Thread: Cut and paste snippets about scams.

Two brothers employed a Ponzi scheme to cheat the widow of a longtime Santa Monica judge out of more than $1.2 million in real estate investments she made to help her and her late husband financially after his retirement, a lawyer for the plaintiff told a jury today.

In his opening statement to a Los Angeles Superior Court jury, Ruth Light's attorney said his 81-year-old client relied on Charles and Saleh Hasbun to make safe investments for the woman and her spouse, Superior Court Judge Leslie Light, beginning in about 2000.

The judge retired in 2002 after 33 years on the bench and died in March 2010.

“She accepted some of the risks inherent in investments,” plaintiff's attorney Malcolm McNeil said. “But she did not assume the risk they would be dishonest, charge exorbitant fees and engage in self-dealing.”

Greta Curtis, an attorney for the brothers, did not make an opening statement. However, their previous attorney, Henry Guzman, stated in a trial brief that the siblings disclosed the risks of her investments to Light; that only a handful of loans did not turn out as she anticipated; and that her income was affected by “the real estate market crash and the recession.”

According to McNeil, the Hasbuns used one company, Baypoint Mortgage Inc.,to sell and solicit loans. Another of their entities, Valley Trust Deed Services, serviced the loans, McNeil said.

Light made about 30 to 40 loan transactions with the Hasbuns over the course of about a decade, McNeil said. They involved first trust deeds and construction lending, he said.

“She was repeatedly assured not to worry and that all loan-to-value rations were adequate,” McNeil said.

In one transaction, the brothers said they would use a $55,000 investment by Light to help a borrower, Joe Bravo, perform improvements at a Bellflower home, according to McNeil.But the Hasbuns distributed the funds to Bravo without ensuring that any of the construction took place, McNeil alleges in court papers.

Although Charles Hasbun assured her that construction was nearly complete, the improvements were actually never made, according to McNeil.

The Hasbuns also granted subordinate deeds of trust to borrowers on loans in which Light and other clients had invested, McNeil said. When borrowers defaulted, the brothers foreclosed on the subordinate deeds rather than the first trust deeds, negatively affecting affecting the investments of clients such as Light, McNeil said.

The state Department of Real Estate conducted an audit and eventually stripped Baypoint and Valley Trust Deeds of their licenses, McNeil told jurors.

The Hasbuns' broker, Gregory Abeson, surrendered his license, McNeil said.

A month after Light sued the brothers and their companies in December 2011,the Hasbuns began using the services of another broker, McNeil said. In addition, some assets of the companies were transferred via checks to Charles Hasbun's two daughters, McNeil said.

Light, the trial's first witness, said she typically invested about $20,000 in each loan transaction with the Hasbuns.

“I couldn't afford to buy the whole trust deed,” she said, telling jurors that she had expected interest returns on her investments of 9 to 12 percent.

Light said she graduated from Dorsey High School in 1950 and did not attain any further education other than a real estate sales license. She said she has lived in Venice for 33 years and that her husband handled criminal cases while on the Santa Monica bench.

Attorney: Brothers Used Ponzi Scheme to Cheat Santa Monica Judge

Instagram PC app is an 'insta-SCAM', Symantec warns
August 23, 2013 9:05pm

Users of desktop and laptop computers should steer clear of a supposed app that can them run popular photo-sharing phone app Instagram on their machines, a security vendor said.

Symantec said this version of Instagram is nothing more than "Instascam" as it will only lead users to another survey scam.

"This application claims to run Instagram in an emulator, so that PC users can access the service without a phone," Symantec's Satnam Narang said in a blog post.

He said some cases showed the so-called "Instagram for PC" app was promoted via an in-stream advertisement on Facebook.

Narang noted the Facebook-acquired Instagram is so popular it is a frequent target for unscrupulous parties behind spams and scams.

When a user tries to download the app, he or she will get a large RAR archive with several dynamic link library (.dll) files.

Attempting to run the app for the first time will produce a fake error message that a .dll file is missing.

"When a user tries to download the missing .dll file, they’re asked to fill out a survey," Narang said.

A second variation of the scam involves downloading the app then "activating" Instagram.

"Clicking on 'Click here to activate' results in a new pop-up window that again asks the user to 'complete a quick offer or survey' in order to activate Instagram," Narang said.

In both cases, Narang said the apps were just another vehicle for scammers to convince users to fill out surveys, "so they earn money through shady affiliate programs."

He said Symantec products now detect these files as Downloader.MisleadApp.

Narang also said PC user can always access Instagram via the browser, at Instagram.

On the other hand, he said this should remind users to be wary of attempts by scammers to convince them to provide their login details, install apps or copy and paste code into Web pages.

"Do not click on suspicious links and report any suspicious links using the reporting functionality within Facebook and other social networks. These are all tactics that have been used time and time again because they work," he said. — TJD, GMA News

Instagram PC app is an 'insta-SCAM', Symantec warns | SciTech | GMA News Online

Alleged scam artist also cheated NBA players, witness says


NBA basketball player Mike Miller lost money he had invested with Haider Zafar, a witness testified in a bond hearing in federal court. Zafar is charged with defrauding a Washington, D.C.-area businessman in an unrelated $10 million real-estate investment.

A former Dublin resident charged with swindling a businessman out of $10 million in a real-estate scheme also ripped off Miami Heat basketball players, a witness said yesterday in federal court in Columbus.

That testimony against Haider Zafar helped persuade U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus to keep Zafar in jail as he awaits trial on the swindling scheme.

Sargus ruled that Zafar, 35, now of southern Florida, would not be released on bond because he is a flight risk and a danger to the community.

“The longer the potential sentence, the greater the risk of flight,” Sargus said.

Punishment for each of the 135 counts against Zafar ranges from one to 20 years in prison.

He has been in custody since his May 25 arrest by Internal Revenue Service agents at Port Columbus. When he was arrested, Zafar had a Louis Vuitton backpack with more than $10,000 in cash, a handgun and 40 bullets. He is originally from Pakistan and also had an expired Pakistani passport.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Dale Williams put international-investment attorney Andrew Fine on the stand during the detention hearing to detail an investment scheme Zafar operated in Florida.

Fine said some Miami Heat players, including former forward Mike Miller, and other Florida residents had invested $8 million with Zafar. When Fine, on behalf of some of those investors, questioned Zafar about where the money was, Zafar told him, “They can’t touch me in Pakistan.”

“He’s fantastically good at separating people from their money,” Fine said after the hearing.

The real-estate scheme being prosecuted in Columbus involves Washington, D.C.-area businessman Patwinder Sidhu, who invested $10 million with Zafar from 2008 to 2010.

The complaint says Zafar convinced Sidhu that he could make millions buying land in Pakistan. Zafar claimed that his uncle was Pakistan’s defense minister and that he knew the Pakistani government planned to buy up numerous land parcels.

Zafar told Sidhu he would buy the land first and then sell it to the government at a profit of $90 million.

Instead, the indictment says, Zafar spent Sidhu’s $10 million on jewels and on three Mercedes-Benz automobiles, an Aston-Martin convertible and a roadster, a Maserati Grand Turismo, a Lamborghini LP560 Spyder and a Rolls Royce Phantom convertible.

Zafar was indicted in June on 118 counts of wire fraud, 13 counts of money laundering, one count of filing a false income-tax return and three counts of failing to file income-tax returns.

Alleged scam artist also cheated NBA players, witness says | The Columbus Dispatch

Had I authorized those transactions, she asked.

Seriously?

When I asked the rep why a Southwest Visa card had triggered a fraud alert on a Southwest Airlines flight, she noted that the transaction posted from Dallas.

I'd just been in Albuquerque for 13 days. Dallas ain't that far away.

Granted, my surfing session wasn't interrupted by a declined card. But it seemed a new frontier in financial chicanery when a bank suspects fraud on one of its branded partners' own properties.

Turns out, it's more of a reflection of how far banks have to go to combat it, experts say.

Overall, all types of identity fraud increased by more than 5 percent last year, affecting one in 20 consumers, according to Javelin Strategy & Research, with $21 billion stolen.

With credit card fraud, banks are on the hook. Federal law limits consumer liability on any fraudulent credit-card transaction to $50, though most credit card issuers won't hold you liable for anything because they want you as a customer. That liability leaves them aggressively trying to combat crooks.

"If the card is used fraudulently -- and it's happened to me, so I can speak from experience -- it's gratifying to know there are processes to freeze the card," said U.S. Bank spokeswoman Teri Charest.

Maybe so. But security industry insiders consider my experience a false positive. Perhaps you encountered one on your summer vacation. It can lead to a call like mine or, more inconveniently, an account block or card decline. Those don't work out well 3,000 or more miles or more from home.

Firms who provide anti-fraud security software for banks say false positives are a big problem. They threaten to drive customers to other banks. The reduce card-swipe fees.

But data on its frequency is hard to come by because banks try to keep it secret. Mike Buhrmann, CEO of Bellevue, Wash.-based Finsphere, a security software provider, claims on his blog that in some cases, banks can generate 40 false positives for each instance of actual fraud it catches.

