Thread: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

I don't know anything about these businesses so I won't pass judgement at this point. But will say I clicked on two of these links and they take you right to a sales pitch. Also, the links would lead you to believe that the FTC has ruled on something. Nothing could be further from the truth, the links simply make statements about Adzzoo, Agel, Creative Memories, and Ignite Electric then reference a previous FTC ruling. I don't see credible businesses resorting to these sort of tactics, where I have seen press releases like this is with pump and dump stock schemes. They will send a mailer and then issue a few press releases that appear to have substance, but are just fluff.

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I hate to see this, unfortunately affinity fraud is a very common way scams like this spread.


SEC says ex-Marine bilked vets in Chicago hedge fund fraud

By Jonathan Stempel
Published August 06, 2013
Reuters

A former Marine masqueraded as a successful hedge fund trader to defraud current and former military personnel, causing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to obtain an emergency asset freeze to halt his scheme, the regulator said on Tuesday.

The SEC said Clayton Cohn, 26, lied to investors about his trading success and the performance of his Marketaction Capital Management hedge fund, raising $1.78 million from 24 investors through his Chicago-based firm Marketaction Advisors LLC.

According to a lawsuit filed in Chicago federal court, Cohn lured investors through his Veterans Financial Education Network, which purported to help veterans manage their money, and by touting annualized returns reaching triple digits.

Instead, the SEC said the Winnetka, Illinois, resident spent less than half what he raised on his fund's equity and equity options trading strategy, and "lost what money he has invested."

It said some of the rest went toward "living the high life," including payments on a Los Angeles mansion and luxury sports car and "extravagant" nightclub tabs, as well as investments in start-ups focused on t-shirt designs, hair extensions and 3-D adult film production.

The SEC said it needed to intervene after Cohn refused to honor simultaneous redemptions by several of his investors.

"Cohn's hedge fund investors didn't have a chance to make a profit since he never invested most of their money and promptly lost the portion he did invest," Timothy Warren, acting director of the SEC's regional office in Chicago, said in a statement.

Cohn did not immediately respond to phone and email requests seeking comment.

The lawsuit seeks a permanent ban on various securities law violations, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, and civil fines.

The case is SEC v. Cohn et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, No. 13-05586.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Read more: SEC says ex-Marine bilked vets in Chicago hedge fund fraud | Fox Business

Originally Posted by ribshaw

I don't know anything about these businesses so I won't pass judgement at this point. But will say I clicked on two of these links and they take you right to a sales pitch. Also, the links would lead you to believe that the FTC has ruled on something. Nothing could be further from the truth, the links simply make statements about Adzzoo, Agel, Creative Memories, and Ignite Electric then reference a previous FTC ruling. I don't see credible businesses resorting to these sort of tactics, where I have seen press releases like this is with pump and dump stock schemes. They will send a mailer and then issue a few press releases that appear to have substance, but are just fluff.

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Patrick Pretty did a great write up on his, found a few more and appears to have exposed the guy behind the ads.

Series Of News Releases From Purported MLM Trainer Plants Seed That Federal Trade Commission Has Given Green Light To Several Opportunities, Including Herbalife

Way way way behind, even cutting and pasting takes some time. But some good scam stuff in the headlines.

A good read for business owners. Or aspiring white collar criminals I suppose.

4 Kinds of Fraud That Could Destroy Your Business


Get two entrepreneurs in a room and chances are one, if not both, have been the victim of accounting fraud. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners annual report, nearly half of all small businesses experience fraud at some point in their business lifecycle. It will cost these organizations an average of $114,000 per occurrence. Worse, such fraud is usually committed by a "loyal" employee.

As the head of a managerial accounting service, I've uncovered hundreds of fraudulent activities affecting prospective clients. The amount can vary greatly, from a few thousand dollars to millions.

Let me share some true stories that highlight four common types of fraud for business owners and ways they can be avoided:

1. Payroll fraud.
Last year, we took on a local construction firm as a new client. Their payroll account had never been reconciled to their time-keeping system, so we made that one of our top priorities. According to company records, two workers and their manager were working massive hours and getting paid a ton of overtime that amounted to more than $80,000 in additional annual pay. Their timesheets revealed they were working on construction projects that were more than 50 miles away from one another simultaneously.

Hmmmm. It took about three seconds to figure that out and fire the employees, but the money was gone.

While it is easy for you and me to say that this could never happen to us, the additional salaries given to these three guys amounted to an increase of only four percent of the total payroll cost -- a figure that when unchecked could easily slip through the cracks. Most companies don't keep clean enough records to notice such an amount, especially when they fund a six-figure weekly payroll.

The best way to prevent payroll fraud is to reconcile all balance sheet accounts and payroll records monthly or, at the very least, quarterly. Look for any discrepancies and investigate them until you have a clear answer.



2. "Double check" fraud.
I know of a restaurant whose former bookkeeper stole $550,000 over five years. She did this by writing two checks each time she paid a bill, one to the vendor and one to herself. For example, if she had to pay $500 to ACME Insurance Company, she would simultaneously write another check to herself for $100 that she coded in the accounting system as "ACME."

It is very hard for business owners to catch this type of activity. Even if they are looking at the financial statements frequently and the bills look a little high, they can generally seem reasonable. But this can add up quickly. In this case, more than half a million dollars was stolen by writing 20 to 30 "double checks" per month for nominal amounts spread across multiple expense accounts.

This fraud was only detected when the bookkeeper fell ill and another bookkeeper took her place. Very quickly, the new person noticed that the bank account had not been properly reconciled in months. After doing so, it was clear that there were multiple payments in the same month to the same vendor.

As a business owner, it is difficult to find good accounting help, but it is important to have more than just one person signing checks and reconciling the bank account. Also, it is important to have an outsider come and look at the books and reconciliations at least annually, and at random times.

3. Over-ordering fraud.
Another one of our clients had a 12-year part-time office manager who would routinely order and receive all the office supplies. She was paid $10 per hour and given just enough work to get her up to the point (but not over) where she still remained ineligible to receive health benefits. She was a single mother, had a child at home, and became disgruntled.

For at least the last three years of her employment, she began over-ordering office supplies. She would return supplies the company did not need in exchange for a gift card, which she then used to buy something small and take the remainder in cash. It is unclear how much was stolen, but our estimates were that in one year it was over $19,000.

The easiest way for this business to have avoided this type of fraud is to do the right thing from the start. Good employees pay for themselves on average tenfold, and bad employees can ruin companies. In this case, the manager was short-sided in wanting to save $250 per month in health insurance premiums. The result was an unhealthy work environment and a scenario where this lady felt that it was “fair” for her to steal.

4. "Friendship" fraud.
A brilliant engineer friend of mine once hired his best friend's daughter to be his bookkeeper. He had known her as a kid. She was smart, hard-working and, because she was a single mother, she needed a sound income. As it turns out, she also felt mistreated by her father, felt her previous boss was out to get her, had problems at home, and needed this job to get out of debt. My friend is a great guy and a very trusting person. Within a year, the bookkeeper was the only one writing, signing and authorizing checks. She was running payroll and the only contact for the IRS.

