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I was scammed out of $25,000 by a ‘friend’; here’s how I’m returning the favor Late last year, a “friend” I’d known for about a year began asking me to invest in his tequila company. He had always bragged about how he had sold his previous tequila business, which seemed to be supported by his new Range Rover, flashy clothes and expensive dinners. Now that his lockup period had expired, he was ready to launch his second brand and do it all over again. Finally, after weeks of his pestering, I relented and said to send some information over for me to review. In his email, he included a purchase order for $270,000 from a major distributor and indicated that he was in a working capital crunch since he already had two other semi’s in transit from Mexico that were tying up capital. He said that he simply needed two to three weeks for these trucks to make landing at the warehouse and he would be in position to repay whatever money I loaned him. After reviewing the information and doing several Google searches on him (which did not reveal any negative information), I agreed to provide him a personal loan (as documented in our short agreement) as a way to help him out. I think you all know where this goes next… After several weeks, I began pressing more intensely about the whereabouts of my money. He provided a variety of reasons for why my money was tied up and used words like “guarantee”, “promise” and “trust me”. In one example, he said that the trucks were tied up at the border and that he was working to get them cleared. In another, he said that he sold some real estate in Mexico and was having a friend personally bring him the cash to avoid taxation issues. These stories became more and more outlandish at every step. At this point, I decided it was best to talk to a lawyer and see what my options were. In my conversation with the lawyer he informed me of an outstanding legal judgement against my “friend” in the amount of $60,000. This was filed directly against him,

I was scammed out of $25,000 by a ‘friend’; here’s how I’m returning the favor Late last year, a “friend” I’d known for about a year began asking me to invest in his tequila company. He had always bragged about how he had sold his previous tequila business, which seemed to be supported by his new Range Rover, flashy clothes and expensive dinners. Now that his lockup period had expired, he was ready to launch his second brand and do it all over again. Finally, after weeks of his pestering, I relented and said to send some information over for me to review. In his email, he included a purchase order for $270,000 from a major distributor and indicated that he was in a working capital crunch since he already had two other semi’s in transit from Mexico that were tying up capital. He said that he simply needed two to three weeks for these trucks to make landing at the warehouse and he would be in position to repay whatever money I loaned him. After reviewing the information and doing several Google searches on him (which did not reveal any negative information), I agreed to provide him a personal loan (as documented in our short agreement) as a way to help him out. I think you all know where this goes next… After several weeks, I began pressing more intensely about the whereabouts of my money. He provided a variety of reasons for why my money was tied up and used words like “guarantee”, “promise” and “trust me”. In one example, he said that the trucks were tied up at the border and that he was working to get them cleared. In another, he said that he sold some real estate in Mexico and was having a friend personally bring him the cash to avoid taxation issues. These stories became more and more outlandish at every step. At this point, I decided it was best to talk to a lawyer and see what my options were. In my conversation with the lawyer he informed me of an outstanding legal judgement against my “friend” in the amount of $60,000. This was filed directly against him,