Affinity Fraud - Who to trust and who not to

Remember when I told you we had a nightmare when trying to sell our townhouse? This is important so pay attention - this is what you need to know - Remember these words - AFFINITY FRAUD!!!

When I finally decided to try to sell the townhouse, I had the misfortune to meet Annette and Alexander Coburn. This couple (of crooks) offered to buy it, telling me that they were ministers (this is where the affinity fraud comes in) - on their website they describe themselves as 'Prophet' and 'Phophettess' - "Beware of false prophets" as the Bible says.

They also told me that they were living out of a hotel, that they had just moved from Illinois (with their three teens - the new generation of crooks) and were anxious to buy a home in the area. Not only had they not just moved to NC, but they just got evicted out of someone else's home in the neighborhood that they had defrauded by using the same affinity fraud scheme as they were using on me. According to the folks that they defrauded previous to us, they managed to damage the property quite extensively before vacating it. They most likely have done this to every home that they ever lived in based on the court information I was able to dig up on them from one end of the US to the other.

They offered close to the appraised value of the house which was no shock because everything but the upstairs carpet was new. And even then that was in fair condition. The house appraised at $110,000.00 and Annette Coburn and her husband Alexander Coburn seemed anxious to close as fast as possible (which made sense if they were actually living out of a hotel room as they had said rather than being evicted from the last victim's house instead).

Annette came with a pre-approval form from a broker from a prospective lender; I called him and he assured me that it was genuine and that we could proceed. She wanted to move in and so we wrote up a temporary lease (4 weeks) to allow enough time to close.

What I didn't know about, at that time, was affinity fraud (making someone trust you based on a belief that is not true - like being a minister), fraud to obtain someone's signature, acquiring property by fraud or any of those things until I met these people; but I found out really fast.

By the second week that they were in the house she already stopped paying the weekly rent that she agreed to (we went on a weekly rent because the broker said that she could close in two weeks if she got the paperwork back to him (which she never did because she knew if the bank would investigate her they would find out she was indeed a crook). I knew I was in trouble by the second week and started working on getting them out of there.

That's when I started to really do a name search and found three aliases for her. She did not have a driver's license; that had been suspended in Illinois but she did have a NC ID with her current name on it. Her social security card had a previous married name on it (Epps) and the list grew from there (Johnson was the third name I found for her; a last name that she once shared with her children).

She had literally hundreds of court documents that showed that she defrauded every company that she ever dealt with (or seemingly so); beginning when she was about 16 years old - right around the same time she started having children I believe. She even had a judgment against her for a stolen vehicle that she took across state lines. She managed to get other people to sign for things for her including that car lease. She was slick as a slug and just as disgusting.

She also put bills in her children's names, changed the spelling of her so called 'church' and put bills in those names and every other conceivable thing to twist and turn to get the things that she wanted without ever paying anyone for anything. We also found their names on a website that listed them for fraud for collecting money for Nigerian Scams (which coincided with some huge phone bills that they had - and not paid of course - they left these behind in our trash can). You can read about both scamS at the link provided.

These are most definitely NOT nice people and are about as far from being ministers as I've ever met in my life. To make things worse she has been allowed to raise her children in this environment and frame of mind that it's okay to lie, steal and cheat others. They should have been taken away from her when she was young because as it turned out she ended up being nothing more than a breeding machine for a new generation of crooks.

Did you know that crooks have rights but honest citizens do not? I found this out the hard way too. The laws and the people who are supposed to enforce these laws protect the criminals but not the innocent. They made that very clear to me. In fact we went to everyone, the police, the DA, the magistrate, the FBI, every local, state and federal crime fighter that is out there and they all said the same thing "...sorry, we can't help you". NOTE: While they were living in my home, they had a broken down car parked out front. The irony of this is someone broke into this car apparently to find somewhere to sleep. The Coburns immediately received action from at least one of the law enforcement agencies in the form of a letter from the crime victims unit of the state government (someone that we reported the Coburns to) offering them assistance because a crime had been committed against them - THE CAR WASN'T EVEN THEIRS! CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE THIS???

It didn't matter that these folks defrauded every single person, business and entity that they ever came across from one end of the country to the next; it didn't matter that the teens were selling drugs a half a block away from the police department out in the open during the day on a busy street. It didn't matter that we took proof of the fraud and copies of the laws regarding how the laws were supposed to be enforced to everyone that was supposed to enforce these laws...no one wanted to touch it.

