The District is joining a national crackdown on scam artists and suing a company that used a D.C. mailing address to con customers out of thousands of dollars. The city revoked Monet Investors LLC’s business license in the fall, but not before the company spent at least five months last year promising financial help to customers as soon as they sent in their $500 deposit. According to a lawsuit filed Thursday by the D.C. Attorney General’s Office, Monet promised “consumers with one of 300 car vouchers, in amounts of $15,000 or $20,000 ‘towards a purchase of an automobile OR to pay off an existing automobile OR to use the funds for many things in your daily lives.'” Instead, consumers up and down the East Coast who were targeted through e-mail, phone and mailed materials wired their money to Monet, which used a downtown Washington mailing address, and never heard from the company again.
Experts said the recession has caused scam marketers to focus on investment opportunities and business startup help and made consumers more vulnerable.
“When we’re under stress our thought process becomes more constricted and narrowed; we perceive less options and resources [compared to what is actually] available,” said Daniel Lerner, a financial adviser and founder of Strategic Family Solution. “Someone offers an easy, financially enticing opportunity and shoves it right in front of their face, they are not necessarily thinking as broadly as they would if … they were not financially stressed.”
According to the suit, Monet is run by Meshelle Brunson, who lives in Columbia, S.C. No further information on Brunson was immediately available, however her home address in the complaint is in a neighborhood with sprawling estates.
D.C. filed its complaint one day after the Federal Trade Commission announced a national effort, “Operation Empty Promises,” to target scammers. The effort is a coordination among federal agencies, 10 states and the District and totals more than 90 lawsuits.
Maryland has filed five lawsuits against companies ranging from a purported chicken wing restaurant franchise to the “Secret Money Factory” investment program.
