Reports of frauds, deceptions and scams keep appearing, weekly even daily, on
major news channels and newspapers. Some of these frauds seem just too big and remote to be of immediate, direct relevance to our daily lives. But, we will eventually pay for the consequences and damages, in taxes, costs of goods and services, regulations, copy-cats etc.

I hope we can collect, in one thread, frauds and scams, reported or heard. We must become more aware and more educated to guard against frauds and scams
which impact upon the health, well being, and wealth of ourselves and our families.

Doc, why not complete with rubbish, preferably a worm as an attachment!

Shoplifter With A Millionaire Lifestyle
Updated: 13:43, Saturday October 13, 2007



A shoplifter who lives a millionaire lifestyle, wearing designer clothes and staying at the best hotels, is being hunted by detectives.

Wanted: Kevin CastleKevin Castle makes up to 1,000 a day and police say he is Britain's biggest shoplifter.

The 42-year-old is wanted by three police forces - Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Nottinghamshire - in connection with offences that include shoplifting, identity theft, interception of mail and money laundering.

Castle is described as white and 5'5" tall. However, he often wears blocks in his shoes to make him look around 2" taller.

He has mousey brown receding hair and always wears expensive designer clothes such as Armani, Luis Vuitton and Versace.

Police say he is known to frequent high-class establishments in London such as the Ritz, Claridges and the Dorchester Hotel.

It is believed that Castle is currently living in London in rented accommodation (possibly costing at least 1,000 per week).

Castle often uses hire cars and tends to favour large vehicles such as the Porsche Cayenne, VW Touraeg and Jaguars.

Detective Constable Anita Fishwick, of Lancashire police, said: "Mr Castle is quite distinctive because of his clothing and his millionaire-type lifestyle.

"We believe he may also be purporting to be an electrical engineer, alarm fitter and property developer.

"He has alleged himself to be the director of a business called '1st Global Enterprises' and acquired hire vehicles and services under this guise. Most of which has remained unpaid.

Castle oftern targets DIY stores and returns the stolen items with with forged till receipts.

He is featured on Lancashire Constabulary's Most Wanted website.

New one on me, not the normal Nigerian Scam!

Hello Dear Friend,


My name is Garry Williams, I am an artist with my wife Pia Wahlenberg and we are the owners of DaPia Art Gallerie and We live in Sweden, europe. I make original Sculptural Paintings and sell Limited Edition Prints. I create artwork that combines sculpture and painting using sheets of wood, metal, and glass to create depth.

I have sold in galleries and to private collectors from all around the world. I am always facing serious difficulties when it comes to selling my art works to my U.S and Canadian customers as they are always offering to pay with cheques and money orders, which is difficult for me to cash here in Sweden. It takes a minimum of four weeks to clear our banks here in Sweden as they are been treated as out of country cheques.

We are looking for a reliable and trustworthy representative in the States who will be working for me as a part time worker and I will be willing to pay 10% for every transaction, which wouldn't affect your present state of work. I need a representative in the United States who will be handling the payment aspect.

All the payments are in certified cheques or money orders and my customers will issue them (payments) in your name and send to you. So all you need do is to take the cheques to your bank and cash them, then deduct your 10% and wire the balance back to us in Sweden. This business will not cost you any amount of money, my customers will send payments to you through registered mail as soon as you receive the package just take these payments to your bank and have them cashed.


The following will be required of you once you show interest to work for me:

1. Your full name
2. Your complete address
3. Occupation
4. Age
5. Sex
6. Telephone number

IF INTERESTED, PLEASE REPLY TO: williams.garry88@gmail.com

We wish you good luck and happiness.



Friendly Regards,



Garry Williams.




Dapia Art Gallerie Sweden
EMAIL: williams.garry88@gmail.com

Wednesday, 12 December 2007, 18:07 GMT

E-mail this to a friend Printable version

OAP loses 16,000 in e-mail scam

Police are urging people to delete any emails that seem suspicious
An 80-year-old widow was conned out of 16,000 and almost re-mortgaged her home after falling for an e-mail scam.
The pensioner, from Bridgend, believed she would inherit $30m (14.6m) after receiving an e-mail saying she was the only relative of a dead businessman.

It said the wealthy German and his wife had died in a Concorde crash in 2000 about which she was later sent faked BBC news website reports.

Detectives from South Wales Police are investigating the scam.

Pc Steve Carpenter was contacted by the woman's daughter when she learned about the scam.

He said: "It said she had inherited $30m from a relative which was a wealthy German businessman and his wife who were killed in a Concorde crash in 2000."

You get a sick feeling in your stomach and loathing of these people

Pc Steve Carpenter

An email said the crash in which the woman's "relative" had died had happened in Monchengladbach, Germany. The actual Concorde crash in 2000, in which 113 people died, happened in Paris.

Pc Carpenter said the pensioner who was drawn into a dialogue with the scammers resulting in around 300 e-mails wanted to remain anonymous.

He said: "She's 80 years old but was quite internet aware, aware of junk mail but this one was quite well written, well presented and got her attention."

