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Start here: http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=1613&page=2 Below is just one of the excerpts from that forum. My feeling on all this? Crook! So get the hell out of DOI! As soon as you can.
More evidence confirming my assertions, I'm sure, will be forthcoming next week, but I will use this opportunity to tie some threads together to explain the circumstances that lead to my confidence that Colin Venter is indeed "Midas" and Ritanna Jeursen is truly "Touch".
The names involved first occurred in a posting by "Lawyer" on the scam.com board April 27:
http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?p=40733#post40733
This crucial posting occurred shortly after another posting by "Lawyer":
http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?p=40668&postcount=378 that reported he had emails from Colin Venter asserting control over RM, and using the email colin@natural.fusion.com.
Lawyer has never identified himself publicly. In response (by me) to a request for further information, he provided additional details about Venter's identity in this posting: http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?p=44531&postcount=437.
Now all of these postings of course represented at first uncomfirmed and unverified information. But they certainly had plausibility associated with them, if only because they were highly detailed. The details invited investigation.
I speculated that this material may have come from a "due dilligence" package Darren Bartsch purportedly sends to "VIP clients" who sign non disclosure agreements to verify the identity of Midas before "investing" $100,000 or more. While some people believe no one would be foolish to invest so much in this scam, Darren has clear instructions and procedures for his downline and other RM supporters on how to handle these cases at his rmtraining.net site. See this web page as an example: http://www.rmtraining.net/RMTrainingVIP.htm
Regardless of whether Lawyer was representing a VIP "investor" or not, the information he provided on the scam.com board could be checked out.
The first, and obvious, thing to do was to call the numbers listed in "Lawyer's" original posting. All of them rang out of service, with one exception,
"Pacific Lagoon Apartments, your home away from home in Port Vila"
Pacific Lagoon Apartments.
P.O. Box 827, Pango Road, Ellouk, Port Vila, Vanuatu.
Telephone: 678 23860. Or 678 25316.
Facsimile: 678 24377.
Email: pla@vanuatu.com.vu
Internet: http://www.pacificlagoon.com/
Internet: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~pla32/index.html
I reached a desk clerk at the Pacific Lagoon Apartments who orally reported to me that Colin Venter had stayed at the hotel in February this year.
However, fellow cattyshaq board member stik2it sent this email to the hotel:
----- Original Message -----
From: Stik2it51@aol.com
To: pla@vanuatu.com.vu
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2005 12:06 AM
Subject: Guest Inquiry ?
Good day, this is Gil Marichelei from Texas in the USA.
I am asking if you have a guest or guests in your lodgings by the names of Colin Pierre Venter and Ritanna Jeursen.
Thank you
and received this response:
"Hello,
The guests did stay here at Pacific Lagoon Apartments, only this was way back in January 2004.
We are not sure where they are now."
These reports validated that Colin and Ritanna had been on the offshore tax haven island of Vanuatu, though the reports of their arrival times differ. (It is possible that Colin came alone in February of this year, and the two visited as a couple in January 2004). Regardless, this was the first hard evidence that indeed we were dealing with real people, and not some made up figment of a conman's imagination.
I was also able to check out another tantilizing clue -- the email address: colin@naturalfusion.net. (Naturalfusion.com is a legitimate web service provider in the Baltimore area). A whois search confirmed that this domain is registered to a Vanuatu company, but the site itself just says it is "under construction". However, I found an intriguing (and in context now) important clue in a cached google reference:
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:TKCYA2tejRUJ:www.naturalfusion.net/+%22natural+fusion%22+vanuatu&hl=en
"Midas" in his narratives frequently alludes to his interest in boats and yachting. You can see this in the earliest versions of the Reality Millions website, by using the archive.org pages from the site last summer shortly after the first appearance of RM on the scene:
http://web.archive.org/web/20040605010605/http://realitymillions.com/
So, at this point, we knew:
Colin Venter is a real person, he had visited Vanuatu, and had a love of boating. The passport data provided by "Lawyer" later also matched Venter's age with "Midas". The evidence, I concede, at this stage is tantilizing but not conclusive.
Since all the phone numbers but one did not check out, and naturalfusion.net is registered to a business on an offshore jurisidiction with secrecy laws, the only clue left to examine was the stated address, 43 Ashwin, Chiltern Heights, KZN. I figured if I could trace the ownership of this property, I would find important information about whether Venter is indeed "Midas".
Conducting a title search half way around the world is of course something of a challenge. My budget for this investigation is not unlimited, so I could not simply pay a South African lawyer to look things up. This would need to be a 'do it yourself' project. Fortunately, I have some experience as a real estate agent, and also understand as a journalist how property is registered and ownership can be verified. But when I set out to find the answers here, I did not know exactly how I would solve the puzzle.
The first hopeful sign was this -- http://valueassist.durban.gov.za/
-- the valuation (assessment) roll for taxes of the city of Ethwinki (formerly durban). I ascertained by web search that the address was indeed somewhere in the greater Durban area, and checked the phone book for Venters anywhere in the area, without finding a match.
Unfortunately, when I put in the address, nothing happened. I scratched my head, and tried again. Finally, throwing my hands up in frustration, I called the Public Library. A helpful librarian went to the phone book, again, without luck, but steered me by to a communications officer for the city. She in turn directed me by email to someone in the valuation department.
Meanwhile, I asked myself whether there was any central repository of title information. After some searching I found something very interesting, the south african "Deedsweb" site: http://www.deeds.gov.za/ITSODeedsWebA/deedsweb/welcome.jsp
Trouble is, this is not a free site. I read the instructions, and realized I would need to send some money to Pretoria. Accordingly, I registered on the site, and following instructions, wired the 240 Rand (about $50). Then it was a matter of learnign how to navigate the site.