It's led banks to keep statistics on how many customers they've turned off, said Ellen Joyner, principal of global product marketing solutions for SAS Security Intelligence in North Carolina.

"Customers definitely have a right to be annoyed because it means they aren't doing all they're doing to avoid this," she said.

In the past, anti-fraud software used rules to catch card fraud, she said. Software would trigger alerts if your card logged more than two transactions in five minutes, for instance, or if a magnetic stripe transaction follow an internet transaction, experts say. When a bank discovered a new fraud scheme, programmers wrote a rule, or computer code, to flag similar transactions or situations.

It was relatively cheap and easy to put in place. Trouble is, fraudsters change tactics as banks catch on.

SAS uses computerized customer profiles and behavior models in real time to try to detect fraud. SAS also tries to replicate your behavior on other bank cards, even though its customer might lack access to competitors' databases.

"We have a dynamic profile of you as your customer and how you behave and how you act," Joyner said. "There's a lot of additional information about how you currently are behaving and how you're behaving in the past."

But the new methods are getting adopted only slowly by an industry still smarting financially from the deep economic crisis of 2008-09.

"There are a lot of Top 10, Top 20 banks that are just now in the process of re-evaluating their technologies for these very reasons," Joyner said.

It's not hard to believe, based on the errors big banks continue to commit while servicing mortgage loans.

For now, you'll just have to live with occasional inconveniences. Here's what you can do to minimize them, beyond traveling with multiple cards:

Set up text or e-mail alerts. Chase spokesman Steve O'Halloran said it offers two-way text message fraud alerts, that allow you to learn of and verify a potentially fraudulent charge "within moments." Too bad Chase's anti-fraud rep didn't suggest that option to me. Javelin says only 16 percent of financial institutions offer such alerts.

Carry a prepaid card. I don't usually recommended prepaid cards, but it is a fallback.

Warn your bank of faraway trips. It'll feel as if too-big-too-fail is also too-big-not-to-know-all. But a phone call might be especially helpful if your bank or credit union is smaller.

Credit card blocked? Get used to false positive fraud alerts for now | OregonLive.com

Just a personal opinion, but to me it makes sense to have some money tucked away that is very hard for anyone to get their hands on. Especially as people get older the become more and more vulnerable to predators. And when the money is gone, it is usually gone.

Age-old question: Do I need a trust?


By Julie Landry Laviolette
Special to the Miami Herald

It’s not only heiresses and socialites who can benefit from a trust. Used in the right circumstances, a trust can be a helpful estate planning tool to pass assets to your children, take care of your affairs if you are incapacitated, or dole out your wealth — whatever its size — in a certain way.

“The first objection we always get is ‘I’m not rich, I don’t need that,’ ” said Debra Gauthier, a trust officer and certified financial planner at Wells Fargo Private Bank in Miami.

“Most people don’t understand estate planning, until their parents die and they see how complicated it can be,” she said. “It is necessary to do some planning before that happens.”

Trusts can be part of a simple estate plan that includes a will, power of attorney and living will.

But people don’t like to think about mortality, Gauthier said, and they don’t know the benefits of trusts, which can be complex.

“They really don’t understand that it makes the administration of your assets simpler — to transition wealth to your family, and to take care of you if you become incapacitated,” she said.

Deciding whether you need a trust or not can be confusing. What is a trust? It is a legal entity that allows you to put conditions on how your assets are distributed after you die. It can help minimize estate taxes and avoid probate. It can also be used to protect an heir’s assets from creditors.

But don’t let fear push you into a trust, said Bruce Stone, an estate attorney with Goldman, Felcoski & Stone in Coral Gables. “Trusts can do some things for you, but don’t get sold something that you don’t need.”

Stone said most don’t have to worry about estate taxes, which kick in at $5.25 million. Since that’s per individual, a married couple has more than a $10 million exemption.

“Essentially, the estate tax has been repealed,” for most, said Stone, also an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law.

There are two main types of trusts: a living trust, created when you are living, and a testamentary trust, which goes into effect after your death.

The person who creates the trust is called a “grantor,” “donor” or “settlor.” The grantor chooses a “trustee” to manage the trust, and the “beneficiary” who will receive the assets. The grantor, trustee and beneficiary can be the same person. The trustee also can be a friend, relative, financial institution or financial advisor — anyone you trust with your money.

Living trusts can be revocable, which means you keep control of assets in the trust, and can change the terms of the trust at any time. This is the most common type of trust. In an irrevocable trust, you typically cannot make any changes to the trust, but the assets within it are not subject to estate taxes. There are also many specialized trusts.

Barry Nelson, an attorney with Nelson & Nelson in North Miami Beach, said he sets up a revocable living trust for all of his clients who want an estate plan. Then clients can transfer assets to them as needed. Assets in a trust avoid probate, a court process that can drag on as creditors are contacted and paid before beneficiaries get their money.

Trusts also are private, unlike wills, he said. “The probate avoidance, secrecy, reduced legal fees (by avoiding probate) and expedited process — those aspects really relate to everybody,” he said.

There are downsides to trusts, Stone said. The “trustee,” or person managing the trust, has to follow certain legal rules. A separate tax return has to be filed for certain types of trusts. And to create a trust, you have to look into the future and answer hard questions: What if the trustee is incompetent? What if the trustee dies?

Here are four groups that may benefit from a trust:

A couple with young children

“When a couple has their first child, they often stop and think, ‘What would happen if both of us die?’ ” Stone said.

Most people can look back at themselves at 18, and realize it’s not an age where you’re responsible enough to handle a chunk of money, he said.

“So you look in the crystal ball and decide, when are the kids mature enough to take these assets without further supervision?” Stone said.

If you don’t want your kids to get their hands on everything at 18, you can use a trust to divvy out assets over time. If you don’t have a trust, the assets would go into a guardianship, “which is the last place you want them to be, especially in South Florida, because of the incredible bureaucracy and expense,” Stone said.

A couple may decide to give half the assets at age 25, and half at age 30. Or give distributions at age 25, 30 and 35. You can decide on the ages and the rules, Stone said.

“The idea is protecting assets until the kids are old enough to handle them on their own,” he said.

Gauthier said the child also can be appointed as a co-trustee, perhaps around 20 or 21, to help take on the responsibility of managing the money, investing and saving.

“That can be empowering and help them become more financially responsible,” she said.

Nelson said he created trusts that would dole out half of his kids’ inheritance at ages 30, 35 and 40. The other half would stay put as a safety net, to be used only as needed. “It’s a trust fund to pass from generation to generation,” he said. “I call it my ‘Salvation Army avoidance fund,’ so nobody ends up penniless.”

The goal is “not too much, too soon,” which takes away the incentive for kids to succeed on their own, Nelson said.

A single person

If you want someone to handle your affairs if you are incapacitated and are unable to do so, a power of attorney is a simple way to accomplish that, Stone said. You don’t need a trust.

“A power of attorney gives someone the ability to sign your name to anything, so you have to trust that person,” he said. “But that power stops when you die.”

However, if you want someone to take over your affairs, plus a way to designate where your assets go when you die, a trust can do both, Stone said.

Appointing a successor trustee, someone to take over your duties as trustee if you become incapacitated, also avoids guardianship, where the courts step in to administer your affairs, Nelson said.

Think carefully about who you name as a trustee, and have a back-up, Gauthier said. One tactic is to name a financial institution and an individual as co-trustees, so you have the financial management expertise and the human touch. If a financial institution is already handling your investments and charging a 1 percent annual fee, becoming your trustee would likely raise that fee to 1.25 to 1.5 percent, Gauthier said.

A couple with grown children

Say you have older, responsible kids. Why would you need a trust? It may protect your kids’ inheritance in the future, Stone said. While a revocable living trust you set up for yourself is not protected from creditors, under Florida law, assets that you pass to heirs in a trust are protected.

For example, if your son is a doctor who gets sued for malpractice, an inheritance in a trust would be protected. If your daughter goes into business and defaults on loans, creditors would not be able to touch the assets in a trust.

“Most people don’t live in fear of creditors,” Stone said. “But a trust can protect any child from potential creditor concerns.”

Another issue is children in bad marriages. If a child divorces, a trust can protect assets from a greedy ex-spouse, he said.

Families with second marriages

If a husband and wife have children from previous marriages, a trust can direct who gets assets if one dies.

For example, if a couple doesn’t have a trust, and one dies, everything in the couple’s joint accounts goes to the surviving spouse. That’s the case even if the deceased person intended to leave money to children from a previous marriage.

“We see that all of the time,” Gauthier said. “The titling of accounts is one of the most important parts of planning.”

Other situations

A family with a special needs child “needs a trust to take care of that family member, and to protect their government assistance,” Gauthier said. A family member who is not good with money also can benefit from a trust, to have assets portioned out to them over time.

Can you DIY?

“In some cases it can work, but it’s easy to mess it up,” Stone said. He remembers the owner of a huge resort used a $99 will and trust kit he got in the mail to manage his $5 million estate. The estate racked up $500,000 in legal bills trying to fix the mistakes.