Over a month, the woman, who lives in Brackla in Bridgend, was told she had been traced as the only relative of the dead couple who had left her $30m in their will, said Pc Carpenter.

He said: "She sent various amounts totalling 16,000.The thing is she's drawn the money out willingly from her own bank so from the bank's point of view there is not a lot they can do."

After she had paid the scammers 16,000, she was told 10,000 more was required but the widow the said she did not have the money.

Date-of-birth

Pc Carpenter said: "They asked her could she re-mortgage her house. She said 'I need to tell my daughter' and they said 'don't tell your daughter, keep it quiet'."

However, the woman did tell her daughter who then contacted the police.

"You get a sick feeling in your stomach and loathing of these people" said Pc Carpenter. "I believe they did know her age as she had to pass on her date-of-birth and details to carry on the deception."

Pc Carpenter urged people not to fall for similar scams and said: "My advice is if in doubt, leave it out. If you suspect anything, don't open it, delete it.

"If it's suspect, it's suspect. If there's any element of doubt, if it seems too good to be true, it usually is."

He also advised anyone who receives a scam e-mail to contact Crimestoppers.

Bullshare,

Post # 431 is a money laundering scam, probably for drug money.

When the police follow the paper trail, guess who the patsy is that goes to jail?

NEW SCAM!
===========

I have held an account with a printing company in Holland, vistaprint.com, for a couple of years, and their service has been excellent, and their work and prices are second to none.

Today however, I recieved my CC statement, with two entries for " VPREWARDS.COM" and two chartges of 9.95.

I went into vprewards.com website, to find it is run by vistaprint.

I googled the vprewards.com and found several websites where this is being talked about as a scam.

I rang the phone number on the statement to complain, and they have already emailed me to say they have cancelled, and will return all the money within 28 days.

I really cannot understand why a company with such a good track record is involved in this tacky scam, and the fact they refund immediately surely makes it pointless?

Anyone with a vistaprint account should check their CC statement they use to pay with carefully this month!

Andy, If you have not done so already, inform your CCcomapny. In the past they jump on the account very quickly and block them from repeating.

I had this a year or so ago. As I remember it when you get your emailed invoice for an order there is a link to click to visit the rewards site. Unless you have all your wits about you at the time, you won't notice that by clicking it you are confirming that you want to pay to join the rewards club. In my case an email then arrived confirming that I had joined and I cancelled immediately.

I had some dealings with VistaPrint a few years ago, but not as a customer. Some companies and individuals you come across in life are clearly out to scam, and some are not, and some seem to occupy a strange grey-area in-between. I won't get into the details of my VistaPrint experience but here is a Google search.

They are heavily into affiliate advertising. They have a good number of people ready to defend them publicly. These two statements may or may not be related.

I have transfered this from a thread I started 2 days ago (Scams/Rip Offs).
Sorry if I trod on anyones toes. I did not know/remember we had this thread.
I have requested anyone who opens my thread to only post here.

Never yet fell for one of these scams/rip offs, but I have received the following.
Some scams are obvious but others, such as below are a bit more believable.



Clubseason.co.uk.

Letter by recorded delivery. Dear Mr .....
Congratulations!

I am delighted to confirm you have won a prize to the value of 3750, in the Internet Prize Draw Entry/grand Prize Draw.

To authenticate your claim lease contact Clare on 0800 448 448 between 12 noon and 8pm within 7 days from receipt of this letter, failure to do so will result in the loss of your prize.

Once again congratulations and we look forward to hearing from you.
You etc etc.

I enter many such prize draws so could not recall entering this one (in future I will keep a record), but as I could not be certain I put cubseaons into Google and it came up with a Scam Blogg where many people had received the same letter. It is a time share scam, to release your "PRIZE" there is a maintenance fee.
This is NOT a prize, it's the usual carrot to milk money from gullible people.
The difference of this scam from the normal is the recorded delivery, and the free 0800 telephone number.

Although any "PRIZE" letter that only gives you 7 days to claim must be dodgy.

I will continue to ring them several times a day for as long as I can be bothered , just to wind them up.

I also intend to send a copy of my "PRIZE" letter to watchdog and the Consumer Affairs Association. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/12/top_ten_scams.html although I doubt that Consumer Affairs will do anything.

Don't get taken in, Bite back.

At last: a Nigerian scam for all you quantum physicists.

I am Civ Opopekim, the only son of the late Professor Lawrence
Opopekim, of a much respected university in my country of NIGERIA,
who was dedicated to the study of RETROCAUSALITY. Upon examining my
father's scientific journals, I have discovered a matter of the most
URGENT importance to your future (and past) well-being. As most of
my father's work has not yet been published, I am counting on your
discretion in this sensitive matter.


In the course of research, my father discovered the photons created
in his experiments were entangled through QUANTUM MECHANICS with
photons found in your locale. Further study revealed the
break-through discovery of photon tilt patterns in the photons of
your area based on experiments planned but yet to be performed by my
father.


