Investors are losing their life savings after taking advice from a property spruiker, who claims there’s fortune to be made in real estate. Paul Giezekamp, a smooth talking property spruiker, has been travelling the country selling a dream through pop-up stands at property expo’s. In his seminars Giezekamp claims that he has up to 24 properties, with $11 million in assets. Giezekamp is the founder of Property Secrets, a company which angry investors claim have...
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Opinion by Neil Jenman Consumer Advocate Within an hour of reading this article another investor will almost certainly have been ripped off in another dud Queensland property deal. That’s how often it happens. While there is no official ‘Register of Rip Offs’, it’s not hard to work out the figures. Based on the number of sales made – especially to novice investors (often from interstate) – I estimate that a thousand people are...
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by Neil Jenman Consumer Advocate Right now, in a lot of areas of Australia, there are a lot of unhappy property sellers. They can’t sell. In some areas, some properties have been on the market for six months, even longer. To sellers, an on-going unsold property can be mental agony. It’s like torture. They all have a breaking point, the day when they say, “Enough, I can’t take it anymore, just sell it.” Ironically, once...
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Journalist Peter Gregory The Age (Saturday 9 February, 2008) reports that Melbourne real estate agent Paul Castran, managing director of Castran GilbertReal Estate, and the company’s sale director Mark Forytarz, annoyed by allegedly defamatory articles by consumer advocate Neil Jenman, are taking legal action against Google to stop internet access to the articles. According to the article, “The allegations are contained in two articles from Mr Jenman’s website, which could be seen when the agents’...
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“Late last year I came up with an idea. Just as ex-Beatle, George Harrison, once had a concert for the victims of Bangladesh, I thought I’d have a concert for the victims of Bangaru.”(An article from the Jenman website.) Millions of Australians have heard of Kovelan Bangaru. The 40-year-old South African property spruiker cheated several people out of millions of dollars before fleeing to the United States back in August 2005. During an almost five...
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by Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au Consumer advocate Neil Jenman has long used his website to alert real estate consumers, particularly first time property investors, to real estate scams and scammers. He fearlessly names individuals and companies he believes are acting dishonestly and deceptively. Some property investors, who have dealt to their detriment with those exposed by Mr Jenman, come across his frank revelations only afterwards. Lucy Young, of Ringwood North, Victoria, was...
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by Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au When consumer advocate Neil Jenman sent me a clipping of The Courier-Mail’s report on the 2007 winner of the Office of Fair Trading’s TradeSmart Award, he added a frank warning. “Make sure you have a bucket ready,” he said, “because this’ll make you want to spew.” I was more dismayed than sickened to read how Fair Trading Minister Margaret Keech (in one of her most outrageous acts...
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