843-605-4430
SC, US
 | Wayne R 2012-10-09 18:13:02 Unknown |
I had similar experience as Kristi with American Star Investments--lost over $6500 in two transactions. I've filed official complaint with Federal Trade Commission and recommend you do same. Contacted a South Carolina FBI office who seemed willing to help but stated that Assistant US Attorney won't proceed without a certain $ threshold. I'm sure there are many of us who have been defrauded. Need to pool our complaints to get some action. I suspect that the Trinity Financial frauds were completed by these same jerks. Looks like they just move around and change names, contact info, etc.
| Another Sucker 2012-08-06 20:57:10 Unknown |
I have a very similar set of details as Kristy L.
Both American Star Investments, LLC of Wyoming and Trinity Financial Solutions, Inc of Florida are fraudulent companies.
This is a Timeshare Broker and Escrow Agent scam.
I have bank account numbers of both companies but do not have a way to get their Federal Tax IDs at the moment. I may have lost my money in the fraud but hopefully their unreported gain can become a taxable offense.
Police reports and state attorney general notifications are in progress.
Both American Star Investments, LLC of Wyoming and Trinity Financial Solutions, Inc of Florida are fraudulent companies.
This is a Timeshare Broker and Escrow Agent scam.
I have bank account numbers of both companies but do not have a way to get their Federal Tax IDs at the moment. I may have lost my money in the fraud but hopefully their unreported gain can become a taxable offense.
Police reports and state attorney general notifications are in progress.
| Kristy L 2012-08-03 20:20:46 Telemarketer |
American Star Investments
Look at the comments for (843) 282-7930. They all apply to this #.
I sure wish I had found this website when I did a web search back in April before I plopped down $1,865. I looked at every page that came up from searching "American Star Investments" - don't know why I didn't find any scam alerts that time. Alexix had also encouraged me to send my money in and get in the queue before the buyer they had for my property was sent to another seller. My mistake falling prey to hurrying.
For my original research I looked up the address they wanted me to send the cashier's check to using Google Maps and called some local businesses by there and it was basically just a mail depot. I also looked up the Wyoming address and it's a little house - but it's in a district where houses have been converted to businesses, so I thought it was plausible.
I talked to Alexix for a while and she had been working for the company first in Wyoming and then in Florida for around 4 years if I remember right. I was mollified enough into sending funds, after all I had already sent $700 - $900 over the last few years to 2 other companies (MGM & some other) just to market and advertise the sale of my property. $1,865 where they actually had a buyer sounded reasonable.
They didn't mention back when I started that they'd be wanting a Documentary Stamp Tax at closing. Of course they apologize that the sales people made that oversight.
For the Documentary Stamp Tax I was quoted $1,756.11 by Gary W a few weeks ago (not sure if it was White or Wise) and $2,489.12 today by Rich Pearson. (It's supposed to be a flat percentage based on the sale price - so why two different amounts? Rich claimed Gary must have quoted me the amount to get out of the sale or something ridiculous). Also, today Rich was saying my original $1,865 was for advertising and to find a buyer in addition to covering the title search, lien search, etc of my property, which varied from what Alexix had originally told me.
If the Documentary Stamp Tax check was supposed to be made out to the Florida State Tax Commission, or a reputable escrow company (well known by legitimate real estate agents, etc) I wouldn't have a problem at all with paying it, but the two companies they've wanted me to send the money to are Trinity Financial Solutions and RS Direct (depending on which time - a few weeks ago or this week). Trinity has scam alerts of its own. Couldn't find anything on RS Direct.
Whenever I ask for any references or anything they always remind me I have a cashiers check waiting for me in the amount of $XX,XXX.XX and hem and haw about how they can't give out sensitive information, etc. Or how there are plenty of people wanting to sell since there are so many more people trying to sell than who want to buy so it's no skin off their back if I don't sell. Or that I'm "making this harder than it needs to be" or "most people at this point just send in the money." Rich and Gary also talked about how if I didn't conclude the sale I would have to deal with their legal department, woooo - scary.
Gary W. kept telling me they didn't want to give me the phone #'s of their competition when I was asking for the phone numbers of the escrow companies they use. What a joke. Rich of course apologized for Gary's terrible behavior, Gary was a new employee and there were a lot of complaints, supposedly. If it's the same Gary Alexis told me about, he was the VP of Client Services - doesn't sound like a new position to me. Gary actually did hang up on me once (I could hear the receiver slam) and when I called him back and asked him point blank if he hung up on me he said no, the connection had been lost. Must be a frustrating job trying to scam people. They probably just get the people they can pressure into paying.
I did finally coax them into giving me one reference. Rich had me call a Bill Shaffer who was a "well known attorney" and an "older gentleman" who was the head attorney at Eastern Executive Property Funding" which was supposed to be a different company. When I spoke with Bill he said he was from the same company as Rich and he was Rich's boss. He also didn't sound much older than Rich. So they did a circular referral. Bill was going to call me back in 20 minutes with some references after checking with his bosses to see if he was allowed to give me any. About 10 minutes later Rich called me and after I was talking about hiring a real estate agent to broker in their area to help me finalize the sale, etc he said they were done trying to work with me and to give them an answer by 3:30 pm EST today.
Anyway - I could go on and on with the ridiculous things they've said.
I understand that business information can be sensitive - non disclosure type stuff - maybe they don't want anyone finding out about their awesome business model. But my gut feeling is it's a SCAM. Keep your money!!!!!
