Remember all of the reports on the news about Nigerian princes with extensive bank accounts. Poor grandmothers and unsuspecting marks across the Internet were duped into wiring money into an account in hopes of striking it rich.

While these types of attacks have decreased over the past couple of years, there are still people out there trying to fool you into wasting your money. They might not be as obvious as the Nigerian prince example, but the new breed of scammers seem to be incognito graduates of online doctorate programs in influence and manipulation.

Money Schemes

Scammers are tricking intelligent people into giving up there hard earned money for absolutely nothing in return. These scams usually include anonymous wire transfers and pre-written checks to PO Boxes and other non-permanent addresses. Besides the prevalent Nigerian prince scam; Craigslist con-artists are masters of not living up to promises and requesting money up front.

Make sure to never give your credit card number out via email, don’t send personal information about your family members, and don’t ship any of your possessions to strangers without receiving payment up-front.

Job Schemes

Craigslist has become an efficient way to find local work, jobs, and careers from local businesses. By using the job board offered on their website, you do not have to wade through endless corporate questionnaires or have your resume left in an inbox for a month before a corporate recruiter calls you. With the ease of use of the job board, there are plenty of people who want to take advantage of you.

Some people might be claiming to offer freelance work, but will want samples before giving you any compensation. Some companies take these so called “samples,” and use them in order to profit their own business. According to PC World, there was a man who manipulated 79 people into working a fake job, with seemingly real work, all in order to impress a woman.

There are multi-level marketing companies all across the country, and even Europe, which promise entry-level management positions, but suck you into door-to-door sales. These organizations act like a gigantic pyramid scheme, go under the guise of marketing firms, and use cult-like tactics to keep you in the organization.

These schemes are unfortunate because otherwise willing and skilled people are deterred from using Craigslist as a job source.

How to Stay Safe on Craigslist

Craigslist’s own personal safety website outlines several tips for staying safe while using their classified advertising service. Make sure you are able to meet with the people you are dealing with locally, and meet in a public place like a restaurant or large office. Tell someone you are going to meet someone online, or have a friend join you. Also, make sure to receive payment before shipping valuables, or simply have people come get it themselves.

The most important rule to remember about Craigslist is that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Why would a member of the Nigerian royal family want to share their wealth with some anonymous bloke from Yonkers, New York or East York, Ontario.

These injunctions are widely recognised in common law jurisdictions and such orders can have world-wide effect.  Similar provisions are now available in the rest of Europe, under Article 9(2) of the European Union Directive on the enforcement of intellectual property rights, which was approved in April 2004.

The injunction is often granted ex parte and pre-trial based on affidavit evidence alone.  A Norwich order sometimes precedes the Mareva Injunction.  A Mareva Injunction is often combined with an Anton Piller order. The combination of a Mareva Injunction and an Anton Pillar order can be devastating to a business or professional person by freezing assets and revealing proprietary processes and data to competitors. However, this does prevent a foreign company from removing its assets from the country before a trial can take place. Today’s telecommunications makes moving assets almost instantaneous. The Anton Pillar order prevents the destruction of evidence before trial.

A Norwich order is a pre-action discovery mechanism.

In Norwich Pharmacal Co. v Customs and Excise Commissioners [1974] AC 133, the owner of a patent knew that infringing goods were entering the UK, but could not ascertain the identity of the goods. The Commissioners, in the course of performing their duties, had information that would identify the imports.  Also, they had unknowingly played a part in facilitating importation of infringing goods. The House of Lords found that where a third party had become involved in unlawful conduct, they were under a duty to assist the person suffering damage by giving them full information and disclosing the identity of wrongdoers. If the third party bears expense in assisting compliance with an order, the person seeking assistance is bound to reimburse those expenses. That expense however would be reflected in an award of damages against the ultimate tort-feasors, and this be recovered after the final hearing.

Canada and the Norwich Order

The Court in Isofoton S.A. v. Toronto Dominion Bank, outlined five elements that a court should consider before granting a Norwich order.