Look for an estate planning attorney, he said.

“If you’re scared of lawyers, go to a good financial planner or a trust planner at a bank,” he said, but be careful that the person you go to does not use the process to get their foot in the door to sell you other products that you don’t need.

“Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish whether someone is trying to sell a product or give you advice,” Gauthier said. “A product pusher sometimes sounds like a product planner.”

An estate plan that includes a will, trust, power of attorney and living will cost $1,500 to $3,000, the experts said. The price could rise to about $5,000 with the addition of specialized trusts.

If you open a trust, read it or have your attorney or financial planner summarize it to make sure it does what you think it does. Then, you have to retitle your assets to go into the trust. Revisit your plan every few years, because you’re financially active all of the time, Gauthier said.

“If you do get a trust, don’t go home and put it in a drawer or safety deposit box” and forget about it, she said.

Read more here: Age-old question: Do I need a trust? - Personal Finance - MiamiHerald.com

American College of Trust and Estate Council: American College of Trust and Estate Counsel | Home, a nonprofit association with a free directory of trust and estate attorneys.

 American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys: American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys - AAEPA, free directory of attorneys.


National Association of Estate Planners & Councils: National Association Of Estate Planners & Councils - NAEPC, estate planning information and resources.


USA.gov: Trusts | USA.gov, the government’s official site has easy-to-understand info about trusts and other estate planning tools.

This may prove a useful link, but not scam related. I woke up from my nap to have the girlfriend tell me there had been a recall on Iams dog and cat food. So I checked and found out the recall was on the 15th, almost a full bag of food ago for my guys. Fortunately, the risks were minimal and the bags we had were not affected.

But after some poking I found this that seems to have updated information in a useful format for FDA recalls. There were a few other sites I will list, but not very user friendly.

Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts

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This site has email notifications which may be the way to go as the format sucks.

Recent Recalls

Credit Card Fraud, an Introduction

During the last few years there has been a massive increase in online fraud globally. Organizations specialize in spam and other illegal marketing techniques, like Phishing and Hacking, that take every opportunity to make a few pennies. Even though their net income per person is miniscule, it becomes significant when multiplied by hundreds of thousands or even millions. Added to this threat are amateur fraud artists around the world who troll the Internet for credit card and financial information to use for fraudulent purposes. Finally, identity thieves are reaping high rewards at the expense of both the target and the online retailer.

Credit card fraud on the Internet has reached gigantic proportions, and merchants providing goods and services over the net suffer tremendous losses through chargebacks from the financial institutions who serve the targeted credit card holders. Merchants who offer a product or service online have to take the risk of losing the cost of the product sold online, plus the added cost of chargeback fees, and they even face the possibility of having their merchant account terminated by the financial institutions serving them.

While this cost can ultimately be passed on to the consumer, the development of this environment hurts business as a whole, and particularly hurts the small business owner. The Cybersource® Online Fraud Report showed Internet fraud had cost merchants $2.6 billion, or 1.8% of total online revenues, in 2004.

This document was derived from a whitepaper by the Web Services Group, FraudLabs * who provide services to Merchants to help minimise fraud and chargebacks but the information here is generally applicable to all who do business (buying or selling) on the Internet.
10 Measures to Reduce Credit Card Fraud for Internet Merchants

Geolocation by IP address
In the world of e-commerce, knowing the online buyers geographic information can help to prevent fraud. Geolocation technology provides the absolute geographic location by IP address of the computer from which the order is made in real-time e-commerce transactions, which can identify locations where the probability of fraud is the highest.

Geolocation by IP address can identify the user's exact location or calculate the distance between billing address of online buyers and actual location of persons entering the orders. As a result, it allows the merchants to apply additional authentication measures or identification for those transactions which show a great difference of distance. As a result, Geolocation technology delivers data that helps merchants determine which transactions to review and which to allow. This creates a beneficial balance between the risk of fraud losses and that of blocking legitimate customers. Legitimate customers will actually welcome legitimate authentication measures, which will protect them from credit card fraud also and keep the costs of doing business on the Internet down, especially if the customer is properly informed and advised by the merchant of these protection measures.
Using a service such as that provided by FraudLabs. can keep the cost of authentication down as you can target the authentication toward the most probably geographic locations for fraud.

Comparison of the IP address country with the billing address country
An IP address is a unique network identifier issued by an Internet Service Provider to a user.s computer every time they are logged on to the Internet. Make sure the IP address country and the billing address country are the same. By using fraud detection web services like FraudLabs., you can detect the IP address country for the customers that are placing the orders. If the customers billing and shipping addresses are in the US, but the person placing the order is logged in from an IP in Russia, this will require closer scrutiny, and will often trigger anti-fraud precautions. Although this situation could be legitimate, but it's probably worth a phone call to the customer's US phone number or other measures to confirm the order and the identity of the credit card user.

Check whether the country is a high risk country
Always require closer inspection for orders that being shipped to an international address. Pay more attention if the card or the shipping address is in an area prone to credit card fraud. According to a ClearCommerce® survey, the top 12 international sources for online fraud are Ukraine, Indonesia, Yugoslavia, Lithuania, Egypt, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Russia, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Israel. The same survey also showed that the 12 countries with the lowest fraud rates are Austria, New Zealand, Taiwan, Norway, Spain, Japan, Switzerland, South Africa, Hong Kong, the UK, France, and Australia. FraudLabs. IP Geolocation service can identify the country of origin for businesses who need this information. While the fact that an order originates or is being delivered to one of the high risk countries is not, in itself, an indication of fraud, nor is the indication that the order originates in a low risk country any guarantee of its legitimacy, the trends and statistics are there, and merchants must use information about the origin and delivery addresses as a guide to how much authentication they should require from customers.

Check whether a free or anonymous e-mail address was used
Be aware that online buyers using free and/or anonymous e-mail providers are virtually untraceable amd have a much higher incidence of fraud compared to 'real' email addresses.
While totally legitimate Individual customers also use free email addresses, almost all fraudsters use free email addresses in order to remain anonymous.
It should be noted that almost all businesses making online purchases will have their own domain names and will use them as the contact email address. The larger the company you are dealing with, the more likely it is that this will be true.

If your customer provides a free email address, it is useful to have the ability to locate them geographically when they place their order, so you will know which orders need further checking for authenticity. If your customer claims to be in Idaho, but the computer he is placing the order from apears to be in Western Africa you should be immediately suspicious. Also keep an eye out for newly registered domain names or domain names that "don't look right" (mis-spelling of the company name or odd domain suffixes) .It is easy and very cheap and anonymous to register a new domain. FraudLabs provides services to detect and warn about ' free email' addresses being used..
Examples of Free/Anonymous Email addresses include: hotmail.com, yahoo.com, gmail.com, zzn.com, msn.com,

Check whether an anonymous proxy server was used to place the order
Anonymous proxy servers allow Internet users to hide their actual IP address. The main purpose using a proxy server is to remain anonymous or to avoid being detected. While well known businesses use this to protect internal networks, fraudsters hide themselves behind anonymous proxy servers.
It is not easy to detect anonymous proxy servers because they appear and disappear from time to time.

Check whether the mailing address is a mailbox or ship-forward service
Fraudsters prefer to stay untraceable but still need to collect physical merchandise. One way is to use a public P.O.Box, a private mailbox, or a drop shipment forwarding address as a temporary point of receiving. Never send merchandise to a public rented mailbox, a P.O. Box (except for those you identify as legitimate major companies by phoning their listed number), or shipping forwarder, because the actual location and identity of the receiver is undetectable. Be wary of shipping to any destination outside your country as the chances of getting them back if the payment fails is immediately far less certain.

Check whether the phone number is valid and located within the correct ZIP code
Often, merchant will discover orders with invalid zip codes or a mismatch between the zip code and area code will produce fraud rates that are significantly higher than usual. They may wish to apply more rigorous fraud prevention standards by verifying the validity of zip code and the area code. In addition, if the phone is identified as a V.O.I.P phone, offered by many services these days, a delay in shipment until the payment clears may be in order, especially for non-times sensitive items.

Compare the credit card issuing bank’s country with the billing address country
Another key point to bear in mind is to check the issuing country and the billing address. Make sure the issuing country and billing address country are the same. This is especially important, because minor banks may not have rigorous identification procedures.

Call the credit card issuing bank to verify the validity of credit card
If online merchants have any suspicions about an order and need to confirm the details of the order, they can call the issuing bank and ask to confirm the general account details. This is to make sure that the card is not stolen. The issuing bank phone number is based on the first 6 digits of credit card number known as the Bank Identification Number (BIN).

Request more identification if in doubt
While consumers value their privacy and require quick web site ordering facilities, it is important to gather sufficient customer identity details during the ordering process. The customers’ name, credit card number and expiry date is not enough. Merchants should call them for verification through phone or request a photo ID to be faxed if they have any doubts.

