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Thread: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

  1. #251
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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

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    PORLTAND, Ore. – A scam artist is telling an elaborate sob story to con pet stores out of refunds around the Portland metro area, several pet store owners told KATU.

    Christine Mallar helps customers every day at her store Green Dog Pet Supply, so when a man recently came in with a problem she wanted to help him solve it.

    The man claimed he had bought a bag of food at the store.

    “He said ‘I’ve been feeding this food for a long time’ and he’s got a Rottweiler,” Mallar said.

    He went on to tell her that the food made his dog sick and that his veterinarian discovered it was tainted.

    The man told her the vet opened the bag found mouse feces and urine inside.

    “He was sure it didn’t come from his house. And there were so many details,” Mallar said.

    The man said he tried to call the customer service line for the dog food company but that the service was terrible. That’s what really caught Mallar’s attention.

    “Customer service is important to us, so I was very concerned with making this right for him,” she said.

    In the end, Mallar ended up giving the man a refund for $63. Unfortunately for her, the entire story was sham.

    It wasn’t until she heard from the food distributor that she got the real story.

    “She had said he’s hit 14 pet supply stores in the area, seven of which gave him money back,” Mallar said.

    The man, who goes by Mike, has hit stores around the area, ranging from Portland to Battle Ground, Hillsboro, Gresham and as far south of Salem.

    Mallar filed a police report on Sunday and hopes that publicizing the story will keep other small business owners from getting duped.

    In Hillsboro, police said their investigative team will start looking into “Mike” on Monday.

    The suspect is described as being about 5’7” tall with a stocky build. He has close-cropped hair and a salt-and-pepper mustache.

    Police ask anyone who has been victimized to file a police report.

    Pet store owner: Scam artist targets stores to get bogus refunds | Local & Regional | KATU.com - Portland News, Sports, Traffic Weather and Breaking News - Portland, Oregon
    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    And they stiffed the guy on his hackers bounty.

    Mark Zuckerberg Facebook profile page hacked
    Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has had his profile page hacked by an IT security researcher, after the social network ignored his warnings that a glitch in the site allowed anyone to post on a stranger’s wall.

    By Sophie Curtis

    12:02PM BST 19 Aug 2013


    Khalil Shreateh, a systems information expert from Palestine, attempted to report the vulnerability to Facebook's security team twice, demonstrating that the glitch was real by posting an Enrique Iglesias video on the wall of one of Zuckerberg's college friends, Sarah Goodin, with whom he was not connected.

    However, Facebook dismissed his warnings, claiming that the issue "was not a bug", as only Goodin's friends were able to see the post on her wall.

    Frustrated, Shreateh decided to use the glitch to hack into Mark Zuckerberg's profile page. In a post which has since been removed, he apologised for breaking Zuckerberg's privacy, adding: "I had no other choice... after all the reports I sent to Facebook team".

    Mark Zuckerberg Facebook profile page hacked - Telegraph

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    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    Baker Police warn of fake Publisher's Clearinghouse scam
    Posted: Aug 19, 2013 6:13 PM EST Updated: Aug 19, 2013 6:13 PM EST
    By Amber Stegall - email


    BAKER, LA (WAFB) -

    Baker Police report that someone claiming to be Publisher's Clearinghouse is calling citizens, telling them they have won $1 million; but officials with the police department say it is a scam.

    Police say that the people calling say the victims have to wire money to receive their million. Any time you have to send money to receive money, it is a scam.

    If you believe you have been contacted by the person(s) responsible for this scam, you are urged to call your local police department.

    Baker Police warn of fake Publisher's Clearinghouse scam - WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge, Louisiana News, Weather, Sports
    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    Former sheriff’s office employee accused of running scam at work

    By Dan Morse, Published: August 17 E-mail the writer

    There is a law enforcement office in the basement of the Montgomery County Circuit Courthouse that people involved in divorces and other legal proceedings often visit. For a $40 processing fee, they can get sheriff’s deputies to officially deliver — or “serve” — documents to another party in a case.

    Seems like an odd place to run an alleged theft scheme. But for more than four years, according to court documents filed late last week, that is exactly what receptionist Joyce Saunders is accused of doing behind her glassed-in front counter.

    “It was outrageous that someone could even consider doing this, and doing this at a law enforcement agency,” said Montgomery Sheriff Darren M. Popkin.

    Authorities say Saunders diverted at least $4,280 into her own pocket.

    Her scam, they say, worked like this: When she spotted possible targets making requests, she would tell them that there was a better way. Then she would come out from behind the counter and into the lobby. Saunders quietly explained that the sheriff’s office was so backed up with requests that the court papers wouldn’t be delivered on time but that she ran a company called “Eagle Eye J Process Servers,” which for a higher price — $80 to $100 — would get the documents delivered before any hearings. Eagle Eye then went ahead and served the papers, authorities say.

    Saunders did this at least 107 times, dating back to at least Jan. 27, 2009, according to court papers. Authorities say she misled people by getting them to pay a higher price, diverted funds that should have gone to the sheriff’s office and ran a private business that was in conflict with her office duties. She has been charged with one count of running a theft scheme, according to Montgomery court records.

    The records do not indicate whether she has retained an attorney. Saunders, 58, of Frederick, was issued a summons in the case Friday, according to court records. She could not be reached to comment through a telephone number or e-mail address previously connected with her. Saunders, a civilian employee at the sheriff’s office, was suspended without pay in May as the investigation unfolded, officials said. Popkin said she retired July 1.

    Officials at the sheriff’s office first got wind of possible trouble in the spring, according to court records. They brought in a financial crimes detective from the Montgomery County Police Department to help them investigate.

    The detective searched Maryland tax records for a business entity named Eagle Eye J Process Servers. “No such business was located,” the detective wrote in court papers.

    He also reviewed sheriff’s office receipt books filled out by Saunders and noted that she had voided some of the receipts. Those were compared with the actual case files, and the detective learned that Eagle Eye had served papers in at least 14 cases, according to court records.

    The detective and sheriff’s officials looked at security video from the lobby and spotted Saunders coming out from behind the counter and talking with people at least five times. Investigators started talking to people to whom Saunders had made her pitch, according to court records.

    The detective and sheriff’s officials decided to do a sting. On May 3, an undercover female officer approached the counter and told Saunders that she wanted a writ of summons served in a divorce case, asking whether the sheriff’s office could deliver it that day, according to court papers.

    “Saunders stated ‘No’ and left her work area and entered the lobby,” court records state, referring to the undercover officer as the “UC.” “In a low voice, she told the UC that she was a ‘processor’ and could get the summons served that day. Saunders requested $100 for payment. The UC stated that only $80 was available. She agreed to the amount and the UC provided 4 $20 bills.”

    Investigators, armed with warrants, immediately looked at the reception desk and Saunders’s purse and car. They then drove to her home in Frederick. They pieced together her personal receipt book and other records and calculated that she had carried out the scheme at least 107 times and diverted at least $4,280 from the sheriff’s office, authorities said.

    “It was unbelievable and brazen and bold,” Popkin said, “to think she could lie to so many people and divert the money right into her pocket.”

    Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.

    Former sheriff’s office employee accused of running scam at work - The Washington Post
    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    Phone scammer posing as officer

    By RIC BOHY

    rbohy@c-dh.net

    There is no one named Sgt. Green or Lt. Green at the Maury County Sheriff’s Department.

    But a man who identified himself by those names called at least two Columbia women Saturday offering to drop warrants for failing to appear for jury duty if they paid him a fine of $275.86, according to incident reports at the department.

    Payment by credit card would clear things up, he told them, but he doesn’t accept American Express or Discover cards.

    Sheriff’s Det. Jerry Williams wants the public to know about these calls.

    “Number one, it’s a scam,” Williams said Monday. “Number two is, if there’s people out there that got these phones calls or paid this $275.86, we want to know about it.”

    Whoever made these calls gave them the air of legitimacy by offering his “badge number” — 2586 — and in one case a “confirmation number” — 05689106 — that he said could be presented to the court for a reimbursement.

    In one case, Williams said, the caller used a phone number for the Maury County Courthouse, but a review of weekend phone records showed no activity from that number.

    “Whoever is doing this may be calling from out of state, even out of the country,” Williams explained. “We want to be contacted by anyone who paid the money so we can check their credit card records and see where this money is going.”

    Neither of the two women who received the scam phone call during the weekend paid any money, but they reported the calls to have a complaint on file.

    Anyone else who has been contacted with such a scheme, especially if they paid the phony “fine,” is asked to call Williams at (931) 375-8693.

    Phone scammer posing as officer | Columbia Daily Herald

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    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    Passports scam a reminder for tourists to be vigilant
    By Joanne Crothers

    A tourism leader on Queensland's Gold Coast says a recent scam that targeted backpackers should not deter visitors.

    A man is facing several charges, after police cracked a syndicate which allegedly tricked backpackers into handing over their passports.

    It is alleged the information was used to launder money and sell counterfeit jewellery.

    Gold Coast City Tourism CEO Martin Winter says it is not too worrying for the industry.

    "Obviously there's a couple of these people that are always floating around in places like the Gold Coast or any tourist destination," he said.

    "One only has to go to 'x' and we've all heard of the scams going on there.

    "It's fair to say we've all got to be on our toes."

    He says people must remain very aware there are people out there with all sorts of schemes.

    "Places like the Gold Coast are always going to be lucrative for the unsavoury types of the world because they see people as being on holiday and having their guard down," he said.