In late 2011, he was astonished to learn that all of his bank accounts were frozen and levied by the IRS. Though he had paid and filed all of his personal income taxes on time, his bookkeeper was stealing the money that was supposed to go to payroll taxes. As the only IRS point-of-contact for the business, she strung this out over a three-year period and stole $439,000. Three days later, the company was forced to shut down, 15 employees lost their jobs, and the shareholders (including her father) lost all of their money.

The moral of the story is to never hire anyone solely based upon friendship, family, obligation, or feelings of sympathy. Build a culture of accountability, measure results, and make sure everyone knows that you are looking at their performance. Then, hire based on talent, and pay for that talent to perform at a high level of accountability and integrity.
Matt Garrett
Matt Garrett

Matt Garrett is chief executive of TGG Accounting, a managerial accounting firm based in San Diego, specializing in serving small to mid-sized businesses.

The author is an Entrepreneur contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer

Read more: 4 Kinds of Fraud That Could Destroy Your Business | Entrepreneur.com

Federal regulators are warning investors to beware of scammers pitching high-yielding certificates of deposit. The thieves pose as brokers of a big-name investment firm, then coax victims to reveal financial data so they can steal their identities and loot their bank accounts.

The twist is that the scammers steal money the old-fashioned way: by calling unsuspecting victims on the phone. It’s not clear whether the thieves have used cellphones or gone truly retro and relied on land lines.

Latest investment scam: Stealing money by telephone - latimes.com

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I just read two stories that seem somewhat related to a recent scam. One in Sparks Nevada preying on foreign restaurant owners and this mostly Hispanic customers or customers with Hispanic last names.

A Spanish-speaking caller will ask the customer to go and buy a gift card and call back with the card number in order to keep their lights on, according to Murfreesboro Electric.

“They’re either talking to them or leaving them a very urgent message saying they need to go buy the card and call back or their lights will be shut off,” said Amy Byers, spokesperson for Murfreesboro Electric. “It’s mostly Hispanic customers or customers with Hispanic last names.”

The caller ID will often say the call came from Murfreesboro Electric, Byers said.

“We’re not going to call and ask you for money,” Byers said. “Even if you haven’t paid your bill, we will never call you. We’ll leave a note on your door or send the second notice. We’re not going to ask you to go to Wal-Mart or Walgreens. We’re not going to ask you to come anywhere but at Murfreesboro Electric. We’ll have identification or ask you to come to our office. This goes for all of our customers.”

Byers said customers who believed they have been scammed can also call or come in if they want to make sure their account is in good standing.

“For peace of mind,” Byers said, “we’re happy to talk with them, but we’ll encourage them to call police. They may not want to do that, but they have always have the option to call us and make sure their account is OK after they believe they may have been scammed.”

Byers said no one on staff at Murfreesboro Electric speaks Spanish.

“That’s what clued one lady in,” Byers said. “She was about to go and do what they said and she remembered we didn’t have anyone who spoke Spanish so she called us.”

No police reports have been filed by customers, according to Murfreesboro Police Department Spokesperson Kyle Evans.

“Anyone who believes they may have been scammed should call 893-1311 to file a police report,” Evans said.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20...-targeted-scam

Just another service Ribshaw offers, but on a serious note immigrants are often victims of scams. If you speak two languages it helps to share information like this with them.

Un llamador de habla española le solicitará al cliente que ir a comprar una tarjeta de regalo y vuelva a llamar con el número de la tarjeta con el fin de mantener sus luces encendidas, según Murfreesboro Electric.

"O bien están hablando con ellos o les deja un mensaje muy urgente diciendo que necesitan para ir a comprar la tarjeta y llamar a la espalda o las luces se apaga", dijo Amy Byers, portavoz de Murfreesboro Electric. "Es más que nada los clientes hispanos o clientes con apellidos hispanos".

El identificador de llamadas a menudo decir que la llamada provenía de Murfreesboro eléctrico, dijo Byers.

"No vamos a llamar y pedir dinero", dijo Byers. "Incluso si usted no ha pagado su factura, nunca te llame. Vamos a dejar una nota en su puerta o enviaremos el segundo aviso. No vamos a pedirles que ir a Wal-Mart y Walgreens. No vamos a pedir que venga cualquier lugar, pero en Murfreesboro Electric. Vamos a tener identificación o pedimos que venir a nuestra oficina. Esto va para todos nuestros clientes ".

Byers dijo que los clientes que creen que han sido estafados también pueden llamar o venir si quieren asegurarse de que su cuenta está en buen estado.

"Por la paz de la mente", dijo Byers, "estamos encantados de hablar con ellos, pero nos animamos a llamar a la policía. Es posible que no quiero hacer eso, pero siempre han tener la opción de llamarnos y asegurarse de que su cuenta está bien después de que creen que pueden haber sido estafados ".

Byers dijo que nadie en el personal en Murfreesboro Eléctrica habla español.

"Eso es lo que dio un indicio de una señora", dijo Byers. "Estaba a punto de ir y hacer lo que decían y se acordó de que no tenía a nadie que hablara español para que nos llamó."

No hay informes de la policía han sido presentadas por los clientes, de acuerdo a Murfreesboro Departamento de Policía, Portavoz Kyle Evans.

"Cualquier persona que crea haber sido estafado debe llamar 893-1311 para presentar una denuncia policial", dijo Evans

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EDISON — Township police are warning residents about a phone scam involving people posing as representatives of the Internal Revenue Service or the Federal Bureau of Investigation who are targeting people of Asian descent.

According to police there have been seven incidents in the past few months.

Police said as part of the scam people of Asian descent are being told they owe back taxes to the federal government. They are being advised to pay the fines immediately so their arrest warrant will be voided. The victims are told to purchased Green Dot prepaid credit cards at Walmart stores or other retailers and forward the account information to the caller.

Police said in some cases the amount requested is several thousand dollars.

Anyone who receives a similar call is asked to contact Special Agent John McBride of the U.S. Department of Treasury at 732-418-3909 or their local police department.

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/artic...out-phone-scam

Two men 'posed as top bank execs to scam $220,000 in private flights, luxury hotel stays and Tiffany's shopping trips'

Dante Dixon, 45, and Christopher Henderson, 32, 'pretended to be financial execs so they were issued with credit from companies'
They 'took four privately chartered flights and spent $25,000 at a hotel'
They also 'charged $20,000 for watches, sunglasses and men's cologne'
But they were busted when an aviation employee called their 'employers' - who said the men never worked there

Dante Dixon, and Christopher Henderson, pose as top bank execs to scam $220,000 | Mail Online


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Note for UK drivers.

Learner drivers warned about scam websites
Learner drivers are being scammed by copycat websites charging a booking fee for test appointments.

Learner drivers warned about scam websites - Telegraph

Cleveland County authorities say a local woman was recently the victim of an Internet scam where she picked up Walmart items purchased with stolen credit card numbers and shipped them across the country.

The Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office asked residents this week for help identifying a woman seen pushing a shopping cart in the local Walmart, in connection to an investigation involving credit card fraud cases.

