DAMON HILL - THE KING OF NO SHOW

Liticaphobia- the fear of lawsuits.

The man who calls himself the CEO of Infinity Investment Services may suffer from liticaphobia.

What else could explain a consistence record of not showing up in court when you or your company is being sued?

You may remember that Hill was due to appear in a California court room in 2003 - he never showed up.

HILL remained at-large (no pun intended) until Metro police placed on the cuffs in 2005.

California wanted him back. For whatever reason, Hill did not want to face his crimes in California. and he refused a voluntary extradition.

Gee, Damon, we have to ask you this question: What kept you wanting to stay at CCDC?

The beautiful accommodations?

A lot of time, paper work and a lot of tax payers money had to be spent to extradite Hill.

Here we are in 2008, and Damon Hill appears to be suffering again with liticaphobia.

Infinity Investment Services, Damon Hill's pride and joy, has lawsuits being throw at it as fast as they can be written...and when it comes time to appear in court? Damon Hill is a no show.

AUGUST 2, 2008 - INFINITY INVESTMENT SERVICES loses in court. Default judgement totalling $39,904.03. Infinity never showed up. Now come on, where's Damon?

SEPTEMBER 4, 2008 - Once again - NO SHOW in Judge Cadish court room. Hyundai Motor Finance is suing Infinity Investment Services.

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008 - Why stop? No show in Judge Denton's courtroom. American Honda Finance is suing Infinity Investment Services.

Hill has yet to appear in court for the case involving Kia Motors.

On October 2, 2008 - Infinity Investment Services is scheduled to appear in Judge Williams courtroom at 9am. Infinity is being sued by JP Morgan Chase Bank.

Deep breaths, Damon. Keep telling yourself, "it's just a courtroom, it's just a courtroom."

Don't look over at the uniformed officer with the hand cuffs. Focus. You can do it.

INFINITY INVESTMENT SERVICES

Location: 1641 East Flamingo, Las Vegas

A quick acting INFINITY client intercepted this letter containing two VISA cards.

It appears INFINITY was not fast enough to pull off a quick change of addresses that would have sent this letter to the INFINITY offices instead of to the rightful owner.

This VISA card belongs to the client, not INFINITY. It was the client’s social security number and personal information that was used to obtain the credit.

At no time did the client give permission to INFINITY to apply for this card.

Don’t you have to sign a credit card application? Yes. Forgery?

It appears DAMON HILL, CEO of Infinity Investment Services, or someone using his name at Infinity did apply – and put DAMON HILL as the secondary user, requesting a card in that name. Was it DAMON?

This came as a surprise to the client. Why would they use their credit so DAMON HILL can have a credit card in his name? No where do you see Infinity Investment Services printed on either card.

A bigger surprise came a few days later.

NEWS 3 INVESTIGATORS revealed information about DAMON HILL’S criminal past.

(See DAMON HILL's mug shot to the right)

All the clients we spoke to told us they had no idea about DAMON’S past – seems DAMON HILL does not openly share this information with prospective clients.

Why would he?

DAMON HILL is a felon. He served time in California for Identity Theft and two counts of grand theft auto.

It does not stop there.

According to Las Vegas Metro police records DAMON HILL was busted in Las Vegas. He was arrested for holding up a man at gun point…..trying to stealing the man’s laptop as he exited a restaurant. DAMON HILL then told the victim he knew where the victim’s mother worked and lived and would “visit” both of them if the victim did not go to their ATM and withdraw cash.

The victim got into their car and drove to the ATM. HILL followed in another car.
The victim simply called 911 on their cell phone. Within minutes HILL was busted.

DAMON HILL sat behind bars at Clark County Detention Center from September to January. Seems HILL was wanted in California. He had been on the run for two years. According to records, HILL would not sign the extradition papers releasing him into California custody. So both states had to go through the long process that eventually would send HILL back to California.

