Goodizen :: Scams

Canada's border agency has opened more than three dozen criminal investigations related to marriage fraud in the last few years, newly released documents show. The Canada Border Services Agency has also begun a probe of possible organized criminal involvement in arranging marriages of convenience to attain status in Canada. Information from the government's immigration case processing centre in Alberta revealed similarities among marriage sponsorships that led them to suspect phoney relationships. Citizenship and Immigration officials enlisted border services enforcement officers to investigate the cases in an effort known as Project Honeymoon. A Canada Border Services Agency officer stands behind Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney in July. Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press Overall, from 2008 through the end of the last year, the border agency opened 39 criminal investigations of suspected marriage fraud. However, the internal border agenc...

FAKE-BOOK: Coles supermarkets have warned customers about a scam on Facebook offering customers a $500 shopping voucher. Source: HWT Image Library SUPERMARKET giant Coles has become embroiled in a Facebook scam, which the chain yesterday warned customers to avoid. The scam involves an offer for a "Free $500 Gift Card for Coles" that requires consumers to share a link and provide their personal details. On its own Facebook page yesterday, Coles issued a warning that the gift card offer was not genuine. "Please be aware that these are a hoax and have no connection to Coles," the supermarket stated. "It's also a reminder to be careful when sharing personal details."

An Erie County Board of Elections Clerk considered the major person of interest in a case of ballot tampering may never be prosecuted by the Sheriff's Office or Erie County District Attorney. News 4 Senior Correspondent Rich Newberg has learned the Erie County Board of Elections clerk may lose his job, but that there may be insufficient evidence to prove he filled-in as many as fifteen absentee ballots with Chris Collins' name on them. The clerk, a democrat, who has contributed thousands of dollars to campaigns within his party during the last four years, is believed to have pre-marked the ballots before they were sent to homes in Lackawanna and Buffalo's Fillmore District. The motive is unclear, according to sources close to the investigation. Sources in the Sheriff's Office have said the clerk is not believed to have been working on behalf of either the Collins or Mark Poloncarz campaign. The actions may have been self-motivated, according to sources. New York State...

If you buy event tickets online, you could be the target of the latest scam to hit the Internet, according to the Better Business Bureau (BBB.) The fake emails appear to be from StubHub - a website that allows users to buy and sell tickets to sporting and entertainment events. The site's name is used to trick victims into providing personal information. "Scammers are consistently looking for new ways to con their victims," says Patrick Bennett, BBB Director of Community Relations. "Fortunately, they emailed this scam directly to the BBB which will help us alert the community and reduce the number of victims." The fake email claims a large purchase is pending on the victim's StubHub account, usually involving boxing tickets in Nevada. It goes on to tell the victim that he or she needs to log on to the site using an attached link to cancel the order. The link takes the victim to a fake site designed to steal username and password information. Once the vi...

Newt Gingrich has advocating reinstituting tests for voters that were outlawed by Civil Rights legislation. Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty Images Presidential candidate and angry white man Newt Gingrich seems nostalgic for the good old Jim Crow poll tax days: he has called for people to have to pass an American historical literacy test before they can vote. His colleagues on the anti-democratic right have not gone quite so far, but 38 states, most of them controlled by Republicans, are concocting all kinds of ingenious ways to suppress the vote. A new report from New York University's Brennan Center for Justice says that more than five million people – enough to swing the 2012 presidential election – could find themselves disenfranchised, especially if they're poor or old or students or black or Latino. Hyper-conservative governors and legislators, working with templates produced by a shady cabal called the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), have pushed through la...

As the Super Committee works away at a plan to cut over $ 1 trillion from the federal budget, a new poll shows that 83 percent of voters oppose cuts to Medicare and higher beneficiary copayments. The survey also found that about 70 percent of voters think that the government should do more to cut waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid spending. The poll of 1,000 voters was commissioned by Fight Fraud First , a coalition made up of groups including AARP that is urging the Super Committee to root out waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid before cutting funding for the programs or increasing copayments. It was conducted by Fabrizio, Ward & Associates and Greenburg Quinlan Rosner Research . Read More @ Source More Scandalous Stories Here

India's Scam With the figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore loss in 2G spectrum allocation being disputed, CAG Vinod Rai and other officials of the government auditor will be asked to appear before the JPC looking into the issue. The Joint Parliamentary Committee, which met today, decided to ask Rai, his deputy Rekha Gupta and other officials of the Comptroller and Auditor General to appear before it to explain how the auditor reached at the Rs 1.76 lakh crore loss figure in 2G radiowaves allocation. Former Director General of Audit (Post and Telecommunication) R P Singh could also be asked to appear as a witness before the panel. Singh was the lead auditor in 2G spectrum allocation issue and had reportedly disputed the loss figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore. Singh had reportedly said the losses were to the tune of Rs 2,645 crore. Congress member Manish Tewari is learnt to have raised the issue of differences within the CAG on the loss figure in the meeting and demanded calli...

