Fake Lender: this guy is a fraud!

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Fake Lender: this guy is a fraud!

Manuel Fuentes
Business Manager · Newberry, FL · Member since 2015 · 5 posts · 6 votes

Dear members: This post is to warn you. Do not do business with an individual by the name "Trex Samson" or his company "Trex Samson LLC". If you see this individual around, he is a fraudulent lender. I had been working with him, trying to get a $60,000 loan to acquire and flip a property. After sending several payments for taxes and miscellaneous fees, totaling US$17,180, and after having gotten a written guarantee that the loan was approved and that I would not need to submit any additional payments or else he would reimburse me all of my money within 48 hours, he came back to me asking for an additional $6,000 payment. I enforced the reimbursement clause, needing to pay an additional $1,500 in "legal fees". That was back in November 16. I still have yet to hear or read back from him. He is supposed to be a "Licensed Lender". Beware; he just wants to steal from you the same way he stole from me.

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Jeff Pancone
Engineer · Leander, TX · Member since 2015 · 38 posts · 19 votes
10y
Sorry for the ignorance here but does a legit company ask for fees and upfront monies to borrow from them? Just me but I would surely be very leery of this.
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  • John Thedford
    Real Estate Broker · Naples, FL · Member since 2013 · 9k+ posts · 6k+ votes
    10y

    After reading the posts stating this crumbag is from Nigeria finding help will probably never happen. In my other business I am often approached by these same types of scammer asking for money to be wired. The wiring instructions often have a swift code and the money is gone out of the country before you can blink! Though painful, lesson learned is not to pay ANY company up front when asking for a loan. Honest lenders will collect fees at closing. If purchasing property and they will have a security interest, they send the funds directly to a title company. Any fees will be paid at closing.

    1Reply
  • Gene Livingston
    Investor · Kyle, TX · Member since 2015 · 113 posts · 102 votes
    10y

    I will try not to rant, but this business is 80% relationships and 20% wood and bricks.  Random people you met on the internet who live in Nigeria is not a relationship.  And even if you are F2F, there are a few people out there who would lie right to your face and steal your money...rare though.  My point is, things like this happen due to not understanding the basic nature of this business. Although this is BP, real estate is not a cyberspace business. It's a business involving actual people, and tangible assets in the real 3-dimensional world. You have to meet with actual humans F2F and do deals.  Building local real relationships isn't just about helping you stay out of trouble, it's about creating a team of people who are all working on their goals in symbiosis.  Short cuts will get you burned. Why on earth would anyone NOT do this business with actual people?  Is there ANY real estate book ever written that recommends doing business in the way the original poster did?!?!? Thanks of course for sharing the story, but wow! Enough can go wrong even in a legit deal without making things worse by having no common sense.

    1Reply
  • Fernando Londono
    North Bergen, NJ · Member since 2015 · 24 posts · 5 votes
    10y

    I'm sorry for the situation, and thanks for keeping us inform from guys like that, spreading the word out is how we can protect and make our business grow. Because is not only the money but the time and the frustration we have to deal with it. 

    1Reply
  • Manuel Fuentes
    OP
    Business Manager · Newberry, FL · Member since 2015 · 5 posts · 6 votes
    10y
    Originally posted by @Stephen Nicholson:

    @Manuel Fuentes

    Interesting that the scammer appears to be from Nigeria. How did you contact each other? Only via email? How did you send then money? Transfer to a US based account?

    His LLC is based in Nevada, his commercial address and phone numbers in Santa Barbara, CA. I deposited money into US bank accounts

    0Reply
  • Gene Livingston
    Investor · Kyle, TX · Member since 2015 · 113 posts · 102 votes
    10y

    Hmm you may have a chance of recovery..I assumed you are already in contact with the destination bank? There are "know your customer" laws with US banks.

    0Reply
  • Manolo D.
    Contractor · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2015 · 4k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    10y

    Use the money laundering law to your advantage, the banks have to get some due diligence on their part before opening an account.

    0Reply
  • Alin Toncz
    Contractor · Columbia, TN · Member since 2015 · 52 posts · 24 votes
    10y

    Anything over $500 scammed or stolen is considered a FELONY in any state. If I were you, I'd contact the police, make a report and contact the DA's office in the county where the fraud was committed. Your report will put a warrant on Trex's head and anytime he's stopped by the cops for a traffic violation, he's name will pop up as wanted on a warrant. If you have all the records of all transactions made with him & if found guilty of fraud, he's facing at least 3 years in any state (exception D.C. where thievery is a way of life every day from our elected leaders)...

    1Reply
  • Mark Creason
    Real Estate Lender and Broker · Dallas, TX · Member since 2013 · 966 posts · 500 votes
    10y
    Originally posted by @Jay Hinrichs:

    post this guys name and company on the rip off report.. he will then go to number one on a google search.

