The pitch is that the company not only guarantees repayment plus interest but also buys an insurance policy to cover the guarantee. Some investors are actually offered repayment, but if so are generally induced to reinvest the principal and interest, and maybe some more of their savings, in another note. But the typical deal ends with excuses when the notes come due. Like Andrews, most of the sales force for these promissory note scams are licensed as insurance agents. And like Andrews, they can't claim they were taken in because all they had to do was call the state insurance department to see if the company guaranteeing repayment was licensed to do business as a surety.
Old people make great victims.
Many are too embarrassed at having lost their money to complain. Their memories of the sales pitch are hazy. Con artists know old people don't make good witnesses. Those who start out as good witnesses often suffer debilitating illness or even die before they ever get to court. Still sorting When investigators arrested Andrews, they had two victims of record, one in West Monroe and one in New Orleans.