scam

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'A Sinking Feeling': Men Get Letters About Their 'Secrets'

The FBI says it's a new breed of scam

(Newser) - "I know about the secret you are keeping from your wife and everyone else," the letter read. "More importantly, I have evidence of what you've been hiding." Jeff Strohl, resident of a wealthy Washington suburb, admits he wasn't too thrilled to read the July...

&#39;One of the Most Elaborate Scams to Ever Hit Hollywood&#39;
'One of the Most Elaborate
Scams to Ever Hit Hollywood'
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Jul 15, 2018 6:33 AM CDT

'One of the Most Elaborate Scams to Ever Hit Hollywood'

Con artists impersonate female execs and dupe victims into turning over money

(Newser) - It's a con job that sounds straight out of Hollywood—and this time, that is literally true. Scott Johnson of the Hollywood Reporter reveals a bizarre international scheme in which a very talented con artist impersonates some of the film industry's top female executives and dupes people out...

Facebook Pics Bust 'Despicable' $30K Scam of 'Cancer Patient'

Hanna Dickenson sentenced to 3 months in jail for fleecing people for money she used to party

(Newser) - An Australian woman who perpetrated a "despicable" scam when she was 19 is headed to jail for three months after being busted by her social media pictures. Per the BBC and News.com.au , Hanna Dickenson, 24, pleaded guilty to obtaining property by deception—meaning she pretended she had...

Beware This Scam Targeting Netflix Users

Email asks users to restart membership by clicking link

(Newser) - Pay extra attention to Netflix emails arriving in your inbox, because one may hide a scam. Police around the country are warning of a phishing scam included in an official-looking email asking Netflix users to restart their memberships, per ABC 11 . The email claims Netflix "could not validate the...

Rocker Faces 30 Years in Prison on Fraud Charges

Michael Davenport of The Ataris allegedly defrauded 100K people out of $27M

(Newser) - From hundreds of thousands of fans to 100,000 victims. The Santa Barbara Independent reports a pop-punk bassist is facing fraud charges and more than 30 years in prison over an alleged real estate scam. Prosecutors say Michael Davenport of The Ataris defrauded approximately 100,000 people in all 50...

Louisiana Man Arrested in Infamous 'Nigerian Prince' Scam

Michael Neu faces 269 counts of wire fraud and money laundering

(Newser) - You know that Nigerian prince who's always sending you emails promising to trade your bank account information for some sort of mysterious inheritance? Good news! They finally got him. OK, so Michael Neu isn't actually a Nigerian prince, but police say the 67-year-old Louisiana man bilked people out...

Couple Scammed Elderly Man Out of $3M to Live Big in Vegas

Hiep Cong Van, Thy Minh Phan sentenced to prison

(Newser) - A couple who scammed more than $3 million off an elderly Oregon resident are heading to prison after blowing their ill-gotten funds in Las Vegas, the Oregonian reports. The victim, identified only as RW, was a customer of 41-year-old Hiep Cong Van's landscaping business in Colorado but moved to...

They Dreamed About an NBA Future. Instead, They Got Scammed

Yearlong Fusion probe into prep school basketball reveals the common cons of the industry

(Newser) - They were young hoops shooters who paid more than $25,000 a year to attend what they thought was an elite basketball academy that would prep them for the NBA. What they got instead, per a deep dive at Fusion , was ripped off. It's a close look by Luke...

She Put Life Savings in a Bag, Came Home With Corn Starch

'New Yorker' looks at rising 'blessing scams' in Chinatown

(Newser) - It was a slick con. In Brooklyn's Chinatown, a small group of Chinese women working as a crew found their victim in another Chinese woman, this one a 61-year-old immigrant destined to lose her life savings in a "blessing scam." A story by Jiayang Fan in the...

Fed-Up Neighbor Offers Bounty on 'We Buy Houses' Signs

Within 48 hours, he'd maxed out on his $200 limit, at $1 per sign

(Newser) - You've seen 'em. The ubiquitous little signs that say "We Buy Houses" or something to that effect and pop up on street corners and utility poles. One man in Philadelphia got so tired of looking at them that he publicly offered a $1 bounty for every sign...

