Calling All Victims Of Merchants Barter Exchange Fraud

Released by: Mark Q. Johnson, Acting Chairman

Angry victims of barter scam unite and hire lawyers and p.i.

Email: MarkQJohnson@hotmail.com

Keywords: barter, farud, merchants, complaints, scam, litigation, lawsuits, claims, problems, victims, MBE, NJ

Update Date: 10/12/2006 5:07:33 PM

Hits: 199

Descrption:
Today at a press conference in Los Angeles, Mark Johnson of Victoria, Roberto Diaz, of Miami, and Paul Gibson of San Francisco announced that they have organized 115 recent victims of barter exchange fraud into Victims of Barter Fraud, a volunteer organization dedicated to warning other business owners, alerting state and federal authorities, and seeking refunds of moneys swindled.

Mark Johnson, the acting chairman stated “The first order of business is to locate any and all other victims of the MBE gang and other similar scams and that is the purpose of this release. Anyone who was tricked into buying a worthless barter exchange franchise or license, or was cheated out of merchandise, or had phony barter exchanges steal their credit and banking information is urged to contact us immediately at 778-235-4343.”

The 115 merchants have chipped in $1,000 each to hire a private investigator and a Boston lawyer specializing in class-action law suits. “We are determined to find the people who scammed us out almost $5 million dollars and will not give up until we know their real names and they are arrested or return our money” added Diaz.

David Glaser, Peter Horvath, and Rick Ceballos are three victims who are especially angry after learning all three paid $75,000 each to purchase the very same "exclusive trritory" of Las Vegas. "We want our money back" said Glaser.

Gibson further explained “All but four of us were swindled by the same bogus barter network only known as “MBE” which we now know is a mobile operation moving back and forth between Morristown NJ, Mt. Pocono, and Manhattan, NY. Although we met with the same 3 or 4 MBE sales people, they gave all us different names and 800 phone numbers”. “Yeah, the guy I met said his name was “Steve Bowles” but he told other business owners the very same week that his name was “Chris Mitchell” and “Scott Brecker” and another MBE rep went by names of “Kyle Lang” “Seth Lang” and “Phillip Stone”. We can’t trace these guys past the 800 numbers but we see that they are now advertising and operating in Hawaii, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, and their franchises in Buffalo, Vancouver, Houston, Fort Myers, Orlando, and Indianapolis have all shut down while their beautiful www.barterforbetterbusiness.com web site is no longer operational. Hopefully, this private investigator can catch up with them soon before they flee the country with our money” added Johnson.

In the interim, the group is investing another $10,000 from their kitty to send out another 25,000 “anti-fraud chain letters” and 50 million of the same by e-mail. “Hopefully we can alert every merchant in America within the next 30 days so they are not caught off-guard like we were” explained Johnson who worries that “Once everyone is warned about MBE, they could just easily change their name and keep scamming merchants so it’s important that business owners know what to watch out for”. So far the victims have sent out 50,000 of the chain letters and vow to prosecute and sue the parties once their real identities are determined.

Contact infomation:
Tel: 778-235-4343