“It turns out she was scammed by a man over the Internet,” said sheriff’s office Detective Jessica Woosley. “He claimed to be overseas and needed money for various things. She did, in fact, send him money after some time.”

Woosley said the man asked the woman to pick up items he purchased from Walmart.

“These items were purchased with stolen credit card numbers, and she had no knowledge of that. She sent these items to the address he provided across the country.”

The Star posted a photo of the woman on its Facebook page Tuesday, and it was shared 69 times within five hours.

Woosley said the woman will not face charges because she was unaware of the scam the man was conducting.

Authorities: Beware Internet fraud scam (updated 5 p.m.) - Local - The Shelby Star


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Rip-Off Alert: New twist on old foreign lottery scam



RIP-OFF ALERT | Foreign Lottery | TUE 08/06/13 | 4PM

Reported by: Marie Mortera
Email: mmortera@mynews3.com

LAS VEGAS (KSNV MyNews3.com) -- There's a new twist to an old scam that continues to lure people in. In this Rip-Off Alert, con artists have come up with one more way to deceive potential victims of foreign lottery scams.

According to U.S. Postal Inspector Michael Larson, the victim sent all of his retirement savings.

“He explained to me ... I mean who doesn’t dream of winning the lottery?” Larson said. “He was contacted and told you have won the lottery, and in order to collect that prize money you need to pay the taxes to get it out of the country and to the U.S.”

But there is a new layer to the foreign lottery scheme.

“When he ran out of that money, the scammers started explaining to him, ‘Hey, look, we have sponsors here that can help you,’ “ Larson said.

Essentially, the con artists would tell other victims they, too, won the lottery and to send their fee money to the original victim.

“So, instead of sending money directly to Jamaica, they would send money to our victim,” Larson said.

The move helped the con artists perpetuate the scam.

“It’s more legit because they aren’t sending it to another country,” Larson said.

Postal inspectors warn all consumers to remember one rule.

“Foreign lotteries are illegal,” Larson said. “You have to be on their soil to participate in their lottery.”

No legitimate lottery will ever ask for money up front. Also, a legitimate lottery never has fees or taxes that need to be paid up front.

Rip-Off Alert: New twist on old foreign lottery scam - Las Vegas MyNews3 - KSNV

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All the Right Ways to Protect Kids’ Personal Information at School and Beyond
Posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2012 by Elaine Rigoli

A new school year means filling out paperwork like registration forms, health forms, and emergency contact forms, to name a few.

But many school forms require personal and sensitive information that, in the wrong hands, could be used to commit fraud in a child’s name.

After all, and as we’ve long pointed out, a criminal can use a child’s Social Security number to get government benefits, open bank and credit card accounts, or rent a place to live.

Most parents don’t expect their child to have a credit file, and rarely order or monitor a child’s credit report.

Identity thieves steal kids’ Social Security numbers because their credit is generally untarnished. It’s not until years later — when they apply for a store credit card, a college loan, or a job — that they find out their credit has been destroyed.
Understanding FERPA

But did you know that the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects the privacy of student records and gives parents of school-age children the right to opt out of sharing contact information with third parties?

The federal law also encourages parents to ask their child’s school about its directory information policy, learn about privacy policies of sports or music activities that are not school-sponsored, and find out what to do if their child’s school experiences a data breach.

If you’re a parent with a child who’s enrolled in school, the Federal Trade Commission has released a helpful list of strategies, recommending that you:

Find out who has access to your child’s personal information, and verify that the records are kept in a secure location.

Pay attention to materials sent home with your child, through the mail or by email, that ask for personal information. Look for terms like personally identifiable information, directory information, and opt-out. Before you reveal any personal information about your child, find out how it will be used, whether it will be shared, and with whom.

Ask your child’s school about its directory information policy. Student directory information can include your child’s name, address, date of birth, telephone number, email address, and photo. FERPA requires schools to notify parents and guardians about their school directory policy, and give you the right to opt-out of the release of directory information to third parties. It’s best to put your request in writing and keep a copy for your files. If you don’t opt-out, directory information may be available not only to the people in your child’s class and school, but also to the general public.

Consider programs that take place at the school but aren’t sponsored by the school. Your child may participate in programs, like sports and music activities, that aren’t formally sponsored by the school. These programs may have websites where children are named and pictured. Read the privacy policies of these organizations, and make sure you understand how your child’s information will be used and shared.

Take action if your child’s school experiences a data breach. Contact the school to learn more. Talk with teachers, staff, or administrators about the incident and their practices. Keep a written record of your conversations. Write a letter to the appropriate administrator, and to the school board, if necessary.

Just Say NO!

Beyond the privacy benefits under FERPA, do parents actually have to give their child’s Social Security number to enroll him or her in a public school?

The answer is “no” – thanks to a federal law stating that students are not required to provide their Social Security numbers to schools in order to prove citizenship. In other words, if it’s not a requirement to prove citizenship, it’s not a requirement for any parent. After all, the fewer people that have access to such highly sensitive personal information, the better.

If you are at all concerned with your student’s credit and think his or her identity has been stolen or used for any fraud, call consumer reporting companies to place a free 90-day fraud alert on your child’s credit reports. This will stop someone from opening a new account in the child’s name. The companies include Equifax (1-800-525-6285); Experian (1-888-397-3742); and Trans-Union (1-800-680-7289).
https://www.privatewifi.com/all-the-...ion-at-school/

Attachment 5474

Microsoft does not call to tell you that you have problems. Anyone who is using Microsoft already knows there are problems.

Top 6 Tips for Avoiding the “Microsoft” Scam:

1. A commenter on our blog, Fossil, has a particularly clever way of getting rid of these crims. ”I have had a few calls. You can always tell when it is a scam because they usually Skype to your home phone… this is so there is no caller ID. I tell them I am expecting an important call on this line and then give them another number to call. (THE LOCAL POLICE!)”

2. Another of our commenters, Shakes, has some good advice for getting off the scammers’ lists, which has worked for some of our customers. ”Tell them you don’t have a computer nor do you like using them. The call will then end and you will be removed from their list. Informing them of any reference to your owning a computer will give them ammunition to try a different tactic on you a week or two later.” A little white lie is A-okay in cases like this!

3. Here’s another clever white lie, suggested by a commenter who goes by Coolnwynpyn1: “I always ask them if I can record the conversation. They quickly disconnect and don’t call again.”

4. Dodger has taken to screening his calls to avoid getting stuck on the line with a scam artist. “I never answer phone calls for numbers I do not know, just let them go through to the answering machine. If they are genuine calls they leave a message, most others don’t. If everybody did this phone scams would soon die out.” This may not be a convenient option if you receive a lot of calls throughout the day, but could be a good idea for evenings and nights.

5. When someone calls up our commentator Leicashooter saying that Windows needs to be cleaned, the response is simple: “I tell them that, ‘My windows are being cleaned right now! The man is still up the ladder. Would they like to talk to him?’”