There's so much fear that a judge or even a magistrate will throw it out even before it can go to court. Even when felonies were committed, no one wanted to put any effort into putting these people in jail where they belonged. In fact these people hired an attorney and they even went through a bankruptcy court to have all of their fraud based debt discharged. BTW, just in case you're curious, the law says that you can't get fraud based debt discharged through a bankruptcy; even that law was ignored. Can you say 'SCREWED'??? Yup...we were screwed, everyone that had ever met them was screwed and they are still doing more of the same.

I just saw the police officer the other night who was the first to respond when our problems first started...she said that Annette gets arrested all of the time for bad checks, the kids get arrested all of the time for drugs, etc., etc. There is a big "I told you so" attached here for all of the law enforcement folks envolved with this case; we warned you that she was an established crook and that she would not change her ways and we were right. BIG OLD CROOKS DO NOT CHANGE JUST LEOPARD'S CANNOT CHANGE THEIR SPOTS!!! This was way too predictable because this has been her whole life; she knows nothing else and was probably raised the same way. I doubt if the trustee even knows or has followed up with her to even know that she is still committing these crimes.

UPDATE: In fact we just found out (Oct 2006) that they defrauded some poor guy and his wife out of a home that they had for sale. The county record shows that they got this house for only $22,000.00 on a seller financed note. That's exactly what she tried to do with us as well. They will NEVER see that money just as the car dealership (who she managed to talk into dropping the amount that she owed them from some $15,000.00 down to a few thousand dollars) never got their money either. She flits from one fraudulent deal to another and no one ever stops her. As long as the law protects the criminals and not the innocent, she will continue to do this for as long as she draws breath on this earth. Then God gets to judge her and that's where she will pay the ultimate price.

Creditor's Meeting - US Bankruptcy: Here's the real part that gets me. We went to the creditors meeting where you get a chance to ask the debtors questions. Annette and Alexander didn't know that we had already given the trustee copies of papers that they left behind, including dated newspapers that showed where Annette had circled more homes for sale nearby INCLUDING A CHUCH FOR SALE!!! We also had other incriminating papers that they left behind, but they still managed to get a discharged bankruptcy.

Remember the saying - crime doesn't pay? I don't believe it's a very good saying, because I've since found out that this is very big business and it is not confined to just these people. There are people all over the country that do this for a living. This is NOT an isolated incidence by any stretch of the imagination. They are only a small dot on the scam screen but a big enough dot on our screen to have caused much pain and destruction. I would love to go back to being a Pollyanna but that too is forever tarnished and removed from my life. Because of their actions and the harm that they caused us, we lost our home, we had around $12,000.00 worth of losses connected to this fraud and it forced us into a bankruptcy of our own. I don't think at our ages we will ever be able to recover from this. Our retirement savings are gone along with the house we were living in; and even though we did still have the townhouse to move back into, we are literally living week-to-week now. Any other big disaster in our lives and we will not make it; we no longer have anything to fall back on at this point.

Update # 2:
The Coburns have been able to file bankruptcy for the second time in less than two years; crime just keeps paying off for them. (February 2007)

Who would do this kind of thing to other people? Affinity fraud is usually committed by couples claiming to be ministers or anyone trying to gain your trust by claiming to be something that isn't true or to offer something that isn't true. In our country you don't actually have to go to divinity school to say that you are a minister, anyone can adopt that title. The other interesting thing about this is people trust - automatically - a person who says they represent a ministry. This assumes that they believe in God when they never really say that. They understand the Bible just enough to take advantage of other people; people like the Coburns who use God and God's word to lie and steal from others. In fact they actually used the titles 'Prophet(profit) and Prophettess (profittess)' see the twist? - but the Bible warns - "Beware of false prophets". Now that I look back, there were so many red flags, for which I ignored, and my husband warned me and I didn't listen to him. He knew, my daughter knew, and all I knew was that I just really wanted to help someone and she knew this (and was looking for this)and took advantage.

If they lead their conversation with "Trust me because I'm..." or "Trust me because you would be a fool not to", etc., then you know you are being targeted. My gut told me that something was wrong and my family knew that something was wrong and you need to listen to that gut because it'usuallyly right.

THE EXPENSIVE LESSON LEARNED...

They were in the house for two months before we could get them out of there and when we got back in our beautiful house there was $12,000.00 worth of damage and money losses including no rent. More if you consider the loss of sale to someone who was a legitimate buyer.

