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Business Brokers of Iowa Reports & Reviews (14)

We started getting calls from 319-209-5840 in the last week of January, 2022. At first the caller stated he was simply contacting us to confirm that we had received our package via registered mail from Vidanta regarding our options w.r.t. our shares, once the company goes public. He assured us that someone at our address had signed for the documents (but would not send us a copy of the signature), and he was calling to ask us for a decision about selling the shares (80 at $1875 each) and to remind us that time was very short, the deadline to decide was 02 Feb 2022 (Groundhog Day - how appropriate).

The rest of the scenario went much as has been described before. Same phone number, but our broker was Roberto Lopez. When we had questions, he also provided us with a number for “Vidanta’s business office”. Like others have stated, this is just another part of the scam.

If a private company like Vidanta was going to go public, there would be SOMETHING easy to find with a Google Search. I’d like to think it would pop-up in an early search page.

We were getting very suspicious, and the Google searching got our spidey senses tingling. Roberto told us to open an account to accept the vast quantities of money we were going to getting real soon. We would have to open an account that could accept “unregistered securities” and get back to him ASAP with the account information. He was not sure how to work with a Canadian bank…we would have to figure that part out for ourselves.

On 01 Feb 2022, the calls started coming in before 7AM Pacific time. No respectable business calls before sunrise! We had three calls before our second cup of coffee, each one more urgent than the last. We asked for an email letter from the brokerage firm outlining their proposed services, with a check list for us to follow, and what the costs would be for each step. But they would not provide anything in writing. All communications and decisions would be over the phone. By the time of the third call that morning, with us digging in our heels, Roberto assured us that we would NOT have to deposit any money at all to start the process.

The story was changing with each call. We finally turned down their once in a lifetime opportunity, explaining that we cannot possibly do business with a company that won't send us anything in writing.

If you scroll down on this site you may see a link to a very sketchy business Brokers of Iowa “home page” that seems to be still under construction. At the bottom of THAT page you will see:

©2021 Business Brokers of AI. All Rigths reserved. (So is it AI or IA?) never mind the misspelling of “Rights”

AND:

Keep in touch with us: (319) 209 5840 | [email protected] (Just how many Ss are in “business” and where do they go?)

I just received this call today and the same story as above. I did not call the number or go any further with these people.
I could smell scam from the start of the call. I get scam calls almost on a daily basis for my Vidanta property. This was a new one most of the time they want to rent or buy.
I always tell them sure send a 25,000.00 non-refundable deposit with the offer.
Funny the offer never comes.

Private investigator. Contact me

I received a call from these characters - my call came from a guy calling himself Ernesto. He told the same story, claiming that Vidanta filed to go public, the SEC investigated, found irregularities, and retained his company to investigate. Tried creating distrust for Vidanta and encouraged me to call the "Finance Department" and gave me their number. (It's a fake number that is not Vidanta and is answered by a fellow scammer.) The person answering told me that I could claim 70 unregistered shares valued at $1,800/share, but the window to exercise closed in five days. I called Ernesto back and he stated that in order to receive the shares, I'd need to open a brokerage account at "The Clearing House, Inc." Ernesto then explained that to open the account I'd need to deposit 5% of the share value (or $6,300) into the account.

The call felt scam like from the beginning and everything about it built on that impression. I told Ernesto I'd check things out a bit more and call him back. Then I started researching.

1. Vidanta has NOT filed for going public.
2. The SEC does NOT retain companies like a business broker to investigate companies that have filed.
3. The Finance Department people are referred to call is not part of Vidanta. I called the number and acted like I was trying to reach Vidanta's reservation number. They said that all reservations for Vidanta are handled online (they're not) and said that they could not transfer my call.
4. Many brokerage accounts may be opened without depositing money - they only require a deposit before the account holder wants to PURCHSE shares. I've had brokerage accounts to receive shares from my employer and those accounts never required a deposit. The Clearing House, Inc. is reported as a scam organization. It's website is "theclearinghouseinc.com" and they're trying to fool their prey with a name similar to the legitimate company "theclearinghouse.org."

I put Ernesto on my blocked number list; he tried calling three times a day for about a week.

+3

I received a call from this company as well. Thank you all for posting above - thank goodness I searched the legitimacy of the company.

I have written to both Desarollo Marina Vidanta (found their e-mail in a search) and to Vidanta directly and asked about them and to confirm my suspicions

+1

I have just received a call as well. So I wrote to Desarollo Marina and to Vidanta directly to ask them about the company.

