world-glance.com screams caution since there is so much missing, team info, personal names & bios, contact, address, etc. and it was only registered in Feb 2015 and has whois privacy protection
http://whois.domaintools.com/world-glance.com
privacy protection is not normally an issue but when a COMPANY (not personal!) webpage has no personal details, address, phone, etc. it is a huge redflag
don't mean to criticize a victim of fraud but no reputable VC or investor would be asking for money for petty expenses like a cab or flight, etc.
The whole point of this is that they are the ones that are supposed to have money and they may or may not give it to you.
Not the other way around :/
But I get it, she was using the 'boiling frog' strategy
What kind of legal action would you pursue?
She likely has no funds whatsoever to go after. I would contact a lawyer in this case, for sure - but I don't think it makes any sense to pursue legal action here - legal action is very expensive, and it is very likely throwing good money after bad money.
The only actions that make sense to me are police/interpol complaints, and (possibly, depending on lawyer advice) public naming and shaming - which this website does.
Note that the "naming and shaming" doesn't actually give anything back to those who were scammed - it's mostly a public service for the rest of the world.
It sounds like all she really got was a few meals, lodging for a few days, and a taxi ride.
It would cost the author much more to sue than he could recover.
edit:
Cecile's website is a joke :
Does it look like a serious VC to anybody? there is absolutely no information whatsoever. Remember the legend about about nigerian scammers? they make it so obvious it is a scam to screen people, that website feels a bit like that.
First, if you sue someone, it's a civil action, not a criminal prosecution.
Second, if any statements are defamatory, they would be libel, not slander.
Third, truth is an absolute defense against libel claims. (And just for completeness, the U.S. does not have criminal libel laws.)
a) absolutely horrible, meaningless copy.
b) A very poorly designed website.
c) a very weird photo of gazelle which appears to have been taken from aliexpress.com (http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Animal-Gazelle-2-Poster-3-Siz...)
d) a host shared by another 18,000 websites (according to Bing)
This company genuinely does not look real. I understand that the writer would be extremely excited by the prospect of a $4m investment, but I also feel like he should have done a little more due diligence. Based on what I see, I can't imagine genuinely expecting to receive $4m from this firm...
Having been through bad experiences with wannabe investors in the past, I made a rule that I would only ever deal with investors that were well-known or were heavily vouched for by someone I knew that had been invested in by them.
Sounds like a perfect YC founder to me.
The fact that webpages like this are not made about them and mostly about low-level charlatans, is because of the legal repercussions.
> Hindsight is 2020
as "Hindsight is two thousand twenty"
I would invite the writers to use '20-20'.
She's obviously not right in the head, you are basically saying "Watch out for crazy people", and she has to be the scapegoat for your messaging.
This is super cruel and merciless.