SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

This came in just minutes ago from a reader:

I had a representative of “Just Energy” at my door a little while ago. They are a scam, they claim to be authorized by both Con Edison and National Grid to do “inspections” which are excuses to get into the house and get utility services to switch to their company.

This is the same company that used to call itself US Energy.

This reader lives near Avenue X and East 13th. The reader said other “representatives” of the “company” are going up to houses on the other side of the street. It seems they’re canvassing the neighborhood. Please alert your neighbors.

Looks like State Senator Carl Kruger is taking the offensive against a scam that, for once, he’s not responsible for (Ed. – oooh, sorry, too low of a blow?).

In all seriousness, the issue is a real one and the senator is looking to do something good here. If you’ve been a victim of the scam described below, get in touch with Kruger’s office.

Here’s the press release:

Senator Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn), Chair of the Finance Committee, is seeking additional victims of a mystery shopping scam after a constituent sought his help with a lucrative job offer that went bust.

Keep reading the press release.

From the Manhattan Beach Community Group:

It has been brought to our attention that a resident of Manhattan Beach received a telephone call on Thursday, July 22, from a company informing the resident that there is drinking water contamination in the area and that this company has been subcontracted out to do tests in his home.

The Environmental Committee of the Manhattan Beach Community Group (MBCG) has been in touch with the Department of Environmental Protection of the City of New York (DEP) and as of Friday, July 23, 2010, we were informed that DEP has no knowledge of any water contamination in Manhattan Beach.

We caution residents to be vigilant when they receive calls of this nature.  Please use  common sense with any stranger calling or ringing your bell. Feel free to contact us and we will gladly research any question you have.

Since the MBCG posted this on July 24, the group has received more calls from residents targeted by this scammer. Do not let strangers into your home or give them personal information!

NYPD photo of Snyder // Courtesy of SILive.com

A reader sent me the following message last week:

My sister, her friend my next door neighbor and me all had a strange thing happen.  Last Saturday (6/19) a man knocked on my apartment door, claimed to live down the hall and asked for money for a copayment of $36 to get medicine for his daughter…I told him no…he then knocked on the door of my neighbor claimed he was a cousin of a third neighbor and asked her for $100.  This passed Wed. the same guy knocked on my sister’s door (she lives 1/2 mile from me).  She told me that a guy with the same description knocked on the door of a friend on Friday (6/18) night.  Just thought  the word should go out.

That reader lives on East 28th Street and Voorhies Avenue, and her sister on Knapp Street and Avenue X – so it looks like he might be hitting up co-ops on the eastern side of Sheepshead Bay.

If the story wasn’t weird enough, the next day another reader sent me a link to a story from a Staten Island newspaper. She lives in the Kings Bay co-ops; the same area as the other incidents. She wrote that the co-op manager slipped photocopies under residents’ doors.

Well, I took the story and the photo (above) and ran it past our original reader, who confirmed it was the man that came to her door.

The guy, Ronald Snyder, is a scam artist awaiting sentencing for doing out in S.I. exactly what he’s now doing in BK. Here’s an excerpt from the Staten Island story:

Keep reading to see how weird this story gets.

Courtesy of wallyg via Flickr

Seventeen men were indicted and a dozen medical supply companies were raided last week for their alleged involvement in a health care scam that netted more than $3 million for the conspirators. Most of those involved hailed from the Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend and Midwood neighborhoods.

According to SILive.com, federal authorities say the defendants submitted false invoices to insurances companies for medical equipment with “payments that were well in excess of the price they initially paid through their individual retail medical supply companies.” Paybacks were given in checks issues to the wholesale companies, and the checks were cashed at check-cashing stores and delivered to the defendants.

Each of the 17 defendants could face up to 20 years in prison.

“The type of health care fraud and money laundering scheme these individuals allegedly constructed and engaged in affects all Americans and directly impacts America’s health care system,” said James T. Hayes Jr., special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, which conducted the investigation with the United States Attorney’s Office Eastern District of New York, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service.

Keep reading for a list of those involved.

There is a place on Coney Island Avenue that provides “Debt Settlement Services”. I don’t know the company, and I don’t know the people who run the company. But I would imagine the business model of the company and the like goes something like this: “If you’re in credit card debt over $5,000, call us and we can negotiate with your creditors and save you THOUSANDS in interest and late payment fees.” I can guarantee that within the next few years, the neighborhood will be inundated with even more places like it. Again, I am stressing that I don’t know the people who run this place. What I can tell you, in my opinion, is that debt settlement as a business model is a complete and utter ripoff that has caused people to lose millions of dollars – and they usually have absolutely nothing to show for it. Continue Reading »

Twenty-three individuals were indicted in the Southern District of New York on allegations that they participated in an illegal scheme to defraud various banks and financial institutions by submitting fraudulent applications and supporting documentation for mortgages and home equity loans. As a result, the lenders were induced to make loans to persons and at terms that the lenders otherwise would not have funded. The defendants include brokers and processors who worked at the mortgage brokerages AGA Capital NY, Inc.(’AGA Capital‘) and Northside Capital NY, Inc. (’Northside Capital‘), in Brooklyn, New York, real estate appraisers and loan account executives.

-”Twenty Three Indicted in New York Straw Buyer Scheme”; Mortgage Fraud Blog;Jan. 5, 2007

Two ringleaders of a multimillion-dollar mortgage scam [Maurice McDowall, who directed the daily operations of the scheme, and Aleksander Lipkin, a mortgage broker who coordinated the fraudulent loans] are facing up to 30 years in prison and heavy fines and restitution after pleading guilty to bilking banks and fleecing foreclosure victims in Brooklyn

-”Two found guilty in mortgage scam and face 30 years in prison“; Daily News; June 5, 2008

I am under a fiduciary duty to my clients. I must put their interests ahead of mine. All attorneys do. The problem is, when millions of dollars were on the line in Sheepshead Bay and Coney Island, some attorneys didn’t do that. In one of the more elaborate schemes to play out in the world of real estate fraud in Brooklyn, members of AGA Capital, Inc., a mortgage brokerage on Coney Island Avenue, teamed up with attorneys, including Alexander Kaplan, Esq., real estate brokers, and appraisers in a scheme which earned millions of dollars in fees from using “straw” purchasers and filing false documents, including appraisals, earning commissions, fees, and more in the process. Many of the defendants have been sentenced to long terms in federal prison and the attorney involved lost his license and is also going to jail for some time. Worst of all, homeowners were literally robbed of their houses.

Believe it or not, this kind of thing happens every day, though usually on a much smaller scale. So what in the world are you to do if you are a purchaser in Sheepshead Bay and want to make sure your attorney is legitimate? Here are some tips to protect yourself: Continue Reading »