The following is a statement by the American Small Business League: The Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA OIG) has named the diversion of federal small business contracts to large businesses as a top management challenge for the seventh consecutive year. The announcement came Thursday during a hearing of the House Small Business Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight and Regulations. Since 2003, a series of federal investigations have uncovered the diversion of billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts to corporate giants. This diversion has lead to a significant shortfall in the volume of federal contracts actually awarded to legitimate small businesses. The federal government has a congressionally mandated goal of awarding 23 percent of the total value of all contract dollars to small businesses. However, the government's database of federal small business contractors is crowded with names like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin a...

NEW DELHI: The CBI will oppose the bail of five corporate honchos in the Supreme Court which is to hear their petitions on Monday, in connection with the 2G scam, days after it did not object to the bail pleas of DMK MP Kanimozhi and four others in the trial court. Sources in the investigating agency confirmed that it has instructed the lawyer to oppose the plea of corporate executives - Unitech Wireless MD Sanjay Chandra, Swan Telecom Director Vinod Goenka and Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group executives Hari Nair, Gautam Doshi and Surrendra Pipara - who have approached the apex court for bail. Earlier the agency on October 24 did not oppose the bail plea of Kanimozhi, Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar, directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Asif Balwa, Rajiv Agarwal and Bollywood producer Karim Morani before a special CBI court here. It had, however, opposed bail plea of Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa and A Raja's former private secretary R K Chandolia in the trial court. ...

This frame is from a New York Times video that describes a billion-dollar disability-fraud case in which workers who claimed they were disabled played golf and tennis. Sometimes an eye-catching story might not, at first, appear to have a local angle — but it's such a talker that you've just got to find a connection. That was my reaction to the New York Times story Thursday about the arrests of former railroad workers in a suspected $ 1 billion disability-fraud case .  It's a well-told tale and the specifics, mined  from the charging documents,  are quite compelling: "One of the defendants, Gregory Noone, 62, of East Islip, N.Y., who receives $ 105,000 in pension and disability payments each year, plays tennis several times a week and played golf 140 days over the course of one nine-month period, despite his reports that he had severe pain when gripping objects, bending or crouching," the complaint filed in the case said. The complaint is pretty int...

By Stuart Pfeifer, Los Angeles Times October 31, 2011 Acne-fighting app — There are smartphone applications for just about everything, but one company went too far by claiming its app could clear up acne, the Federal Trade Commission said. The agency obtained a court order prohibiting AcneApp and AcnePwner from making acne-treatment claims. The apps were sold on Apple's iTunes store and the Android Market and claimed to treat acne with colored lights emitted from smartphones. The app sold for $ 1.99 on iTunes and 99 cents on the Android marketplace, the FTC said. Nearly 15,000 people paid for the app. Three people who marketed the apps settled an FTC lawsuit by agreeing to no longer market the products. StubHub email – Watch out for an email scam that looks like it came from the StubHub ticket site saying an order has been approved for tickets to a sporting event. If the recipient, who never placed the order, clicks on links in the message to sign onto his or her account...

Associated Press 4:40 p.m. CDT , October 30, 2011 EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill.— Federal sentencing will be early next year for a Missouri developer now that he's pleaded guilty to seven counts of wire fraud linked to a failed $ 5.6 million affordable-housing project in East St. Louis. Eighty-year-old Harold Rosen of Clayton, Mo., pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in East St. Louis. Authorities say Rosen admitted he provided cash to former East St. Louis community development director Arthur Johnson to get favorable treatment from the city. Federal prosecutors say Rosen used bogus documents in applying for bank loans, and that he provided fictitious invoices and waivers to the city and the agency that oversees the city's spending so he could get paid for work that he had not performed. Johnson pleaded guilty in May. He'll be sentenced Nov. 8. AP-WF-10-31-11 0017GMT Read More @ Source More Scandalous Stories Here