    Passports scam a reminder for tourists to be vigilant
    By Joanne Crothers

    Posted 3 hours 46 minutes ago
    Related Story: Police crack Gold Coast crime syndicate
    Map: Southport 4215

    A tourism leader on Queensland's Gold Coast says a recent scam that targeted backpackers should not deter visitors.

    A man is facing several charges, after police cracked a syndicate which allegedly tricked backpackers into handing over their passports.

    It is alleged the information was used to launder money and sell counterfeit jewellery.

    Gold Coast City Tourism CEO Martin Winter says it is not too worrying for the industry.

    "Obviously there's a couple of these people that are always floating around in places like the Gold Coast or any tourist destination," he said.

    "One only has to go to 'x' and we've all heard of the scams going on there.

    "It's fair to say we've all got to be on our toes."

    He says people must remain very aware there are people out there with all sorts of schemes.

    "Places like the Gold Coast are always going to be lucrative for the unsavoury types of the world because they see people as being on holiday and having their guard down," he said.

    "It reminds us we have to be very careful with our identity so people don't steal it from us."

    Passports scam a reminder for tourists to be vigilant - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    Prosecutors Are Contemplating More Arrests in $80 Million Art Fraud Case
    By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
    Published: August 19, 2013

    More arrests are expected in the investigation into one of the most audacious art frauds in recent memory, a federal prosecutor handling the case against an obscure art dealer charged in the case told a judge on Monday. The prosecutor and the dealer’s lawyer also said they expected the case to be resolved soon.
    Enlarge This Image

    The disclosures came at the arraignment of the dealer, Glafira Rosales, in United States District Court in Manhattan.

    Ms. Rosales was arrested in May on money laundering and tax charges in connection with the scheme, which spanned 15 years and included the sale for more than $80 million of dozens of works said to have been by Modernist masters. The case has fixated many in the art world because experts believed that the works were authentic, when, the authorities say, they were created by a single painter in Queens, working from his home.

    On Monday, Ms. Rosales was arraigned before Judge Katherine P. Failla on new charges, contained in a superseding indictment handed up by a grand jury last week. She pleaded not guilty during the five-minute proceeding.

    After Ms. Rosales entered her plea, Judge Failla asked the prosecutor, Jason P. Hernandez, an assistant United States attorney, if he was contemplating additional arrests in the case.

    “Yes,” he said, without elaborating.

    Ms. Rosales’s boyfriend, described in the indictment as her co-conspirator, has not been charged, and his whereabouts was unknown.

    Mr. Hernandez also said he expected that the case against Ms. Rosales, which was the result of a lengthy F.B.I. investigation, will be resolved in the coming weeks, possibly as early as the end of the month. While the planned disposition of the case was not discussed, the implication was that Ms. Rosales was expected to plead guilty.

    A quick resolution of the case, along with the expectation of additional arrests, suggests that Ms. Rosales may have begun cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecutors sometime after her arrest in May.

    Prosecutors argued then that she posed “a substantial flight risk” and that no bail conditions could assure her return to court, convincing a judge to detain her without bail. But last week, after the new indictment was handed up, the prosecutors did not oppose her release on a $2.5 million bond.

    Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, and an F.B.I. spokesman, James M. Margolin, declined to comment. Ms. Rosales’s lawyer, Steven R. Kartagener, has refused to characterize his discussions with the prosecutors on the case, Mr. Hernandez and Daniel W. Levy.

    The new indictment issued last week revealed for the first time that all of the 63 fake art works at the heart of what prosecutors have described as a sweeping fraud scheme were created by a single artist, though they were sold as the works of Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell and others.

    People briefed on the matter said the actual painter was Pei-Shen Qian, a struggling 73-year-old Chinese artist who came to the United States in 1981.

    The F.B.I. searched his house in Woodside last week, according to neighbors, who said that Mr. Qian, who has not been charged with a crime, had left for China.

    The indictment and other court papers said the painter was discovered selling his own art on the streets of Lower Manhattan in the early 1990s by Ms. Rosales’s boyfriend and business partner, an art dealer named Jose Carlos Bergantiños Diaz, who recruited him to make paintings in the style of celebrated Modernists. The indictment does not name Mr. Bergantiños Diaz, but his identity was confirmed by other court records.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/ny...heme.html?_r=0

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    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    Related to scams, believe we have another started up yesterday over in MMG.

    Web Cash Day - Webcashday.com

    Of course a person just typing the word "scam" has received a big red BANNED banner!!

    Hi, I am admin of Webcashday.com and can assure you that it is a legitimate opportunity. Just because the compensation plan offers great rewards doesn't mean that it is too good to be true. The fact is that it is good and it is TRUE!!!

    Please feel free to view compensation plan details or email/chat with me via the site if you have any details.

    We have had 150 sign ups in the first 20 hours and are looking forward to bringing huge rewards to all our members.

    Thanks.
    How many times have we heard that one!!!???

    Come back in 9 weeks and show us the million and maybe we'll believe you. Hype is just empty promises without proof to back it up. thumbdown.gif
    Wonder how long hipcat will last!!

    It is simply what is possible with the Web Cash Day system. If each level passes in a week (3 referrals each) it is absolutely possible (9 levels).

    The final level payout is $1,000,000

    We have designed our compensation plan to be achievable...and with our 12 week training course and promotional area it is. We will help you reach your goal!!!

    Looking forward to posting great results and seeing some great results posted by our members.

    Already over 200 pro members guys smile.gif

    Full steam ahead!!!

    Please contact me (pm or email) if you have any questions.

    I will be happy to help.
    Joined and Upgraded.
    First Jerk onboard!!
    Don't get ripped off!! Stay informed!

  9. #259
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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    When you buy "mystery pills" over the internet your name and information will likely end up with scammers, never mind who the hell knows what they are selling. I am not DR. OZ, so will stick with the scam part, the DEA will not call you on the phone to collect a fine.

    DEA Warns of Extortion Scam
    Scammers ask victims to pay fine to avoid arrest for purchase of prescriptions over the Internet, by phone

    Source: DEA Warns of Extortion Scam | NBC Chicago

    --------------------------------------
    Part II from FDA

    Buying drugs from a pharmacy with a prescription is legal here are tips from the FDA.

    Quick Tips for Buying Online

    Make sure the site requires a prescription and has a pharmacist available for questions.

    Buy only from licensed pharmacies located in the United States. BeSafeRx: Know Your Online Pharmacy has more information about finding safe and legal online pharmacies.

    Don't provide personal information such as credit card numbers unless you are sure the site will protect them.


    Buying Medicines Over the Internet


    --------------------------------------

    More joy in pillville. The Possible Dangers of Buying Medicines over the Internet

    Capture.jpg
    --------------------------------------
    More fun thanks to Smiling Bob. American Greed: Sexual Performance Pill | Kirk Wright

    smiling bob.JPG
    smiling bob 1.JPG
    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    It had to happen, and I will have more to say about it after I find something to eat and what were we talking about..

    Just Say No… To Marijuana Stock Scams
    By Chris Morran August 20, 2013

    justsaynoLook, we know that all the cool kids in the neighborhood have tried it, and some swear that it’s just the bee’s knees, but before you get lured into a mistake that will leave you penniless and regretful, you should learn to just say no to investing in scammy marijuana stocks.

    Legally produced and sold marijuana is a growing business in the U.S., especially now that Washington and Colorado have legalized the drug. This means that there is a lot of money to be made in a completely legitimate fashion. It also means there are a growing number of people out there trying to sell you the stock equivalent of a bag full of oregano.

    FINRA, the private regulatory body overseeing investment firms, has issued a warning to consumers, not about the risks associated with marijuana, but on how to sniff out and avoid being taken in a pot-related stock scam.

    The warning explains that even though the scams might be taking advantage of investors’ interest in a new market, the scammers are often using the classic pump-and-dump ploy:

    “Specifically, fraudsters lure investors with aggressive, optimistic—and potentially false and misleading—statements or information designed to create unwarranted demand for shares of a small, thinly traded company with little or no history of financial success (the pump). Once share prices and volumes reach a peak, the cons behind the scam sell off their shares at a profit, leaving investors with worthless stock (the dump).”

    FINRA gives the example of a company that went so far as to put out 30 press releases in just the first half of 2013, each touting how much money could and will be made by investors. One release claimed that the stock “could double its price SOON.” Meanwhile, the company has only posted losses and has yet to even formulate a business plan.

    Like any investment scam, there are some tried-and-true ways to avoid being taken in:

    Ask “Why me?” Most legitimate companies don’t just go seeking investors via cold calls, e-mails, and faxes. “Why would a total stranger tell you about a really great investment opportunity?” asks FINRA. “The answer is there likely is no true opportunity.”

    Consider the source. If a corporate officer for a company is the one telling you about how great the company is going to be, take that info with a grain of salt the size of Montana. He or she benefits directly from your investment, whereas you just stand to possibly lose your money.

    “Be skeptical about companies that issue a barrage of press releases and promotions in a short period of time,” adds FINRA. “The objective may be to pump up the stock price. Likewise, be wary of information that only focuses on a stock’s upside with no mention of risk.”

    Do your research. Scammers are often repeat offenders, so exercise your Google muscle and research the names of key corporate officials and major stakeholders, as well as the company itself.