6. Of course, it’s Skidmore29 who has the fastest, simplest solution for this problem: “I have had numerous calls of this nature and as soon as they say they are from Microsoft, I just hang up.” Good work, Skidmore29!
Have a look at these humorous ways of dealing with the “Microsoft” scammers from AVG customers. What are your experiences? Top 6 Ways To Avoid The "Microsoft" Scam! - AVG

Attachment 5475

Salisbury police Detective Steven Sforza said he hadn’t heard of the scam victimizing Collins’ friend. But in recent days he took a report from a resident who claimed someone gained access to her computer, took a photo of the person and placed it online. The scammer then extorted the victim, saying he wouldn’t take it off the internet without first receiving money.

http://www.newburyportnews.com/local...h-support-scam

A QUICK CHECK: "See if there is anything from PayPal because they do send you an email to your account not just your email," Carter said.

Here is how the scam works. First, the suspect buys an item.

"She would use a 'buy it now' option. She would find out the sellers email address and send a phony mail pretending to be from PayPal," Laura Carter a U.S. Postal Inspector said.

The note would say the funds had been sent to the sellers account. In reality, no payment was made. The suspect ends up with the merchandise without paying a cent.

Safe from scams: PayPal Scam | abc30.com

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The man who arranged to meet Devries in West Vancouver last week was an employee of Dunbar Cycles in Vancouver - a shop staff said Devries had recently visited. According to store employees, Devries left his passport at the shop before taking a $7,000 carbon fibre bike out for a test ride. He didn't return.

Read more: http://www.nsnews.com/news/Conned+tu...#ixzz2bL7yImWr

This is a lot like the Pigeon King Ponzi Scheme which makes for some interesting reading.

The pyramid scheme was based around shopping website Wanjia Gouwu. The website initially offered discounts to consumers on purchases made through the website. However, the website later asked consumers to buy products at a discount while promising refunds based on the full retail value of the products over time.

Man sentenced to 15 years for pyramid scheme- China.org.cn

KSCHANG has a good article on the Pigeon King

A MLM Skeptic: Scam Study: Pigeon King

Am seeing articles about variations of this from all over.

The scam robocall pitch begins with a too good to be true promise: A free service for people who have fallen.

The call explains that somebody else set it up and paid.

And then comes the hook, according to the call: “We just have to get some personal information from you before we ship anything.”

And that's how they get credit card numbers to complete the theft. The scam is sweeping the country. The real life alert company even has a fraud alert on its website.

Read more: Phone scam targets seniors | WJLA.com

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So much fraud on the Seminar Circuit. Telling people we will fund your deals and then never funding them.

The former Utah resident admitted as part of a plea bargain that he mass marketed his real estate investment program, falsely telling potential students they could make large returns on investments within a year and recruiting some as straw buyers of properties. He also failed to inform them of previous criminal convictions in Utah and California.

Cook admitted that he used student funds to pay personal and business expenses rather than as he had promised. Total losses were $1.9 million, court documents say.

Former Utahn gets 3 years in prison for real estate coaching fraud | The Salt Lake Tribune

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This was part 1 of 3 of an investigative report on serial fraudster Robert Kiyosaki.



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This seemed like a sensible article on buying foreclosures which contrasts with the endless blather that goes around.

Reader Story: I bought a foreclosure house on the courthouse steps
Published on - July 21st, 2013 (by Ellen Cannon)



This guest post is from Naomi Mannino. Naomi is a freelance consumer personal finance and health journalist who reports on health, medical and personal finance news and how it will affect your life today. You can follow Naomi on Twitter @naomimannino.

Some reader stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success or failure. These stories feature folks with all levels of financial maturity and income. Want to submit your own reader story? Here’s how.

Can you really buy a house at auction on the courthouse steps for $100? Do you have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars as the house-flipping guys do on TV?

My husband and I have just recently achieved our long-time goal of buying a foreclosed house, turning it into a rental property and creating a steady stream of income from the monthly rent we collect (at 17 percent profit on the initial cash investment every year). It’s neither quick nor easy, but it is a viable investment solution if you meet the five requirements below.

1. You need cash.

I came into a small inheritance and thought hard about what to do with the money. I don’t know enough about the stock market, so I stayed away from that. Then there’s the low interest yet tried-and-true 5-year CD ladder I opened. But my husband and I have always wanted to buy a foreclosure on the courthouse steps and now we finally had the chance. Every county is a little different, but one thing is a constant in all foreclosure auctions: Cash is king, as certified funds are required usually within 24 hours of winning the bid and making any initial deposits required.

2. You need experience.

We are not newcomers to buying houses at a low price, renovating them over a number of years and then selling at a higher price. My husband is a carpentry contractor, skilled in all the building trades, so we do all the work ourselves. That means we can look at a property and calculate in our heads time and expenses necessary to make the house desirable and rentable. We only want houses with good bones on a nice family street. They are not large and upscale and do not require granite counter tops and stainless-steel appliances (in fact, the best place to get the best appliances for less is to buy used through Craigslist.org). We don’t need to pay for inspections, surveys or other contractors unless it is for HVAC (air conditioning/heating) or septic system repair or replacement. We have learned this through small mistakes and overspending on the past five houses. Now we have a formula for choosing tile, vanities, cabinets, roof shingles, paint colors, and carpet because we have done this all before and know what works. If you have to hire contractors, you will pay twice as much or more for the entire renovation. (Foreclosure homes are usually severely neglected, if not destroyed, and need a lot of renovation.)

In terms of the foreclosure auction itself, we had no experience, so we agreed we should attend many auctions and just watch how it works, learn what the rules are and who the major players are in our small county. Every county has seasoned investors who know exactly what they are doing, and it pays to watch and learn from them. I have learned to stay away from the big city auctions with deep-pocketed investor groups who buy up tons of houses, because you really can’t win a bid against them. In my small county, where you can pick up a 1,000-square-foot 2- or 3-bedroom house for $20,000 to $40,000 to flip or to hold and rent, there are just five regular investors plus us, all with different interests and focus areas.

3. You need to research, research, research.

Our county publishes a twice-weekly list of the properties to be sold at the foreclosure auction held each Tuesday and Thursday at 11 a.m. A large portion of our time each week is spent physically viewing the properties and researching them online or in the courthouse books. We never skip these steps.

After you identify a few houses in your chosen location or size range, research each offered property’s sales and tax history, as well as its current assessed value on the County Property Appraiser’s website, which are all public record. Note these details for the properties in which you are interested.

Next, research each property owner (also listed on the County Appraiser’s property record page) online via the County Clerk of Courts Public Record Search because whatever that the owner owes regarding that property outside of the loans (liens, back taxes, etc.), you will owe when you purchase a foreclosure home.

Finally, physically go and see each home you might be interested in (we never buy a property sight-unseen.) We’ve made the decision to stick to houses in our city proper so we are intimately familiar with the neighborhoods, not traveling more than a seven-mile radius from our home. We create a map of five or so houses that suit our specific purposes, and then we use our smartphone navigation to get us from house to house. From the outside, you can see the state of the roof, house structure, land, doors and windows and can look inside through any clear windows. Many times houses are so distressed they are open, in which case we can identify pros and cons regarding the inside: kitchens, bathrooms, flooring, lighting, air handler, walls and ceilings (but you didn’t hear that from me!). Bring a flashlight.

4. You need to know the opening bid.

People get the idea they can buy a house at auction for $100 because they have heard that someone “bid on behalf of the plaintiff (the bank) for $100.” But auction buyers cannot counter the bank bid at $150 dollars. Instead, you need to start the bidding at the acceptable opening bid amount for each property, which is the lowest amount the bank is willing to accept for a property at the auction that day. And you can get this number by simply asking the bank reps, who are all at the sale. Getting to know these guys and gals on a first-name basis makes things even easier. Once you hear this number you will need to evaluate on the spot whether purchasing the property is financially feasible given your cash budget, current market conditions, the research you did on the property and your personal criteria and plan for the investment.

Just because the property is offered for sale at public auction doesn’t always mean it’s a good deal. Often, the opening bid equals the judgment amount (the money the bank is trying to recover) or more and includes the original purchase price or mortgage plus a second mortgage, other home equity loans, interest and legal fees. The opening bid is ridiculously high compared with its current assessed value. These high-priced properties revert back to the bank because nobody bids on them. What you are looking for is an opening bid way below the current assessed value, and these are few and far between.

We can afford to bid a couple of thousand higher than a flipper — an investor who plans to renovate and sell quickly, who needs every bit of profit he can muster out of each house now. I was told that’s how we won our first bid later by the flipper bidding against us.

5. How to bid.

Make sure you arrive early enough on auction day to go to the correct county courthouse office to register as a bidder and receive your bidder’s number card. Leave time to approach each bank rep for the opening bid necessary for properties you might want.

When the auctioneer (the county courthouse employee whose job it is to administer the weekly foreclosure sale) arrives at the sale site, he or she will announce some specific rules about deposits for a winning bid. Then things move quickly. When the auctioneer announces a property (by case number, not by address) you want to bid on, hold up your bidder’s card and announce your opening bid. The auctioneer will repeat it and then open it to other bidders to counter. I learned from a very seasoned investor to only raise the bid by $50 each time. He says, “There’s no sense in bidding it up for myself or the other guy by going hundreds or thousands at a time. I work too hard for my money.” Always have a ceiling in mind, and stick to it. If it goes higher, drop out.

After lurking on the edge of the auctions for about two months, we were finally ready to jump in with both feet. We got a bidder’s card, talked to the bank reps and found out that one house we saw and researched had an opening bid within our budget and under the assessed value of the home — so we bid on it! Two other investors counter-bid a few times, but we won the bid and got our first house at the foreclosure auction.

But I must warn you: The fast pace of the auction and hopeful thoughts of steady, slow investment income can be addicting despite all the work involved! Any questions? Have you ever participated in a property auction?

Reader Story: I bought a foreclosure house on the courthouse steps


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SANDY, Ore. -- The reason for why about 30 people had their credit card and debit card numbers stolen in sandy: A computer malware or virus apparently infected a local merchant's computer, police say. If you've used a card at Dairy Queen or the Fred Meyer gas station, officials recommend checking your bank statements.

Computer virus blamed for Sandy credit card fraud cases | Local & Regional | KATU.com - Portland News, Sports, Traffic Weather and Breaking News - Portland, Oregon

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Years back I was filling up with gas, across the street I watched someone chasing their car down the road. They had gone into a convenience store and left it running and someone helped themselves. Stuff can be replaced, but the aggravation and time it takes to get it back, not so much.

SLIDERS.

So there are several variations of this, and if you don't know if you truly have arrest warrants out for you, stop reading my silly blog and get your life together. The other variation (s) is to tell you someone you know has been arrested. Blah blah blah. If someone calls you and tells you to get a green dot card, or send money Western Union, Money Gram, etc they are scamming you.

On an unrelated note, when you get a call claiming to be raising funds for your local police/fire department, these are fund raising organizations. Little if any of the money ever gets to the recipients. You may as well send your money to a scammer. If you want to give, do so direct to the organization.

People across the country are forking over hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars in what they believe to be a fee to ward off arrest warrants.
caller-scam

Scam: Caller threatens arrest if you don't pay


Scammers are telling people they have arrest warrants to trick them into paying a fee to clear them
Scammers have posed as local law enforcement in Kansas, Oregon, Georgia and other states
Police warn that they never ask people to wire money


In a growing scam reaching people across the country, phone fraudsters are using the threat of arrest warrants to pressure people into forking over hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars.

In the past two weeks, police in Georgia, Kansas, Oregon and Florida have investigated phone scams in which a caller impersonates a local police officer. The callers, manipulating caller ID to make the number appear to come from the local sheriff's office or jail, tell potential victims they have an outstanding warrant for an unpaid debt, missed jury duty or some minor infraction and that a fine is due.

The callers convince people to make the payments by wiring it through Western Union or buying a prepaid credit card like Green Dot and registering it online.

Police don't notify people about arrest warrants by phone, and they don't accept money to clear them, the Collier County, Fla., sheriff's office said in a warning last week.

"They try to make this as convincing and as frightening as possible," says Kati Daffan, a staff attorney with the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

In Georgia's Floyd County, Amanda Middleton, 31, paid $1,550 to clear a non-existent arrest warrant related to a payday loan she never had.

Middleton, 31, got a call saying she owed $495 for a loan. She says she checked with her creditors and found no record of the loan. She had previous debt disputes after another Amanda Middleton failed to pay off a loan, she says, so she brushed it off and told the caller to e-mail proof.

But after a second call from a so-called police officer threatening to arrest her, Middleton gave in.

"He said, 'In our eyes, you're just refusing to pay the debt,'" she recalls. "'We're just going to have to proceed forward and have you arrested.'"

Her husband checked the number; it was the sheriff's office. Middleton paid the $495, along with a $500 fine and several "litigation fees" — a total of $1,550.
Amanda Middleton

Amanda Middleton(Photo: )

Only after Middleton sent the money through a prepaid credit card did she call the sheriff's office and learn there was no warrant.

"I don't consider myself to be very naïve," she said. "We were doing what you do in that call. I called all my creditors. I asked for documentation on it. My husband called the number back. I thought we were being very careful."

Floyd County Sheriff's Deputy Jerry Duke says he has seen earlier versions of the scam, when so-called loan-collection agents would try to convince people they had to pay off loans. Impersonating police is a new twist, he says.

It is nearly impossible to track down scammers, Duke says. Wire transfers and prepaid cards are untraceable, and manipulated phone numbers are tough to trace.

"There's really no recourse for them," Duke says. "The best thing that can be done is making people aware."

Scam: Caller threatens arrest if you don't pay

THIS IS A BUNCH OF BS TOO. The government does not just lock your computer, unless you are actually watching child porn, in that case you should go to your local police station, explain the reason your computer is locked and ask for a reboot code.


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Protecting Yourself From Check Fraud

Here are some tips for consumers to protect themselves against check fraud.

Keep your checks in a secure location. Don’t leave them in a car, at work or out in the open at home.
Review your checking accounts regularly for suspicious activity.
Pick up new checks at a local bank branch. Avoid having them sent by mail.
Never include personal data on the check. That includes your Social Security number, driver's license number, phone number and address.
Drop bills paid with checks at the post office instead of in your mailbox.


THIS IS A GOOD TIP FROM THE ARTICLE. I added this to my homeowners insurance a while back and it is not much in comparison to the cost of some of the id protection services.

Fortunately, Barker’s home insurance policy provided him with identity management services at no cost, and Barker got some help from a fraud investigator, who made sure he followed these steps to help protect his credit:

Read more: Old-School Check Fraud Makes a Comeback | Fox Business

CHELSEA: Chamber warns of fraud mailer

By Sean Dalton
sdalton@heritage.com

A state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs document on the left looks very similar to the fake “2013 Annual Corporate Records Form” being sent to businesses across the country and now in Chelsea. The state considers the document a “scam” and advises recipients to contact the postal service and the state, instead of sending the company $125 to generate filing reports that Michigan doesn’t require.

CHELSEA — The Chelsea Area Chamber of Commerce has joined the growing number of business advocacy groups, state government officials and even prosecutors in states other than Michigan who are trying to inoculate businessowners against a very convincing mailer from a company that calls itself Corporate Records Service.

The document looks very similar to some of the sorts of forms that businesses and other organizations, such as the Chelsea Chamber, must fill out on a yearly basis to comply with state laws. In the chamber’s case, a form must be filled out and sent to the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs each year in order to retain non-profit status.

“We get a lot of mail every day, so our membership coordinator on staff pulled it from the mail and brought it to me,” said Chelsea Area Chamber of Commerce Director Bob Pierce. “It mentions ‘annual records requirement statements’ ... it looks pretty official.”

But Pierce noted that the green envelope that the document arrived in clearly stated “this is not a government document,” which led him to conduct some quick online research that revealed the true nature of the document. After investigating, Pierce found that corporate records will be completed and sent back to the mailer recipient for filing with the state to maintain compliance with the law, in exchange for $125 in cash or by check. Those recipients who aren’t careful and don’t know any better could include credit card information on the form, which also asks for sensitive business information, such as the identities and information of shareholders, partners and corporate officers.

While hindsight is 20/20 and many who hear about the details of a scam before being subjected to it have a hard time picturing themselves falling for it, Pierce said he doesn’t want to leave anything to chance, which is why his office issued a fraud alert to everyone on the chamber’s email list, member and non-member alike.

“With a small business, a lot of times people will open a letter and throw away the envelope, which is the only indicator that something is unusual about this mailing,” Pierce said. “Just the form itself is very official looking and it’s very similar to the legitimate forms.”

The State of Michigan issued a scam Aug. 1, in which LARA Director Steve Arwood clarified the mailer’s sender as a “non-governmental entity” that should be disregarded by recipient corporations.

“Michigan corporations are not required by law to file corporate records with LARA’s Corporations, Securities & Commercial Licensing Bureau,” Arwood said. “Our corporation customers should disregard these deceptive notices as they are not from the State of Michigan.”

The address noted by LARA and on what the Chelsea chamber received is 5859 West Saginaw Highway, #343, Lansing, MI, which it turns out is the address of a UPS Store location in Lansing.

“We’ve never seen anything like this before,” Pierce said after recalling how he looked the address up himself on the Internet in an attempt to contact the company, which isn’t actually called Corporate Records Service. The actual company that operates Corporate Records Service, which has listed the address of other UPS stores across the country as its mailing address, depending on where the company is mailing the paperwork, is a company operating out of Lansing called The Mandatory Poster Agency, Inc. which has an F rating with the BBB — the lowest possible rating a business can receive.

The mailing has been reported in California, Texas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts and Texas as well.

In Wisconsin, the state attorney general has issued similar warnings. In Iowa, the attorney general forced an agreement with The Mandatory Poster Agency, requiring the Lansing firm to not make misleading statements about its location or status as a government entity.

The agreement also bans the company from using a name that includes the words “agency” or “compliance center” and further stops it from using logos that are similar in appearance to government logos.

No reports were found that the company had committed identity theft or a similar crime against the businesses that fell for the pitch. However, Pierce said he agrees with the State of Michigan’s advice to keep the envelope and the paperwork, contact the U.S. Postal Inspections Service at 877-876-2455 and call the Michigan Office of the Attorney General at P.O. Box 30212, Lansing, 48909.

Pierce said that he’s seen a lot of direct-mail fraud attempts on small businesses in his 11 years, but he’s never seen anything like this.

“This is my first time in 11 years that I’ve been at this that I’ve ever seen anything that looks this official ... and once that envelope and that form are separated, I’m very worried that local business-owners, who are very busy and can’t send every piece of mail to an attorney, might get caught up in this.”

Staff reporter Sean Dalton can be reached via email at sdalton@heritage.com. Follow him on Twitter and Tout @seankdalton.

CHELSEA: Chamber warns of fraud mailer - Chelsea Standard - Heritage Newspapers

TRENTON — Sam Antar's uncle was crazy.

As in "Crazy" Eddie Antar — the founder of the legendary New Jersey-based chain of electronics stores which collapsed more than 20 years ago amid one of the biggest stock scams of its day.

Wednesday, Sam Antar was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison in connection with his own investment scheme that went sour.

The money involved was dwarfed by the Crazy Eddie saga, which bilked investors out of more than $145 million in the late 1980s. Sam Antar was charged with taking $225,000 from an investor in January 2011 so he could purchase electronics equipment he purportedly planned sell at a mark-up through an Eatowntown company called S&H Closeouts LLC, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Instead, federal prosecutors said, Antar took the money and used it to gamble and buy stock options.

Antar, 37, of New York, pleaded guilty in January to the scheme. In addition to the prison term handed down Wednesday, he was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano in Trenton to make $445,429 in restitution and penalties.

Antar’s attorney, Margo Zemel of Newark, said he made a mistake.

"He was given money to invest and he didn’t take care of it," she said. "He got caught and now he’s paying the piper."

Antar’s uncle, whose name still evokes wide recognition, built the Crazy Eddie chain from a single store in Brooklyn beginning in the early 1970s, turning it into the largest electronics chain in the New York metropolitan area. Headquartered in Edison, it ultimately grew to 43 stores in four states.

The company used aggressive sales tactics and offered deep discounts on TVs, stereos and VCRs at a time when manufacturers fought hard to set retail prices. But it perhaps was best known for its late night television commercials, featuring a frenzied Jerry Carroll, a WPIX-FM disk jockey whose catch phrase — "Crazy Eddie’s prices are insane!" — became a hallmark of the chain.

However, family feuding and widening federal criminal and civil investigations after the fast-growing company went public later led to revelations Crazy Eddie had been skimming cash from the business for years, inflating its stock price by adding imaginary inventory and falsifying accounts to make it look like sales were surging.

Eddie Antar, who fled the country, later was returned from Israel and pleaded guilty to stock fraud.

Nephew of Crazy Eddie founder gets prison in his own investment scam | NJ.com

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If Christine de Védrines's privileged life had gone to plan, she would now be sitting in a vast turreted ancestral chateau surrounded by sunflowers in a picturesque corner of south-east France. Instead, after a bizarre interlude in a semi-detached house in Oxford, this elegant, unmistakably aristocratic woman is living with her husband, Charles-Henri, heir to the family seat, and three grownup children in a claustrophobic council flat on the outskirts of Bordeaux.