(i) Whether the applicant has provided evidence sufficient to raise a valid, bona fide or reasonable claim; (The standard required is that the claim
is not frivolous or vexatious.)
(ii) Whether the applicant has established a relationship with the third party from whom the information is sought such that it establishes that the third party is somehow involved in the acts complained of; (The Court confirmed that a bank in receipt of allegedly fraudulent funds will be considered an innocently-involved third party.)
(iii) Whether the third party is the only practicable source of the information available; (The victim is not required to approach the alleged wrongdoer for the information. Often, financial institutions are the only real source of the information required to prove a claim and locate fraudulently transferred assets.)
(iv) Whether the third party can be indemnified for costs to which the third party may be exposed because of the disclosure, some [authorities] refer to the associated expenses of complying with the orders, while others speak of damages; (The Court in Isofoton rejected the argument that an undertaking as to damages was required, stating that it was difficult to envision a situation in which a financial institution that is subject to a Norwich order would be subject to liability and a damages award for disclosing financial information. The Court further advised that should a concern materialize on the facts of a specific case, the financial institution has the added protection of being able to seek legal advice and return to court for further direction, if necessary.) and
(v) Whether the interests of justice favour the obtaining of disclosure. [emphasis added] (The courts are reluctant to protect the rights of wrongdoers if maintaining confidentiality in essence protects fraudulent acts.)

In Isofoton, the Court found that the alleged wrongdoer’s right to privacy did not outweigh the victim’s right to access the information required to pursue its legal remedies. The Court based its decision on the following three reasons:

• Confidentiality in bank records is not absolute, as the records are subject to disclosure by court order in a variety of circumstances.

• The use that could be made of the information ordered disclosed was restricted by the terms of the order.

• The wrongdoer, to the extent that it acted fraudulently, did not have a right to the protection of confidentiality normally afforded to bank records.

Liability & Indemnity

In the past, financial institutions have been held liable for breaching confidentiality obligations owed to their clients in assisting other financial institutions or wronged parties in instances of alleged fraud. The Norwich orders removes liability from financial institutions for responding to allegations of fraud made against a client. The financial institution may reasonably take the position that it will not disclose confidential information without a Norwich order compelling it to do so. The fraud victim must establish that a Norwich order is required and for the court to determine whether such an order ought to be granted.

Norwich orders allow financial institutions to assist fraud victims while also protecting their clients’ legitimate expectations regarding confidential information.

Usage in Canada

While a Norwich Order is normally associated with finding monies obtained through fraud, however, it may also be used to find an IP address. The Internet Service Provided may be presented with a list of IP addresses and required to deliver up the names and addresses of the individuals using those IP address at the designated times pursuant to the Norwich Pharmacal Order. This is becoming more common in cases of Internet defamation.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice allowed the issuance of a Norwich order in York University v. Bell Canada Enterprises.  The case is based on an allegedly defamatory e-mail about the President of York University, Mamdouh Shoukri, saying he had “perpetrated an outrageous fraud.” Bell Canada Enterprises and Rogers Communications Inc. were ordered to disclose the identity of the account owners.  A previous Norwich order had been approved against Google back in May 2009, which identified the two ISPs as the holders of the information.

Both Bell and Rogers had privacy policies protecting customer data, but these could be overridden by the Norwich order pursuant to s. 7(3)(c) of PIPEDA.

From media reports his entire background was a sham that would have been apparent had a proper due diligence process existed in the Tory party.

Victims believe someone they know and trust. Familiar and trusted people are better able to victimize through their own ignorance or stupidity, or through concealed malice. Never let down your guard against this menace.

The victim thinks laws, regulators, and other government mechanisms will protect them. Nobody gives a damn about the individual victim. Educate yourself. If you don’t understand the investment, then don’t give them your money.

Victims don’t check the background of the people involved. Don’t give your money to people without the appropriate education and employment history. Don’t give your money to people with a history of bankruptcy, law suits, criminal prosecutions, and name changes.

In June 2004, the Cantwell/Enzi amendment of a federal bill called FACTA finally permitted ALL identity theft victims access to the credit applications and the transaction records in accounts opened fraudulently in their names. The reality is that once an account has been identified as fraudulent, the credit issuer must provide application and transaction information to you and to the designated police, as long as you send a police report with your request. That law is FCRA section 609(e).”

After being caught due to the chance observations of a N.Y.P.D. Detective he worked by day for the U.S. Secret Service then went home and enriched himself using information from Secret Service investigations. He used information from government investigations to betray and set-up other hackers, all the while pocketing the money the other hackers paid him for credit card data.

The Secret Service let the fox into the hen-house for sure.

A very interesting read.

Accused Ponzi schemer won’t be prosecuted

According to a Sept. 30 memo written by Tencer’s lawyer, Lou Brzezinski, assistant Crown attorney Donna Gillespie told him the charges were dropped “because the courts were tied up with more serious criminal matters [such as rape and murder].”

Brzezinski, whose client invested more than $1.2 million with Erez, claimed Gillespie said that “court time and availability of judges were insufficient … and as a result, hard choices had to be made.”

The Crown also suggested another reason charges were withdrawn was because the victim should have known better.

Assistant Crown attorney Gillespie echoed that consideration when she appeared before court to have the charges withdrawn.

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.