Scammed: California Man Loses $5.4 Million Paid For Mercedes-AMG ONE
Read the full story on The Auto Wire
Having made it financially, Michael Mente of California was on the hunt for an elusive hypercar, the Mercedes-AMG ONE. With only 275 built for the global market, they're not exactly cheap or easy to get ahold of, so when an attorney out of Colorado hooked him up with a dealer in France who had secured a build slot from the German automaker, Mente eagerly forked over $5.4 million.Not only was that the last he saw of the hefty sum of cash, he never got the hypercar. Mente was defrauded in an elaborate scheme once exposed has people pointing fingers as authorities try to sift through what happened.
Mente founded Revolve, an online fashion retailer, and had finally secured his dreams. The man wanted a cool car unlike what everyone else had and the Mercedes-AMG ONE was it. As he sought out one, someone put him in touch with Scott Oliver, the attorney in Colorado, who said he represented Jean-Pierre M.R. Clement, the dealer supposedly living in France.
But Clement wasn't real and didn't have access to a Mercedes-AMG ONE. Instead, the man behind the scheme, according to The Denver Post, was Traveon Rogers of Texas. The US Department of Homeland Security says Rogers has a habit of scamming people out of millions of dollars.
Now Mente is suing both Rogers and Oliver, saying they coordinated to take the $5.4 million with no intention of supplying the German hypercar.
We've seen schemes like this run with fairly inexpensive rides all the way to multi-million dollar vehicles like in this case, and they often have the same elements present. One thing scammers play off of in their victims is greed, whether it's getting an unbelievable deal for a car, or like in this case snagging a ride that's almost impossible to buy.
They will often ask for the money or a significant chunk of it upfront. That's when you should be very cautious. Handing over cash without a car being delivered is a dangerous thing to do.
We don't know if Mente did any research on Clement, but we're pretty sure if he had, it would've revealed there was no such dealer in France. Especially when big sums of money are involved, digging for info on the person you're dealing with is wise.
Images via Mercedes
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