Every merchant should aware of online credit card fraud, although it is something that can never be completely eliminated, but rather something that must be managed. One of the most important factors in controlling fraud is understanding the customer and implementing security measures that can adapt to the level of risk in each transaction. Applying fraud detection web services such as FraudLabs™ supplies in the order management can greatly reduce credit card fraud. This white paper focuses on preventative methods and procedures that merchants can perform in order to limit credit card fraud.
- See more at: Avoid Credit Card Fraud

New scam: Thieves steal pets so they can sell them online

By Jennifer Jarrell

WBNS-10TV Sunday August 25, 2013 9:58 AM


Justin Masterson has no doubt that he’s the victim of a crime that, until recently, he didn’t even know existed.

It’s called “pet flipping” — and area police say they’re keeping an eye out for it.Masterson, a 25-year-old Delaware County resident, said his introduction to the Internet-driven phenomenon came last month, when he returned from work to find that his two pit-bull puppies — Jules and Baby — were missing.

“We went all the way — neighbor to neighbor — throughout the whole road, looking for the dogs,” he said, pointing to a cornfield-lined stretch of N. Old State Road. “We couldn’t find them.”

A week later, Masterson spotted what he was sure was one of the puppies — walking with a man along Rt. 521.

“He put the dog down and let us call it, and the dog came right to us,” Masterson said.

“We put it in the truck and told him about the other dog, and that’s when he said he was watching the dog for his friend who was at work and that his friend did pick up two puppies about a week prior.”

Masterson turned to the Delaware County sheriff’s office, which tracked down the man who had supposedly found the puppies.

That man acknowledged putting the animals up for sale on Craigslist, according to an incident report prepared by the sheriff’s office. He sold one — for $50.

Similar stories are popping up across the country.

Time magazine spotlighted pet flipping in a recent story. Typically, the magazine noted, someone looking to make a quick buck will get a dog — either by stealing it or by posing as the owner of an animal featured in a “pet found” notice — and then sell it through Craigslist.

Earlier this year, a three-month investigation by police in Indianapolis resulted in one arrest and the seizure of four dogs. Police said the subject of the probe had been “flipping” purebred German shepherds, Rottweilers and pit pulls for years.

“It’s unclear how organized and strategic pet thieves and dog flippers are, but in some cases, it appears as if criminals target their prey very carefully,” Time reported. “Often, the dogs that disappear are very valuable and used for breeding."

Like Masterson, Delaware County Dog Warden John King had never heard of pet flipping until this summer.

“It’s definitely something we will have our ears and eyes open to now,” he said.

King said pet owners can discourage flipping by keeping their animals on a leash or in a fenced area whenever the animals are outside. All dogs should have up-to-date licenses, and most, if not all, would benefit from a microchip implant, which enables an animal to be identified even if its collar has been removed.

King said members of the public also need to remember that picking up wandering dogs is his agency’s job — not theirs. And it’s certainly not their place to profit from such animals.

“It would be like finding a wallet or purse and saying, ‘Well, if no one claims it, I’m just going to keep it,’  ” he said.

For Masterson, losing a wallet would have been preferable to losing a pet.

“It’s heartbreaking,” he said.

New scam: Thieves steal pets so they can sell them online | The Columbus Dispatch

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Alleged Disney Vacation Scam Cheats Kids Out of More Than $60,000
By Beth Greenfield, Shine Staff | Parenting – Fri, Aug 23, 2013 3:55 PM EDT


Melanie Swoap of Blue Sky Journeys. Photo: FacebookA Disney World dream vacation turned into a financial nightmare for a group of 120 dance students from Tennessee.

More on Shine: Disney World Scheme: Entitled Families Hire Disabled Guide to Bypass Lines, Says Report

Blue Sky Journeys, a travel agency which claims to be Disney-authorized, has been accused of scamming the group out of more than $60,000 by accepting payments and then failing to make the agreed-upon travel arrangements, according to a Fox 17 WZTV report. Earlier this month, agency owner Melanie Swoap and her husband John Swoap were indicted on the charge—of stealing between $60,000 and $250,000, according to Nashville Scene—by a Williamson County grand jury. If convicted, they face eight to 12 years in prison.

More on Yahoo!: Disney World Patron Finds Gun on Ride

“I very rarely hear of an incident like this,” Ricky Brigante of Inside the Magic, a website reporting exclusively on Disney company and theme parks news, told Yahoo! Shine. “In fact, I don't remember ever hearing about such a large dollar amount being scammed like that.”

District Attorney Kim Helper told WZTV that John Swoap also faces charges related to trying to deposit a couple of the dancers' checks twice—first electronically and then in person. Reached by phone at the number for Blue Sky Journeys (whose website is currently disabled), Swoap would not talk about the incident, except to say, “My wife is the owner. But we have no comment.”

Another travel agency, Fantasy & Dreams, lists Melanie Swoap as a Disney expert on its website. Her profile reads, in part, "My job is to help families create memories that will last a lifetime. Not only that, but to make it easier for everyone to come together and just enjoy one another without the worry and stress of planning."

Calls and emails to the dance school, Ann Carroll Dance Studio in Franklin, were not returned.

The school, according to WZTV, arranged the Disney World trip as a way to expose the dancers to the realities of performing for major outlets like Broadway and Disney. The trip had been booked since August 2012 through Blue Sky, but when the families arrived in Orlando, they found that the shuttle-pass numbers provided by the Swoaps didn’t work. Then they got to the hotel only to find they had no rooms reserved—and no passes for the theme park. Several parents presented credit cards to book rooms and passes on the spot, and the trip went on as planned. The website published a glowing review.

“On our recent trip to Disney World, the Ann Carroll Dancers had the opportunity to take classes through the Disney Performing Arts program,” the site reports. “The dancers took ballet, tap, jazz, audition techniques and a special workshop called ‘Disney Magic.’ The girls learned what it takes to be a professional dancer at Disney World and on Broadway. The big finale was a performance with special guest: Goofy!”

There’s no indication of the whopping cost of it all. Cash and checks for the trip went directly to Blue Sky. That should have been a red flag to the dance school, according to a former employee of the agency, who spoke anonymously to WZTV. "I would say it is industry standard that cash does not change hands because you don't have a record of it,” she said.

It was a thought echoed by Sue Pisaturo, owner of the authorized Disney vacation planner Small World Vacations, based in New Jersey. “No, no, no, no, no,” she told Yahoo! Shine when informed of the case and of the cash involved. “I never accept any form of payment. I don’t process credit cards or accept checks,” she said, adding that, as travel agents, they will take clients’ credit card numbers over the phone and then call Disney to make arrangements. But ultimately, she said, “I don’t want to touch people’s money.”

While the official “authorized” or “earmarked” nod from Disney is something that Disney travel agents aim for, Pisaturo explained, those stamps of approval are based on sales and marketing, and not necessarily how you conduct business. “They don’t get into that,” she said. Disney was not able to immediately explain the process of authorizing travel agents to Yahoo! Shine.

So what can consumers do to protect themselves when booking trips to Disney theme parks through travel agencies? There are plenty of things to look out for, Len Testa, co-author of the “Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World,” told Yahoo! Shine.

“The advantage of booking with smaller, specialized companies is that they know a lot about Disney,” he noted. “The downside is that they don’t have the reputation of a big name like American Express or AAA.”

For each agency, “look for the social network they’ve established,” he suggested. In his book he recommends agencies including Small World Vacations and Mouse Fan Travel in his book. In addition to researching customer reviews and other accolades, he said, try to find out the following: “How long have they been involved with what they do? Do they host meets? Are they active on discussion boards? Do they host conferences?" He added, "Look for established roots in the Disney community.” If they score marks in all of that, he said, “odds are they won’t throw it all away for $60,000.”

Yahoo! Shine - Women's Lifestyle | Healthy Living and Fashion Blogs

Craigslist contact leads to death threat, attempted scam for Missoula CPA

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What started as an exchange of text messages about a violin listed on Craigslist ended with a death threat last week in Missoula.

“I am interested in buying your VIOLIN – $249,” read a text to Missoula resident Terry Burke on July 28.

Later, the person identified himself as Frank Moss of Sylacauga, Ala., and offered to send a copy of his passport.

When Burke, a certified public accountant, didn’t cash a $1,650 certified check that Moss sent for to purchase the violin, the tone of the messages became much more sinister.

“Are you trying to play games with me? I only give you 24 hrs to get back to me with the rest of the fund or else I will assassinate you and your entire family. I have full name and address with me to look and search for you. Good day,” Moss wrote in a text Aug. 13.

Then, the final message, sent the next day: “Where is my money?”

Burke didn’t think anything was amiss initially – he had successfully sold several items before using Craigslist.

After giving the person his business address to mail a certified check, Burke received a confusing text: “The check of $1650 will be sent to you the excess funds will goes to the mover before coming for the pick up. Pick up will be done after the check has cleared from your bank. I am willing to offer some fund to cover your stress and strain toward getting it done.”

“That’s when the flag came up,” Burke said.

No one pays extra money for items, he said, so he asked that a certified check be made out to and mailed to his bank. The interested buyer did neither, sending it to Burke at his business address instead.

Burke contacted the Kentucky bank listed on the check he received, and his doubts about its authenticity were verified.

