Suspected ad scam being investigated by police
A Santa Monica businesswoman was duped out of $1,100 after she responded to a local newspaper ad that promised the down payment would secure her a $15,000 loan.
The ad, placed by Second Try Home Finance, read, “Not having any luck? Have you been turned down too many times?” It listed a toll-free number and said the company provides personal, small business, mortgage and consolidation loans.
Jennifer Hadley, who owns the gift store Terracotta on Main Street, called the toll-free number in the advertisement earlier this summer and spoke to a person named Ruth Singh, who mailed her a stack of documents so she could apply for a loan with an 8.5 percent interest rate.
Singh claimed to be a financial consultant for Ontario-based American Growth Fund and the papers she sent bore the investment company’s logo, Hadley said. AGF is an internationally recognized firm that controls roughly $30 billion in assets.
So Hadley, 59, who moved to Santa Monica from London 18 months ago and was borrowing the money to meet her $3,710 monthly rent for her Main Street store, returned the signed forms, along with copies of her driver’s license, and her social security and business cards.
Then, on Sept. 4, Hadley placed a person-to-person $1,100 cash transfer to a person named Kizzy Reid in Canada.
“You’d just think it’s somebody in an office, wouldn’t you?” said Hadley, adding that it’s difficult for foreigners to get loans in the U.S., no matter how good their credit is. “You don’t know.”
When the $15,000 loan didn’t show up in her Bank of America account within 48 hours, as promised, Hadley immediately called Singh. But Singh, who had coached Hadley through the entire process over the phone, was suddenly unable to be reached, Hadley said.
So Hadley called the Daily Press, one of two local newspapers the ad ran in, as well as local law enforcement officials. Police are now investigating the matter.
Though the telephone number listed in the advertisement is still active, repeated messages over the past week have gone unanswered. According to Daily Press invoices, Second Try Home Finance is based out of a small city in southern Alabama, but mail sent to that address has been returned twice as undeliverable.
When the first piece of mail was returned, Gary Berten, who paid for the 1-by-2-inch ad with a personal credit card, told Daily Press ad salesman Mitch Troy the address is correct and to mail it again. A search of postal records shows that the address does not exist.
In the meantime, all of the Ontario-based phone numbers provided to Hadley by Singh have since been disconnected. And AGF officials said they have no record of a anybody named Kizzy Reid or Ruth Singh ever working for them.
Pastor Herrera, the director of the L.A. County Department of Consumer Affairs, said consumers should always research a company fully and do some comparative shopping before sending money or handing over personal information to anyone. He said when an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
“Unfortunately, people are desperate for the money,” he said, adding that giving away personal information opens people up identity theft. “It takes time to establish that credit, but it’s just a process that all of us need to go through in this country.”
While law officials continue their investigation, Hadley closed the doors at 2717 Main St. on Friday after being evicted by landlord Bobi Leonard for failing to turn in her rent on time. Hadley said she is looking at another location on Main Street and hopes to reopen very soon.
186,“I’ve never been in a situation like this,” she said, adding that her ex-husband is a private eye in the U.K. “I’m stupid doing this, but I’m not a stupid person. I just hope it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
Jennifer Hadley
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Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 6, 2003. Read the original PDF.