1. White men as victims So who is most likely to be a victim of fraud? He is a middle-aged white man, educated, and financially literate. He also may be under some financial strain. That’s according to Stanford University psychologist Laura Carstensen, who co-founded a research centre aimed at protecting Read More
What is an Assignment Clause? An Assignment clause is a part in a purchase contract which allows a buyer to resell or transfer his or her right to buy the property to another buyer before closing. The idea of the assignment clause was to give buyers a legal way of Read More
What is Shadow Flipping? When a property is resold two or more times without changing title, it is called Shadow Flipping. This has been identified in the Toronto and Vancouver markets as a problem. Shadow flipping is a legal, albeit potentially unethical behaviour. The CRA is analyzing approximately 3,000 cases Read More
Matt Dittburner Background
Matt Dittburner a.k.a. Steve Williams
After the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves
Matt spent time in the Canadian Armed Forces infantry as a reservist. After leaving the reserves, on October 31, 2013, he registered the domain name QualityProPainting.ca. Dittburner completed his first painting job in Brampton, Ontario on November 11, 2013, and a year later he had completed at least 4 jobs.
7-Day Business Training
During that time, Dittburner attended the Prince’s Operation Entrepreneur (POE) program, which is a national program for ex Canadian Armed Forces members who want to try and make it on their own.”Many transitioning personnel have been medically released from service, including those with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and operational stress injuries. POE is part of the solution for these individuals as they move into a second career that is a good fit with their experience and abilities. In fact, more than half of [their] boot camp participants to date have been medically released.”
Dittburner first attended a one-day workshop with the charity. Then he attended a 7-day POE boot camp in 2014. Matt said, he had a “passion for business, but lacked any technical knowledge“.
Dittburner Posing as a Real Estate Developer
On January 4, 2016 Matthew Dittburner registered the domain name treasurehomes.ca and started going to real estate investment network meetings. There he pretended he was a seasoned real-estate investor. This was only a year and a half after he finished a 7-day business boot camp.
It was at these meetings that he tried and succeeded in connecting with people who had money, which was something that he did not have. Armed with his many websites and fanciful history, he worked hard at convincing people that he was not only safe to invest with, but had the experience to create profitable ventures for them.
Of No Fixed Address
Matthew Richard Edward Dittburner a.k.a Steve Williams usually moves from rooming house to rooming house (Waterloo, Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton). Dittburner has said that when he renovates homes for his clients he “always live[s] in the houses while [he] fix[es] them up”. He lives in the houses and has the owners paying all the costs, including his personal heat and hydro usage. Dittburner has stated that he is living on highway 62 north in the Maynooth, Ontario area. This is in a 3 month project that he started in March of 2017 and is still unfinished.