Watch out for people like this...they will eat you alive and will tell you anything you want to hear while doing it. And beware of the law enforcement out there because there isn't any. You have to manage the criminals on your own and the best way is not to deal with them at all. Don't automatically trust people at their word. Do a search on them with all means available to you. Be on guard at all times; if something is too good to be true, it probably is!!!

Update 3:
The Coburns were not able to make their third bankruptcy stick this time. Maybe things are finally catching up with these crooks. I feel sorry for the latest folks who were caught up in this criminal activity. This time they were successful in purchasing a house from a couple in Raleigh. They also financed a second mortgage for them like were were going to do. The judge has already ordered them out of the house, but if their house is in any condition like ours was when we got it back after only two months, I can just imagine what their's is going to be like after a year or so of their occupation. I really think their next residence really should be jail. Their kids are well on their way to going do this same path for the rest of their lives. They've already learned that mom and dad have been able to manipulate the law and the courts; what's to stop them from doing the same thing?

Moving and why it sucks...

I've said it a thousand times...I hate moving. Everything about it; packing, lifting, lugging, and unpacking. You can hire people to do all of this...if you have the money to do that and that's wonderful for the folks who can afford it, but for us 'regular' folks that have to manage on our own it's an overwhelming task.

For the last two weekends, with the first weekend being a long one with the Memorial Day added on, we barely managed to get enough moved to just live on for the first week in the house. This last weekend we hired one guy to help move some more over and this time we managed to do a bit better...but I use those words loosely because that merely means we can hardly move around in the house right now.

We have at least one or two more weekends - at least - before we can say we're really moved out of the old house and into the new one. Truth be told, we've actually moved back and forth a couple of times between the two houses. The house we're moving out of right now is the house my husband owned before we were married 5.5 years ago and the house we're moving back into is the one that I owned before we were married.

Over the years we've helped relatives by allowing them to live in one or the other of the two houses. First my sister in law moved from California to North Carolina; she was having some problems selling her one bedroom condo and was having money flow problems as a result of this situation so we let her and her boys move into my husband's house for almost a year until hers was sold and she purchased another one in Smithfield.

Then when my son was finishing up school in Florida and he and my daughter in law were inquiring about moving to NC; we let them move into the townhouse. My husband, Tony, and I discussed which house would be better for them since she was expecting their first child (my first grandchild) and decided to move out of my townhouse and into my husband's house so that they could have the townhouse - which was more up to date on appliances, heat pump, and so forth. They did decide to paint and have some different flooring put down after they got there - which I decided to let them do so that they would be happy with their surroundings.

After my grandson, Liam, was born they decided to move back to Florida (they missed being there)...BTW...I cried for months afterward...and the house was empty again.

Other nightmares occurred with the house but I will go into that in another posting. Be sure to read it; it's very educational.

Anyway, we're moving back into my house and it's going to take forever to be done. We never really did get rid of enough stuff when we merged our two households together so now we're paying the price for that. It just gets so hard when you get older to move and we're feeling those pains associated with that right now. I've got bumps and bruises in areas that I had long forgotten about...you don't want to even know!!

More on this drama later...

Being a long distance grandma

I find myself thinking about my little grandson all of the time. I miss him and his parents so much that sometimes it actually hurts.

I'm afraid that I'm a bit of a pest sometimes because I end up calling them all of the time; any little thing can trigger a memory or thought that keeps them on my mind constantly. My biggest fear is that my grandson will forget about me if I'm out of sight too long. However, when we do manage to get there for a visit he always seems so happy to see me and wants me to hold him all of the time; that means that I get to spend my visits with them elated...as it should be!

They do send pictures fairly regularly, but that really doesn't take the place of real time grandparenting. It's something that you really need to be there for. And believe me when I say that I know that I am not the only long distance grandparent out there wishing to be closer to her loved ones. And saying that this situation 'sucks' isn't even adequate enough to explain the helplessness that you feel for not being able to fill up that big black hole in your gut that's supposed to be filled with overflowing love going out and coming back from the grandparenting experience. There is no way to put into words the feeling that comes with the grandparent/grandchild connection; there is nothing else quite like it. The parenting experience is great, but the grandparent gig is like the frosting on the cake; the further extension of yourself and your children and it all comes together like golden threads.

