Considering the amount of wealth concentrated in Los Angeles, it’s little wonder that the region is the fraud capital of the nation. Popular scams range from classic Ponzi schemes and telemarketing boiler-room scams to complex foreign currency swindles and Internet-based securities fraud. With so much white-collar crime in Los Angeles, The Business Journal asks:

Have you or anyone you know ever been the victim of a financial scam?

Penny Pittman Cobey

Associate General Counsel

J. Paul Getty Trust

This may sound odd coming from a lawyer, but I’m happy to say that neither I nor any member of my family has been the victim of such a scam even though my husband is in the securities business where one does run across this kind of thing.

Patricia Hughes[picnm11-30]

Administrative and Marketing Manager

EIP Associates

I heard this from a friend of mine. Someone saw an ad in the newspaper for immediate loans, guaranteed even with bad credit. You could call and request any amount. What this person did was call for a $5,000 loan. They said they could provide that all they needed was $350 collateral. So this person sent the check, it was cashed, and she never heard back. She called them up and found that the number had been disconnected.

Stanley Chesed

President

Interglobe Asset Protection-American affiliate

Absolutely. Three years ago, there were certain Nigerian business people who contacted companies in South Africa offering to send them money supposedly profits from certain government tenders that for various reasons had to be kept out of Nigeria. For your participation, you would get $10 million. Once the ball had started rolling, you were invited to come to Nigeria. Of course, when you came, you had to bring $50,000 for legal fees. The incredible thing was, people lost money and the scam would stop for a few months, but then would start up again. People continued to fall for it.

James D. Heczko

Managing Director

Duff & Phelps LLC

We have had clients who have fallen victim that is often the reason they come to us. In one example, a large pension fund was presented with an idea for a direct investment, but they were misrepresented about the risks and rewards of the project. Another example is an individual selling their company for stock that turns out to be worthless. We’ve seen all kinds of things.

Cathy Griffin

Principal

Korn/Ferry International

Almost. I was contacted once at Christmas regarding making a contribution for a worthy cause. I was busy and asked for a phone number, and when I called back, I felt like I had reached a man who was cleaning the garage definitely not professional. Charities have to be officially registered in some way, and I found out that they weren’t registered whatsoever. People really need to be careful about this kind of thing, especially this time of year.

Sally Phillips[picnewmakers11-30]

Vice President of Human Resources

Pinkerton’s Inc.

Yes. I know of a small-business owner who runs the business with a real family atmosphere, one that evokes trust. They had put a lot of trust in one person to run the books and take care of the money, and learned that this person had been writing checks to herself for quite a long period of time. This was much more difficult a situation than it would have been with the general anonymity of a large company. It became much harder emotionally to prosecute.