Tonight 7news has learned of dozens of Belizeans in and around the village of Armenia who lost thousands of dollars to a man running a US visa scam.
We've spoken to a number of people who confirm that in between June and August they paid $1,500 dollars cash in tidy envelopes to persons acting as collection agents for a man known as Mr Martinez.
He convinced them he had the "in" at the US Embassy - and that he could get them guaranteed visas without any paperwork - all they had to give him was a photo and cash in an envelope.
It sounded too good to be true, and, of course, it was. But, they didn't know that, and they all paid the money to him, through intermediaries. Our investigation so far suggests that as many as 80 people paid this $1,500 dollar scam fee - meaning that the con man cleaned up as much as $120,000 thousand dollars in just a few months. Pictures from his Facebook page in July showing him posing off with stacks of dollar bills. One man told us he paid it for his wife and three kids - a total of $4,500 dollars.
And the conman fueled the fantasy by sending them a dead knockoff of a legit US Embassy appointment reminder email. It's almost identical to the real one that legitimate applicants get from the Embassy. The mail says that the appointment day was supposed to be August 21st at 8:15 am, and he was only left to deliver the hard copy of another paper with the appointment number. That was to have been dropped off to applicants on Friday, August 18th, but that's when Martinez went off grid. He, of course, never appeared with anything further, and that's when the victims realized they had been scammed. We are told at least one of them did show up at the Embassy yesterday in the vain hope that their name was in the system. Of course it was not.
We understand a police report has been made against this Mr Martinez - and that CIB in Belmopan are investigating. The alleged culprit is known to us and we also tried to reach him, but without success.
We also spoke to the US Embassy which said, "The U.S. Embassy Belmopan invites people to visit https://bz.usembassy.gov/ for information on applying for nonimmigrant or immigrant visas. If applicants need help completing forms or gathering required documentation, the embassy encourages them to work with reputable attorneys or organizations." We'll keep following the story.