    According to FINRA, one CEO of a possible pump-and-dump marijuana business spent nine years in prison for operating one of the largest drug smuggling operations in U.S. history. Another former CEO of a similar company was indicted for his role in a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme. These are generally not people with whom you should entrust your money.

    Be wary of frequent changes to a company’s name or business focus. Changing brand names is one thing, but repeatedly and/or frequently changing the actual name of a company can be an indicator that there is something to hide. FINRA says one suspicious marijuana company has changed its name four times in 10 years.

    Check out the person selling the stock or investment. Anyone can hand you a sheet of paper saying you own shares in something, but a legitimate investment salesperson must be properly licensed and work for a firm registered with FINRA, the SEC and a state securities regulator.

    If you’re unsure about that guy who cold-called you to sell you a stock, FINRA’s BrokerCheck allows you to search for free. You can also check with your state securities regulator, click here for a list of contact numbers for each state.

    If the company still passes muster after those basic checks, then it’s time to start doing even more research, like finding out which market the stock trades on, and looking through the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (assuming there are any). Even then, just because a company trades on the NYSE or has filed reports with the SEC doesn’t mean it’s not simply out to grab your money and run.

    Feel like you’ve been taken in by a pump-and-dump scammer, whether related to the marijuana business or not? You should file a complaint via FINRA’s online portal. And if you have a lead on a possible investment scam, there is the FINRA tip line

    Just Say No… To Marijuana Stock Scams

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    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    Someone pissing away 50 years of contacts on a ruse like this leaves me shaking my head. The telltale Ponzi story was front and center.

    Calgary man involved in multimillion-dollar investment scam gets four years


    CALGARY - A Calgary man was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday for an investment scam in which he cheated clients, friends and family out of millions of dollars.

    Robert Sellars, who is 76, pleaded guilty to fraud earlier this year for bilking 350 mostly Calgary-area investors of almost $27 million.

    Court heard Sellars used his contacts from 50 years in the insurance business to attract clients to invest in his new company.

    He said the money was being invested in gold mines, gravel quarries and overnight, interest-rate differentials on European banks. He promised annual returns of 15 to 18 per cent and as high as 36 per cent.

    But it was all a Ponzi scheme. Money received from newer investors is used to pay interest payments guaranteed to older investors.

    The company eventually went into bankruptcy.

    "Reading the victim impact statements is heartbreaking," said Alberta provincial court Judge Catherine Skene.

    She also ordered Sellars to repay close to $10 million dollars in restitution to some of his clients, but admitted she "saw little sign" he would be able to do so.

    Sellars had already served a two-year jail term after previously pleading guilty to violations under the Alberta Securities Regulations for taking investments, keeping the principle and not paying returns.

    Both the Crown and defence made a joint submission asking for the four-year term and pointed out Sellars had not been living a lavish lifestyle.

    Crown prosecutor Shelley Smith said there were a number of aggravating factors.

    "The offender took advantage of the high regard he was held in the community," she said. "His actions had a huge impact on his victims."

    But Smith said Sellars does deserve some credit for the early plea.

    "Mr. Sellars has accepted full responsibility for the investment scheme and has shown genuine remorse."

    Lawyer Don Macleod said his client made a mistake and could have retired comfortably from the insurance industry if he had not got involved in the investment scam.

    "He now finds himself living in subsidized housing," Macleod said. "He has not lived a handsome lifestyle."

    Calgary man involved in multimillion-dollar investment scam gets four years | GlobalPost
    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    Five online scams to watch out for


    According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's latest targeting scams report, $93 million was lost to fraud in 2012 — an increase of 9 per cent from 2011. Identity theft and cyber fraud cost the country $8.5 billion every year, with as many as one in five Australians being hit.

    With consumers conducting more and more of their activities online, from banking to shopping, con artists' schemes are becoming more and more sophisticated. Emails appear to be from legitimate sources; websites and forms look just like the real thing. Forewarned is forearmed, so here's a list of five scams you should be on the lookout for.

    1. Tax refund phishing scams


    The Australian Taxation Office has warned consumers and small businesses to be aware of tax refund email scams, which attempt to take advantage of the busy end of financial year season.

    According to SCAMwatch and the ATO, a new phishing email that may appear to be from the ATO claims that you are entitled to a tax refund — one that you can process by clicking on an embedded link and filling out a form.
    However, as in other phishing scams, the form and link are fake and designed to steal your information or infect your computer with malware. The scammer can then use these details to steal your identity and money.

    2. Auction and shopping scams

    The popularity of internet retailers continues to grow, with the number of Australians who shop online tipping over the 50 per cent mark for the first time this year.
    Auction sites are a hotbed for fraud: con artists can claim to be selling a product in order to obtain buyers' bank account or credit card details; often they will send a fraudulent or faulty item — or no item at all.

    Last month, Victoria Police announced that they were searching for a man who was suspected to have used this modus operandi to victimise more than 300 people on the buying and selling website Gumtree. Earlier this month, a Queensland woman paid $1200 for two iPhones and received two pieces of fruit instead.

    3. Nigerian scams


    Also known as a 419 scam, the 'Nigerian Prince' is one of the internet's oldest and most infamous cons. It's now taken on many different forms, but at its most basic it's an email that appears to be a plea for help. The sender usually claims that a large sum needs to be deposited into an offshore account. Should you be willing to assist, you will be rewarded with a percentage — but to start the process, an initial "investment" must be made. The pleas can also be sent from hijacked email accounts, which makes them appear to be coming from someone you know.

    The popularity — and success — of the Nigerian Prince may now seem both ludicrous and comical, but it continues to be the most commonly reported type of con. Some extreme instances have even resulted in kidnapping and murder.

    4. Online dating scams


    ACCC data
    shows that almost half of people who responded to an approach by a dating and romance scammer last year reported a financial loss — a 46 per cent conversion rate, with the average loss ringing in at a staggering $21,000.

    Luring potential victims with fake profiles, scam operators try to move contact off the dating website and onto email or telephone. Once an emotional connection has been established, con artists look to profit by posing as "someone based overseas, someone whose child has had an accident and urgently needs money for a medical procedure, someone who may be stuck on an offshore operation, or even as a military operator who needs money to get a visa, to get a ticket of leave back home," according to ACCC deputy chairman Dr Michael Schaper.

    Many of the scam operators are based outside Australia, making it difficult to recover lost funds.

    5. Computer hacking scams


    In 2012, consumers lost $1,312,794 to computer hacking scams, which accounted for just over 13 per cent of reports to the ACCC.

    Last October, pop-up alerts claiming to originate from the Australian Federal Police warned people that their computers had been frozen for visiting an illegal website or breaking other laws. Users were then prompted to pay a fee to have their machine unlocked.

    Another commonly reported scam involved a cold call from a fake Microsoft employee, who would inform victims that their computer had been infected with a virus that would need to be fixed immediately for a $300-$400 fee.
    The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    I found this an interesting story, scam perhaps not in the conventional sense. But signing a contract to let a company drill on your land is not like ignoring the user agreement for Microsoft Word. At the bottom there is a PDF from Penn State University, I sort of skimmed through it but may prove useful to someone with land they want drilled on.

    Don Feusner ran dairy cattle on his 370-acre slice of northern Pennsylvania until he could no longer turn a profit by farming. Then, at age 60, he sold all but a few Angus and aimed for a comfortable retirement on money from drilling his land for natural gas instead.

    It seemed promising. Two wells drilled on his lease hit as sweet a spot as the Marcellus shale could offer – tens of millions of cubic feet of natural gas gushed forth. Last December, he received a check for $8,506 for a month’s share of the gas.

    Then one day in April, Feusner ripped open his royalty envelope to find that while his wells were still producing the same amount of gas, the gusher of cash had slowed. His eyes cascaded down the page to his monthly balance at the bottom: $1,690.

    Chesapeake Energy, the company that drilled his wells, was withholding almost 90 percent of Feusner’s share of the income to cover unspecified “gathering” expenses and it wasn’t explaining why.

    “They said you’re going to be a millionaire in a couple of years, but none of that has happened,” Feusner said. “I guess we’re expected to just take whatever they want to give us.”

    Like every landowner who signs a lease agreement to allow a drilling company to take resources off his land, Feusner is owed a cut of what is produced, called a royalty.

    In 1982, in a landmark effort to keep people from being fleeced by the oil industry, the federal government passed a law establishing that royalty payments to landowners would be no less than 12.5 percent of the oil and gas sales from their leases.

    From Pennsylvania to North Dakota, a powerful argument for allowing extensive new drilling has been that royalty payments would enrich local landowners, lifting the economies of heartland and rural America. The boom was also supposed to fill the government’s coffers, since roughly 30 percent of the nation’s drilling takes place on federal land.

    Over the last decade, an untold number of leases were signed, and hundreds of thousands of wells have been sunk into new energy deposits across the country.

    But manipulation of costs and other data by oil companies is keeping billions of dollars in royalties out of the hands of private and government landholders, an investigation by ProPublica has found.

    An analysis of lease agreements, government documents and thousands of pages of court records shows that such underpayments are widespread. Thousands of landowners like Feusner are receiving far less than they expected based on the sales value of gas or oil produced on their property. In some cases, they are being paid virtually nothing at all.

    In many cases, lawyers and auditors who specialize in production accounting tell ProPublica energy companies are using complex accounting and business arrangements to skim profits off the sale of resources and increase the expenses charged to landowners.

    Deducting expenses is itself controversial and debated as unfair among landowners, but it is allowable under many leases, some of which were signed without landowners fully understanding their implications.

