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.

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....

Thursday 31st January and....guess whose web site is down?

these MP's are as bad as the common fraudsters today, and these MP's help govern the laws of the land. Its Hyprocracy in democracy

Over the last few days many MP's have been calling for more clarity from the Banks and other Financial institutions. Pot/ Kettle springs to mind.

For a hundred and one sound reasons I am not going to post the names up here, but it might be that I've come across a couple of rogues!

Does anyone know of any web sites where it might be possible to dig a little into their previous activities? I've tried Googling with little success.

Sorry to sound so enigmatic - but I was schooled in the Ian Hislop school of damage limitation - allegedly !!

TP

:-)

If it is help you need, I am your man with something like this. I love a bit of gossip, intrigue and a spicey story and, as an expert, competition winning Goggler, you are welcome to send me a MAM private e-mail on it. Most of all though, I am passionately anti-rogue. I will report back to you with my findings in due course.

Furthermore, you can trust me with the secrecy of it because I am a trainee gynaecologist.

Exec,

I guess that if a gyno can't keep a secret there's no hope for the rest of us looking at life from a different angle.

I don't think your private mail thingie is live. Do you want to send me one?

TP

In the post 446, what does the abreviation CON stand for?

Once towards the end of working life I employed my wife as my secretary. After a month or two my office and place of work became so efficient that I realised I was redundant and retired.

TP

Sorry. My e-mail thingy is now live.

Exec,

I'll send you something tomorrow.

TP

From http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Husband and wife MPs claim expenses to dodge death tax
Another Tory scandal as MPs Nicholas and Ann Winterton claim 30,000-a-year rent on home they bought outright in 2002

By SIMON WALTERS, GLEN OWEN, DENNIS RICE, BRENDAN CARLIN and JASON LEWIS
Last updated at 23:07pm on 2nd February 2008

A husband-and-wife MP couple have claimed 165,000 in Commons expenses for their 700,000 second home six years after they paid off their mortgage.
Tory politicians Sir Nicholas and Ann Winterton switched their fashionable London apartment to a family trust and used their parliamentary allowances to avoid death duty.

Using a loophole in Commons rules, they claim more than 30,000 a year in "rent" from the public purse, which is paid to a family trust set up for their two children.



Re: Picture above - Honour: Sir Nicholas Winterton collects his knighthood in 2002, accompanied by wife and fellow MP Lady Ann

The extraordinary arrangement has allowed them to benefit in two ways.

Their family has obtained 165,826 in "rent" for a home which they bought outright in 2002. And they stand to make a saving of up to 280,000 in their death-duty liability.

Sir Nicholas yesterday insisted he had done nothing wrong and that the "rent" payment and the family trust deal had been approved by the Commons authorities.

However, he said it was drawn up before checks on handouts for MPs' second homes were tightened up and would probably not be allowed if it had been put forward now.

He said: "I am not dishonest. We don't own the flat, because once it is handed over, it becomes the property of the beneficiaries of the trust [his children].

"I see nothing unethical or wrong in it. It was agreed by the Commons Fees office I happen to rent a property that I bought outright."

Sir Nicholas explained that the couple paid off their mortgage on their apartment in Rowan House, Greycoat Street, Westminster, in 2002 with the proceeds of a legacy and an insurance savings policy.

The latest disclosures about MPs' expenses come only days after Conservative MP Derek Conway was forced to step down for employing his sons as paid Commons aides while they were full-time students.

The revelations concerning the Wintertons are bound to provoke a wider debate about inheritance tax, as well as MPs' expenses.

The Conservatives' vote-winning pledge last October to raise the death-duty threshold to 1million forced Gordon Brown to call off a snap autumn Election.

As a result, the Prime Minister changed the existing threshold of 300,000 per person to 600,000 per couple.

Tax laws make it virtually impossible for most people to avoid death duty on their home which is usually their biggest asset.

To do so, if they carry on living in the home, they must transfer ownership to their children and pay a full market rent.

For couples of retirement age and with little income and certainly no expenses it is generally unaffordable.

That means their children can be saddled with a 40 per cent tax bill on the property when their parents die.

However, the Wintertons, who are both in their 60s, were able to use their Commons Additional Costs Allowance (ACA) to reduce the inheritance tax on their London home to nil.

The arrangement is designed to remove the house completely from their estate for death-duty purposes.

Based on its estimated value of 700,000, the Wintertons' grown-up children, Sarah and Andrew, could save as much as 280,000 in inheritance tax.

Macclesfield MP Sir Nicholas and his wife, MP for Congleton, also own a 600,000 farmhouse in Cheshire, appropriately named Whitehall Farm, which has separate stables and borders their neighbouring constituencies.

Tax expert Maurice Fitzpatrick, of accountants Grant Thornton, said: "It is very difficult for a typical homeowner to hand their property on to their children free of inheritance tax because of the restrictive way in which death duty legislation works.

"I'm sure that many people would wish to be able to do so, but generally the inheritance-tax rules prevent them from doing so."

The Commons second-home allowance was originally designed to allow MPs to have bases in their constituency and also close to Parliament.

But strict rules to avoid the ACA being abused say: "You must avoid any arrangement which may give rise to an accusation that you are, or someone close to you is, obtaining an immediate benefit or subsidy from public funds.

"The ACA must not be used to meet the costs of a mortgage or for leasing accommodation from: yourself; a close business associate or any organisation or company in which you or a partner or family member have an interest."

MPs have to submit mortgage or rent bills to claim the money. The Wintertons would have been unable to do this when they paid off the mortgage on their Westminster home in February 2002.