I think I'm going to look into paying money to get our time share out of our name like Cindy suggested. Thanks everyone for your comments!!!
BTW - all the phone numbers I have are:
(843) 605-4430 Sales Rep
(800) 877-6911 Fax
(843) 282-7930 Phillip Bernam - Client Services - I received several emails from him every once in a while about the "progress of our sale"
(843) 282-7933 Bailey Hughes
(843) 808-0251 Alexix Randolph - some kind of manager over sales reps
(843) 605-4412 Closing - Client Services
(843) 263-4004 Gary White/Wise (not sure on last name)
(843) 862-8239 Rich Pearson
(407) 439-8520 Bill Shaffer - Head Attorney Eastern Executive Property Funding
Look at the comments for (843) 282-7930. They all apply to this #.
I sure wish I had found this website when I did a web search back in April before I plopped down $1,865. I looked at every page that came up from searching "American Star Investments" - don't know why I didn't find any scam alerts that time. Alexix had also encouraged me to send my money in and get in the queue before the buyer they had for my property was sent to another seller. My mistake falling prey to hurrying.
For my original research I looked up the address they wanted me to send the cashier's check to using Google Maps and called some local businesses by there and it was basically just a mail depot. I also looked up the Wyoming address and it's a little house - but it's in a district where houses have been converted to businesses, so I thought it was plausible.
I talked to Alexix for a while and she had been working for the company first in Wyoming and then in Florida for around 4 years if I remember right. I was mollified enough into sending funds, after all I had already sent $700 - $900 over the last few years to 2 other companies (MGM & some other) just to market and advertise the sale of my property. $1,865 where they actually had a buyer sounded reasonable.
They didn't mention back when I started that they'd be wanting a Documentary Stamp Tax at closing. Of course they apologize that the sales people made that oversight.
For the Documentary Stamp Tax I was quoted $1,756.11 by Gary W a few weeks ago (not sure if it was White or Wise) and $2,489.12 today by Rich Pearson. (It's supposed to be a flat percentage based on the sale price - so why two different amounts? Rich claimed Gary must have quoted me the amount to get out of the sale or something ridiculous). Also, today Rich was saying my original $1,865 was for advertising and to find a buyer in addition to covering the title search, lien search, etc of my property, which varied from what Alexix had originally told me.
If the Documentary Stamp Tax check was supposed to be made out to the Florida State Tax Commission, or a reputable escrow company (well known by legitimate real estate agents, etc) I wouldn't have a problem at all with paying it, but the two companies they've wanted me to send the money to are Trinity Financial Solutions and RS Direct (depending on which time - a few weeks ago or this week). Trinity has scam alerts of its own. Couldn't find anything on RS Direct.
Whenever I ask for any references or anything they always remind me I have a cashiers check waiting for me in the amount of $XX,XXX.XX and hem and haw about how they can't give out sensitive information, etc. Or how there are plenty of people wanting to sell since there are so many more people trying to sell than who want to buy so it's no skin off their back if I don't sell. Or that I'm "making this harder than it needs to be" or "most people at this point just send in the money." Rich and Gary also talked about how if I didn't conclude the sale I would have to deal with their legal department, woooo - scary.
Gary W. kept telling me they didn't want to give me the phone #'s of their competition when I was asking for the phone numbers of the escrow companies they use. What a joke. Rich of course apologized for Gary's terrible behavior, Gary was a new employee and there were a lot of complaints, supposedly. If it's the same Gary Alexis told me about, he was the VP of Client Services - doesn't sound like a new position to me. Gary actually did hang up on me once (I could hear the receiver slam) and when I called him back and asked him point blank if he hung up on me he said no, the connection had been lost. Must be a frustrating job trying to scam people. They probably just get the people they can pressure into paying.
I did finally coax them into giving me one reference. Rich had me call a Bill Shaffer who was a "well known attorney" and an "older gentleman" who was the head attorney at Eastern Executive Property Funding" which was supposed to be a different company. When I spoke with Bill he said he was from the same company as Rich and he was Rich's boss. He also didn't sound much older than Rich. So they did a circular referral. Bill was going to call me back in 20 minutes with some references after checking with his bosses to see if he was allowed to give me any. About 10 minutes later Rich called me and after I was talking about hiring a real estate agent to broker in their area to help me finalize the sale, etc he said they were done trying to work with me and to give them an answer by 3:30 pm EST today.
Anyway - I could go on and on with the ridiculous things they've said.
I understand that business information can be sensitive - non disclosure type stuff - maybe they don't want anyone finding out about their awesome business model. But my gut feeling is it's a SCAM. Keep your money!!!!!
I think I'm going to look into paying money to get our time share out of our name like Cindy suggested. Thanks everyone for your comments!!!
BTW - all the phone numbers I have are:
(843) 605-4430 Sales Rep
(800) 877-6911 Fax
(843) 282-7930 Phillip Bernam - Client Services - I received several emails from him every once in a while about the "progress of our sale"
(843) 282-7933 Bailey Hughes
(843) 808-0251 Alexix Randolph - some kind of manager over sales reps
(843) 605-4412 Closing - Client Services
(843) 263-4004 Gary White/Wise (not sure on last name)
(843) 862-8239 Rich Pearson
(407) 439-8520 Bill Shaffer - Head Attorney Eastern Executive Property Funding
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