The Internet Financing Illusion

Vincent Panettiere
iUniverse (2007)
ISBN 9780595385676
Reviewed by Richard R. Blake for Reader Views (03/08)


Vincent Panettiere details his personal journey in a nightmarish pursuit of global financing in his book “The Internet Financing Illusion.” The book is a diary of global scams and reveals the reality of internet financing fraud.

Early in 2003 Vincent Panettiere was exploring alternative financing for a new commercial venture as a film producer. He was drawn into an Internet global financial venture that became all consuming. He made application for and was promised funding of $ 28.5 million dollars in investment capital. Vincent takes the reader on his personal journey through the baffling and often menacing world of cyberspace.

Arrangements were made with 24 year old Anamika Biswas of Kolkata, India, who claimed to have $33 billion to invest in several companies. Twenty-four entrepreneurs from four countries applied for funding and provided investment agreements for future profits from their company’s new ventures.

I found myself absorbed in this intriguing narrative which includes the actual e-mails Vincent exchanged with Biswas and his fellow investors. These e-mails point out the incongruity, lies, and deceitful text that internet scam artists use to ensnare their victims. This first hand information and these instructive warnings are written to help keep the reader scam-proof in cyberspace.

While reading Vincent’s story, I personally received three e-mail notices telling me of my good fortune. They informed me of an inheritance waiting to be claimed, a lottery winning of $1,000,000 British pounds in a UK Lottery drawing and of participating in the estate of a tsunami victim. Even while deeply engrossed in the woes of Vincent’s diary of internet scams, I felt the excitement being $ 2,000,000 richer with just a click on the web link. I was just another of the millions of people subject to become victims of another internet scam.

The appendix is informational, instructive, and filled with illustrative samples of ways to recognize and report a suspicious financial funding illusion.

The fast moving plot, the colorful cast of characters, the global communication, and the legal maneuvers resulting from deceit, greed, and delusions, give promise of an award winning fictionalized movie script. Powerful writing, timely and fascinating “The Internet Financing Illusion” reads like a fast paced novel from the first page through to the final fast moving climax.