INFINITY INVESTMENT SERVICES is also linked to a so called organization called The JAVIS Foundation. In part two of our Infinity investigations we revealed several problems facing JAVIS. (We even corrected the spelling on the JAVIS web site and it seems someone at JAVIS/INFINITY saw our story and made the appropriate changes) INFINITY'S CFO, ROBERT HERMAN (photograph on the right) appears to have a difficult time answering questions and explaining what JAVIS is all about.

The JAVIS website is down. Disappeared.
What happened?

The NEWS 3 INVESTIGATORS has also uncovered 3 names appearing on the articles of incorporation for INFINITY INVESTMENT SERVICES. This documentation is filed with the state of Nevada. The names of 3 people, who until we called them, had no idea they were listed as managing members on the paper work. They are clients. In their own words they are not a part of this corporation and were never asked to be. It appears these documents were filed without their knowledge or permission.

If you are a victim of INFINITY INVESTMENT SERVICES click here.

Telephone Update

The check has arrived! The Rowley's let me know Cox did in fact cover the cost of those fraudulent collect calls that showed up on their bill. $173 worth! If you check the earlier post, you'll see the story. After seeing what they went through, I called my phone company and put a block on all collect calls. It made me think .. when was the last time I received a collect call? I don't think I ever have. Also, after our story aired Steve Schorr emailed to say ... Cox is, by law, forced to put those charges on a customer's bill from third party companies. They simply have to pass them along, even if they seem fraudulent. Again .. if you notice something unusual, or suspect calls have been fraudulently applied to your bill, call your phone company and let them know. Write down the name of the person you speak with and call them back to make sure it's taken care of.

A Few Reminders .....

If you saw our story on the “Phony Phone Calls”, you know you can prevent this type of thing from happening to you. If you didn’t see the story, click here. Any phone provider, (Cox, Embarq) can block third party billed calls from being applied to your account. (Third party calls are collect calls, calls from correctional facilities, many 900/976 numbers, etc.) After you place a block on your account, these types of calls won’t come through. These calls are billed by a third party, and your phone company has to put them on the bill. I just had this block placed on my own home phone. It’s free with Cox, Embarq charges 50 cents a month for a collect call block.

Help! I've Got An Abandoned Car In My Neighborhood

We heard from two viewers about the trouble they had getting someone's attention when it came to abandoned cars in a neighborhood, or near a workplace.
We're watching our for you .. and we're saving you the steps of trying to find the appropriate agency.

The first step is to determine if it is parked on public property (most streets and neighborhoods), or private property (most vacant lots).

If it's private property, most often you'll need to call the Code Enforcement Department in your city .. Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, or if not in a city .. Clark County.

If it's public property, call your local police agency or check with the Constable's Office if you're in the City of Las Vegas or unincorporated Clark County.

**No matter who you call, please know the Make, Model, Color of the vehicle. Get the license plate number and location of the vehicle.

North Las Vegas
(if on public street)
North Las Vegas Police
702-633-1390

(if on private property)
North Las Vegas Code Enforcement
702-633-1677

on-line



Las Vegas
(if on private property--vacant lots, etc.)
Neighborhood Services
702-229-6615 (24 hour number-leave message after hours)

(if on public property--which is most streets)
702-455-8697 (Constable's Office)

on-line


Henderson
(private property)
Code Enforcement
702-267-3950

(public property)

Parking Enforcement Hotline

702-267-3950 or 702-267-5099


Clark County
(private property)
Public Response
702-455-4191

(public property)
Constable's Office
702-455-8697


Metro
(on line complaint form for public streets. You'll need to find which "Area Command" you live in within Metro's jurisdiction. All commands have area maps to show you the boundries. Each command has an Abandoned Vehicle Report.) You may also want to call the Constable's Office. It handles the much of the towing duty for Metro after recent changes to existing law.

Las Vegas Township Constable's Office

702-455-8697 (455-TOWS)

Once it receives a complaint of an abandoned vehicle, the Constable's office will send a deputy within 10 days. Already, the Constable's Office says it has towed 1000 abandoned vehicles.

Which Companies Have The Most ID Theft Complaints?

Find out below*

But first … Teenagers are a lot of things. Increasingly they are targets for ID theft. In fact the younger you are, the better victim you make. That’s because if someone has obtained your social security number, you probably won’t know. Older folks will find out someone has used their credit when they try to get a loan and are turned down, or they’ll get a call from a credit card company reporting suspicious activity. But, say, you’re 12 years old. You aren’t getting a car loan and it could be years before you find out there’s a problem.

You can see our story on Kate here.

Anyone with a social security number should be checking their credit report at least once a year. Young kids and teenagers should also do this, as our story illustrated. Just because young kids and teens don't have credit cards, car loans or home mortgages .. doesn't mean someone won't try to use their credit to do so. Half a million teenagers were victims of id theft. Many never thought to check their credit report. They should.

You can get an annual copy of your credit report, for free, from all three credit reporting agencies, once a year. If you're smart, space it out. Get one copy from one of the credit agencies. Wait four months, get another copy of your report from a different credit agency, etc. That way you won’t go a whole year in between reports. If you have them sent to you at home. Don’t leave them lying around. And don’t throw them in the garbage. Shred them!

Here's where you can get your annual credit report.

Here's how to contact each of the individual credit reporting agencies:
Equifax

TransUnion

Experian

*****If you want to see which companies get the most ID Theft/Fraud complaints, read this article.
Companies don't like to divulge this information. It turns out UC Berkeley's Center for Law and Technology, using a Freedom of Information Act request, got a small sampling of information from the Federal Trade Commission, which collects ID Theft/Fraud complaints from companies.

Gregory Cook, Evofi One, Inc. the mortage loan officer who appeared in our story "Kate's Identity Theft" told us about Evofi's new weapon to fight fraud and identity theft. The company just incorporated newly developed software they call FRAUD FREE ZONE. Evofi has spent 3 years developing this software. FRAUD FREE ZONE will analyze every loan application and will prevent most common types of fraud as well as mistakes in loan applications.


Read how the U.S. contradicts itself
over its ID theft advice.

Drink More Water!

With the temperatures well into the triple digits, I hope you’re drinking lots of water! I came across this article on the Associated Press wire and thought it made an interesting point. I know lots of people who drink soda and assume they’re getting their needed amount of water. Not so ... if you read below.
Just so you know .. I like a soda every so often just like the next guy. But this is something to think about in our hot climate.

The study synopsis:

"Even though these beverages are proclaimed to be mostly water,
in a first
of a kind beverage trial it was demonstrated that they cannot
sustain
life. Since the outcome of such trial was unknown and since death
was
expected in absence of water, no humans or animals took part of it.
Instead, each beverage was given to a house plant, which depends on
water
for survival as people do. The results were stunningly sad.

(The plant on the left before the study started, the plant on the right was given only regular soda during the study.)

The plants failed to grow and develop, and most of them died.
However, the plant that was given plain water flourished.

(The plants above were given water only. The picture on the left was before the study, the picture on the right after the study was completed.)

"This is a good indicator that people quenching their thirst
with
beverages other than water might be making a catastrophic mistake
since
the beverage trial showed that no beverage can be a substitute for
water," said Steve Dimeck, the lead author of the study.
To raise the awareness in people about the benefits of drinking
water,
several dozen studies, research material and clinical trials were
reviewed. There was clear evidence that water indeed can help with
headaches, blood pressure, weight loss, ulcers, mental performance,
constipation, kidney stones, cancer and more.
"This study was not done to discourage people from consuming
the
modern-day beverages, but to encourage them to drink more water
since
water, as the beverage trial confirmed, means life," stated Steve
Dimeck."

The full study is available by going to this link. However, you have to sign up as a subscriber to read the whole thing.