Billionaire Branson Reveals 2 Crazy Scams—and 1 Worked

Conman impersonates him, scores $2M from a Branson friend

(Newser) - Billionaire Richard Branson thinks one conman, apparently a master impersonator, is getting rich off his name. In a blog post , the Virgin Group founder reveals two scams in the last year, one of which worked and netted the con artist $2 million. "This story sounds like it has come...

Wife to Presidents, 'Mom' to Ivanka, or Maybe Just a Con

Madame Giselle has some stories to tell

(Newser) - “I’d never met anybody like her in my life,” Bob Underwood says. He says his neighbor, known as Madame Giselle, claimed to be the former wife of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and current secret wife of Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi. She told him she was...

&#39;Rotten Scam&#39;: NYC Food Fest Flops
'Rotten Scam':
NYC Food Fest Flops
Sep 13, 2017 10:22 AM CDT

'Rotten Scam': NYC Food Fest Flops

State probe launched into the 'Fyre Festival' of pizza

(Newser) - Pizza lovers are blasting a Brooklyn food festival that apparently wasn't what it was sliced up to be. Fans who trekked to a "shady parking lot" for the New York City Pizza Festival on Saturday say they paid up to $75 for tickets, only to receive slices that...

Radio Host Faces 45 Years in Prison on Fraud Charges

Craig Carton allegedly scammed investors out of $5.6M to pay gambling debts

(Newser) - “I thought he called in sick this morning, but unfortunately my partner was arrested,” former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason told listeners of WFAN's Boomer & Carton show Wednesday. The New York Daily News reports New York morning show host Craig Carton was arrested Wednesday and charged with...

'Legendary' Con Artist Accused of New Scam ... From Prison

Authorities say Jimmy Sabatino conned stores out of luxury goods over the phone

(Newser) - Prison appears to be doing nothing to change serial con man Jimmy Sabatino. The Miami Herald reports the "legendary" con artist pleaded guilty Friday to running a lucrative scam out of his cell at a federal facility in Florida. Authorities say Sabatino bought cellphones from corrections officers then used...

Taylor Swift&#39;s Ticketmaster Scheme Is a &#39;Scam&#39;
Taylor Swift's Ticketmaster
Scheme Is a 'Scam'
OPINION
Aug 29, 2017 1:28 PM CDT

Taylor Swift's Ticketmaster Scheme Is a 'Scam'

Critics are calling it 'pay-to-play,' 'almost a Ponzi scheme'

(Newser) - Taylor Swift and Ticketmaster have teamed up to help ensure tickets to her upcoming tour go to her biggest fans, not scalpers. That's so nice, right? Wrong. The complicated process, which utilizes Ticketmaster's new Verified Fan service, asks fans to buy Swift merch or promote her music on...

His Pal Rigged the Lottery. He Used Winnings for More Scams

But in ironic twist, Robert Rhodes himself was duped by insurer he sent his cash to

(Newser) - After Robert Rhodes collected a Wisconsin Lottery jackpot that had been rigged by a friend, he used the windfall for an investment scheme that produced more undeserved government money, court records show. Rhodes and Eddie Tipton, former security director for the Multi-State Lottery Association, recently pleaded guilty to rigging the...

Annie Lennox Has 'Potential' as Artist, per LA Radio Station

Singer posts weird letter she received telling her she has chance to be a star

(Newser) - What sweet dreams are really made of: receiving a letter from a radio station informing you that you might just have what it takes to become a big star. Of course, when the recipient of such a letter is ex-Eurythmics singer and four-time Grammy winner Annie Lennox, that kind of...

Bank CEOs Fooled by Notorious Email Prankster

No sensitive information was shared

(Newser) - Falling for a phishing scam is bad. Falling for a phishing scam when you're the CEO of a major bank, well, that's worse—and the unfortunate reality for Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein and Citigroup's Michael Corbat. The unsuspecting chief executives, along with Citigroup consumer-banking chief Stephen Bird,...

IRS Phone Scam's Mastermind Used American Accents

Man running bogus call centers busted, may have scammed Americans out of $300M

(Newser) - Indian police have nabbed the alleged mastermind behind an IRS scam that bilked Americans out of millions of dollars. Sagar "Shaggy" Thakkar, 24, was arrested in Mumbai on Saturday after a flight from Dubai, where he had been living since police raided nine call centers in October, CNNMoney reports....

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