    But some companies deduct expenses for transporting and processing natural gas, even when leases contain clauses explicitly prohibiting such deductions. In other cases, according to court files and documents obtained by ProPublica, they withhold money without explanation for other, unauthorized expenses, and without telling landowners that the money is being withheld.

    Significant amounts of fuel are never sold at all – companies use it themselves to power equipment that processes gas, sometimes at facilities far away from the land on which it was drilled. In Oklahoma, Chesapeake deducted marketing fees from payments to a landowner – a joint owner in the well – even though the fees went to its own subsidiary, a pipeline company called Chesapeake Energy Marketing. The landowner alleged the fees had been disguised in the form of lower sales prices. A court ruled that the company was entitled to charge the fees.

    Costs such as these are normally only documented in private transactions between energy companies, and are almost never detailed to landowners.

    “To find out how the calculation is done, you may well have to file a lawsuit and get it through discovery,” said Owen Anderson, the Eugene Kuntz Chair in Oil, Gas & Natural Resources at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, and an expert on royalty disputes. “I’m not aware of any state that requires that level of disclosure.”

    To keep royalties low, companies sometimes set up subsidiaries or limited partnerships to which they sell oil and gas at reduced prices, only to recoup the full value of the resources when their subsidiaries resell it. Royalty payments are usually based on the initial transaction.

    In other cases, companies have bartered for services off the books, hiding the full value of resources from landowners. In a 2003 case in Louisiana, for example, Kerr McGee, now owned by Anadarko Petroleum, sold its oil for a fraction of its value – and paid royalties to the government on the discounted amount – in a trade arrangement for marketing services that were never accounted for on its cash flow statements. The federal government sued, and won.

    The government has an arsenal of tools to combat royalty underpayment. The Department of Interior has rules governing what deductions are allowable. It also employs an auditing agency that, while far from perfect, has uncovered more than a dozen instances in which drillers were “willful” in deceiving the government on royalty payments just since 2011. A spokesman for the Department of Interior’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue says that over the last three decades, the government has recouped more than $4 billion in unpaid fees from such cases.

    There are few such protective mechanisms for private landowners, though, who enter into agreements without regulatory oversight and must pay to audit or challenge energy companies out of their own pockets.

    ProPublica made several attempts to contact Chesapeake Energy for this article. The company declined, via email, to answer any questions regarding royalties, and then did not respond to detailed sets of questions submitted afterward. The leading industry trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, also declined to comment on landowners’ allegations of underpayments, saying that individual companies would need to respond to specific claims.

    Anderson acknowledged that many landowners enter into contracts without understanding their implications and said it was up to them to do due diligence before signing agreements with oil and gas companies.

    “The duty of the corporation is to make money for shareholders,” Anderson said. “Every penny that a corporation can save on royalties is a penny of profit for shareholders, so why shouldn’t they try to save every penny that they can on payments to royalty owners?”

    * * *

    Gas flows up through a well head on Feusner’s property, makes a couple of turns and passes a meter that measures its volume. Then it flows into larger pipes fed by multiple pipelines in a process the industry calls “gathering.” Together, the mixed gases might get compressed or processed to improve the gas quality for final sale, before feeding into a larger network of pipelines that extends for hundreds of miles to an end point, where the gas is sold and ultimately distributed to consumers.

    Each section of pipeline is owned and managed by a different company. These companies buy the gas from Chesapeake, but have no accountability to Feusner. They operate under minimal regulatory oversight, and have sales contracts with the well operator, in this case Chesapeake, with terms that are private. Until Chesapeake sold its pipeline company last winter, the pipelines were owned by its own subsidiaries.

    As in many royalty disputes, it is not clear exactly which point of sale is the one on which Feusner’s payments should be based – the last sale onto the open market or earlier changes in custody. It’s equally unclear whether the expenses being charged to Feusner are incurred before or after that point of sale, or what processes, exactly, fall under the term “gathering.” Definitions of that term vary, depending on who is asked. In an email, a spokesperson for Chesapeake declined to say how the company defines gathering.

    Making matters more complicated, the rights to the gas itself are often split into shares, sometimes among as many as a half-dozen companies, and are frequently traded. Feusner originally signed a lease with a small drilling company, which sold the rights to the lease to Chesapeake. Chesapeake sold a share of its rights in the lease to a Norwegian company, Statoil, which now owns about a one-third interest in the gas produced from Feusner’s property.

    Chesapeake and Statoil pay him royalties and account for expenses separately. Statoil does not deduct any expenses in calculating Feusner’s royalty payments, possibly because it has a different interpretation of what’s allowed.

    “Statoil’s policy is to carefully look at each individual lease, and to take post-production deductions only where the lease and the law allow for it,” a company spokesman wrote in an email. “We take our production in kind from Chesapeake and we have no input into how they interpret the leases.”

    Once the gas is produced, a host of opaque transactions influence how sales are accounted for and proceeds are allocated to everyone entitled to a slice. The chain of custody and division of shares is so complex that even the country’s best forensic accountants struggle to make sense of energy companies’ books.

    Feusner’s lease does not give him the right to review Chesapeake’s contracts with its partners, or to verify the sales figures that the company reports to him. Pennsylvania – though it recently passed a law requiring that the total amount of deductions be listed on royalty statements – has no laws dictating at what point a sale price needs to be set, and what expenses are legitimate.

    Concerns about royalties have begun to attract the attention of state legislators, who held a hearing on the issue in June. Some have acknowledged a need to clarify minimum royalty guarantees in the state, but so far, that hasn’t happened.

    “If you have a system that is not transparent from wellhead to burner tip and you hide behind confidentiality, then you have something to hide,” Jerry Simmons, executive director of the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO), the premier organization representing private landowners in the U.S., told ProPublica in a 2009 interview. Simmons said recently that his views had not changed, but declined to be interviewed again. “The idea that regulatory agencies don’t know the volume of gas being produced in this country is absurd.”

    Because so many disputes come down to interpretations of contract language, companies often look to courts for clarification. Not many royalty cases have been argued in Pennsylvania so far, but in 2010, a landmark decision, Kilmer v. Elexco Land Services, set out that the state’s minimum royalty guarantee applied to revenues before expenses were calculated, and that, when allowed by leases, energy companies were free to charge back deductions against those royalties.

    Since then, Pennsylvania landowners say, Chesapeake has been making larger deductions from their checks. (The company did not respond to questions about this.) In April, Feusner’s effective royalty rate on the gas sold by Chesapeake was less than 1 percent.

    Paul Sidorek is an accountant representing some 60 northeastern Pennsylvania landowners who receive royalty income from drilling. He’s also a landowner himself – in 2009, he leased 145 acres, and that lease was eventually sold to Chesapeake. Well aware of the troubles encountered by others, Sidorek negotiated a 20 percent royalty and made sure his lease said explicitly that no expenses could be deducted from the sale of the gas produced on his property.

    Yet now, Sidorek says, Chesapeake is deducting as much as 30 percent from his royalties, attributing it to “gathering” and “third party” expenses, an amount that adds up to some $40,000 a year.

    “Now that the royalties are flowing, some people just count it as a blessing and say we don’t care what Chesapeake does, it’s money we wouldn’t have had before,” Sidorek said. But he’s filed a lawsuit. “I figure I could give my grandson a first-class education for what Chesapeake is deducting that they are not entitled to, so I’m taking it on.”

    Landowners, lawyers, legislators and even some energy industry groups say Chesapeake stands out for its confusing accounting and tendency to deduct the most expenses from landowners’ royalty checks in Pennsylvania.

    “They’ve had a culture of doing cutthroat business,” said Jackie Root, president of Pennsylvania’s chapter of the National Association of Royalty Owners.

    Chesapeake did not respond to questions on whether its approach differs from that of other companies.

    Root and others report good working relationships with other companies operating wells in Pennsylvania, and say that deductions – if they occur at all – are modest. Statoil, which has an interest in a number of Chesapeake wells, does not deduct any expenses on its share of many of the same leases. In an email from a spokesperson, the company said “We always seek to deal with our lease holders in a fair manner.”

    Several landowners said that not only do deductions vary between companies using the same gas “gathering” network – sales prices do as well.

    On Sidorek’s royalty statements, for example, Chesapeake and Statoil disclose substantially different sales prices for the same gas moved through the same system.

    “If Statoil can consistently sell the gas for $.25 more, and Chesapeake claims it’s the premier producer in the country, then why the hell can’t they get the same price Statoil does for the same gas on the same day?” Sidorek wondered.

    He thinks Chesapeake was giving a discount to a pipeline company it used to own. Chesapeake did not respond to questions about the price discrepancy.

    Chesapeake may be the focus of landowner ire in Pennsylvania, but across the country thousands of landowners have filed similar complaints against many oil and gas producers.

    In dozens of class actions reviewed by ProPublica, landowners have alleged they cannot make sense of the expenses deducted from their payments or that companies are hiding charges

    Publicly traded oil and gas companies also have disclosed settlements and judgments related to royalty disputes that, collectively, add up to billions of dollars.

    In 2003, a jury found that Exxon had defrauded the state of Alabama out of royalty payments and ordered the company to pay nearly $103 million in back royalties and interest, plus $11.8 billion in punitive damages. (The punitive damages were reduced to $3.5 billion on appeal, and then eliminated by the state supreme court in 2007.)

    In 2007, a jury ordered a Chesapeake subsidiary to pay $404 million, including $270 million in punitive damages, for cheating a class of leaseholders in West Virginia. In 2010, Shell was hit with a $66 million judgment, including $52 million in punitive fines, after a jury decided the company had hidden a prolific well and then intentionally misled landowners when they sought royalties. The judgment was upheld on appeal.

    Since the language of individual lease agreements vary widely, and some date back nearly 100 years, many of the disagreements about deductions boil down to differing interpretations of the language in the contract.

    In Pennsylvania, however, courts have set few precedents for how leases should be read and substantial hurdles stand in the way of landowners interested in bringing cases.

    Pennsylvania attorneys say many of their clients’ leases do not allow landowners to audit gas companies to verify their accounting. Even landowners allowed to conduct such audits could have to shell out tens of thousands of dollars to do so.

    When audits turn up discrepancies, attorneys say, many Pennsylvania leases require landowners to submit to arbitration – another exhaustive process that can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Arbitration clauses can also make it more difficult for landowners to join class action suits in which individuals can pool their resources and gain enough leverage to take on the industry.

    “They basically are daring you to sue them,” said Aaron Hovan, an attorney in Tunkhannock, Pa., representing landowners who have royalty concerns. “And you need to have a really good case to go through all of that, and then you could definitely lose.”

    All of these hurdles have to be cleared within Pennsylvania’s four-year statute of limitations. Landowners who realize too late that they have been underpaid for years – or who inherit a lease from an ailing parent who never bothered to check their statements – are simply out of luck.

    Even if a gas company were found liable for underpaying royalties in Pennsylvania, it would have little to fear. It would owe only the amount it should have paid in the first place; unlike Oklahoma and other states, Pennsylvania law does not allow for any additional interest on unpaid royalties and sets a very high bar for winning punitive penalties.

    “They just wait to see who challenges them, they keep what they keep, they give up what they lose,” said Root, the NARO chapter president. “It may just be part of their business decision to do it this way.”

    Unfair Share: How Oil and Gas Drillers Avoid Paying Royalties - ProPublica
    http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/freepubs/pdfs/ui394.pdf
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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    There are a few current scams on realscam.com operating out of mail drops just like these folks were. No real office should be a huge red flag.

    DA: 3 Florida Men Ran ‘Wall Street’ Silver Scam
    They Allegedly Duped 150 People
    August 20, 2013 4:54 PM

    New York (CBSNewYork) — Three Florida men using a Wall Street address duped at least 150 people into spending $8 million on precious metals they did not own, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said.

    The men, all in their 30s, allegedly encouraged their victims to invest their retirement savings in silver bullion, WCBS 880′s Irene Cornell reported. The company, PMCO, told customers that it held many tons of metals, employed hundreds of people and counted several large insurance companies and the New York Mets among its clients — none of which was true, prosecutors said.

    The accused mastermind, Sean Robert Stropp, allegedly claimed he had more than 30 years of experience. He is 31.
    play

    DA: 3 Florida Men Ran 'Wall Street' Silver Scam
    WCBS 880's Irene Cornell reports.


    The suspects set up a virtual office in Manhattan, but the address was only used to forward mail and money to themselves, Vance said.

    Stropp, Karl Spicer, 37, and Ricardo Garcia, 32, were indicted on charges that include grand larceny, scheme to defraud and failure to register as commodities brokers.

    “Because New York is the financial capital of the United States, some companies, like the one named in this indictment, seek to set up ‘virtual’ offices on Wall Street,” Vance said in a statement. “The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office will continue to vigilantly protect investors against those who seek to use New York’s reputation as a means to defraud others.”

    DA: 3 Florida Men Ran ‘Wall Street’ Silver Scam « CBS New York

    ==========================================

    Gold is good. Or is it just pitched to you as a way to make easy profits by television ads and telemarketers?

    With the price of gold rising steadily, as recently as this week, the popular mindset of its safety and value has been around since before the Gold Standard backed the U.S. dollar . But before you get in on the gold rush, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) wants you to beware of fraudsters looking to make a quick buck.

    According to the FTC, complaints in the area of investment frauds, including precious metals, have increased sharply over the past three years. In 2011, the FTC fielded 7,657 complaints related to investment fraud, compared to 6,490 complaints in 2009.

    "Consumers are vulnerable, because other investments are not panning out for them. They're looking for something different and precious metals are presented to them as a winning situation," FTC attorney Dama Brown said.

    After the financial crisis in 2008, as gold prices continued to rise, con artists began capitalizing on the economic climate and taking advantage of people's fears, Brown said.

    Fraudulent telemarketers sold precious metals as safe investments, but brokers have testified that they were in fact very high-risk transactions. (Read More: 10 Outrageous Products Made of Gold)

    "Unfortunately, consumers are losing money. At a minimum it's several thousand dollars. And often we see that it's consumers entire retirement," Brown said. "Some are even encouraged to cash out their IRAs, and they end up losing it within months."

    The Pitch: As Safe as Keeping Metal in Your Mattress?

    As part of a Federal Security Investment Task Force, Brown has been involved in many precious metal scam investigations. She has uncovered deceptive sales scripts that bill precious metals as a safe-haven investment, even calling it "as safe as keeping metal in your mattress."

    "They cold call consumers and give very strong sales pitches, saying precious metals will rise significantly, doubling or tripling in as little as 30 days, and that consumers must send in money immediately so they don't lose out on the opportunity," Brown said.

    Studies have shown the number of companies offering consumers the chance to buy or invest in precious metals has increased, according to a fraud alert released by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission earlier this year.

    "However, many of these companies do not actually purchase or store any metal for their customers," the report said.

    How Precious Metal Scams Operate

    One such fraudulent company was run by fugitive Luis Ferreira. A two-time telemarketing fraudster, Ferreira was fresh out of federal prison and barred from fundraising for three years. In 2008, he used his mother's name to incorporate Spyker Consulting, a precious metals telemarketing firm based in south Florida. (See: How Luis Ferreira Became a Fugitive.)

    Without direct access to the precious metals market, Spyker supposedly contracted a London-based "clearing firm" to buy, sell, and store the precious metals.

    But the company was a sham - the London-based clearing firm did not exist. The mail and phone calls that supposedly went to that office were simply redirected back to the Spyker's Florida office, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (Read More: Criminal Complaint Against Luis Ferreira.)

    Rather than investing his clients' money, Ferreira pocketed it, up to $27,000 a month by 2010, according to the FBI. When the feds confronted him, Ferreira confessed. He pled guilty to conspiracy and received a three-year prison sentence. Rather than serve his time, however, Ferreira disappeared.

    Falling Prey to a Career Conman

    The news devastated investor Steve Starr, who lost $25,000 in Ferreira's scam. Starr owned a Tampa Bay, Fla.-based RV dealership that in 2008 was seeing an all-time low in sales when a Spyker telemarketer called him. The sales pitch convinced him to invest $5,000 in silver. Over a few months, Starr received statements that showed his money growing.

    "I thought it was the best thing I ever did 'cause I watched the silver go up and up and up. And I said, 'Wow, these guys were right. It was worth 15 percent commission,' " Starr told CNBC's "American Greed: The Fugitives."

    Then another Spyker telemarketer called. Starr recalled, "[He] told me palladium is getting ready to take off and I should invest in some palladium. He says you need to get every dime you can scrape up and he says you're gonna make a ton of money." (See: Steve Starr Explains What Information Telemarketers Are After.)

    So Starr doubled down and invested $20,000 more. But by late 2009, he sensed trouble. His statements stopped coming and when he tried to liquidate his account, he was told he had to wait.

    Needing to pay property taxes, Starr took out a home equity loan on his previously paid for house. The next time he called Spyker, the phone was disconnected. Starr lost his entire investment and was now saddled with debt.

    "I sleep very little. I'm lucky if I sleep two or three hours at night. I mean my health has gone downhill. It's been, it's been devastating," he said.

    Not All Brokers Are Equal

    Unfortunately, Starr's story was like many others Brown had heard before. Potential investors should know that people who sell "physical" precious metals, like gold or silver bullion, are not required to obtain licensing or training from the National Futures Association (NFA). Yet, some companies advertised their brokers as being licensed, Brown said.

    "They are referring to a telemarketing license. If they were licensed in commodities, we'd call them brokers. But instead we consider them telemarketers," Brown said.

    The FTC has found that many fraudulent companies were operated by brokers who had lost their license to sell stocks or futures because of deceptive sales practices.

    The best advice Brown said she could give was to search the NFA database to check the regulatory history of your broker. It tells you if the person is licensed, sanctioned, or banned from the NFA. If you don't find your broker's name listed, you should think hard about to whom you're giving your money, Brown said.

    "Why would you want to deal with someone if they're not licensed and they're in this unregulated trade, especially when there are precious metal companies that use licensed brokers? I would suggest finding someone who carries a license," Brown said.

    More Tips to Avoid Precious Metal Scams

    Brown also suggests the following tips before investing in precious metals:

    Do a general Internet search of the company, making sure to check the Better Business Bureau. (Read More: See the Alert on Spyker.)
    Register for the federal "Do Not Call List." Legitimate telemarketing companies won't call you if you're number is on this list because it's against the law.
    Be cautious of opportunities to finance. Go beyond what the telemarketer tells you and read the fine print, including excessive service and storage fees, and high interest rates.
    Find the physical address of the company's location and drive by it.
    If you buy physical metals, such as gold or silver bullion, consider taking delivery of your purchase and storing it yourself, rather than entrusting a company to do so.
    Watch out for overzealous sales pitches! If a telemarketer says an investment is risk-free, or guarantees high profits with very low risk, think twice - especially you're pressured to act quickly.

    Gold Investment Scams: How to Avoid Them - Yahoo! Finance

    Hire this guy to guard your gold!!
    FOOLS.JPG
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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    WAYNE COUNTY, N.C. (WTVD) -- Calls that threaten your children are being held hostage are surely a scary thought, but don't take any action.

    The Wayne County Sheriff's Office said the call is just another attempt from scammers to take your money.

    Investigators said it all starts with a phone call with someone pretending to be in accident.

    SCAMMER: "Mr. Smith, your child has been involved in an accident and damaged my brother's car."

    VICTIM: "Who, my daughter Ashley?"

    SCAMMER: "Yes, Ashley ran into the back of my brother's car. He is a gang member and has a gun. He took Ashley hostage and is threatening to kill her unless she pays for the damage to his car. If you call anyone, if Ashley's cell phone even rings, he is going to kill her. You need to go to CVS and send a money order to John Doe in San Juan, Puerto Rico."

    The con-artist gets more aggressive the more questions you ask and will attempt to keep you on the phone until the money is received.

    This call would scare any parent and spur them to do whatever it takes to make sure their child is safe, but officials insist it is a scam.

    Investigators told ABC11 people are receiving calls from area codes (202), (836), and (504) as well as a host of other area codes. The (202) area code is assigned to the Washington, DC area; however these calls are not originating in Washington, DC. Area code (836) is "unassigned" and area code (504) is a country code for Honduras. Due to technology, investigators say it's almost impossible to determine the real location of the calls.

    The best advice is to hang up on the calls. While the scammer makes it sound urgent and an emergency, it's just an attempt to prey on your emotions.

    Latest scam claims children held hostage | abc11.com
    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    How Steve lost $200,000 to an investment scam

    Steve is a 65-year-old who lives alone in retirement.

    Not long after his wife’s death, he received an unexpected call from fraud operators.

    The cold-callers were very professional in their approach, with excellent knowledge of investment matters. They answered all of Steve’s questions and their initial contact was followed up with calls from ‘senior advisors’.

    As Steve’s superannuation funds weren’t doing so well, he decided to give this new investment opportunity a try. He did not see the need to discuss the investment opportunities with anyone else.

    Over the next 12 months, Steve made a number of transfers to the fraudsters, initially starting with $10,000. He was referred to a very professional looking website and set up a login account, which showed his money increasing in value as the market ‘went up’. Overall, Steve sent $200,000.

    He only realised that the investments were fraudulent when the website went down and he could no longer access his account or contact the offshore group by phone.

    He then did some research and discovered that the company was fake but he was too embarrassed to tell anyone or report it to police. He was contacted by police after they discovered his name on bank transfers made to known fraudsters.

    Since learning of the fraud, Steve has been contacted again by criminals, with offers to help him get his money back from the original investment. This time Steve contacted police, who explained this was a ‘secondary fraud’ and warned him to expect more calls like this as his name was passed on to other criminals.

    Unfortunately, there is little authorities can do to recover Steve’s $200,000.

    Scamwatch.gov.au
    The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    If a lender says you can get an easy loan, but you need to pay them some cash upfront - walk away.

    The Better Business Bureau Serving Metropolitan New York sent out a warning yesterday alerting consumers of a fast-rising scam where so-called lenders are making false promises to borrowers in exchange for an upfront fee.

    The BBB has received a flurry of complaints since the middle of June from consumers alleging that lenders are demanding cash upfront, bagging the money, and walking away without providing any loan.

    Charging an advanced fee for a loan is illegal.

    Often borrowers who fall into these traps don't have many options because of their poor credit history or lack of collateral.

    "The bottom line is any time someone is asking you pay in advance for a loan or credit card, it's bad news," Claire Rosenzweig, president of the Better Business Bureau Serving Metropolitan New York told the Daily News.

    Here's how the alleged scam works: Consumers apply and get "approved" for loans online. They are then asked to "secure" the loan by paying fees under the guise of a variety of names such as interest fees, collateral or insurance costs on the loan, or a lender or broker's fee.

    The fees range from $150 to $500.

    Consumers are then told to transfer the cash via Western Union or re-loadable credit cards like Green Dot MoneyPak. In many cases, the lender comes back multiple times asking for fees, the BBB said.

    The "lenders" never dole out the loan. They disappear, shutting down their website and disconnecting their phones, consumers allege in their complaints.

    Because they wired the money, the victims have little hope of getting their money back.

    How do you avoid these traps?

    Always learn whether a lender is legit by checking to see if it is registered with with the New York State Department of Financial Services or the New York State Attorney General's office.

    If you believe you have been a victim of an advanced fee loan scam, you can file a complaint with the BBB at newyork.bbb.org or bbb.org.

    You may also file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and the attorney general's office.

    pfurman@nydailynews.com

    Six signs you're about to be scammed.

    A lender who isn't interested in your credit history. Beware any lender who doesn't care about your credit record.

    Fees that aren't disclosed clearly or prominently.Any upfront fee that the lender wants to collect before granting the loan is a cue to walk away.

    A loan that is offered by phone. It is illegal for companies doing business by phone in the U.S. to promise you a loan or credit card and ask you to pay for it before they deliver.

    A lender who is not registered in your state. Lenders and loan brokers are required to register in the states where they do business.

    A lender who asks you to wire money or pay an individual. Don't make a payment for a loan or credit card directly to an individual; legitimate lenders don't ask anyone to do that. And don't use a wire transfer service or send money orders for a loan.

    A lender who uses a copy-cat or wanna-be name. Crooks give their companies names that sound like well-known or respected organizations and create websites that look professional.

    Always get a company's phone number from the phone book or directory assistance, and call to check they are who they say they are.

    Source: FTC.gov

    Read more: Scam alert: BBB says advanced fee loan scams are on the rise - NY Daily News

    ================================================== ==
    Here is a scumbag running an advance fee loan scam. Another quick tip, lenders don't need to spam message boards to find people who need money.

    SCAMMER johnholtfinances@manager.in.th
    SCAMMER johnholtloanfirm988@gmail.com

    https://www.facebook.com/johnm.holtloans

    John Holt Loan Scams.JPG
    JHL1.JPG
    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    Window cleaner scam, pretty slick stuff.

    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    CNN) -- A Utah woman lied about her 4-year-old daughter having cancer -- including to the girl and the girl's father -- to scam donations in her community, investigators said.

    The mother, Abreail Denise "Abby" Winkler, 30, "told the girl she had cancer and that she would be treated. When she was around her dad, the little girl would talk about having cancer," said Keith Campbell, assistant chief of the Vernal Police Department.

    Winkler was charged with one count of communications fraud, a third degree felony, according to court documents. She was booked into the Uintah County Jail and posted a $5,000 bond.

    "In early July we started the investigation and quickly determined that Abreail Winkler had told people in the community that the 4-year-old had leukemia. During the investigation, it was determined that the child never had leukemia. No records for treatments were located," Cambpell said.

    Investigators said donors who gave a total of more than $3,000 want their money back for "getting duped," said Campbell. "She wasn't actively going door to door, but our local high school drill team did a fund-raiser for her, and so did a private dance teacher and private donors," he said.

    The child's father did not live in the same home as the mother, Campbell said. The father told investigators that "when he inquired about the cancer, he was told not to worry about it because the child was receiving treatment."

    Utah mom lies about daughter's cancer to scam donations, police say - CNN.com

    2.JPG
    1.JPG
    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    Scam Tips and Advice for College Students and Parents

    Can students be scammed? How should they watch out for being cheated? Prospective college students and their parents should be vigilant for how they can be bamboozled. They need to protect themselves from the various ways in which they could be tricked out of their money. For example, Keith Blocker, the then-Maryland high school senior who was lauded for his 13 years of perfect attendance a few months ago. Blocker was exhilarated when he was accepted to the University of Maryland. There was just one problem: The family did not have the funds to pay for his college expenses and tuition. Imagine their surprise when they were contacted by a man who had seen their son's story on WRC-TV, NBC 4. Gregory McClees told the Blockers that he wanted to offer Keith a four-year scholarship to the college of his choice.

    In return for the family paying a $200 administrative fee, McClees promised he would provide Keith with a monthly stipend of $1,000. When the first check arrived, the Blockers deposited it and proceeded to purchase their son's school supplies. They were shocked when the bank informed them that their benefactor's check had bounced! This led the Blockers to get behind on their bills while McClees continued to promise them that he would send $10,000, but he never delivered. Frustrated and outraged, the Blockers contacted WJLA 7 On Your Side, and reporter Kris Van Cleave confronted McClees. McClees claimed the checks had been stopped due to a bank error and that he was away from the area. The Blockers were forced to face the fact that they had been swindled. As of August 2013, the Blockers are struggling to pay their bills and wondering whether they will be able to send Keith to the University of Maryland.

    Many young adults do not think this kind of incident could happen to them. They think they are too savvy to be caught in a situation like the one the Blockers found themselves in. Nevertheless, scams can happen to anyone. Scams are becoming more common in 21st century American society. Criminals and con artists are desperate for money and will do anything to get it. They will use threats on people's family and friends just to make a buck. If they are successful in getting vulnerable people's money that will end up in their pockets, which was the case with the Blocker family. Scammers should not be allowed to get away with their schemes. Their sole intent is to target their victims, execute their plan successfully, and then repeat the process. If there were a rewind function for this story, the Blockers most likely could have done a background check on McClees to see if he represented a legitimate institution, and if this so-called scholarship he was offering was real. Perhaps a neighbor, family member, or friend could have warned the Blockers that they may be the target of a scam had they had this information.

    Here are some warning signs of a scam in progress: You are asked for money upfront, you receive an unsolicited offer from an individual or organization that you never heard of, or you are asked to provide financial information to someone that you do not know. In these cases, stop communicating with that person or company immediately. The offer is most likely a scam. A majority of scholarships and grants require an application, and organizations that offer grants rarely ask for money in advance before a student receives his or her award. These scammers just want your money. They want to make themselves successful, not you.

    For instance, last summer I was interning at a local radio station in downtown Silver Spring, Md., when I received a series of calls from somebody claiming to be from the U.S. Department of Education. He said, "Hello, we are from the U.S. Department of Education and we have a grant for you." I knew right there that it was a scam because I had not applied for a grant with the U.S. Department of Education. These people had just procured my name and contact information from the Internet. I told them not to contact me again and that I was not interested in their offer. The voice on their end suddenly switched to another voice saying "Hello?" twice. I called the number they contacted me from and the automatic voice message said, "Please enter your card number." I immediately hung up the phone. Since then, I have not answered their calls. Do not follow the scammers' directions.

    • Make sure you know the person or company you are communicating with.
    When a person or company tells you about an offer or deal they have for you, do some background research to get information. Find out if their business is legitimate or fraudulent. Gather contact information to be informed about the business's mission and daily tasks. Look at reviews from other people to see what they can tell you about the person or company. Ask friends, neighbors, and other family members to see if they know anything about the person or company. They might be able to give you good information before you put yourself, someone else you know, or your family in the position to be scammed. Also, check with the Better Business Bureau. You may find more information there.

    • Do not disclose financial or contact information on the Internet to third-party members.
    Make sure that you are being careful regarding what you are buying online and what you are doing with your financial and contact information. Sometimes scammers can steal this information and use it to exploit you financially. This can lead to identity theft and other sorts of problems. Make sure to keep records on what you are doing with your information. If you have any expired or unused cards, statements, and/or old mail, carefully dispose of them properly, because scammers can use this information to steal your identity.

    • When unknown people knock on your door, do not open the door for them.
    When someone knocks on your door, do not open the door for them. Ask them who they are and why they are knocking on your door. If it is a salesperson, do not open your door for them. Some of them are con artists and you do not know what they could be doing. Use common sense, critical thinking, and decision-making skills.

    • Be mindful when taking anonymous or private telephone calls.
    Also, be careful with whom you are talking on the telephone. You never know who is on the other end. Many of these calls are from telemarketers that just want your information. They also will have offers to interest you, such as vacations or prizes. Do not answer their calls. Be sure to put your number on the National Do Not Call Registry. The Federal Trade Commission maintains this listing to make sure telemarketers do not call the numbers on the list. When people and their friends and family members follow all of these tips, they are far less likely to be scammed. If you have been scammed, be sure to contact your local bank to deactivate your account. Furthermore, make sure to contact the FTC and the National Federal Information Center for further assistance.

    So, if you feel you may be targeted by a scam, make sure you utilize all resources to protect yourself. As for the Blocker family, they are left to wonder if they can pay for their son's education and would like to see McClees brought to justice for stealing their money and for putting them into such a predicament. If they had been more aware of the warning signs, their situation could have been averted. Take specific measures to protect yourself. Don't believe offers that sound too good to be true. Get to know who you are speaking with and the organization they claim to represent. Be wary of sharing personal information with others over the phone or Internet. Don't open your door to strangers. Don't take calls from telemarketers. Aim to make sure that you don't end up like the Blocker family, which is now trying to raise money online for their son's education. They say a fool and his money are soon parted, so don't be that fool.

    Scam Tips and Advice for College Students and Parents | Helen Okobokekeimei
    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    MEMPHIS, TN -

    (WMC-TV) - A scam artist is in jail after devising an elaborate scheme, even appearing on TV as an investment "expert."

    33-year-old Casey Charles of Baltimore, MD, pleaded guilty to mail fraud. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Charles promised clients, primarily seniors, to help them make safe retirement investments.

    Instead, he kept their money for his personal use.

    "I felt guilty. I felt ashamed," said 'Barbara,' one of Charles's victims. Prosecutors said she lost more than $90,000 in Charles's scheme. It included Charles appearing in his own public-access TV investment advice show, and it netted a total of $900,000 from 22 victims.
    "We received a mass mailing postcard in the mail from (Charles), who wanted to know if we were happy with our retirement plan," she said.

    She said her sick husband met with Charles to discuss shifting his retirement money to the scam investment, promising higher rates of return.

    "This was a time when stocks were down and most people were unhappy with what they had, so he just wanted to see what someone else might suggest," she said.

    They invested with Charles, then her husband died.

    It wasn't long before postal inspectors learned the truth about the investments.

    "He never made any investments on behalf of the investors," said U.S. Postal Inspector Frank Schissler. "He just used their money for his own personal expenses."

    Always research the credentials of any financial advisor with your state financial regulator and with the Better Business Bureau. The bureau partners with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to provide consumers an online resource for checking financial advisors: http://www.bbb.org/smart-investing/.

    Andy's Got Your Back on financial advisor fraud - Action News 5 - Memphis, Tennessee

    =================================================
    Family Angry After Discovering Scam
    He’s also angry after learning the life insurance policy she paid into for more than 15 years doesn’t seem to exist.

    “I really believe at this point he is preying on a whole lot of older people,” said Boyland about the insurance agent, Jerry Gardner, that picked up payments from his mother’s home. Eric has receipts showing his mother paid Gardner $146 a month, and that her policy is worth at least $5,000, which they wanted to assist in paying for her funeral. But Eric said when he talked with Gardner, all he got was excuses and the run-around. “At that point he got up, stormed out the house, he said, ‘I’ll just be back Monday at the funeral home,’” said Eric.

    On Wednesday News Channel 3 called Gardner, who hung up on us.

    We were also there when he called a family member with a threat.

    “So there is no sense in me trying to give them $5,000 if Channel 3 still going to talk about it,” said Gardner.

    We checked and Gardner doesn’t have a license in Tennessee. We called the three companies on the paperwork. Two didn’t have a record of him.

    Boyland’s family has yet to receive any money and they don’t think they will. They’ve called MPD to report the crime. And now Eric is warning others who might’ve trusted Gardner.

    “I would say look into it today, don’t wait until tomorrow.”

    If you think you’ve been scammed by Gardner, email Candace.mccowan@wreg.com.

    Family Angry After Discovering Scam | WREG.com
    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    Pretty good video attached to the link as well.

    Ephren Taylor stepped up to the pulpit with the ease of preacher's son, taking the microphone at the New Birth Baptist Church in Atlanta, where the powerful pastor Eddie Long was introducing him to the Sunday morning crowd.

    "Everything he says is based on the word of God," Long pledged to the members of his megachurch. But Taylor wasn't a visiting minister.

    He was a financial adviser, one who claimed to have made his first million in his 20s. And he promised he could do the same for his fellow Christians.

    "We're going to show you how to get wealth and use it for the building of his kingdom," Taylor shouted to the congregation one morning in 2009. It was all part of what he called his "Building Wealth Tour," which crisscrossed the country touting self-improvement, followed-up with private meetings with interested investors.

    Some congregants from some of the most prominent mega-churches in the country, including New Birth Baptist Church and Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Texas, turned over their life savings to Taylor hoping to do good while doing well.

    But the Securities and Exchange Commission said Taylor was actually peddling a Ponzi scheme that "swindled over $11 million, primarily from African-American churchgoers." Earlier this year, the agency entered a judgment against Taylor, ordering him to pay more than $14 million, which included money owed to investors and interest and fees.

    Taylor, 31, first gained national attention with a rags-to-riches story of growing up dirt poor in Blackwater, Miss., before developing a video game that he said turned him into a teenage millionaire.

    In a 2007 interview with ABC News, when asked how much he was worth, Taylor ventured what he said was a guess.

    "Ballpark? Maybe $20 million on a bad day," he said.

    His personal history, coupled with what he claimed was a philosophy of "socially conscious investing," made him popular with church congregations.

    "He quoted scriptures," said Lillian Wells, who met privately with Taylor in 2009 after hearing him speak at New Birth.

    Wells said Taylor convinced her to invest her entire life savings in a North Carolina-based real estate venture, which he claimed was turning around homes in inner cities. In exchange, she was promised a 20 percent return on her money.

    But, Wells said, when she wanted to recoup her initial investment, Taylor disappeared.

    "I couldn't get a hold of anybody," Wells said. "You just can't get them. That's it. You just couldn't get anybody."

    Wells said she was forced to file for bankruptcy last September. She said she's not sure if she will ever get her money back, but she wants to see Taylor held accountable.

    "We're suffering because of what he did. It needs to be stopped," she said.

    Lisa Conway became suspicious of Taylor after she went to work for him in 2010. At first, she was excited to sell another type of investment City Capital was pitching, but soon she said she began to suspect the business was not on the up and up.

    "I wanted to believe the answers were legit when we had the meetings," she said. But "I would see things that weren't appropriate."

    Conway said she started to think that the money coming in was lining Taylor's pockets, and according to government officials, she was right. The SEC claimed Taylor spent his investors' money on his car payments, credit card bills and rent on a New York City apartment.

    The SEC also alleged that he doled out cash to pay for studio time for the musical career of his wife, Meshelle, with the money that came pouring in. The couple even made a splashy music video starring Meshelle Taylor draped in white fur and diamonds. The name of the song? "Billionaire."

    Conway said investors soon started suspecting trouble as well, and panicked families began banging down the doors of the North Carolina office where she and Taylor worked.

    "They put locks on the doors," after one particularly angry client stormed in.

    Taylor started to panic, Conway said, sensing that his house of cards was beginning to tumble.

    "You could see him sweating," she said. "You could see him coming in and trying to save the day or the moment that we're in it, but it just looked shady."

    As the SEC complaint alleges, "simply, City Capital could not pay its bills."

    "Any investor who resisted was subjected to an endless cycle of unreturned phone calls and emails [and] empty promises of imminent action," reads the complaint. "To the extent investors survived this gauntlet to still insist on repayment, any funds they received invariably came from new investor money."

    In April 2012, ABC News heard from an attorney representing Taylor, who said that Taylor is not in hiding, but has stayed out of the spotlight because of concerns for his safety. He continued that Taylor also unequivocally denies that he looted investor proceeds to fund an extravagant lifestyle.

    In Texas, Gary and Anita Dorio first met Taylor in Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church, and gave Taylor $1.3 million, their life savings and her mother's retirement. And for about a year, they say it seemed like a good deal. At the beginning, Taylor was sending them monthly checks for $11,000.

    "He asked us, you know, 'What do you need? Give me a figure,' and he made it happen," said Gary Dorio.

    The Dorios said the paperwork Taylor provided was very convincing. They thought they were investing in an inner city laundromat, a juice bar and a gas station.

    "We actually got pictures of the businesses that they were operating," said Gary Dorio. "We called, and they answered the phone and they said who they were."

    But ultimately, they discovered that many of the businesses they thought they were investing in never even existed. Lawyer Cathy Lerman said hundreds of investors have told her the same story.

    "I cannot tell you how many people have said to me, I thought I was the only one. And my family was so angry with me. I took our life savings and ruined it," she said.

    In the end, the Dorios did walk away with a rental property in Cleveland, but it came with a catch: A $67,000 bill for back taxes on the property. The head office of the businesses Taylor listed in their documents was nothing more than a post office box inside a UPS store in Tennessee.

    "Don't be overcome by evil -- by evil. But overcome evil with good," said Anita Dorio, quoting a Biblical passage.

    While the Dorios said they are still devout Christians, they have left Lakewood Church, the house of famous televangelist Joel Osteen, who, like many other pastors who let Taylor speak at their churches, preaches what's known as the "prosperity" gospel.

    Anita Dorio acknowledged that the church was careful not to explicitly endorse Taylor.

    "Before the seminar began, a staff member did make the announcement, 'We're not endorsing this person. We're not telling you to invest with him. We're just here to listen to what he has to say.'"

    Lakewood Church told ABC News they opened their doors to Taylor to speak on the subject of "Biblical financial principals," but "when he began to promote his services as a financial advisor," he "was stopped from doing so."

    The Dorios said while they don't really want to blame church leadership and said they did warn them about Taylor after the alleged fraud was discovered. Anita Dorio said the response she received from the church was, "'Oh Anita, how could you?' Like I should have known better."

    At New Birth Baptist Church in Atlanta, Lillian Wells said she didn't get much further when she spoke to her pastor, Bishop Eddie Long. He came in and said, 'The church ain't got no money," she said.

    In 2011, Long released a video pleading with Taylor to return the money.

    The church told ABC News, "They do continue to hope the responsible parties will restore the funds they took from congregants at New Birth and churches around the country."

    Gary and Anita Dorio say they have forgiven Taylor and place their hopes for justice in God's hands.

    "It's not the easiest thing to do, but we live by what the word of god says," said Gary Dorio. "And we have to forgive Ephren. We have come to a place where we've forgiven him. We pray for him, his family."

    So where is Ephren Taylor exactly? ABC's "The Lookout" received a tip to head over to Lenexa, Kan., specifically a shop called, Panacea Massage, to talk with Ephren Taylor and his wife.

    After what they say were a string of bizarre incidents, workers at Panacea Massage became suspicious of one of their workers, a woman who called herself "Liz Taylor." Salon workers said they noticed her husband would arrive with her at work almost daily. And they said the couple would talk about their lost fortune.

    Once the salon installed security cameras for added protection, they said the husband became suspicious. Workers said he said, "Be careful what you say, 'cause there's audio and there's night vision."

    After this incident, workers looked at "Liz" Taylor's license and noticed the name on her identification was Meshelle Taylor.

    After about 30 minutes of Googling her name, salon owner Pam Dinges said, "a whole can of worms opened up," and "the whole multi-million dollar scam thing all surfaced on the Internet. That's how it all came together. ... It was like, 'Oh my God.'"

    When the salon workers made the connection that Meshelle was Ephren Taylor's wife, they emailed one ABC's sources, who called "The Lookout."

    "The Lookout" team traveled to Kansas and found Ephren and Meshelle Taylor at an apartment complex, but they would not answer the team's questions. Ephren Taylor told "The Lookout," at one point, on camera, "I have no idea."

    When "The Lookout" requested a formal interview with Ephren Taylor, his attorney told the team, "I have no comment on the SEC charges pending against Mr. Taylor. In addition, neither Mr. Taylor nor any members of his family, including his wife, wish to comment on this matter at this juncture."

    Ephren Taylor Accused of $11 Million Christian Ponzi Scheme by SEC - ABC News
    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    Los Angeles, Aug 22 (IANS) Actor Ashton Kutcher became the latest victim of cyber scam as he too fell in the prey of cyber scammers Luis Flores and Kyah Green.

    Socialites Kris Jenner and Kim Kardashian were recently became the victim of cyber scam.

    According to a document received May 30, American Express received two calls about Kutcher's account. In the first, the caller claimed to be the Hollywood star himself, with the impostor providing his personal information as well as answers to his security questions to gain access to the account, reports radaronline.com

    The caller then requested that the primary account phone number be changed to Flores' number. They also requested that an emergency replacement card be sent to an address in Oak Park, Illinois.

    In the second call, the caller requested to change Kutcher's social security number to Flores'.

    This method was nearly identical to the method that the duo used to scam Kris out of more than $70,000.

    The duo have yet to be arraigned on charges of wire fraud.

    Ashton Kutcher victim of cyber scam

    Punked.JPG
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    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    Jetblue scam hits Facebook, again.

    JETBLUE.jpg
    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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    Re: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

    Man targeted fellow Haitians in $30-million Ponzi scheme, prosecutors say
    George Louis Theodule ran scam that claimed to double investors' money, indictment alleges


    By Brett Clarkson, Sun Sentinel

    6:38 p.m. EDT, August 23, 2013

    To thousands of his fellow Haitians in South Florida and across the U.S., George Louis Theodule portrayed himself as a savvy financier who could double their investments.

    In reality, federal prosecutors say, he was a scam artist who enriched himself and his inner circle from a Ponzi scheme that took in $30 million.

    Now, almost five years after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit to stop Theodule's "ongoing fraud," he faces federal criminal charges.

    The counts include 36 charges of wire fraud, one count of securities fraud and three counts of money laundering, according to a grand jury indictment unsealed in the West Palm Beach federal courthouse on Friday.

    If convicted of all the charges, Theodule faces a maximum of 760 years behind bars, the court documents say.

    The July 2 indictment tells of a man who concocted corporate entities and so-called investment clubs as a foundation for the lies he peddled to thousands of victims between July 2007 and December 2008, prosecutors allege.

    According to the indictment, Theodule formed and "caused others to form" the investment clubs in South Florida and in other parts of the country to collect money from investors in the Haitian community. He would claim to be able to double their money every 30 to 90 days.

    "In reality, the defendant was conducting a Ponzi scheme," the indictment alleges.

    A Ponzi scheme refers to the fraudulent practice of soliciting investors' money, then paying returns to them with newer investors' money instead of actual earnings, as seen in the Bernie Madoff and Scott Rothstein cases.

    Among other falsehoods, prosecutors said, Theodule claimed to have 17 years of successful stock trading experience. The truth was he made little money from investing and didn't report any income between 2000 and 2007, the indictment said.

    He also never disclosed that millions of dollars put up by the investors ended up lining the pockets of him and those close to him, prosecutors allege.

    Jonathan E. Perlman, the Miami-based court-appointed receiver from the federal civil suit, said the money taken in by Theodule is about $60 million. He said efforts to win compensation for investors are ongoing.

    "Virtually 100 percent of the money, he spent," Perlman said. "He blew it out in every single way possible: lavish car collections, motorcycles, rings, Vegas trips...in every way imaginable."

    Theodule, who moved from Wellington to Georgia in 2008, was ordered by a federal judge to pay $5.5 million in March 2010 in connection with the SEC lawsuit, according to court records.

    Man targeted Haitians in $30-million Ponzi scheme, prosecutors say - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
    "It's virtually impossible to violate rules ... but it's impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time." Bernie Madoff
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scam-...98399986981403

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