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The more I think about this ugly situation, the more I wonder how I could use our experience to to help prevent this from happening to others. There is a Mexican governmental agency (I forget the name) that is reported to offer some help, but as we checked into it, the reports of what this agency could/would do were disheartening. It sounded like a small bureaucratic office that was either overwhelmed with their task, underfunded, or maybe even set-up to give the appearance that the Mexican government cared. It also sounded like, for an American in the U.S., that it would be very difficult (working with a Spanish-speaking lawyer), expensive, and time-consuming to fight these guys. I imagine that the Mexican government has little incentive to publicize the scams among those who might fall prey to them. It is likely easier to try to keep this problem quiet and to not alarm unsuspecting tourists and dampen the tourist economy. As for our own government, I imagine that it can't unilaterally control commerce inside a foreign country. Our courts would have no jurisdiction there. Our FBI could investigate the shell companies supposedly doing business in the U.S. (like OmniCorp and Swiss Alliance), but my guess is that doing so is either a low priority or extremely difficult, or probably both. Is there anyone out there who has an idea whether this is being pursued by anyone, be it in the government or private sector? I notice that at the bottom of this page is an ad for "Ask a Scam Investigator! A Fraud Examiner Will Answer Now!" by Answer.com/scam-examiners. Possibly authentic, but who knows? At this point, I have such a jaundiced outlook that I am suspicious that someone purporting to help people with fraud allegations is running a scam on those people who have already been duped by the swindlers. "Caveat emptor!" Buyer beware!