Acne-fighting app -- There are smartphone applications for just about anything -- programming your television's DVR, researching cocktail recipes or finding a Yelp-approved Thai restaurant within a mile. But one company went too far by claiming its app could clear up acne, the Federal Trade Commission said. The FTC obtained a court order prohibiting AcneApp and AcnePwner from making acne-treatment claims. The mobile applications were sold on Apple's iTunes store and the Android marketplace and claimed to treat acne with colored lights emitted from smartphones. The app sold for $ 1.99 on iTunes and 99 cents on the Android marketplace, the FTC said. Nearly 15,000 people paid for the app. Three people who marketed the apps settle a lawsuit with FTC by agreeing to no longer market the products. StubHub email -- Email inboxes are filled with danger. Click on a link in an email and you could add malicious software to your computer. People down on their luck may find bogus ema...

Scammed? Kris Humphries, pictured here on October 26 in LA, believes he was ripped off when he invested in a hedge fund it emerged today Kim Kardshian's basketball star husband Kris Humphries has allegedly been scammed by one of their wedding guests. He reportedly handed over cash to Boson-based hedge fund manager Audrey C. Hicks to take part in an investment scheme that turned out to be bogus. Hicks was one of 26-year-old Kris's guests at his Montecito nuptials with Kim, 30, in August, and Us Weekly suggest that he invested with the friend to convince his better half that he was doing some productive during the NBA lock out. The unattached basketball pro was supposedly one of scores approached by the 27-year-old, and they ended up collectively investing $ 1.7 million in a supposed billion-dollar hedge fund Locust Offshore Fund Ltd. Former NBA player Kris' representative told E!: 'Kris Humphries is a victim of an investment fraud. 'He is working with law enforcement...

A Mooresville man is among 11 people charged in a massive fraud scheme in which, according to The New York Times, hundreds of Long Island (N.Y.) Rail Road workers falsely claimed to have disabling injuries. Gary Satin, 62, appeared in U.S. District Court in Charlotte Thursday and is free on a $ 25,000 unsecured bond, pending an upcoming federal court appearance in New York. Satin is charged with attempt and conspiracy to commit mail fraud, according to a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, in Manhattan. Each defendant faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, The Times reported. Satin declined to comment when an Observer reporter went to his home Friday in the Cherry Grove subdivision off N.C. 150 East. Satin is a retired Long Island Rail Road electrician who annually receives at least $ 69,500 in combined pension and disability payments - "based on a disability he planned at least one year before its claimed onset,...

As I sit down to write this blog post, I’m activating areas of my brain necessary for providing me with the willpower I need to stop procrastinating -- no more checking out my Twitter feed -- and move into action. The left side of my brain’s prefrontal cortex is revving up the gas and getting my engine in motion, while the right side is holding me back from re-tweeting. A smaller brain region in the middle -- called the ventral medial prefrontal cortex -- has weighed my writing deadline against my temptation to do other things by sending a signal that I’d better get moving or I’m going to be in a panic later. All of this is an over-simplified explanation of what’s needed to exert self control. But I’d like to know what I can do to get more of it. How can I resist the temptation to go through all my friends’ Facebook vacation photos when I’m supposed to be reading the latest medical study? How can I learn to resist raiding the pantry in the middle of homework hour before dinner? Stanfor...

2G scam: CBI to oppose bail to corporate honchos in SC NEW DELHI: The CBI will oppose the bail of five corporate honchos in the Supreme Court which is to hear their petitions on Monday, in connection with the 2G scam, days after it did not object to the bail pleas of DMK MP Kanimozhi and four others in the trial court. Sources in the investigating agency confirmed that it has instructed the lawyer to oppose the plea of corporate executives - Unitech Wireless' MD Sanjay Chandra, Swan Telecom's Director Vinod Goenka and Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group's executives Hari Nair, Gautam Doshi and Surrendra Pipara - who have approached the apex court for bail. Earlier, the agency on October 24 did not oppose the bail plea of Kanimozhi, Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar, directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Asif Balwa, Rajiv Agarwal and Bollywood producer Karim Morani before a special CBI court here. It had, however, opposed bail plea of Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa and...