They are, she says in her first interview since publishing a memoir of one of the most extraordinary cons ever perpetrated, financially "ruined". Robbed of their fortune and heritage by a machiavellian fraudster. "Now we have nothing," she says as a statement of fact, devoid of self-pity.

For more than a decade now, the Védrines have been at the centre of an incredible story described as a mix of Harry Potter, Dan Brown, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Christine de Védrines has decided to give her own version in a book entitled Nous n'étions pas armés (We weren't armed), detailing their ordeal. Charles-Henri, 65, and their three children, Guillaume, 35, Amaury, 32, and Diane, 27, have each contributed their side of the incredible tale. The family have written the book, she says, partly as a cathartic act, partly as a warning.

Many still find it hard to believe that 11 wealthy, cultured and intelligent members of a noble Protestant family could have been brainwashed for nearly a decade by a confidence trickster who fleeced them of nearly €5m (£4.3m). Between 1999 and 2009, Thierry Tilly plunged them into collective paranoia, convinced that only he could save them from a sinister masonic plot.

It was Charles-Henri's older sister Ghislaine, director of a Paris secretarial college, who employed Tilly as her deputy, who introduced the conman into the family. At first the Védrines were impressed by his claims of contacts in high places – Tilly claimed to be a descendant of the Habsburgs and the son of an Olympic ice-skater – and the fraudster's money-making schemes. Soon, however, Tilly had convinced them he was a secret agent and that their lives were in danger and they were being bugged, followed and spied on by an evil network that included other family members.

Incredible as it seemed, one by one they fell under his spell, including family matriarch Guillemette, aged 88; an older brother, Philippe, a retired Shell Oil executive; and Charles-Henri, a successful and popular obstetrician. It was, as one family member, banished after questioning Tilly's motives, said, as if he had "opened their heads and taken out their brains".

"As his profession and character demands, he [Charles-Henri] is prudent and pragmatic," Christine writes, but despite this her husband still "gave all his confidence … thanks to the chameleon-like talent of Thierry Tilly".

Believing itself endangered, the family was soon barricading itself behind the closed shutters of the ancestral home, Chateau Martel, in the pretty medieval village of Monflanquin in the Lot-et-Garonne, cutting off contact with the outside world.

Christine de Védrines, 62, admits the convoluted saga stretches credibility. "If someone told me this story, I would have difficulty believing it," she told the Observer. "But it happened. It's true. We were all manipulated."

Tilly is currently serving 10 years in jail for the kidnap, brutal treatment, extortion and abuse of weakness of the Védrines family. The Védrines' jewels, paintings and several properties, however, have all gone, and their money, supposedly invested by Tilly, has disappeared into the offshore ether.

"I heard someone on the radio talking about us and saying we were cultured, educated, intelligent and this should have armed us against Tilly," Christine told the Observer last week. "But it didn't. We were simply not armed to deal with someone who lied on such an extraordinary scale. Maybe we were naive, but we were not used to another human being lying to us, tricking us. We did not expect it. Thierry Tilly was a bad person, a predator, a vampire. And we were like puppets, unable to stop him. He was very clever. It was almost as if we were hypnotised."

Tilly uprooted the family to the UK, telling them their lives were at risk in France, then beat, threatened and humiliated Christine to obtain the "key" to a non-existent family fortune he claimed she possessed, turning her own children against her.

The spell was only broken in March 2009, when Christine fled back to France and went to the police. Tilly was arrested in Switzerland shortly afterwards, but such was his power over the family it was six months before her husband and children were persuaded to return with the help of a lawyer specialising in cults, Daniel Picotin.

"People ask how he could have manipulated all 11 of us, but it didn't help being so many. It meant every time someone expressed a doubt about him, someone else would justify what he was doing. We were all manipulated," said Christine.

Charles-Henri, who inherited Château Martel, said he had been devastated to discover Tilly had tricked him into signing papers to sell the property, sealing the couple's ruin. He is contesting the sale. "When the lawyer told me I almost fell off my chair. I thought I was signing for a loan. I would never have knowingly sold Martel. I wasn't in my right mind, but I wouldn't have agreed to sell my family home – my, and my children's, heritage. I will fight to my dying day to get it back."

Today the family is trying to rebuild some kind of normal life. Charles-Henri has returned to work as a doctor to feed the family, Diane is studying chemistry, Guillaume has his own insurance business and Amaury has just finished a business degree. Christine remains resolutely upbeat. What she misses most, she said, is not the chateau or her engagement ring, taken by Tilly, but the poems and notes to her late parents, the Mother's Day cards from her children. "They were in a suitcase taken to Oxford. I haven't a clue what Tilly did with them," she said. "They're not worth anything, but they were my memories."

She said her book, which she hopes will be translated into English, is an attempt to establish "the truth" of the family's bizarre ordeal, and a warning to others of the "extraordinary things that can happen to an ordinary family. For 10 years we lived with Thierry Tilly's lies. I wanted to leave a record of the truth."

French aristocrat tells how conman lured her to Oxford and stole family fortune | World news | The Observer

LAS VEGAS, N.M. — Authorities say a man driving a truck with police lights on top made a crucial misstep during a bogus police stop in northern New Mexico.

Police say the two men he pulled over for speeding were real state police agents in an unmarked vehicle.

According to New Mexico State Police, 26-year-old John Shelton, of Logan, was arrested Wednesday following the sham traffic stop in San Miguel County.

Investigators say Shelton had a pistol on his hip and told the agents he was a member of the New Mexico State Police Search and Rescue and a trained law enforcement officer — something officials later discovered wasn't true.

Shelton is facing charges of impersonating an officer.

It was not clear if Shelton had an attorney.

Police: Fake cop pulled over real cops

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Mystery shopper scam. You get a check to cash and are supposed to send part of it somewhere else.

Ribshaw was HORRIFIED and HEARTBROKEN that he could not meet Bieber.

Conman leaves Justin Bieber fans in tears - and £1000 out of pocket - after setting up meetings with star that never happened
11 Aug 2013 10:29

ANDY ROSS ripped off parents with the promise of VIP tickets to see the singer at sell-out shows in London.




A CONMAN stole a fortune from Justin Bieber fans after falsely promising them the chance to meet their hero.

But the youngsters, known as Beliebers, were left in tears after a Sunday Mail investigation exposed Andy Ross’s cruel rip-off.

Ross, 26, who edited Motherwell’s matchday programmes until last season, charged families more than £1000 each after advertising VIP tickets to Justin’s sell-out shows at London’s O2 Arena in March.

His online ads said the price would include a meet and greet with the Canadian pop pin-up.

Ross pocketed more than £3000 from unsuspecting customers but after we uncovered his lies, he admitted the tickets never existed.

Incredibly, the Bieber scam was launched just over a month after he was bailed by a court on identical frauds.

The Sunday Mail arranged to meet Ross on March 6 after being contacted by a desperate mum who had handed over £1100 for two VIP tickets for her 15-year-old daughter Natalie’s Christmas present.

Julie Gall, 49, of Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, paid the cash into Ross’s bank account but was continually fobbed off with excuses about why they weren’t posted out.