***

If Burke had cashed the check – which was made out from an Ohio dental company with a Michigan address – he would have been responsible for covering the funds when the check bounced. The “excess funds” given to the “mover” would have disappeared.

“My big concern is how many of these folks are out there taking advantage of individuals with this thing?” he said.

“If there’s a question, don’t do it,” Burke said, crediting following his gut in avoiding being out more than $1,600 and a violin.

While his most recent experience on Craigslist was negative, Burke was quick to say he finds the website to be a helpful tool for buying and selling locally, and will use it again.

Craigslist warns of scams and provides tips for avoiding them, but the site still is used as a medium for fraud.

Another common scam hits potential renters, said Scott Pastian, a detective sergeant with the Missoula Police Department.

Scammers post ads for rental properties that are valid properties, just not theirs, Pastian said.

Renters then send deposits to the scammer instead of the real owner, he said; sometimes a third party collects the money.

“So it’s very hard to track, and most of the time it involves multiple states, multiple jurisdictions and it’s very difficult for the victim to ever get compensated for their loss,” he said.

Don’t want to fall for either scam?

Conduct transactions face to face and only release personal information if you’re comfortable doing so, Pastian said.

“I would say that the person should only release information that they’re comfortable with, and generally if you’re conducting the face-to-face transaction, a lot of that can be avoided,” he said.

“And never accept a check for more money than what you’re selling it for,” he said.

Overall, the number of scams reported to Missoula police has decreased, Pastian said.

It’s unclear whether that trend is because people are better educated about avoiding scams or if people are reporting them to other agencies, he said.

If someone finds themselves in a situation where scammers become aggressive or confrontational, report it to police and ignore any further communications, he said.

A Missoula detective monitors fraud cases, Pastian said.

“But, generally, there’s not a whole lot that we’re going to be able to do to help someone who’s in that situation,” he said.

“Because it’s so difficult to track these people down,” he added.

For more information and to report scams online, visit ftc.gov. More information also is available at craigslist.org/about/scams.

Craigslist contact leads to death threat, attempted scam for Missoula CPA

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Burglars Use Snake Scam to Fool Victims in Fremont, Niles: Police
Thieves posing as city workers checking for snakes have robbed East Bay homes.
By Marianne Favro and Chris Roberts
| Monday, Aug 26, 2013 | Updated 5:02 PM PDT


Police: Burglars Use Snake Scam to Fool East Bay Victims

Josh Keppel

A team of East Bay burglars claimed there were rattlesnakes, like this one, roaming the neighborhood in order to scam residents.


Two Bay Area police departments are investigating reports of robbers posing as Animal Control workers, ringing door bells, warning of poisonous snakes and then taking cash and valuables.

Police say burglars posing as Animal Services workers prowled several neighborhoods in Fremont on Saturday. They say, at about 5 p.m., a woman and her supposed supervisor told a homeowner that they were looking for a rattlesnake that bit a young girl.

The suspect told the 70-year-old victim they needed to get in the home to measure her backyard in order to place some traps.

"While they were out in the backyard doing the measurements, an accomplice came in through the front door and stole jewelry and cash from the home,” Fremont police spokesperson Geneva Bosques said.

Officers are also investigating a similar scam attempt earlier the same day in Niles.

"They went door to door and said there was a snake, and they needed to go in the back and set traps,” Bosques said.

But in that case the neighbor got suspicious and didn’t let the woman in.

In both cases, the suspect, a woman wearing brown khakis, claimed to be with Fremont Animal Services. Her snake story was detailed and so was her disguise, right down to her black gloves, a lanyard with an ID and a fake patch on her shoulder.

The real Animal Services employees wear a police patch, carry photo IDs and drive vehicles marked with the city's emblem.

Police say the scams are an important reminder to ask questions. They are advising residents that city employees are required to carry a badge with a photo ID.

"Ask for a supervisor, ask for a phone number before letting someone in your door,” Bosques said. "And remember, city employees always tell you if they are coming there.”

The same snake scam was apparently attempted in Union City on Wednesday, according to police. There, another female suspect told a homeowner on Deborah Drive that she was there to check for snakes. During the snake check, the house was robbed.

Police are still looking for the suspects and believe they may be roaming the Bay Area.

Burglars Use Snake Scam to Fool Victims in Fremont, Niles: Police | NBC Bay Area

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(Reuters) - The Securities and Exchange Commission charged an Indiana man with running a $6 million Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors out of their retirement savings and used the money to invest in a bridal store, a bounty hunter reality television show, and a soul food restaurant owned by the bounty hunters.

The SEC on Monday said it obtained an emergency court order to freeze the assets of defendants John Marcum and his firm Guaranty Reserves Trust LLC.

Marcum, 49, of Noblesville, Indiana, was accused of deceiving at least 37 people into investing in promissory notes issued by his firm by promising double-digit annual returns with no risk to principal by day-trading in stocks.

"Marcum tricked investors into putting their retirement nest eggs in his hands by portraying himself as a talented trader who could earn high returns while eliminating the risk of loss," said Timothy Warren, acting director of the SEC's Chicago regional office.

The SEC said Marcum regularly gave clients account statements showing annualized returns of more than 20 percent with no monthly losses.

Instead, the regulator said he lost more than $900,000 on what little trading he conducted, and used the remaining funds to invest in start-up ventures and finance a lifestyle including Mercedes-Benz car payments, airline tickets, nightclub outlays, and charges to his former wife's credit card.

The SEC said none of the start-ups appears profitable, and that Marcum "is nearly broke, and his accounts contain less than $2,000." It said the scheme began to unravel in mid-2013 when Marcum became unable to meet some investors' redemption demands.

According to the regulator, Marcum admitted misappropriating investor money during a June 18 conference call with three investors, which was recorded.

It said he also told investors during the call that his insurance policies had a two-year waiting period for a "suicide clause" to take effect, and that if he failed to return their money he would kill himself so they could be made whole.

A lawyer for Marcum did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Marcum could not immediately be located.

The lawsuit seeks a fine, the recovery of ill-gotten gains, and a permanent ban on further wrongdoing.

The case is SEC v. Marcum et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana, No. 13-01361.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)

SEC says Indiana man used Ponzi scheme to fund a reality TV show | Reuters

Consumer Tip: Gifting clubs cloak pyramid scheme

Marin Independent Journal
Posted: 08/26/2013 06:00:00 PM PDT

CONSUMER TIP

Gifting CLUBs present risks

You are given the "opportunity" to join a club. New club members give "gifts" to the highest ranking members. Bring in new members and you and other "friends" will be rewarded, receiving money far more than what you gave to join the club. Is this a good opportunity?

Not really. Gifting clubs, like most other pyramid schemes, must continually recruit an ever increasing number of members to survive. Eventually, the clubs do not attract enough new members and they collapse. Most members who paid to join the club never receive the gifts or the financial awards they expected or were promised, therefore they lose everything they paid to join.

If you are asked to join a gifting club, consider the following:

• A true gift is free and has no strings attached.

• Don't be swayed by testimonials of tremendous payoffs — very few members receive any money.

• Don't be misled to believe that a gifting club is legal because you are told payments are considered gifts. To join the club you must make a payment. To receive money it requires the recruitment of an "endless chain" of new members.

In reality, a gifting club is an illegal pyramid scheme that carries with it potential criminal and civil sanctions.

More information is available through the Marin County district attorney's consumer protection unit at 473-6495 or through its website at County of Marin.

— Marin County District Attorney

Consumer Tip: Gifting clubs cloak pyramid scheme - Marin Independent Journal

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Someone is allegedly trying to capitalize on the death of a mother and her 3-year-old daughter.

There have been several reports of people claiming to have ties to the family going door-to-door asking for donations. But the family says these people are not connected to the family at all.

The family is asking people not to donate to these solicitors but instead to the “Baby Denim White Fund” at any Arvest Bank. The money raised from the fund will go toward the one-year-old found at the scene.

Kevin Turner is the uncle and grand uncle of the victims. He says the people collecting money are taking advantage of his family's loss and are as bad as the person responsible for the crime.

Kansas City Arvest Bank Locations::

8959 County Highway 8-S
Kansas City
(913) 261-2265
127 W 10 St #102
Kansas City
(913) 279-3300
5600 N Broadway Ave Gladstone
(931) 261-2265

Read more: Family of murder victims warns against possible donation scam

There is no limit to what people will do this day and time to steal from others.

Three arrested in Nigerian Scam out of Seaford
Aug. 27, 2013 8:01 PM |

Thaddeus E. Bolden, 26, was charged Monday with racketeering, money laundering, receiving stolen property over $1,500 and conspiracy, said Master Cpl. Gary Fournier. / Delaware State Police
Written by
Terri Sanginiti
The News Journal

Terretta L. Lassiter, 22, was charged Monday with racketeering, money laundering, receiving stolen property over $1,500 and conspiracy, said Master Cpl. Gary Fournier. / Delaware State Police

A Seaford trio was arrested for operating a racketeering ring following a six-month joint investigation into a “Nigerian Scam” initiated by police in Iowa, state police said today.

