Tina Melendez Garces Group Tina Melendez is a con artist Philadelphia PA

Do not trust Tina Melendez.

I’m reporting a fraud being committed in PA and NJ by this woman. She works for the Garces Group.

I met Tina online and we started an in and out relationship a little over a year ago. 6 months ago, I loaned her $5000 in cash for some kind of family emergency she had. As of today, she has not paid me one cent and I found out her emergency was actually a lie and she's done this to others.

When I pressured her and told her I was suing her she panicked and offered me something she said was called deferred stock from the restaurant company she works for the Garces Group. She showed me papers. She claimed that such company shares are given to executives like her and were transferable and that in couple of years the company was planning to go public and the shares were going to be worth a lot of money. So if she would give me $5K in shares now to repay the debt in couple of years I'd have at least $100K in my pocket.

Too good to be true. I asked an expert and he told me if those shares even exist, are worth nothing and she wouldn’t even be able to transfer them to me. I also found out that the company she works for is bankrupted and the owner has been accused of fraud several times so the expert was skeptic about them going public.

Tina also told me one of her bosses named "Judy" was OK with her transferring the shares to me and she even made me listen to a voicemail allegedly from this Judy person authorizing the deal. She also told me the company owner Mr. Garces who is supposed to be some kind of celebrity chef had clear her to do this because they were “close” if you know what I mean.

The expert told me if this offer was even real Tina would’ve actually been committing inside-trading fraud just by saying what she said to me. But in reality, this was all a con to delay the inevitable.

I’m working with my lawyer because I’ve found two other victims online. Tina used the same tactic with them. Romance fraud, loans in cash, company shares offer.

If anyone reading this has been a victim of this scammer please contact me ASAP.

We have to stop this serial liar.