I saw Rajat Gupta once, at a Wharton School conference, moving through the crowd like a well-mannered panther. He had a nice laugh, and the kind of sleekness I tend to associate with actors, politicians, and TV evangelists. Presumably he's still like that now, perhaps minus the laugh. Facing as much as 105 years in prison for alleged insider trading can't be good for the mood, especially when you're almost 63. After a long and successful career as a corporate adviser, the former CEO of McKinsey, one of the world's most successful consultancies, has landed in about as bad a strategic position as you could imagine. Federal prosecutors claim that Gupta, as a director of Goldman Sachs and of Procter & Gamble, leaked information to his friend and business associate Raj Rajaratnam, the CEO of the Galleon Group of hedge funds, about key corporate developments right after he learned of them in his board meetings. The Feds have phone records, and the inconvenient fact t...

Did he, or didn't he? That is the question. A new film is reviving an age-old controversy, and bashing The Bard. It portrays William Shakespeare as a fraud who didn't really write all those remarkable plays and sonnets bearing his byline. Was Shakespeare a literary genius, or something quite different? As CBS News correspondent Seth Doane notes, his lines, such as "Parting is such sweet sorrow," are legendary. Who else could've described Hamlet's dilemma as, "To be or not to be? That is the question." There's no question Shakespeare is considered among the best playwrights ever. But, were "his" words really his? A theory that's persisted for more than a century within a small group of people is being catapulted to the big screen. Hollywood director Roland Emmerich chips away at 400 years of literary teaching in his movie "Anonymous," which just opened. "The more and more I read," he says, "the more I think t...

A new report says more than half the Long Island Rail Road workers who retired last year claimed they were disabled on the job and were thereby entitled to a bigger pension. The New York Times reports (http://nyti.ms/uVxqx1) that nearly all those claims were approved. That rate is much higher than in any other U.S. railroad system. Federal prosecutors charged 11 people on Thursday with conspiracy in a decadelong fraud that authorities say poisoned the pension system used by employees of the nation's largest commuter railroad. Authorities say some employees paid off doctors to say they couldn't work. The FBI says the fraud could cost more than $ 1 billion. The investigation was opened after The Times reported in 2008 that almost all LIRR workers were being declared disabled upon retirement.

A $ 1 billion disability scam pioneered by a one-time MTA board member helped hundreds of retired LIRR workers enjoy their golden years with an illegal gold mine. The massive ripoff steered more than 1,000 Long Island Rail Road workers to corrupt doctors who created bogus medical histories, letting the railroad robbers double-dip on their pensions, a federal complaint charged. Orthopedists Peter Ajemian and Peter Lesniewski were arrested Thursday for running "disability mills" that provided a monthly payoff to the healthy - and greedy - workers. The feds also busted Ajemian's office manager, Maria Rusin, who collapsed in Manhattan Federal Court at her bail hearing. In all 11 were charged. Their co-defendants, all arrested Thursday, include a former MTA board member/union president, a one-time official with the Railroad Retirement Board and a half-dozen ex-LIRR employees. "This was a game where every retiree was a winner," said Janice Fedarcyk, head of the FBI...

Improper claims for unemployment insurance in Wyoming have nearly quadrupled since 2008. The Wyoming Workforce Services Department documented $ 2.5 million in overpayments in 2010, up from $ 1.15 million in 2009 and $ 644,000 in 2009. The number of unemployment fraud cases jumped from 652 in 2008 to 2,012 last year. There were 811 such cases in 2009. Workforce Services Department Director Joan Evans says the poor economy and people failing to notify the state when they find work are the main reasons for the jump. Evans says in most cases people who receive overpayments say they don't understand how the program works, The department is making an effort to cut down on overpayments by educating employers and workers about how to avoid overpayments. Despite the increased amount of money paid out in 2010, Evans said Wyoming's unemployment insurance fund is solvent. Read More @ Source More Scandalous Stories Here

Federal authorities raided Los Angeles-area pharmacies Thursday, arresting 16 people in an alleged $ 18 million scheme to defraud Medicare that included the recruitment of veterans, homeless people, the poor and elderly. A federal criminal complaint contends a doctor at Manor Medical Imaging Clinic of Glendale wrote prescriptions for anti-psychotic drugs. The drugs, which included Abilify, Seroquel and Zyprexa, were billed to Medicare and Medi-Cal but didn't go to those recruited for the scheme. Instead, the drugs were allegedly sent to black market wholesalers and then funneled to the San Gabriel Valley pharmacies, where they were repackaged so they could be re-dispensed. Some Medicare beneficiaries had their identities stolen for use in the scheme. As a result, some people were later denied coverage for drugs they needed, authorities said. The main pharmacy named in the complaint -- Huntington Pharmacy in San Marino -- had fewer than $ 45,000 in Medi-Cal claims in ...

