(1888PressRelease)
October 25, 2006 - (Seattle) Today at a press conference in Seattle, Mark Johnson the chairman of the newly formed Victims of Barter Fraud announced that their growing group of 128 small business owners has scheduled a meeting next week with FTC officials in Washington, which have agreed to investigate the notorious “MBE Gang” that has collectively defrauded them of over $5 million so far. “Some of us were tricked out of merchandise but most of us were swindled out of money, and lots of it. Frankly, it’s embarrassing that we all fell for the elaborate con” admitted Johnson.
The angry business owners have also hired James Bancroft a retired federal agent turned private investigator to track down the perpetrators of a sophisticated scam run by professional con artists so bold that they even advertise openly on the Internet and with newspaper ads selling “exclusive franchise territories” for $50,000 to $300,000. “These shysters were first exposed in July of this year by the North American Barter Association but most of us did not get the warning in time” explained Johnson. “The other problem we have is that the perpetrators keep moving from one executive suite to another in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York since the jurisdiction of state authorities ends at the state lines. If the FTC goes after them, they’ll have to go overseas and we want to get our money back before that happens.” added Tom McGee, a victim from Detroit.
In less than two weeks on the job PI Bancroft found the MBE gang operating in Raleigh, San Francisco, Richmond, Houston, and spotted bold ads on the Internet in newspapers in Boston, Hawaii, Dallas, and Las Vegas. “By hiding behind 800 numbers that can be call-forwarded anywhere in the world, we’re forced to just follow the money trail and we hope that will soon lead us to the perpetrators who seem to change their names on a monthly basis” explained Bancroft. “These guys are so well-organized that they even hire hackers to cruise the Internet and delete links and news items that expose their fraud. In just the last month alone we found two dozen such links on the Internet that just magically disappear within 3-5 days of being posted” added Johnson. “All of the MBE sales reps are young white men and woman in their 20s and 30s and our information is that they reside somewhere along the Jersey-Pennsylvania border between Morristown and Mt. Pocono. It’s just a matter of time before we learn their true identities, but for now we will ask the FTC to freeze their bank accounts and follow the money trail before they claim any more victims”, explained Bancroft.
In the interim VBF can only warn other merchants to beware if you are approached by anyone named Steve, Kyle, Dave, Ed, Marty, Chris, or Kim from a company named MBE posing as a genuine barter exchange with fancy blue, orange, and white brochures operating from a 973, 570, 908, or 212 area codes or a 1-800-822 number that asks you to send money or merchandise to any of the following mail-drop locations:
55 Madsion Avenue, Morristown, NJ
4 Fork Street, Mt. Pocono, PA
405 Park Avenue, NY
P.O. Box 692, Union, NJ
400 Park Avenue, NY
The fraudsters us a number of fancy websites including betterbusinesswithbarter.com and merchantsbarter.com.
If contacted by anyone fitting the above profile please contact either Mark Johnson at 778-235-4343 or James Bancroft at BancroftInvestigations ( @ ) usa dot com or contact your local authorities. In most but not all states, barter fraud is a felony crime if the dollar amount of the transaction is more than $1,000. Victims of Barter Fraud will continue to send out 500 anti-fraud chain letters per week until this band of gypsy scam artists is brought to justice.
###
