Fraudulent Mentor Warning

Andrew Wilkinson shares a cautionary tale about a fraudulent business mentor who infiltrated his company.

"This happened to me almost 10 years ago. I was really overwhelmed running 5 businesses when I got introduced to this older woman. She claimed she had just sold her business for $20 million. She offered to mentor and help me out.

She came to my office, we started whiteboarding, and I thought 'this person is a genius.' First, she was an advisor and mentor, then she offered to help with marketing and sales. I injected her into the business and she started killing it - the business took off.

But I did zero diligence. She legitimized herself by claiming to be this super successful person, and because I thought she was successful, I was just grateful to have her. She seemed like a miracle who made all these problems go away.

Then the cracks started appearing. People said she was lying, her expenses were out of control - staying in crazy hotels. It turned out she was lying and falsifying documents. She hadn't sold her business, wasn't rich or successful. When I called people she'd worked with in the past, many had terrible experiences.

We fired her and moved on, but I was in this odd spot. Ethically, I wanted to shoot up a flare and warn everybody. But legally in Canada, when someone calls for a reference, you're quite limited. You can basically just say 'I wouldn't work with them again and do your diligence.'"