Archive for the 'Fraud' Category

Craigslist Scam Fighting

Top Craigslist scams and how not to be bamboozled

Craigslist does offer very sensible advice on how to recognize and avoid scams. The problem is many victims apparently don’t heed the advice. Don’t want to become one of these poor schmucks. Then pay careful heed.

Exposing scam artists who use Craigslist

I created this blog site to expose the scam artists, crooks, and their tactics that prey on honest hard working people on craigslist. I encourage you to share your stories and experiences with other people so that we may better serve the craigslist community, by making it a safer place.

The Canada Revenue Agency warns Canadians of mail scam

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is warning taxpayers to beware of a recent scam where some Canadians are receiving a letter fraudulently identified as coming from the CRA and asking for personal information. The letter is not from the CRA. A PDF version of the letter is available on the CRA Web site at www.cra.gc.ca/alert.

Fake Bank Record Scam

Ex-cop, wife accused of faking bank records

Police say duo reeled in clients by claiming ex-spouses, relatives stashed money offshore

Cullen Johnson was a top Toronto cop.

Elaine White was a dogged investigator at a downtown accounting firm.

Now the husband and wife team of private detectives are accused of forging and selling bank records that make clients believe an ex-spouse, friend or employee has millions of dollars stashed offshore…

This is a case where the victims should have known what was on offer was too good to be true.

Secret sources always introduce reliability problems into an investigation or research project.

For example, is the source lying; does the source even know what he’s talking about; is the information old; and is this a trick of some kind? Is the secret source doing something illegal to obtain the information? Is the data fabricated?

Open sources, on the other hand, can be fact-checked in real-time through multiple sources. Open sources can be properly identified and the collection method can be explained fully.

Twyman’s Law

Remember, Twyman’s Law states:

Any piece of data or evidence that looks interesting or unusual is probably wrong!

Ponzi Schemes

Ponzi schemes fall apart for two reasons. First, new investors disappear due to tight economic conditions and secondly, current investors want to withdraw their money  due to turmoil in the market. When this happens, the bottom falls out on these scams and there is no more money to pass on to the earlier investors. This leads to the crook grabbing whatever money was left before going on the lam.

Process Server Fraud Destroys Business

Process Server Falsifies Affidavits of Service

Angus McEachern, a former process server for Minnesota based Major Legal Professional Process Serving is now facing trial for perjury for creating nearly 200 false affidavits of service.

As a result of this case John Bauer, the owner of Major Legal and  a professional process server for almost twenty years, is now dissolving the business due to the complete destruction of his local reputation.  “The defendant had been fully trained in process serving, but simply made the decision not to do his job. He was lazy; that’s what it comes down to,” Bauer said.

In my experience, this is not an isolated incident — this is more common than you might think.

Security Clearance Investigations Falsified

I noticed a post on The Daily Caveat about Investigators lying in the reports they submitted to the US Office of Personnel Management, which handles the background inquiries for more than 100 US government agencies. It is alleged that Investigators lied about interviews they didn’t conduct to earn more money. Some of the Investigators were working for contractors U.S. Investigation Services and Kroll.

For more details go to the The Washington Post article.

Business Identity Theft

Previously, I’ve written about businesses having their identity stolen to commit frauds. This problem has existed for quite some time according to a 2004 LawPro article titled Corporate Fraud: identity theft with a difference.  This article outlines how a corporation’s filings may be altered and a false minute book created to defraud a company of its real estate holdings.

This situation is from Ontario, Canada, but it probably applies to many jurisdictions.

The Minority Opinion

Jon Lowder at CI Marketplace writes that Lenny Fuld highlights the value of the contrarians in our midst when he explains why he’d like to meet a character in the Madoff mess:

No matter how certain, how comfortable you may be with an answer, a popular answer, an answer that comforts or confirms, you need to pay attention to … the minority and taking them seriously.

If you don’t like the content of a minority opinion, then find out if it is right through independent and impartial research!