I actually called the number he gave me then when I asked her about the mail they were supposed to have sent me, she said they sent out information last year. I never received anything. Also what made me suspicious is she said that she could not send me anything by e-mail and I only had until December 9th to claim my shares. I'm glad I searched for legitimacy of Business Brokers of Iowa. Thank you everyone for posting. I sure appreciate it - now when he calls back I can tell him what I found out.

+2

THANKS A LOT FOR ALL YOUR POSTS! I just got a call from this number and I've heard the same story. Luckily I found this site.

+1

After an elderly couple received a suspicious call 11/05/2021 from someone representing themselves to be Chris Garcia, Business Brokers of Iowa, 319-209-5840, someone contacted my firm to see if we had insight about the solicitation. After a little searching, the telemarketing to a former timeshare owner about the timeshare issuer or management company going public appears to be a scam. What the caller pitched is not something that business brokers deal with. There are reputable business brokers in Iowa that provide professional services to sell and buy businesses. Be cautious when being contacted by Business Brokers of Iowa, 319-209-5840, http://businessbrokersofia.com/, [email protected].

+9

Same thing as you guys, My broker found this site and saved me from losing anything. In hindsight it all seems so silly but they almost got me. Punk William Tate if that's even his real name. The address they provide is on the Iowa University campus lol

+4

I received a call from Business Brokers of Iowa with the same story: "The Corporation" is going public and the SEC will not approve until they reach out to their investors and offer them 70 shares amounting to $1850. He spoke in circles trying to make me suspicious that Desarollo was never interested in providing me investor information and prompted me to call the company's "finance department" which is an unlisted number but he was kind enough to provide me the number. He wanted me to call and get some sort of broker case number, then call him back. I have blocked his number and reported it to my phone carrier as spam, I have no intention of calling the number he gave me.

+6

I received a call from Business Brokers of Iowa on 5/27/21. It was exactly the same story...I had 120 shares valued at $1850 each. Supposedly Desarollo Vidanta Resort is going public and I can liquidate my shares. I started trying to check out this company. I was then told I needed to open an account with The Clearing House Inc. in NYC in order to complete the transaction. I was skeptical from the start because it seemed to fall into the category of "too good to be true." When I called The Clearing House Inc. the person I spoke with told me I needed to open an account and it would require 5% deposit. That would equate to $11,000. At that point I became very suspicious, something did not feel right. I called my own investment banker and ran it by him. He gave me tips on how to go about checking out these two companies. I called the AG offices in both Iowa and New York. Then I started an internet search looking for complaints and came across this site. Thank you so much, Donald S. Sutton for posting this! You just saved me thousands of dollars!

+5

I received a phone call from the same phone number, on 05/26/2021.
first I want to thank to Donald S Sutton, for taking the time to post about this on this site otherwise I would probably fall for this scam.
They make it sound real, first thing they gave me a phone number to call and ask for a title number and with that number they can verify if I have any shares in Vidanta Group.
That number and the person that answer that call is totally fake. Everything is part of the same scam.
After I got the Title Number I talk to the person that said he was a Broker for this company, he said his name was Aaron Lucas.
He said that he was going to verify if I have any shares available and he would call me back to let me know because if I did I have to claim that money soon because my the program was going to expire.
While I was waithing for his phone call I was checking in the internet to find out if they were any complains or information about that company. That's when I found this report and thanks to this information I didn't fell for this scam.
Please be very carefull when you answer the phone from numbers that you do not know. I hope that my experience can help someone to not to fall for this scam the same way that this information helped me.

+9

This a new incarnation of the Grupo Vidanta Scam in which people whose details were hacked from Desarollo Vidanta Resort system are being approached about re-selling non-existent, shares from the sale of the Company. The broker is unregistered, the Clearing House, Inc. address and Co. in NY are fake and all calls go to the same group---you can hear the identical background on the call. TThescam is that the mark's supposed equity interewst in Desarollo is being distributed in advance of a private sale of the corp. and shares keyed to the mark's TIme Share purchase are available at $1,850 per share provided an account to recieve the stock is set up. THE TRICK IS THAT IT'S NOT THE MARK'S ACCOUNT. Once an advance payment of 5% of the recovered value is deposited in the account (perhads $6,000 on a $150,000 stock sale) another advance is required for the Mexican tax authorities, then fees of up to 20% are charged---in advance, in order to effect the sale. THERE'S NO BROKER, NO ACCOUNT AND NO STOCK FOR SALE---the money changing hands is all from you to them. People report that they fell for this and lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. DON'T LISTEN---THEY ARE EXTREMELY GOOD SCAM ARTISTS!

+11

I want to thank you for posting this information online, it was very helpfull to me.

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