Vinod Singh, 35, Terretta L. Lassiter, 22, and Thaddeus E. Bolden, 26, were each charged Monday with racketeering, money laundering, receiving stolen property over $1,500 and conspiracy, said Master Cpl. Gary Fournier.

Singh, who lives on Baker Mill Road, also was charged with theft greater than $50,000 in connection with a credit card scam.

The investigation began on Feb. 7 when investigators from Merion Police Department in Iowa contacted the state police Financial Crimes Unit about stolen property —consisting of iPods, iPhones, jewelry and $15,000 in cash —that had been shipped by FedEx to a Seaford address in Delaware.

State police detectives obtained a warrant to search a home in the 8000 block of Garden Lane but were unable to find the stolen property, Fournier said.

The homeowner at that address, described by police as an acquaintance of Singh’s, knew Singh was having packages sent to his home, but was unaware it involved anything crime-related.

The homeowner told investigators Singh had met the FedEx driver earlier that day and signed for the package they were looking for.

Detectives then went to Singh’s Baker Mill Road home and questioned him directly about the whereabouts of the package sent to the Garden Lane address, Fournier said.

“He knew when the packages were due to be delivered and intercepted them at the other address,” he said.

Singh told detectives he received a phone call about a job opportunity after posting his resume online. The job allegedly consisted of him picking up two packages that were to be delivered to his acquaintance’s home on Garden Lane.

He was then allegedly instructed to send the packages on to another address at which time he would receive cash for his services, Fournier said.

Singh then brought the packages to his niece Lassiter and her boyfriend Bolden, who were to wire $15,000 of the enclosed cash in the package to the alleged employer in Nigeria. Singh was allowed to keep some money, Fournier said.

Because money was being moved through the postal system, U.S. Postal Inspectors and the U.S Secret Service joined the investigation.

Fournier said the postal inspectors became involved in February because Bank of America credit cards were fraudulently being issued to Singh at the Garden Lane address of his acquaintance.

The suspect would impersonate the card holder and request a new card be sent to the Garden Lane address by using stolen information of the card holder.

“The credit cards were sent separately,” Fournier said. “They would call about a lost credit card, add Singh’s name to it and then he would receive all the credit cards and cash them at casinos and local banks, making cash advances totaling $50,000.”

Singh and the two others were released on unsecured bail after being charged.

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Pa. woman guilty in $2M multi-state magazine scam, with Seattle operations in 2008

A western Pennsylvania woman pleaded guilty to fraud Tuesday in what federal prosecutors say was a $2 million scheme to sell phony magazine subscriptions door-to-door using sob stories claiming the sales benefited the military, children's hospitals, single mothers or ex-cons looking to turn over a new leaf.

By JOE MANDAK

A western Pennsylvania woman pleaded guilty to fraud Tuesday in what federal prosecutors say was a $2 million scheme to sell phony magazine subscriptions door-to-door using sob stories claiming the sales benefited the military, children's hospitals, single mothers or ex-cons looking to turn over a new leaf.

Lahron Buchanan, 32, of Pittsburgh, must return to U.S. District Court Dec. 3 when she faces up to 20 years in prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nelson Cohen told the judge that Buchanan is responsible for up to $400,000 of more than $2 million stolen from thousands of customers in western Pennsylvania, Washington, Texas and Arizona between February 2007 and February 2011.

U.S. Postal Inspectors contend the scam was the brainchild of Samuel Cole, a Pittsburgh man and father of Buchanan's child, who began business as New Image Consultants Inc. then changed names and locations to remain a step ahead of law enforcement, also operating as Fresh Start Opportunities in Seattle in 2008 and Destiny Sales Inc. of Dallas and West Memphis, Ark., beginning in 2009.

Cohen told the judge Cole, 44, recruited "crews" of workers who were sometimes housed in local motels and given unspecified compensation to sell the magazines, ultimately swindling more than 21,000 customers. Buchanan started out selling the magazines, and later kept track of the companies' paperwork as part of the scheme, Cohen said.

"She's not responsible for the entire scheme and she's not the primary person in the scheme," Cohen told Senior U.S. District Judge Maurice Cohill Jr.

Buchanan has cooperated with investigators and told them she issued a handful of refunds to wary or unhappy customers, just to keep the scheme from unraveling. But Cohen said investigators found only one instance in which a refund was paid - and none in which customers actually received magazines.

"We couldn't find any money that was ever paid to a legitimate magazine company," Cohen told the judge.

Instead, the money - minus whatever overhead was spent to pay or house the "crews" - apparently went to Cole, investigators determined.

Workers were instructed to pose as single mothers who needed the money, ex-cons trying to get back on their feet, or to tell customers that the money or magazines were benefiting some other good cause.

"They generally indicated some sort of a heart-rending pitch," Cohen told the judge, telling customers the magazines would be sent "to help the troops" or be delivered "in the name of a local children's hospital."

Court records indicate Cole is continuing to contest the charges, though no trial date has been set. Cole's federal public defender did not immediately return a call and email requesting comment.

Pa. woman guilty in $2M multi-state magazine scam, with Seattle operations in 2008 | Local News | The Seattle Times

27 common scams to avoid

As Scams Awareness Month begins, we run through some of the most widespread and believable cons attempting to part you and your money

Donna Ferguson
theguardian.com, Thursday 2 May 2013 06.04 EDT

Common scams
Common scams: from fishy salesmen to dodgy phone calls, be vigilant. Photograph: Alamy/David Oliver/Tony Stone/Marvin E Newman/Getty/Chris Rout/Luke MacGregor

You can lock your doors against burglars, but making sure you don't fall victim to a scam – even in the safety of your own home – is much less straightforward.

More than 22,000 people were scammed in 2012, according to Citizens Advice, and fraudsters are constantly inventing ways to swindle you out of your cash. The month of May has been designated Scams Awareness Month by Citizens Advice and Trading Standards, and forewarned is forearmed so here are 27 to look out for.

Door-to-door scams

1. Fake Green Deal sales You answer your door to be told you are entitled to £10,000 of funding for Green Deal home improvements, such as insulation or a new boiler. You are then asked to pay an administration fee.

2. Unnecessary damp proofing You are offered a free damp proofing survey. The surveyor always finds damp which needs urgent attention, quotes a high price and requests an immediate deposit.

3. Home maintenance services A trader offers you a cheap quote to pave your patio or driveway, carry out home maintenance or gardening services, or repair "unsafe" roof tiles. They demand an upfront cash payment to start or finish the job – then scarper with the money or make unreasonable charges for botched work.

4. Food sales Someone offers to sell you (inedible) fresh or frozen fish very cheaply, but only if you are prepared to pay £100s for several boxes, sight unseen.

5. Fake energy-saving gadgets You are offered a plug-in gadget at a "sale price" of £99, which the seller claims will cut your electricity use by 40%.

'Too good to be true' scams

6. Fake dates You join a dating website and are contacted by an extremely good looking potential date who lives abroad. After starting an online romance the scammer asks for money for emergency bills.

7. Council tax refunds You are told by a cold-caller that you are owed a rebate on your council tax bill or are overpaying because your property is in the wrong tax band. You are then asked to hand over your bank or credit card details so your money can be refunded.

8. Council tax discount You are told that if you start paying by direct debit you will get a discount – but first you need to pay an administration fee.

9. Dodgy job website You register your CV at a job site and quickly get a call or email from an employment agency guaranteeing you a job, but only if you first pay a fee.

10. Bogus pay cheque You are called or sent an email from someone who wants to give you a job, and offered a cheque in advance of your first payday. Cash the cheque and you'll be told you've been overpaid and must return the money via an online transfer – before the cheque bounces.

11. Training course claim You see an advert online for a high salaried job, but are asked to pay for a training course first.

12. Prize scam You are called, texted or emailed and congratulated for winning a prize or even a huge lottery pot (although you can't remember buying a ticket). In order to collect your winnings you are asked to pay a processing fee or to call a premium rate phone line.

13. Bad investments You are cold-called and offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest your life savings, for example in carbon credits, plots of land, fine wine or exclusive stocks and shares, which are certain to make you rich. Needless to say they are not.

14. Loan arrangers You are called or texted by a fraudster and invited to apply for a "guaranteed loan". After you've given your personal information, including your bank details, you are told to pay an application fee.

15. Pension problems You receive an "urgent" phone call from "The Pensions Helpline" or your pension provider stating that you are entitled to a £1,000 pension bonus from the government, or that your pension has been underpaid. In order to receive your money you must pay a fee or give out your personal details on a premium rate line.

16. PPI refunds You are texted or called by someone claiming to be your bank, the Ministry of Justice, or a PPI company and told you are owed money in the form of mis-sold PPI payments – but you must pay an administration fee before the refund can be processed.

17. Tax back You receive an email from HMRC offering you a huge tax refund if you give your personal details online or by email.

18. Unhealthy sales You see an online advert for a free trial of slimming tablets or skin products. However, you unwittingly sign up for regular monthly payments which cannot be cancelled.