Alas since my father was poisoned to death with tainted YAK MILK by
scientists from rival laboratories who lured him to GENEVA under the
false pretense of a scientific conference, a financial situation has
arisen where I can no longer assure the continuation of his research
or the operation of his laboratory (it embarrasses me to admit this
sad truth).


As a person of science, you are aware that even changes at the
quantum level cause universes to take separate but parallel infinite
paths. I fear that if I am unable to continue my father's schedule
of experiments and therefore cause the photons in your immediate
area to not have tilted in the way they already have, the life you
have come to know and enjoy will cease to be and you will find
yourself in a parallel existence unfavorable to you.


To this end, and for the sake of your past and current self as well
as my father's research, I humbly ask you for the sum of US$10,000,
which will allow me to keep for father's laboratory open for a time
to carry out the scheduled experiments.


As an indication of your willingness, please forward to me your:
full name, company, full contact address, phone, cell, fax, city,
sate, zip code, occupation, SSN and all the necessary information
will be sent to you on the acceptance of this arrangement.

Terrible, poisoned with Yak Milk, its sad that you cant even trust your local yak milk supplier these days. What is the world coming too? Next time I am in Geneva I am defiantly not having any Yak milk.

I've been warning her indoors for years about too much yakking. -:)

Since 2001, MP Mr Conway himself has received 1.16million in salary and expenses - a figure which does not include his generous parliamentary pension.



The MP's wife Colette, who works 'legitimately' as his secretary, and their sons, Henry and Freddie, who their father claimed were 'Parlaimentary Researchers', have cost 374,401.73 in pay, bonuses and overtime since 2001.

Political rivals have demanded a police inquiry into the way Henry, 25, and 22-year-old Freddie Conway were paid more than 80,000 of public cash for apparently doing little work.

Yesterday Tory leader David Cameron effectively sacked the Old Bexley and Sidcup MP by withdrawing the party whip from him. Conservative sources made clear there would be no way back for Mr Conway and that he would cease to be an MP at the next General Election.



More at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=511202&in_page_id=1770

A phishing expedition for Kayak . . .

Subject: Aggiornamento dei servizi Bancaroma in linea


Gentile CLIENTE,


Nell'ambito di un progetto di verifica dei data anagrafici forniti durante la sottoscrizione dei servizi di Banca Di Roma e stata riscontrata una incongruenza relativa ai dati anagrafici in oggetto da Lei forniti all momento della sottoscrizione contrattuale.

L'inserimento dei dati alterati puo costituire motivo di interruzione del servizio secondo gli art. 135 e 137/c da Lei accettati al momento della sottoscrizione, oltre a costituire reato penalmente perseguibile secondo il C.P.P ar.415 del 2001 relativo alla legge contro il riciclaggio e la transparenza dei dati forniti in auto certificazione.

Per ovviare al problema e necessaria la verifica e l'aggiornamento dei dati relativi all'anagrafica dell'Intestatario dei servizi bancari.

Effetuare l'aggiornamento dei dati cliccando sul seguente collegamento sicuro:

Accedi a collegamento sicuro >>

Copyright 2000 / 2008 Banca di Roma - Privacy - Norme di trasparenza - Partita IVA 06978161005

Hope you didn't go for it MM, it's full of typos :-)

They always are, K, but this time I couldn't tell ;-)

A close friend of Tory MP, Derek Conway's son Henry is also on the payroll of the MP, it can be revealed today.

Michel Pratte, 23, is being paid 11,500 of taxpayers' money as a research assistant in the disgraced Tory MP's office - even though he is studying for a postgraduate degree.

Secret documents obtained by the Daily Mail show that Mr Pratte, a 6ft Canadian, works 17.5 hours a week for Mr Conway, despite also being a student at the London School of Economics.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of Mr Pratte. But the revelation of a third research assistant who is apparently a member of 'Conway and Co' could spark yet another probe into the MP's affairs.



More HERE

The following picture is taken from an article at

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=511401&in_page_id=1770

I would like quickly like to say that I do NOT consider there is anything wrong in MPs employing their wives to help them in any capacity they see fit. However, very clearly, Conway, was committing an abuse.

Yeah but........ have you seen the size of these people's expenses?

Its the expenses that should be really investigated, because its a licence to print money at the tax ayers expense.

I used to be Sales Director for a mid sized IT company. I travelled the depth and breadth of the country, often stayed in 4 and 5 star hotels, wined and dined clients at lunch and in the evenings - and my expense bill on average (not including petrol) was 6k a month - or 72k per year....

SOme of these guys are claiming in excess of 100k per yesr (which probably includes their petrol to be fair) - but somehow I just doubt they travel, wine and dine, and have expenses that large solely related to their job.

These guys/girls even get paid for having/renting a second residence in London - so its not as though they have to pay hotel bills.....

Indeed, many of these guys are buying second homes in London and then renting to themselves so they can claim expenses - effectively using tax payres money to buy to buy thier homes. ALso, they are using our money to effectively pay for their kids education...

These are the things that should be investigated, along with shell companies, family employees, whether they are funding their lifestyles in excess of doing their job....