A federal jury on Friday convicted the former chief accounting officer for Beazer Homes USA on charges related to a seven-year fraud conspiracy at the troubled company. Michael Rand of Alpharetta, Ga., faces up to 125 years in prison, the U.S. attorney's office for the Western District of North Carolina said. Rand was convicted of leading a conspiracy that involved falsifying reported profits, books and records at Beazer; lying to the homebuilders' auditors; and deceiving the public about earnings. Rand, 48, and lead attorney Edward T.M. Garland of Atlanta could not be reached for comment Friday. Rand is out on bond until sentencing. A date has not been set. "Our free markets are dependent on the honesty and integrity of the people who manage our publicly traded corporations," David Brown, first assistant U.S. attorney in the Western District, said in a statement. "When senior executives like Rand put personal gain ahead of their responsibility to investors...

An office manager at the center of a massive Long Island Rail Road disability fraud was released on bail Friday over the objections of prosecutors. Maria Rusin, 55, worked for one of the doctors charged in an estimated $ 1 billion scam. "She was at the core of the fraud," Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Weddle told a Manhattan federal magistrate. He argued that she was likely to flee the country because she owned property her husband's native country, Croatia, and in her native country, Uruguay. Her lawyer said it was investment property. Rusin first appeared in court on Thursday along with seven LIRR employees and her boss, Dr. Peter Ajemien, but her hearing was delayed when she fell ill. Rusin and Peter Lesniewski, 60, a Rockville Centre orthopedist also arraigned Friday on charges stemming from the scam, were both released on $ 750,000 bail. Read More @ Source More Scandalous Stories Here

AN OFFICE MANAGER at the center of a massive Long Island Rail Road disability fraud was released on bail yesterday over the objections of prosecutors. Maria Rusin, 55, worked for one of the doctors charged in an estimated $ 1 billion scam. "She was at the core of the fraud," Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Weddle told a Manhattan federal magistrate. He argued that she was likely to flee the country because she owned property her husband's native country, Croatia, and in her native country, Uruguay. Her lawyer said it was investment property. Rusin first appeared in court on Thursday along with seven LIRR employees and her boss, Dr. Peter Ajemien, but her hearing was delayed when she fell ill. Rusin and Peter Lesniewski, 60, a Rockville Centre orthopedist also arraigned yesterday on charges stemming from the scam, were both released on $ 750,000 bail. More Scandalous Stories Here

Boxing fans know of the upcoming boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas pitting welterweights Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez. It promises to be a spectacular show. But many people in the Tampa Bay area and across the country who aren't going to the match are getting an email that looks like an order confirmation from the ticket broker, StubHub. The email says the recipient's credit card is about to be charged $ 2,766 for two tickets to the fight. Authorities say the email is a fake and a classic scam designed to get people to reveal their financial information. "Do not click on the link on the email. If you do, you are compromising your personal information and putting it in the hands of a criminal out there," said John Zajac of the Better Business Bureau of West Florida. StubHub has been getting hundreds of calls about the email. "Our customer service lines have been inundated and it's not just us that has been affected," said Glenn ...

The former chief accounting officer for Beazer Homes was convicted of fraud Friday. Michael T. Rand, 48, of Alpharetta, Georgia, was found guilty by a federal jury of seven crimes relating to a seven year accounting fraud conspiracy at Beazer, according to a news release from the U.S. District Attorney's office for the Western District of North Carolina. The charges arise from an ongoing government investigation involving Beazer and its employees that began back in March of 2007. Beazer accepted responsibility for the charges and, in a deferred prosecution agreement, agreed to pay restitution of $ 50 million, according to the release. Rand was convicted of directing an accounting fraud conspiracy to falsify reported profits at Beazer by lying to Beazer's auditors, fraudulently achieving earnings targets, falsifying Beazer's books and records, and deceiving the public by boosting and lowering earnings at Beazer. Rand was indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2010...