19. Noise rebatement You are called by someone claiming to be from the government and told you may be entitled to compensation because a place where you once worked has been condemned as too noisy on health grounds. You are asked to pay a fee to find out more.

Scams which prey on your fears

20. Missed payments You are sent a fake council tax bill or told you are in arrears, and asked to pay immediately over the phone.

21. Telephone debt You are called by "Her Majesty's Court" and told you have defaulted on a debt for an expensive telephone preference service. You are asked for immediate payment over the phone and warned you will be disconnected and face arrest or a court summons if you refuse to pay. If you hang up, the fraudster will stay on the line so you'll think your line has been disconnected.

22. Truant's fee The "Education Welfare Service" calls to tell you that your child failed to attend school that day and asks you for a £340 penalty over the phone.

23. Courier scams You are called on your landline by your bank and told that fraudsters have used your debit or credit card and it needs to be replaced. You call your bank, which confirms this. You are told to key in your pin number and hand over your card to a courier who will arrive soon. However, between receiving the call and dialling your bank you didn't hear a dial tone and are actually still speaking to the scammers, who never disconnected the line.

24. Holiday help You are sent an email from a friend or relative whose account has been hacked. You are told they are stranded abroad and need you to send them money urgently. They are not, and do not require any money.

25. Virus hoax You are called by "Microsoft Windows Support" and told your PC has a virus or is running slowly. The problem can be solved remotely if you give them your credit card details and/or remote access to your PC.

26. Medical emergency You are called and told your grandchild has been in a road accident abroad. Cries for help are screamed down the phone while the caller says you need to send money immediately to cover medical costs.

27. Rogue traders A police officer calls claiming criminals are trying to steal money from your bank account, and that a special "safe account" has been set up for you to transfer your savings into. You are told that clerks at your bank are under surveillance and that revealing why you are transferring the money will jeopardise covert police work.

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Top 5 Signs of a Craigslist Scam
Red Flags that Warn You You're About to Be Ripped Off
Barbara Nefer

Craigslist is a great place to sell unwanted items and make some extra cash or pick up everything from furniture and household goods to cars at bargain prices. Unfortunately, it's also a hunting ground for foreign scammers who want to steal your money in a variety of ways. I love reading the 800notes.com website because has reports of new Craigslist scams every day.

You don't have to know the details of all the different scams on Craigslist and similar online classified websites. If you look for these signs, you'll stay safe from Craigslist rip-offs.

1) Never deal with a person who refuses to come out and look at the item you're selling. I'm always amazed at the variety of excuses scammers use. Sometimes they're away on business in another country. Sometimes they work on a ship or are in the military. Whatever their reason, they're willing to buy your merchandise sight unseen. Think about it logically. Who would do that, especially with a big ticket item like a car?

2) Never deal with a person who won't talk to you on the phone. Most scammers are based in other countries, and they don't want you to hear their accents so they insist on using text only. They often claim to be deaf or say they have restrictions on their phone use for other reasons. The real reason is that they're Craigslist scammers who don't want you to get suspicious when you realize they're foreign. I often see scammers posting as shills on 800notes, and even their writing smacks of English as a second language.

3) Never deal with a person who won't pay cash on pick-up for your item. Craigslist scammers always want to pay through Paypal or with a mailed check. This lets them scam you in a variety of ways. For example, they'll send spoofed emails that look like they came from Paypal telling you that you have money, but it won't be put into your account until you send proof that you shipped the merchandise. Of course, the money doesn't exist.

However, the most common rip-off I see online is the overpayment scam. You get a check for several hundred dollars more than your item costs. The scammer will give some bogus reason for the overpayment and ask you to wire the extra money to him or a cohort. The check is eventually returned because it's a fake, and you're liable for the entire amount.

4) Never deal with someone who wants you to pay in advance for something. You're dealing with strangers on Craigslist, so you have no reason to trust them. I'm shocked at the number of news stories I see about people who wired thousands of dollars to people they'd never met to rent houses or apartments they'd never seen. They went by photos in an ad, and of course their money is gone because the rental doesn't exist. I've see the same thing happen for items like concert tickets and airline miles, too. I can't even imagine sending money to an unseen stranger based on nothing but promises and hoping for the best.

5) Never pay for a credit check or background check in response to a Craigslist job ad. Why would a company want you to do this before you've even had an in-person interview? It's just a scam to trick you into paying for the credit report or background search through an affiliate link, and the scammer gets a cut of the money. Meanwhile, you never hear anything else about the supposed job.

Scammers adapt their tricks as Craigslist users get smarter, so you'll always have to be careful. If you follow these give guidelines, you'll keep yourself safe from most of the scams.

Top 5 Signs of a Craigslist Scam - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

More help from wiki How to Avoid Scams on Craigslist: 5 Steps (with Pictures)

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5 Most Dangerous Email Scams



Scams are really nothing new. For as longs as people have been interacting with each other, there have been unscrupulous individuals attempting to dupe others out of what is rightfully theirs. However, with the advent and subsequent worldwide proliferation of the internet, the sheer volume of scams has increased a thousandfold.

Perhaps it has something to do with the relative safety and anonymity that internet scam artists enjoy, or their ability to reach millions of potential victims through the use of automated programs and malware. Whatever the case, if you communicate with people over the internet, you’re at risk of being scammed. And when it comes to the prefered method, many online con artists stick with the tried and true path of the email scam. So, for your protection, here are five of the most dangerous email scams that you may have seen pop up in your inbox at one time or another (or might even be sitting there right now).

1. The UPS Package Scam

Who wouldn’t want to get a nice, unexpected delivery? The UPS package scam plays on our love of gifts by sending an email claiming to be from the UPS Packet Service. The email states that UPS attempted to deliver a package to your home, but could not because of an address error. It then suggests that you open the attachment that came with the email so that you can get everything sorted out.

Most people don’t think twice about following these legitimate-looking instructions, but they really should. For one thing, how does UPS have your email address, but not you street address? If anything, UPS would probably be more likely to contact the sender, rather than the recipient of a failed delivery. Sure enough, if you click the attachment you’ll have a special virus downloaded into your computer which will then comb through your files and steal any personal information it can get to. Delete the email without opening it, and if you think that you might actually have a package waiting for you, call your local UPS store to verify.

2. 419 Scams

Also known as Nigerian Prince scams, are emails that seem to be a genuine plea for help from someone in need (usually a deposed monarch). The email usually explains that a large sum of money needs to be moved into an offshore account not associated with the original sender. It suggests that if you would be willing to help, you would be entitled to a large percentage of that money. However, in order to get the money moving, you’ll need to make a small, initial investment. You may also be asked to supply the email writer with personal information and bank account data.

Of course, if you fall for scam and send any of these things, you’ll just receive more emails informing you that the process has hit certain complications, and more money is needed for charges, fines, or bribes. You may also receive official looking documents regarding the transfer, but one thing that you will never get is money. The Nigerian scam is one of the oldest email scams around, but even today it is still going strong. It is also one of the few cyber security scams that has actually resulted in loss of life; from 1992-1995, 15 people were murdered after responding to Nigerian 419 scams that eventually led them to visit the country in question at the behest of the email writers. Others have been held for ransom. Never respond to any sort of email that promises huge monetary returns for small fees.

3. Phishing Scams

Phishing scams show up in your email as simple reminders to update your personal information with your bank or Paypal account. If you click the link they provide, they will take you to a very official looking web page in which you will be asked to provide some personal informations (such as a bank username and password) so that you can verify that everything is up to date. If you go ahead and provide that information, the scammers will be able to use it to access your real accounts and help themselves to whatever you have inside.

Ignore any emails that suggest you provide personal information. Legitimate companies almost never contact you asking for sensitive data, so be very wary when you get an email like this. Again, if you want to investigate further, contact the bank and ask them if they have recently sent you an emails regarding your personal data.

4. Threat Scams

This one is more likely to get your heart racing than a simple “please send money” scam. The email claims to be from a contract killer who has been hired to murder you. However, the killer would rather not kill you if he doesn’t have to, and will accept payment instead. The email may even include details about your life, thus giving it the appearance of credibility. However, the ‘details’ will be ones that are easily found online, and the ‘killer’ will just end up being another scam artists attempting to prey on your fear. If you receive one of these, you can simply ignore it, and you’ll be just fine; a real contract killer isn’t going to risk his reputation and his freedom by contacting his target and giving away his plans. However, if you’re really spooked, you can contact the FBI and have them look into the matter.

5. Charity Scams

While some other scams play upon your greed, fear, or simple gullibility, charity scams play upon some of humanity’s better qualities, namely our empathy and generosity. The emails make reference to some recent disaster, and ask that you donate a small amount to a charity to help those who were affected by the tragedy. Ironically, the email itself may warn you to beware of online fraud, and it will contain an attachment to a very official looking web page where you can make an online donation.

Of course, the email, the website, and certainly the poor people in need are all just part of the scam. Ignore any emails that come to you and ask you for donations. If you would like to donate to a worthy cause, visit the webpage of whichever charity you prefer, or call them on the telephone. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to help, but if you’re not careful when dealing with email scams, the only people you’ll end up helping are criminals.