Alas, you cannot simply plug in a municipal street address to verify title. You need the deed number. So I went back to the city valuation people and got that information. Plugging that information indeed gave me the property's owners, Gerald and Dianne Lubbe. They had owned the property since 1999. This meant either of two things. Colin Venter had been a tenant, or he had never been there!
I tried to find Mr. Lubbe, but could not find a match in the online phone directory for South Africa. Frustrated, I went back into the deedsweb system, and discovered that Lubbe owned two other properties, one of significantly greater value than the Ashwin Avenue one. This led me to believe that Lubbe would indeed be a landlord. But how could I find him.
I only had a legal description for the two additional properties, so went back by email to the (now quite friendly) valuation officer for Durban/Ethwiniki, and asked her to match up the legal descriptions with real addresses.
Still no phone contact with Lubbe. I thought I was at a dead end, but then used an old reporters' trick. I googled the street name of the address i associated with the landlord's principal residence, and got two 'hits' nearby -- one a bed and breakfast, and the other some kind of lodge. The first came up dry, but the second indeed knew Mr. Lubbe -- he was his next door neighbour. He agreed to relay my message and email address.
While I was on the phone with the neighbour, I received a 'ping' on my email. I cannot comfortably disclose the source of this information, but someone delivered Mr. Lubbe's celular number to me. I called him.
In researching stories, you listen carefully to see if there is evasiness or poor credibility. Mr. Lubbe sounded as real as real can be, and he told me the story of the tenants from hell -- Colin and Ritanna. I have described many of his observations earlier in the posting, but the information Lubbe gave me provided enough "key indicators" to link these individuals to the RM saga.
These are:
1. The original postings by "Lawyer" associating them with RM, and the address in question;
2. The specific observation of the landlord that Venter and wife were operating an internet business, with four computers in the house.
3. The specific observation by the landlord that Venter was involved in a yachting business, which matches with the naturalfusion.net site on Vanuatu and the Reality Millions narratives and photos associated with "Midas".
4. The landlord's specific observation that his tenants decamped quickly and went to Australia -- Darren Bartsch has clearly stated in the interview with Midas that they live reasonably close to each other, and of course
5. The fact that all the timelines match with the doucmentation, including the ages of the people, and the date the South African authorities issued Colin Venter's passport.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, isthe landlord's report on his former tenants'character. These were the type of people who could and would perpetuate a con. They did not pay their rent, they lied, and they left abruptly when they knew the gig was up.
I expect I will have much more validating evidence next week when I am able to speak with the landlord at greater length. Some things in our conversation cannot be reported because I haven't verified them yet, but there is plenty of material to work with here.
If you consider all the elements here, the evidence is strong enough for me to say explicitly that we have uncovered Midas and Touch for the real cons they are. There is of course much work still to be done -- but the detective work now shifts from supposition to validation and tracing. Sooner or later (hopefully sooner) the long arm of the law will catch up to Colin Pierre Venter and Ritanna Jeursen.
_________________
President, Construction News and Report Group of CompaniesAn open discussion of my business can be found here
and .....
Re: Reality Millions? Definitely NOT a scam.
Mattie, I'm glad you are making your inquries.
As you can see, 'scambaiter' has answered the question about that purported Channel Islands registration. We can't find any evidence, anywhere, of a proper registration of "Reality Millions" -- and even if it existed in one or another offshore tax haven (I checked Vanuatu, near Australia, and it didn't show up there), the fact remains that the kind of 'investments' RM is selling are not being legally marketed in any nation with a modicum of financial regulation. This is especially the case for Australia, where many of the key players in the Reality Millions story, such as Darren Bartsch, reside.
Now you may be wondering why someone who is purportedly building yachts in Vanuatu and is an Internet millionaire would skip town from suburban Durban, South Africa without paying his rent while Reality Millions is in operation? So am I, and I hope to get further clarification on that aspect -- and many other puzzling elements -- of Mr. Venter's life in the weeks ahead.
But consider this: How many people do you know with four computers in a rental property running an international internet business AND a yacht building business? I can name one -- "Midas".
Since the material "Lawyer" posted on another Scam.com thread on April 27 purportedly comes from Colin Venter's passport, possibly the lawyer got his hand on the passport while representing one of his clients in the due dilligence process outlined in your posting.
I'm pretty sure some people have dumped $100,000 into this scam. If that sounds outrageous, remember there are greedy and stupid rich people out there, as well. I sense that Darren Bartsch and Colin Venter have been quite creative in their communications strategies with these rich 'investors' and that in the end they will come undone when the ponzi falls apart.
Have you read the new and revealing disclaimers on Darren's http://www.rmtraining.net site that appeared hours after my postings outlining confirmation that Colin Pierre Venter is in fact "Midas"? If you read them closely, Bartsch essentially is saying that Reality Millions "investors" can only hope to get a return on their investment if NEW investors sign up. That is a classic ponzi scheme.
The most important thing to realize is that while very high returns on investments are indeed sometimes possible, these deals if at all legitimate are not marketed to the general public (unless they are scams or extremely risky). It is a classic con-artist strategy to dress oneself up in wonderful clothing of integrity and ethics and "helping the ordinary person". The sad thing is that many of the motivational concepts expressed by Colin and Darren are indeed valid -- but they have corrupted the principals of visionary success to rob people of both their money and their dreams.
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