

Fraud cannot survive the light of day and we are all watching.

Warmest Regards,
Gregory D Wales

 

[Bill]

Re: financial investments consumer fraud protectiv

Unfortuneately it is not in the north but in capital Santo Domingo.Anyway here it goes:
I have been trying in vain to get an explanation as to why the agent or company in Dominican Republic has not done as they promised. I was in their office personally in Santo Domingo and wrote a $10,000 US check (which has already been deducted from my account long ago) for investment in 'Empresa Caribe Tours' , one of the major travel/bus and perhaps largest bus/travel company on the island. I am not sure whether or not they were also involved in scam or not but my $10,000 US check was made out to 'Caribe Tours' I have a zerox copy of the check and other official documentation which they gave me
at their office which I can send as an email attachment or mail a copy if you need proof.Anyway they promised an interest check (one percent per month)would be deposited to my bank account at Banco del Progreso in Santo Domingo beginning first of March(a smaller amount for part of month) and most importantly they would fax and/or email attach the first page of the company document which I should recieve for the $10,0000 investment. I gave them fax number,email and physical address and everything but they will not respond. They also promised to quickly respond to any email/fax message I sent but won't.
Here is an example of the messages I have been sending them by email,fax, mail :'I sent you these messages a week ago twice. Why don't you answer!!? I bought way back on feb 20 the following and the $10,000 check has long since already been deducted from my account on feb 26. As yet I have not received either the fax or the email attachment for the first page of the Caribe Tours document. Has the first check already been deposited to my del Progreso account in Santo Domingo ?I have Recibo de Inversion for $10,000 us 12% ck.no. 1018(perf.first dated feb.20/01) for Empresa Caribe Tours,C.Por A.
in name Wade H. Smith for 365 days. My email zmth@yahoo.com Fax 1-3478237072 tel 3216900834 Address:W.Smith, 1721 Dixon 29, COCOA FL 32922-5408 ' Their address and name is (which I went to personally 0n February 20,-1 is: Transacciones Financieras S.A.' (Puesto de Bolsa) BVRD,PB-021 ,69 Gustavo Meja Ricart ,3rd.floor Edificio Datocentro bldg.Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Email:tfinanciera@codetel.net.do fax: (809)7322934 or (809)5494476 and tel numbers: (809)2270973 or4735411 or 4735401
Is it possible to atleast get someone with some authority to also inquire for me? Preferably one who knows some Spanish. Thanks

 

[Bill]

Re: financial investments consumer fraud protectiv

You can see the details above. Fraud is the name of the game and it unfortuneately most often does survive especially in Santo Domingo.

 

[Bill]

Re: financial investments consumer fraud protectiv

NO it was not Bolsa de Valores because I don't speak Spanish and no one at Bolsa de Valores speaks English plus they are so secret by not putting their address or contact in the phone book they obviously don't want to do business with anyone who does not speak Spanish which is ok and I understand their point of view. Hopefully I can learn to speak some Spanish next time if I ever get any of this money back. It's too bad Bolsa de Valores wants to be so secret. It would be nice if they had an email address but I guess that would blow their cover.

 

[Grahame Bush]

Re: financial investments consumer fraud protectiv

Hi Bill, Thanks for the information. I will ask a lawyer friend of mine to make some enquiries during next week. NO PROMISES as to any results but I will get back to you with whatever information I can find out.
On a positive note, if it IS Caribe Tours behind this, I would suspect your money is fairly safe - just Dominicanised late!!! Once things get into the system (& there are always reasons why it can't immediately get into the system, believe me) then things should go along fairly smoothly. 1% per month is not a tremendously high return for here, most banks pay 15-18% p.a for 'Certificados' & private finance houses pay 18 - 20%, sometimes more.
Feel free to contact me direct if you want to.
Regards - Grahame Bush ^_^

 

[Bill]

Re: financial investments consumer fraud protectiv

Thanks for your help. Yes I agree and was thinking/hoping the same thing - in that if it was Caribe instead of that small fly by night operation I may have a chance as I think they atleast may have a reputation to uphold. My check did have exactly 'Pay to order of:' "Caribe Tours"
All this time,about 2 years on this board, I never knew about the business message index board. If I had known it would probably saved me a lot of time as most of my discussion/questions are financial/bank/investment related.

 

[ECH, M.D.]

Re: ADVICE

Bill
I think at this stage of the game you need a competent lawyer to represent you and your investment. The "Red Flags" of a scam are flying all over the place.