When my son was young I had the opportunity to hug and kiss that little prince to death every chance that I got. I even used to take every Wednesday off when he was very young and called it 'Rian day' and let him pick out whatever activity that he wanted for us to do together. I knew that as a single mom I had to make our time together as special as I could because being his sole support meant that I had to work all of the time. As a matter of fact there were times when he pointed that out to me to let me know that he felt cheated - I was NOT the cool-aid mom - according to him. I wasn't the mom who was home all day who passed out treats and cool-aid to the neighborhood kids...but in fact there weren't too many moms around like that anyway. I still felt quilty and still do when I think about it.

Still, the issue at hand here is what to do about the distance. My son asks me all of the time to move to Florida where they currently live. As a matter of fact, my 14 year old daughter is going to move in with them for a year and he has even used this as the "...motive to make the move happen..." - but no can do right now; I have other things to deal with that will keep me here for a while. I will ponder it though...that is for certain.

November 2006 -
Some time has passed since I last blogged about the distance between myself and my kids and grandchild.

Amanda is indeed in Florida with her brother but things have changed. I'm going to go to Florida to be with them through to the end of the winter and beginning of Spring. Amanda and I need to reconnect; but that is not the only reason. I'm dying to see my son, daugher-in-law and grandson, but the really big news is that grandchild number 2 is coming sometime in early February. With all of this going on, how could I NOT be there?

So I'm currently job hunting in Florida instead of just North Carolina. I do have one month of employment to lock in here until I leave; mix Christmas and surgery into that time frame and it pretty much completes the picture for now. My husband and stepson will stay here because he's in school and can't go anywhere right now. Amanda is coming for Christmas and we're excited to get here back here; for that the time is passing very slowly for us both.

All in all, I'm really looking forward to reconnecting to all of the kids (whatever the age) and it is killing me to have to wait, but wait I must.

Update:
Baby Izelle Nevaeh Fehrman came into this world on February 7, 2007 in Clearwater Florida. She was 8lbs 5oz, 21 inches long...big baby! She is also very beautiful; she looks like a little cookie cutter of her mom. We're all very excited to have her here finally; we've counted all fingers and toes and everything is a go!






July 2007

Have been to Florida and back. No jobs in either locations. While I was there I developed a terrible cough and can't seem to catch my breath at all. I ended up in the hospital for two days and had x-rays, cat scans and all sorts of blood work and tests done. They found some damage to my lungs; scarring and partially deflated lungs at the bottom. They threw around words like COPD, fibrosis and IPF or ILD. Apparently the damage is related to one or more things: chemical, repeated pneumonia or asbestos; however, Lupus is the most likely cause.

Every time I've had a job interview, the cough and the inability to hear has sabotaged my efforts to find employment. As soon as I begin to talk I start coughing so badly I can bearly catch my breath. I don't know how bad this is going to get, or for how long I will have to tolerate it, but from what the doctor told me it could become increasingly worse and possibly fatal.

The strange thing is, a week after I got home (NC), which was two weeks after having my last x-ray and doctor's appointment in Florida; I had an appointment here in Garner, NC with my doctor who ordered more x-rays. After the x-rays were reviewed, they sent me a card that said it was negative; what does that mean? I'm all of a sudden cured? No explaination of any kind, just negative. My cough is getting worse and I finally have come to terms with the fact that I'm not getting better. I have applied for Social Security benefits and they tell me that I'm not eligible for SSI based on household income but I am eligible for benefits from paying into it over the years. All I have to do is supply the necessary paperwork and a copy of my birth certificate. Of course I can't find my birth certificate anywhere so I have to order one from Michigan. Not as easy as I thought it would be.

In the meantime, I can't pay my mortgage or any of my bills, I can't buy groceries, I can't do much of anything. The process can take months and we don't have months to work with. Perhaps making this an easier process for people who really need it would be a great idea.

My husband, Tony, bought a heavy duty air filter for the bedroom. I still feel like I'm choking to death all of the time, but the air filter does help. I have problems being in any other room in the house for too long, or even out in public; especially around smokers.

A good example of this was when we decided to go to the 4th of July fireworks and eventually the smokers in the crowd just about suffocated me to death. I had so much black soot in my nostrals when I got home I couldn't help but wonder what my lungs would look like. Even worse, what their lungs must be like. Seriously, what is the point of smoking and trying to kill yourself or worse, your children? There were two young women sitting right in front of us who were smoking not only around a toddIer sitting in a stroller; but they were sitting on the ground next to him and actually blowing the smoke into his face... just don't get it.

Grandkids: