by Structured Settlement Watchdog
Structured settlement consumers and investors now have their own version of the “Nigerian love hoax”, by way of the Chennai, a coastal city in India on the Bay of Bengal. It’s an attempt to seduce American structured settlement consumers, to what end?
A few days ago I received a friend request from what purports to be an attractive looking woman on LinkedIn, whose profile stated “she” was a structured settlement consultant from New York and in investment management, without specificity. Her name is listed as “Milne Anna”.
Red Flag #1 “Milne Anna” had very few contacts on LinkedIn and no endorsements
Red Flag #2 “Milne Anna” is not listed under FINRA Broker check
Red Flag #3 “Milne Anna” is not listed in the Investment Adviser Database published by the Securities and Exchange Commission
Red Flag #4 “Milne Anna” is not a member of the National Structured Settlements Trade Association or the Society of Settlement Planners
Red Flag #5 The articles that are attributed to “Milne Anna” on LinkedIn lead to a website called Ilovestructured(dot) com. The syntax on the site is clearly a non native English speaker . Thus it is no surprise that the domain is registered to someone named Manisha at a Chennai India tech company. Much of the content is recycled from other sites with inaccurate content associated with structured settlement payment buyers.
Red Flag#6 LinkedIn says New York Twitter says in Dallas.But Insurance license searches in New York and Texas came up empty.
Thus it appears that “Milne Anna” is not a real person. If “Milne Anna” were real, she does not have the credentials that are held out on LinkedIn.
Due to the lack of regulation of sales practices, the issue of fake credentials has not been uncommon with the structured settlement payment buyers
Buyers and investors beware and take the easy steps to protect yourself. Always check credentials.
- Ryan Blank, JRR Funding/Einstein Structured Settlements, using the pseudonym Ryan Einstein, fraudulently held out has having a PhD and law degree from Yale. With another property associated with blank and his sidekick Richart Ruddie, fraudulently misrepresented that Annuity Sold was licensed in all 50 states. On their Einstein SS project, also promoted purported several settlement planning seminars that turned out to be scams (as reported in previous posts). In the Einstein SS capacity, the “geniuses” also used bought testimonials which were fraudulently held out as if they were real customers.
- David Springer, of Mount Airy MD, testified in a Maryland legal proceeding, where there there was a judicial finding as to his liability, to using multiple fake identities, many with fake academic credentials, including a law degree from Yale. Springer was also held out in a video advertising purchased from a Fiverr actress where he was falsely held out as a lawyer. A Twitter account promoting Springer’s business also used the name AffleckBen (reversing the name of a real person) to promote David Springer’s former business Sovereign Funding Group.
When it comes to structured settlements and settlement planning only work with licensed professional holding relevant credentials and relevant experience
