Advance Fee Mortgage Fraud: TRIUMPH Group (Asia-Pacific office)
Fraud Buster
criminals and fraudsters are currently operating out of Thailand and
using the name of a Dutch company called TRIUMPH to defraud the public
and the business community in a completely bogus "advanced fee"
mortgage refinancing scheme/fraud. The parent company TRIUMPH claims
no knowledge of the individuals making representations on its behalf,
nor the Royal Bank of Scotland/ABN AMRO whom these fraudsters are
claiming to be able to secure refinancing through. I wrote the Royal
Bank of Scotland (RBS) and the response received is below (first the
text of my inquiry followed by the RBS/ABN AMRO response).
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INQUIRY
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Greetings,
I am writing to inquire as to whether your establishment maintains any
kind of preexisting financial relationship with the Triumph Group
based out of the Netherlands:
http://triumphgroup.nl/
The reason I am asking is because they are claiming to be able to
secure refinancing loans from RBS/ABN Amro by charging initial fees
from clients of between 15,000-30,000 AUD. However they have yet to
perform on any contracts and in some cases my understanding is that
they are placing privacy clauses in their contracts whereby clients
are not allowed to inquire or otherwise perform any independent due
diligence process of their own without them.
My concern is that this whole outfit and its mortgage refinancing
might in fact be a fraudulent scheme that is hawking the name of the
RBS/ABN-Amro and luring unsuspecting clients into a hoax during these
undertain economic times.
Can you please confirm whether there is a preexisting relationship
with this entity and whether it is in fact legitimate?
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RBS/ABN AMRO RESPONSE
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Dear Sir
Thank you for your e-mail, it has been referred to me for a response.
This has the hallmarks of an advanced fee fraud, so your concerns are
justified. If you wish to learn more about advanced fee frauds, the US
Secret Service has some useful information here: http://www.secretservice.gov/faq.shtml
We believe the ABN AMRO/RBS name is being misused to defraud
unsuspecting victims.
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Please pass this message around, especially to any individuals known
to have been dealing with the fraudulent Thailand group
misrepresenting itself as TRIUMPH. This outfit is not legitimate.
Fraud Buster
Official Committee Hansard
Mr Bitel—I would also say not only migration agents but non-registered
people giving immigration advice. In my experience, the larger element
of fraud comes not from the migration agents, but from the movers and
shakers out there in the community, the people who are glibly telling
people that they know what to do. They are the people who are largely
conning many innocent people. One has only to look at the numbers that
have been struck off by the MARA. They are not substantial, but one
should look at the people the investigations have been pursuing.
__Abel Miranda__ is a well-known example in Sydney. He was never
licensed, but certainly many hundreds—and it may well run into
thousands—of Filipinos, Thais, and people of other nationalities made
applications for protection visas and appeals through the RRT with his
so-called advice.
www.aph.gov.au/Hansard/reps/dailys/dr260602.pdf
Obviously, if someone is not notified of a hearing and thus misses a
deadline and isexcluded from a proper appeal process, that is a very
serious omission on the part of the minister or his delegates. Other
examples might be that immigration agents make errors. We all know
that immigration agents vary greatly in their abilities and in their
quality. Indeed, many people will remember the case of ____Abel
Miranda___, who was jailed for a number of years for inappropriate
behaviour. Bad immigration agents take some time to find out, because
their unsuccessful cases are deported. They do not make complaints to
the consumer affairs minister; they are too busy being deported.