Fraud

iPad contests proliferate: beware of bogus ones

Aaron Crowe Mar 19th 2010 @ 12:00PM EST Filed Under: Technology, Fraud, Identity Theft

You see them at almost every corner of the Internet -- free iPads from contests that require you to do nothing but enter a drawing, write an essay, or tweet about it. It's a simple and relatively inexpensive ($499 is the entry price for a new iPad) way for a company to get people to its Web site, using social media to attract readers instead of paying for advertising.

But how do you know if the contest is legitimate or a ruse to get users to provide personal information to phishers? There are lots of telltale signs that a Web site could be phishing for your information, which we'll get to later. But first, why iPads, and why so many contests?

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Puppies used in latest advance-payment scam

Mitch Lipka Mar 18th 2010 @ 4:15PM EST Filed Under: Fraud, Consumer Ally

The lure of a cute little puppy. It is a weakness that many animal lovers have succumbed to. And now it's now being used as bait for a variation of the time-tested advance-payment scam.

Animal lovers beware: the Oregon Attorney General's office is warning about this scam after it surfaced in that state. The ASPCA has a page dedicated to educating people about avoiding this kind of scam.

Here's how it works. The scammer places an ad for a puppy (or a purebred dog) that needs a home. The ad says the dog is free to whomever can give it a good home. Then comes the catch. Once the contact is made, the person who supposedly has the dog requests that money be wired to cover the transportation costs of safely getting the puppy to its new home.

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Michigan man scams state, governor for $9 million tax break

Tom Barlow Mar 18th 2010 @ 2:30PM EST Filed Under: Tax, Fraud, Tax - Advice

Michigan is desperate to find jobs for its unemployed, perhaps overly so, if the tax break given to Richard Allen Short is any indication. Short shared the podium with Gov. Jennifer Granolm recently to announce that his company was receiving a $9.1 million tax break to help him hire 765 people to carry out his plan to make green energy and waste-handling equipment that he would ship to needy villagers in Africa.

The problem, according to the Detroit Free Press, is that Short is a notorious con man who has spend years in jail for embezzling, a fact uncovered in a quick Internet search by a process server in Flint. Patrick Clawson uncovered Short's sordid past, which included embezzling $21,000 to buy his girl an engagement ring and having a woman pose as his wife to qualify for a $73,000 loan. He still owns $96,000 in court-mandated restitution.

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A real estate crook in priest's clothing

Charles Feldman Mar 13th 2010 @ 6:00PM EST Filed Under: Real Estate, Fraud, Investing, Mortgages, In the News

Father Barney the real estate crook We've come to this: An ordained Orthodox-Catholic priest in Indiana has pleaded guilty to federal charges of defrauding real estate developers and even churches of almost $3 million, according to the Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky. "Father Barney", aka Byron Canada, apparently ran two South Bend corporations which he used to defraud borrowers over a five year period beginning back in 2004.

The "good" priest reportedly collected fees from real estate developers, businesses and, yes, churches for what was supposed to be advanced payments for loans his companies would later make, but never did. Just to gain that extra ounce of trust, "Father Barney" would make sure he was decked out in his clerical clothing when meeting his soon-to-be victims.

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Madoff whistleblower Harry Markopolos on how to protect against investment fraud

Lan N. Nguyen Mar 11th 2010 @ 1:45PM EST Filed Under: Fraud, Investing, In the News

When Bernie Madoff confessed in December 2008 that he had been running a Ponzi scheme for decades, everyone was surprised, but not Harry Markopolos and his team.

Markopolos, Frank Casey, Neil Chelo and Mike Ocrant had been tracking Madoff's boldface lies for 10 years. They had, in fact, reported Madoff five times to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Despite detailed complaints, no action was taken. No one was listening.

Well, everyone is listening now. Markopolos, a full time independent fraud investigator after years in the securities industry, took time out of his busy schedule promoting his riveting account of the whole sage, titled "No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller," to chat with WalletPop about what investors can do to avoid the next smooth talking charlatan.

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What a fake lottery check cashing scam looks like

Josh Smith Mar 11th 2010 @ 12:30PM EST Filed Under: Fraud

Fake check schemes, or advanced fee check cashing fraud, are one of the most common scams that criminals use to trick victims into giving away their hard-earned money. It's so popular that it was named the number one scam of 2009 by the National Consumers League.

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Don't fall for the oldest trick in the book, the advance fee loan scam

Geoff Williams Mar 5th 2010 @ 12:30PM EST Filed Under: Fraud

So you're broke, have really lousy credit, and need some cash, but don't worry -- there's a company out there that will give you a loan anyway. It doesn't mind that your credit is bad. In fact, its program is designed for people like you. So don't worry. You've found Financial Sanctuary, at long last.

If that's ever the situation you find yourself in -- broke and desperate to pay off some bills but in discussions with a company that can offer you a loan without a credit check -- you're probably falling for the ol' advance fee loan scam.

I spoke to Alison Southwick at the Better Business Bureau earlier this week about online payday lending, and the conversation somehow eventually turned to advance fee scams.

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How to stop phishermen from catching

Jennie L. Phipps Feb 28th 2010 @ 12:00PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Technology, Fraud, Identity Theft

It seems like the whole world has gone phishing in the last couple of weeks. Twitter, Facebook - even my own e-mail inbox is full of this crap.

Phishing attacks that insert viruses and other malware, steal account numbers and otherwise try to cause users financial harm are on the rise, says Brian Yoder, vice president of engineering for CyberDefender, whose business is providing internet security to consumers and small businesses.

Yoder says the attackers used to be pimply faced 14-year-olds trying to prove how smart they were, but today's phisherman is a full-fledged crook, probably based in an Eastern European country and expert at avoiding or paying off law enforcement.

As anybody who spends more than a few minutes online knows, these guys send out millions of phishing e-mails a day. If only 1% of the people who receive them respond and get taken for even a few bucks, these crooks do well.

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Paying at the pump could cost extra thanks to skimmers

Josh Smith Feb 25th 2010 @ 10:00AM EST Filed Under: Technology, Fraud, Credit Cards, In the News

We've all heard of crooks installing skimmers on ATM machines to steal debit card information, including pin numbers, but a new scheme has been uncovered that is much harder to detect and it happens at a place you might equate with highway robbery -- the gas pump. Reports have come in from across the country of debit card skimmers inside gas pumps that record your debit card number, including PIN, and send it wirelessly to a crook who then makes a fake card and helps himself to your money.

Unlike similar skimming attacks at ATMs, these types of scams are much harder to detect because there is no additional part attached to the outside of the gas pump. Instead, criminals actually open the machine and install a skimmer with a secondary keypad and then close it up and wait for the information to roll in.

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