A good piece of advice is this: Keep your computer’s virus protection up to date, and if you don’t know the person who is sending you the email, then don’t even open it. The evolution of cybercrime is constantly producing new scams and reinventing the old ones, but you can remain safe if you’re careful not to take anything you see in your inbox at face value.

5 Most Dangerous Email Scams - Yahoo! Small Business Advisor

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Great thread. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Thanks.

Welcome to the $2 buck team. Come on little fishes, I need more money says the ones behind the promotion of this dollar maker.

$2 BUCK TEAM BUILD

OUR GOAL IS TO DO THIS IN 12 WEEKS!
STEP 2
SIGN UP BELOW! FILL IN ALL INFORMATION COMPLETELY IN YOUR BACK OFFICE!
$2 LEVEL ONLY!
******** IMPORTANT*****
AFTER YOU SIGN UP MAKE SURE YOU PLACE YOUR INFORMATION IN THE BOX BELOW!!!!!!!

That is exactly what they want and in 12 weeks your money will be theirs!!! Any suckers out there??

TURN $2 INTO $16,000

That is enough of you 'suckers' send them your 2 bucks, the top loaders will skim off the bucks and close down.

This was from the BBB on avoiding ticket scams.

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There are several variations of this scam. From paying an advance fee to an overpriced seminar. Getting a grant is like a lot of things, you have to have a qualifying need and generally write a series of proposals to receive the money.

Facebook scam costs La Crosse woman $1,500

13 hours ago • By Tribune staff
A La Crosse woman is out $1,500 after she fell for an online scammer.

According a police report, the 58-year-old was contacted through Facebook by someone calling himself James Horton, who claimed he was with an agency for the “Deaf, Blind and Disabled” and could get her a grant for $150,000 if she would pay a $1,000 fee.

The woman told police she was unable to find the agency on the Internet and that her husband warned her it was a scam but said she thought it was legitimate because Horton had a mutual Facebook friend.

She wired $1,000 to someone in Houston only to be informed that Horton needed another $3,500. She couldn’t raise that much money, but sent $500 to someone in Phoenix.

When Horton requested another $1,500 for “insurance,” she called police, who traced the phone number she had to Port Huron, Mich.

Police have no other leads.

Facebook scam costs La Crosse woman $1,500

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

Government Grant Scams


“Because you pay your income taxes on time, you have been awarded a free $12,500 government grant! To get your grant, simply give us your checking account information, and we will direct-deposit the grant into your bank account!”

Sometimes, it’s an ad that claims you will qualify to receive a “free grant” to pay for education costs, home repairs, home business expenses, or unpaid bills. Other times, it’s a phone call supposedly from a “government” agency or some other organization with an official sounding name. In either case, the claim is the same: your application for a grant is guaranteed to be accepted, and you’ll never have to pay the money back.

But the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, says that “money for nothing” grant offers usually are scams, whether you see them in your local paper or a national magazine, or hear about them on the phone.

Some scam artists advertise “free grants” in the classifieds, inviting readers to call a toll-free number for more information. Others are more bold: they call you out of the blue. They lie about where they’re calling from, or they claim legitimacy using an official-sounding name like the “Federal Grants Administration.” They may ask you some basic questions to determine if you “qualify” to receive a grant. FTC attorneys say calls and come-ons for free money invariably are rip offs.

Grant scammers generally follow a script: they congratulate you on your eligibility, then ask for your checking account information so they can “deposit your grant directly into your account,” or cover a one-time “processing fee.” The caller may even reassure you that you can get a refund if you’re not satisfied. In fact, you’ll never see the grant they promise; they will disappear with your money.

The FTC says following a few basic rules can keep consumers from losing money to these “government grant” scams:

Don’t give out your bank account information to anyone you don’t know. Scammers pressure people to divulge their bank account information so that they can steal the money in the account. Always keep your bank account information confidential. Don’t share it unless you are familiar with the company and know why the information is necessary.
Don’t pay any money for a “free” government grant. If you have to pay money to claim a “free” government grant, it isn’t really free. A real government agency won’t ask you to pay a processing fee for a grant that you have already been awarded — or to pay for a list of grant-making institutions. The names of agencies and foundations that award grants are available for free at any public library or on the Internet. The only official access point for all federal grant-making agencies is Home | GRANTS.GOV.
Look-alikes aren’t the real thing. Just because the caller says he’s from the “Federal Grants Administration” doesn’t mean that he is. There is no such government agency. Take a moment to check the blue pages in your telephone directory to bear out your hunch — or not.
Phone numbers can deceive. Some con artists use Internet technology to disguise their area code in caller ID systems. Although it may look like they’re calling from Washington, DC, they could be calling from anywhere in the world.
Take control of the calls you receive. If you want to reduce the number of telemarketing calls you receive, place your telephone number on the National Do Not Call Registry. To register online, visit donotcall.gov. To register by phone, call 1-888-382-1222 (TTY: 1-866-290-4236) from the phone number you wish to register.
File a complaint with the FTC. If you think you may have been a victim of a government grant scam, file a complaint with the FTC online, or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

Government Grant Scams | Consumer Information

Need money for college? Doesn't everybody? With tuition bills skyrocketing, and room and board going through the roof, students and their families are looking for creative ways to finance a college education. Unfortunately, in their efforts to pay the bills, many of them are falling prey to scholarship and financial aid scams.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency, unscrupulous companies guarantee or promise scholarships, grants or fantastic financial aid packages. Many use high pressure sales pitches at seminars where you're required to pay immediately or risk losing out on the "opportunity."

Some unscrupulous companies guarantee that they can get scholarships on behalf of students or award them "scholarships" in exchange for an advance fee. Most offer a "money back guarantee" – but attach conditions that make it impossible to get the refund. Others provide nothing for the student's advance fee – not even a list of potential sources; still others tell students they've been selected as "finalists" for awards that require an up-front fee. Sometimes, these companies ask for a student's checking account to "confirm eligibility," then debit the account without the student's consent. Other companies quote only a relatively small "monthly" or "weekly" fee and then ask for authorization to debit your checking account – for an undetermined length of time.

Other companies claim they have programs that could make you eligible to receive financial aid, including grants, loans, work-study and other types of aid. For a processing fee, they'll handle all the paperwork. But experts caution: The only application that will determine eligibility for all programs is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) – a form you can complete and submit for free.

The FTC cautions students to look and listen for these tell-tale lines:

The scholarship is guaranteed or your money back."
"You can't get this information anywhere else."
"I just need your credit card or bank account number to hold this scholarship."
"We'll do all the work. You just pay a processing fee."
"The scholarship will cost some money."
"You've been selected" by a "national foundation" to receive a scholarship – or "You're a finalist" in a contest you never entered.

If you attend a seminar on financial aid or scholarships, follow these steps:

Take your time. Don't be rushed into paying at the seminar. Avoid high-pressure sales pitches that require you to buy now or risk losing out on the opportunity. Solid opportunities are not sold through nerve-racking tactics.
Investigate the organization you're considering paying for help. Talk to a guidance counselor or financial aid advisor before spending your money. You may be able to get the same help for free.
Be wary of "success stories" or testimonials of extraordinary success – the seminar operation may have paid "shills" to give glowing stories. Instead, ask for a list of at least three local families who've used the services in the last year. Ask each if they're satisfied with the products and services received.
Be cautious about purchasing from seminar representatives who are reluctant to answer questions or who give evasive answers to your questions. Legitimate business people are more than willing to give you information about their service.
Ask how much money is charged for the service, the services that will be performed and the company's refund policy. Get this information in writing. Keep in mind that you may never recoup the money you give to an unscrupulous operator, despite stated refund policies.

The FTC says many legitimate companies advertise that they can get students access to lists of scholarships in exchange for an advance fee. Other legitimate services charge an advance fee to compare a student's profile with a database of scholarship opportunities and provide a list of awards for which a student may qualify. And, there are online scholarship search engines. The difference: Legitimate companies never guarantee or promise scholarships or grants.

If you're contacted by companies or visit websites that say they'll process your FAFSA for a fee, do yourself a favor and save some money, too. Visit StudentAid.gov, the U.S. Department of Education's site for free information on preparing for and funding education beyond high school. You can complete the FAFSA at Home - FAFSA on the Web-Federal Student Aid, and learn about other FAFSA filing options at Other FAFSA Filing Options - FAFSA on the Web - Federal Student Aid. You also can call 1-800-4-FED-AID.

This publication was produced in cooperation with the College Parents of America. CPA is a resource, advisor and advocate working on behalf of the millions of parents of current and future college students throughout the United States. For more information about CPA, call toll free 1-888-256-4627 or visit CPA at College Parents of America | A national membership association serving current and future college parents.

This article was previously available as Ouch - Students Getting Stung Trying to Find $$$ for College.
Report Scams

If you believe you’ve responded to a scam, file a complaint with:

the FTC
your state Attorney General

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Scholarship and Financial Aid Scams | Consumer Information

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