Consumers have recently taken the bait for “house flipping” schemes multiple times to the tune of millions of dollars.
Zurixx, LLC and Response Marketing Group, LLC, as well as its affiliates Nudge, LLC and BuyPD, LLC, are just some of the companies falsely promising to teach consumers how to flip houses and make a fortune. The FTC has been busy refunding consumers millions of dollars that they invested in these bogus training schemes.
“Investment scams claim you’ll likely make a lot of money quickly or easily with little to no risk — usually by investing in the financial markets, cryptocurrency, real estate, or precious metals and coins. These scams often start with free training or seminars, but quickly lead to hefty fees for additional training or coaching that promises to increase your success,” warns the FTC.
“Real estate investment training scams often claim their in-person or online training and coaching programs will make investing ‘risk free’ and profitable. To convince you to pay for their training, scammers often say you’ll earn big money with no experience and little work (you won’t). Some scammers promise that you’ll have access to funds without having to put in your own money to invest.
“Ads or websites often include testimonials from people saying how much money they made, including celebrities praising the program or presenting it as their own. Those kinds of claims aren’t reliable and don’t mean the program works. Investing in real estate is high risk. Real estate investment training scams might promise you’ll be coached to success each step of the way, but there’s often little meaningful coaching, and no success.”
Fox Business reports on what to look out for in order to avoid becoming the next fish on the hook for one of these scams. Here’s the start of the story:
Whether it’s empty promises of lucrative pay days from flipping houses, fake property postings or deceptive mortgage relief schemes, real estate scams are on the rise, experts warn.
The issue with these types of scams is that victims are at risk of losing a sizable amount of money given the monetary value of these transactions.
Given the prevalence of mortgage- and real estate-related fraud scams, it’s vital for buyers and sellers to be careful with each step of a mortgage transaction, David Bediz, owner of Bediz Group LLC and relator at Keller Williams Capital Properties, told FOX Business.
Since the beginning of the year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sent refunds to consumers who fell victim to such scams. In March and July, the FTC issued more than $20 million in refunds to consumers who had paid for real estate investment training programs that allegedly made empty promises about earning significant profits from “flipping” houses in two separate schemes.
In August, it issued $222,000 in refunds to consumers harmed by a deceptive mortgage relief operation known as Lanier Law, which collected upfront fees from homeowners with fake promises to lower their monthly payments, according to the FTC.