 

[Bill]

Re: financial investments consumer fraud protectiv

Does anyone know if Caribe Tours has a website or an email address?

 

[Jim Hinsch]

Caribe Tours: go.caribic@codetel.net.do

Also see the Metro at www.metrost.com.

 

[CES]

Re: financial investments consumer fraud. . .

CES wrote:

Hi John,

Care to comment on the following?

Regards,

Charles

>>> "DR1 Message Board

financial investments consumer fraud protective. . .

Does anyone know of any local or otherwise protective government agencies or like Better Business bureaus or. . ." <<<

----------------------------- = = {+} = = -------------------------------

Subject:

Re: "... they stole your money?"

Date:

Mon, 19 Mar 2001 09:24:23 -0500

From:

John Schroder <js@ascotadvisory.com>
Organization:

Ascot Advisory Services

To:

CES <ambersa@jps.net>

I have not posted this to the message board, but feel free to do so if you think it of value:

This it sounds like this is more of a customer service complaint rather than out and out theft (at the moment). We have never had any problems with the local brokers we work with regarding misallocation of customer money, but service in the Dominican Republic can be sporadic. That is to say that not everyone in the Dominican Republic understands the concept of returning telephone calls or answering emails in a timely manner. So, it is important to find out if there is a legitimate problem or your broker is being typically Dominican and perhaps not returning phone calls promptly.

Again, the firms we work with have been pretty good when working with clients and do understand that Americans especially like to be called back or answered promptly, but sometimes they slack off in this regard as well. Obviously when doing business long distance or in another country, the first thing that comes into your mind usually is the worst when you do not get a prompt reply. It is perfectly normal that one might be nervous in the first place about doing business or making investments in another country, and for the customer service not to be what you expect makes matters even worse (or adds to the customer's anxiety).

Try and determine what the problem actually is. If you do feel you have a legitimate concern, you may contact the Bolsa de Valores (Stock Exchange) as follows:

Ave, J.F. Kennedy, Edificio E. Leon Jimenez, Ground Floor Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Tel. 809-567-6694 Fax 809-567-6697
Email: bolsa.valores.rd@codetel.net.do

Best Regards,

John Schroder
Ascot Advisory Services
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Tel. 809-334-5387 or 809-756-1917
Email: info@ascotadvisory.com

 

[Bill]

Re: Caribe Tours: go.caribic@codetel.net.do

THANKS FOR THE INFO. BUT DO YOU KNOW I emailed what you have
in the subject line and he came back quickly but it is not the
same Empresa . Anyway luckily the ambassador of Dom.Rep.in
Wash. D.C. put some pressure on them and now it may be ok
atleast for now. It is interesting there are two so closely
named. He gave the following response:

Your are right in something, "Caribe Tours" is one of the
mayor bus/travel companies in the island, but we are not this company. "Go
Caribic" is a tour operator company and do not have any relationships with
"Caribe Tours". We are different companies.

Please try to find out their e-mail address or communicate
with them by phone.

Regards,

Juan Miguel Sosa

IT Manager

Go Caribic, S.A.

Puerto Plata

Tel. (809) 586-4075

Fax. (809) 586-4073

 

[Bill]

Re: financial investments consumer fraud protectiv

Just to keep you updated and not waste your time. I managed to
get some action out of the Wash. D.C. ambassador of dom.rep.embassy who
called them and now they seem to be cooperating to some extent
for now - so for now it is on hold. Hope it turns out ok but
you don't need to bother to do anything at this time.
BUT it is of some value to know that the Ambassador in
Wash. D. c. can help in a crisis like this. I faxed and emailed
him and the fax did it. He got back to me the next day which
is today. Just for your and anyone elses information you may
also try him if you find yourself in a helpless crisis.

Dominican Republic embassy: 1715 22nd Street, NW, Washington DC 20008

Telephone: (202) 332-6280

Fax: (202) 265-8057

E-mail: embdomrepusa@msn.com

URL: http://www.domrep.org/

 

[Bill]

Re: financial investments consumer fraud. . .

Yes you are correct and I 'jumped the gun' so to speak because of a similar bad experience which was the bank's fault and did not refund me. It has nothing to do with this and was a relatively small amount but seemed very unfair to me and I was treated bad. But anyway the main problem was here that when I had left there they said definitely that they would do all correspondance with email and I should get a response within a couple days. But when I kept sending messages and never got an answer is when I became alarmed. I will try to be more patient in future.