They would have been restricted to claiming a modest sum to cover utility and other bills.

But they claim that by giving the home to a trust, they are no longer the owners and must pay a market rent to the trust, regardless of the fact that they are two of the three trustees.

The third trustee is Hugh Carslake, a lawyer who specialises in tax planning, trusts and estate planning for Martineau Johnson law firm of London and Birmingham.

Last night, Sir Nicholas, 69, said: "My arrangements are entirely in accordance with the rules of the House.

"It is very simple. I pay rent to the trust. I am entitled to claim for the costs of living in London."

He admitted the couple had spent some of the cash from the trust on kitchen and other repairs.

Land Registry documents dated August 1991 show that the couple owned the London home and had a 195,000 mortgage with the Cheshire Building Society.

They were paying 2,381 a month to service it.

Another Land Registry document, dated February 2002, shows that the property was transferred from the Wintertons to the trust for no money.

When The Mail on Sunday first approached Sir Nicholas as he emerged from his London home yesterday, he ran off to avoid answering questions.

Refusing to break stride, he said: "It's very simple, I pay rent on the property."

Asked to whom he was paying that rent, he replied: "To the trust. I am entitled to claim for the costs of living in London.'

Asked later in the day in his constituency if he had spent any of the money since the trust was set up in 2002, he said: "Yes, we have to meet the cost of council tax, utilities, new carpets and suchlike.

"The trust money can be spent on structural repairs to the flat much like any landlord.

"The rent for the flat was set by an independent surveyor estate agent.

"It is the same that is paid by anyone else in the block.

"If we didn't live in that flat, we would be entitled to claim rent on somewhere else in London.

"We do not claim anything for our place here [in Cheshire], you know.

"What we are claiming in London is what we are entitled to.'

He added: "A lot of people claim more I am in the bottom 40 of MPs who claim."

Asked who were the end beneficiaries of the trust, Sir Nicholas replied: "That is private."

Asked "Is it your children or is it you?", he said: "It is not ourselves. That is all I am prepared to say."

He claimed other MPs with second homes in London had made similar arrangements.

The third trustee of the couple's London flat, Hugh Carslake, confirmed that Sir Nicholas and Lady Winterton owned the property outright when they transferred it to the trust in 2002 after paying off their mortgage.

He maintained that the flat was now owned by the trust, not the Wintertons, which is why they paid rent to the trust.

When it was pointed out that the Wintertons were two of the three trustees (with Mr Carslake the third), he said: '"It is perfectly straightforward. They no longer own the house.

"If you own a property, there is nothing to stop you giving it away.

"They transferred it to a trust of which they are not the beneficiaries."

He refused to say who the beneficiaries were.

Mr Carslake added that the main purpose of setting up the trust was to enable the Wintertons to reduce their inheritance-tax liability so that they could hand over a bigger share of their wealth to their children.

When asked if the Wintertons had spent any of the trust money, Mr Carslake said that as far as he knew, they had not.

Both the Commons authorities and the Conservative Party declined to comment.

From http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Second Tory MP caught in Commons staffing row after employing daughter, ex-wife and ex-lover's girl
By GLEN OWEN
Last updated at 23:00pm on 2nd February 2008

A second Tory MP was dragged into the row over Commons staff last night for employing his lover's daughter when she was still a sixth-form pupil.

Ashleigh Sharp has been Bob Spink's parliamentary assistant since 2006, when she was just 17 and enrolled at a sixth-form college in Benfleet, Essex.

Miss Sharp, the daughter of Mr Spink's former partner, Gail Boland, is now paid more than 5,000 a year by the MP despite also being a student at Buckingham University.



Re: Picture above - 'Excellent value': Bob Spink (left) assures taxpayers their money was well spent in giving Ashleigh Sharp (right) a part-time job

Mr Spink's taxpayer-funded payroll also includes his ex-wife, Janet, whom he divorced in 2002 and who now carries out her duties from Dorset, and his daughter, Charlotte.

The Mail on Sunday has established that Miss Sharp received 1,218 from the Commons authorities in January 2006, when she was 17 years and four months old, a further 936 in March that year and then 750 in July.

Miss Sharp was appointed while Mr Spink's relationship with Ms Boland, a Tory councillor, was ongoing, but the pair have now split up.

Last night, Miss Sharp confirmed she had worked two-and-a-half days a week in Mr Spink's Commons office when she was 17, adding: "At the moment, I'm doing weekends, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, so that's five days a week a working week."

She refused to answer further questions about how she juggled her work and studies.

Mr Spink, the MP for Castle Point in Essex, said: "The public have got excellent value for money from all my staff, including Ashleigh.

"She is no relation but her mother and I became close friends some time after my split from my wife.

"She is at university for two half-days a week. She attends to constituency work while I am at Westminster and does work at my Westminster office when necessary.

"She works on average for two days a week more during vacations and less during term time, which is reflected in her varying monthly pay. She has never worked full-time.

"Her total pay for 2007/08 is 5,500, equivalent to an annual salary of 15,000 [had she been full-time]."

Mr Spink said he had ensured that all his staffing arrangements were legitimate and said he would campaign for more transparency over MPs' allowances.

He said he continued to employ his ex-wife, despite her move to the West Country, because she was a "professionally qualified secretary and PA".

"I got specific clearance from the Fees Office for her continued employment, in Dorset. This arrangement is widely known in my constituency," he added.

He also employs his daughter, Charlotte, on a casual basis and paid her 4,400 in the past financial year.