Last night, she slated the conman for preying on youngsters caught up in the Bieber sensation.

She said: “It was a lot of money to hand over but my daughter was absolutely desperate to meet Justin.

“I checked out this guy before even giving him a deposit and everything seemed to be OK.

“But as it got nearer to the concert, the excuses started piling up about why he couldn’t post them.

“I can’t believe I paid him the balance. It’s easy to see through his lies now but at the time he appeared so genuine and plausible.

“I’m absolutely disgusted that somebody could pull a stunt like this.

“My daughter was in tears just because of some sick conman trying to make a fast buck out of us.

“The fact he carried on ripping people off after being arrested for an identical scam before is just beyond belief.

“Natalie was so excited on Christmas Day when she found out she was going to meet Justin Bieber.

“To tell her that she couldn’t was heartbreaking. This guy deserves everything he gets.”

Justin Bieber


While his victims were left counting the cost, Ross,of Motherwell, treated himself to days at the races, football matches and a trip to London with his partner.

Our investigators agreed to meet him outside Monklands Hospital, Airdrie, after he promised to hand over the tickets.

Ross claimed he was unable to post them because he was attending a “very serious” appointment with a consultant at the hospital and was being given “very bad news”.

Instead, he had been in an emergency meeting with his lawyer in a bid to escape justice as the net closed in.

When he failed to show and was told the police were being called, he eventually admitted: “It’s time to come clean. I didn’t have any tickets. They don’t exist.

“I put my hands up to some barefaced lies‚ I’m deeply ashamed and I’m sorry because I know they were a Christmas present.

“I’ve already been to court on other charges. I was just in a meeting with my lawyer – I’ve not been to hospital. I’ve been under a lot of financial pressure‚ I’ll just have to accept the consequences for my actions.”

Ross had advertised tickets for sale online but was easily caught after using his own name, mobile phone, bank account and email address to contact victims.

In May, he dodged a jail sentence after admitting three charges of fraud, conning other music lovers out of £1650 through an identical ticket scam.

He was given a 12-month supervision order at Hamilton Sheriff Court, ordered to attend addiction counselling and told to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.

He was also told to pay back the money to his victims, who all live in England.

Ross was back in court last week where he admitted four new charges of fraud relating to the Bieber tickets scam.

He admitted conning four customers out of more than £3000 and will be sentenced later this month.

Ross worked on a voluntary basis for Midlands-based publisher Curtis Sport, who produce Motherwell’s programme, along with Aberdeen, Dundee Utd and Hibs.

A spokesman said: “Andrew did work on Motherwell’s programme but he stopped last season and no longer does any work for us.”

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OREM — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a complaint against an Orem man accused of swindling $4 million from his friends, neighbors and members of his church.

The SEC got a tip in early July that Steven B. Heinz was using his investment firm as a front to get "loans" that his 15 to 20 clients were told would be put into a trading program and promising a 6 percent to 120 percent return annually.

Most of the money Heinz had collected since January 2012 was actually being used to support a lavish lifestyle, SEC trial attorney Tom Melton said.

Heinz allegedly used much of the money for personal expenses, like taking his family of 20 on a trip to Mexico (racking up a $120,000 credit card bill), setting up business deals for his children, paying off personal debts and covering household expenses, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

Heinz has been ordered to appear in court Aug. 19.

In a "classic Ponzi scheme," Heinz also used new investor money to pay off old investors, Melton said, creating a facade that S.B. Heinz & Associates Inc. was a successful investment firm.

The estimated $1.5 million Heinz actually invested was lost through what Melton called "spectacularly unsuccessful" trading of high-risk futures. The lawsuit indicates Heinz lost in excess of $100,000 in a single day because of his strategy of rapidly buying and selling futures contracts.

"Every day he was trading, generally he was losing money," Melton said.

While the SEC hopes to reclaim what money it can to return to Heinz's investors, "the trading losses we cannot recover, and that money may be lost forever," Melton said.

Heinz is believed to currently have about $500,000 in his accounts, Melton said.

The commission acted quickly to prevent more people from falling victim to the scheme. Heinz had met with potential investors as recently as July 22, Melton said.

"Many of his investors were elderly. This was their life savings," Melton said. "We felt particularly pushed to get this case done … and save as much money as we can."

This is Heinz's first brush with the SEC, Melton said. In 2007, he was disciplined by the Utah State Division of Securities. Heinz also holds an insurance license, and in 2009 he was disciplined by the Utah Insurance Office for allegedly urging a client to lie to the state commission.

There were several red flags in the case that Utahns should watch for as they invest, Melton said.

Heinz was vague about what he was going to do with the money, never gave statements or written information to his investors, and he paid returns in cash, often asking his clients to meet him in grocery store parking lots for the handoff, Melton said.

"The most important thing is, even if this is someone you trust because they are a neighbor or a friend, you should still be particularly careful," he said. "Unfortunately, as the investors found in this case, you may be taken advantage of."

As of Thursday, all assets tied to S.B. Heinz & Associates, as well as Heinz and his wife, Susan, had been frozen.

Susan Heinz received large cash payments from her husband each month, the complaint alleges, and she has been named as a relief defendant in the case.

The FBI assisted in the investigation, and Steven Heinz may eventually face criminal charges, Melton said.

The SEC investigation is ongoing, he said, and anyone who believes they were victimized in the scheme can contact the SEC's Salt Lake City office at 801-524-5796.

Calls to Steven Heinz were not immediately returned Thursday.

Orem man accused of taking millions from family, friends in Ponzi scheme | Deseret News

Patrick Pretty had this on his excellent blog as well, with a few pieces of good information not included in the above.

SEC: Utah Ponzi Schemer With ‘Loans’ Program Ripped Off Church Associates, Family Members, Friends, Seniors — And Some Of The Money Went To ‘Multilevel Marketing And Web-Based Advertising Business Opportunities’; Separat

Brooklyn man charged with theft scam on Hoboken PATH, officials say

Rafal Rogoza / The Jersey Journal By Rafal Rogoza / The Jersey Journal
on August 10, 2013 at 4:00 PM, updated August 10, 2013 at 4:01 PM

Stephen AprilanteStephen Aprilante, 35, from Fourth St. Brooklyn, was charged with theft by deception following an arrest in Hoboken yesterday, officials say.Port Authority

Port Authority police arrested a Brooklyn man yesterday who admitted to scamming Hoboken PATH train riders, officials said.

Stephen Aprilante, 35, of Fourth Avenue, was charged with theft by deception after police took him into custody sometime around 6 p.m., according to Port Authority spokesperson Joseph Pentangelo.

Dressed in business attire, Aprilante was observed and heard by plainclothes police officers perpetuating a scam on train passengers by "phoning" someone and claiming loudly he lost his wallet and needed money, a passenger offered him $14 which Aprilante accepted, officials said.

Two days earlier, police were notified of an identical scam by a PATH passenger who also furnished a photo of the suspect, officials said.

Plainclothes officers were alerted and deployed, and found Aprilante performing the same ruse yesterday, officials said, adding that Aprilante admitted performing the scam regularly.

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