Reformed Fraudster’s Top Ten Tips to Avoid Scams

In October 2003, David Alexander was convicted of fraud. Today, Alexander is a reformed sinner, who tries to help companies avoid fraud. His top ten tips are a well thought-out guide to avoiding scams.

Alexander also maintains an interesting digest of fraud  news called The Fraud News Network.

Madoff and Due Diligence

The following post is an excellent example of how a disciplined due diligence process saved an investor from ruin.

If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?

Actually, the formulation of that headline that I prefer these days is the famous inversion by the Nobel economist Paul Samuelson: “If you’re so rich how come you’re so dumb?”

And yes, that brings us promptly to the Bernard Madoff scandal.

But this week Barron’s brings us one: “Living to Tell About Madoff,” an interview with James Hedges (not, I assume, a stage name, although in the circumstances it ought to be), “president and founder of LJH Global Investments in Naples, Fla., who has invested billions in hedge funds and private equity since 1990 through relationships with numerous hedge funds.”

Eleven years ago, Hedges spent two hours meeting with Madoff in his New York office planning to invest a few billion dollars of his clients’ money. He walked out without a deal.

Here are some of the reasons why…

Craigslist Crooks

We have seen our share of weird cases involving Craigslist, but nothing like these: Continue reading ‘Craigslist Crooks’

Business Identity Theft

Infamous hacker Kevin Poulson paid the defaulted Yellow Page accounts of escort services to get their defunct telephone numbers reactivated. He collected the profits and when the police became interested, only the original advertiser was on record with the telephone company. I once saw this done in a home renovation scam.

In Cynthia Hetherington’s excellent book, , she tells of a group of crooks who moved into an office recently vacated by an insurance company. They took-up the old phone number and began selling insurance.

When new policy holders complained about bad service to the insurance company’s head office, the scam was revealed, but the crooks had moved on.

It’s not just people who have their identity stolen.

Cheque Washing and Pens

Handwritten documents are important to any Investigator or Researcher as they are either creating them, or reading them. Archives throughout the country are full of original handwritten documents of value to researchers.

The age of the ubiquitous ballpoint pen began in the 40’s and this has caused some problems for archivists as so many companies strove to create inexpensive ballpoint pens. The problem has become one of education. The pen may write, but the ink may fade over time, or be vulnerable to water and other solvents. UV light and poor quality paper also do a fine job of obliterating cheap ink from poor quality ballpoint pens. The forgers art of cheque-washing in the following examples illustrate what can happen to documents that encounter solvents. Continue reading ‘Cheque Washing and Pens’

Man Faked Blindness to Get on the Dole

False blind man caught out during car check: report - Yahoo! News: “ROME (AFP) - A 70 year-old Italian man who had been pretending to be blind for 40 years to get an invalid’s pension was arrested as he drove his car, Sky TG24 television said Thursday.

The ‘particularly nervous’ man was stopped during a routine road check in the northern city of Spezia and could not provide a driving licence, city police chief Massimo Giaramita said.

‘Then we checked his medical record and were amazed to find that he was registered as 100 percent blind,’ Giaramita said.0

He had been claiming an invalidity pension and other benefits from his former employers for 40 years, the report said.”

Norwich Order as a Pre-Trial Remedy in Fraud Cases

An article by John Polyzogopoulos, a partner of Blaney McMurty LLP, in the January 2008 edition of the Commercial Litigation Update explains a Norwich order can help victims of fraud determine what happened to the money.

The recent decision of Justice James Spence in Isofoton S.A. v. The Toronto-Dominion Bank should be of interest to anyone who suspects they may have been the victim of fraud. In that case, Justice Spence granted a Norwich order to obtain the banking records of a party suspected of defrauding the applicant of over $3 million. The unique nature of the disclosure order was that it was directed not to the alleged fraudster, but to the fraudster’s bank. The disclosure order was made to assist the applicant in investigating the fraud and determining what happened to its funds.

The article also illustrates the need for due diligence research prior to entering into an agreement with a previously unknown supplier. Once the victim realised that the supplier was not acting in good faith, they hired a PI who determined that the the supplier was a company without the assets necessary to deliver the contracted goods.