    This speaks to the power of BP these days were all these fraudsters have found a target rich environment.. IE lots of fairly new to naïve real estate investors who should know better but do not know any better.. And they want in the worse way to get these kind of funding's.. Lender scam's have been going on for decades by the way so don't feel bad on that score. 

    Once this guy  is posted on rip off report, he will just change his name.  The real answer is to ask the question, does this make sense.  Why would someone send 17k on a 60k mortgage to the supposed lender.

    When I am working on a commercial loan for a client, I typically will ask for a deposit  to cover 3rd party fees (appraisal, Phase 1, survey, lender legal, etc.).  Sometimes you have to take some risk, but the answer should make sense.

    Mark

    0Reply
  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    10y

    @Mark Creason  I hear you.. but I would submit the experience level of your average commercial borrower and the average BP borrower who is trying to buy low value assets will be vastly different.. if your commercial borrower did not get a request to pay for those items then they would probably be skeptical.

    Like all the unsolicited crap we.. get I have played with a few of them for fun.

    you send one e mail back and they say you are approved for 5 million  LOL.. no one does that as we know... but there are inexperienced folks that just don't really know better and they want desperately to be RE investor and they get sucked in.

    I just close a loan with Lendinghome on a Dallas flip.. my first loan with someone other than my commercial bank in 20 years.. and they asked for I think 150 or 200 up front for a processing fee but they did their own evaluation on the collateral .. and of course I could check them out very easily they are in SF.

    Its the dreamers that really get taken on these scams.. and in your world its the guy who has no money bad credit but somehow tied up some big project that goes shopping for big money.. they will get sucked into sending bigger due diligence fees and never getting funding.  There has to be a reality check here as you state.

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    0Reply
  • Mark Allen
    Real Estate Investor/Broker · Irving, TX · Member since 2015 · 520 posts · 263 votes
    10y
    Originally posted by @Jay Hinrichs:

    @Mark Creason  I hear you.. but I would submit the experience level of your average commercial borrower and the average BP borrower who is trying to buy low value assets will be vastly different.. if your commercial borrower did not get a request to pay for those items then they would probably be skeptical.

    Like all the unsolicited crap we.. get I have played with a few of them for fun.

    you send one e mail back and they say you are approved for 5 million  LOL.. no one does that as we know... but there are inexperienced folks that just don't really know better and they want desperately to be RE investor and they get sucked in.

    I just close a loan with Lendinghome on a Dallas flip.. my first loan with someone other than my commercial bank in 20 years.. and they asked for I think 150 or 200 up front for a processing fee but they did their own evaluation on the collateral .. and of course I could check them out very easily they are in SF.

    Its the dreamers that really get taken on these scams.. and in your world its the guy who has no money bad credit but somehow tied up some big project that goes shopping for big money.. they will get sucked into sending bigger due diligence fees and never getting funding.  There has to be a reality check here as you state.

     @Jay Hinrichs If you don't mind me asking, what were the terms of the loan from LendingHome?

    0Reply
  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    10y

    @Mark Allen  their terms are on line

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  • Jose Guevarra
    Real Estate Agent · Mira Mesa, CA · Member since 2014 · 218 posts · 49 votes
    10y

    @Manuel Fuentes I live in Santa Barbara. Can you send me his commercial mailing address? I'm curious if its anywhere near me.

    0Reply
  • Dmitri L.
    Investor · DFW, TX · Member since 2013 · 319 posts · 101 votes
    10y

    @Manuel Fuentes

    As mentioned by others - if you haven't yet, get to a lawyer ASAP. The amount you're out can more than justify the legal fees to try to recover it.. If the account is in the US, there is some slim chance to get the money back, assuming they haven't already shipped the money off shore (unlikely).

    BTW interstate/wire fraud should be a federal offence

    Some people say absolutely NO up-front payments for lenders, but in my experience hard money lenders do charge a small fee up front (a couple hundred ~ a thousand bucks... not 15k+).. I would only pay this with a credit card though, that way you have recourse to recover it in case of fraud on the lenders part. Wire, WU, etc - no way.

    Good luck!

    -D

    1Reply
  • Joshua Hardin
    Hard Money Lender · Austin, TX · Member since 2015 · 1 post · 1 vote
    10y

    I work as a Hard Money Lender here in Texas and I can say the only up front fee you should pay for is the appraisal. Every other fee should be covered at closing. Deal local, ask for evidence of what you are paying for, do due diligence, and never get so deep that you are too invested into a bad deal. 


    1Reply
  • Account Closed
    Lender · Charlottesville, VA · Member since 2013 · 126 posts · 28 votes
    10y

    The only funds you should pay up front are for a credit report and/ or an appraisal. Nothing else, or you are being scammed!

    1Reply
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