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.
