Goodizen :: Scams

Conservative political pundit and former Macon City Councilman Erick Erickson was the victim Sunday of a hoax in which a prank caller phoned 911 and reported gunshots at Erickson's home. Erickson, a commentator for CNN and a columnist for The Telegraph, said Wednesday that he is the third political pundit to be the victim of "swatting," in which a prank caller calls law enforcement claiming that shots have been fired at the victim's home. In the previous two cases, Erickson said, police SWAT teams showed up at the victims' homes after midnight with weapons drawn. Erickson said there's a possibility that all three cases are related, since the other two pundits have also written recent commentaries about activist Brett Kimberlin, who was convicted for a series of bombings in Speedway, Ind., in 1978 and later paroled. Erickson said he has written pieces about Kimberlin on his Redstate.org blog and spoken about him on his WSB radio show. "I real...

New Delhi, May 29 ( ANI ): Union Corporate Affairs Minister Dr . M. Veerappa Moily on Tuesday said that the Reebok scam in which two former top executives are accused of fraud has been referred to the Serious Frauds Investigation Office ( SFIO ). "The Reebok investigation, it just came yesterday. I got a preliminary report. I think there is some prima facie case. We have referred the case to the SFIO (Serious Frauds Investigation Office) to make the further investigations," he told media on the sidelines of an event here. Reebok India had filed an FIR with the Gurgaon police last week alleging its former MD Subhinder Singh Prem and COO Vishnu Bhagat of Rs 870 crore fraud by indulging in "criminal conspiracy" and "fraudulent" practices over a period of time. The alleged fraud would be the most high-profile corporate scandal in India since 2009 when Satyam Computer's former chairman and founder Ramalinga Raju revealed that the company had...

A warning about a door-to-door salesman making a phony pitch in Omaha about soccer. A phony soccer player claiming to be raising money put one past Blaine Pearson. "I just want to give you a chance to donate so I can travel to Ireland to play soccer with Creighton to a tournament over there." Blaine gave the young man a $ 60 check and got a magazine receipt in return along with a promise of a return visit. "He said I can make these wheels sparkle is what he said." But the man, who wasn't wearing any Creighton logos, never came back. The goal for a Creighton official is to let everyone know the soccer team isn't taking a trip to Ireland and having players sell magazines door-to-door is not the way the university raises money for its athletic trips. "Be extremely skeptical and don't believe them, it's that simple," said Creighton University Associate Athletic Director Kevin Sarver. "Most of our fans know how we opera...

30 May 2012 Last updated at 11:47 ET East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) said hoax and "inappropriate" 999 calls in Lincolnshire cost the service £62,000 last year. The service said calls included somebody who wanted help defrosting a turkey and another who wanted to give staff a Christmas card. Steve Pratten, operational support manager, said figures were based on the £208 cost of dispatching an ambulance. Mr Pratten said the problem was increasing due to mobile phone use. Pet budgerigar EMAS, which covers the south bank of the Humber, said: "It's not only demoralising to our staff when they turn up to a hoax call but it has a negative effect on the rest of the public who might have to wait for an ambulance." Other examples included a crew called out to a breathing difficulties case who discovered the patient was a pet budgerigar. In another incident, someone called 999 because it was raining and they "did not have a coat....

A 47-year-old National City man was sentenced Tuesday to a year in federal prison and ordered to pay $ 9,606 in restitution after pleading guilty to transmitting two phony Mayday calls that sent the Coast Guard on rescue missions. Sean Berry admitted that while at his home he broadcast the phony messages on the maritime international distress and calling frequency. No motive for the hoaxes was announced. On Nov. 12, 2010, Berry transmitted a call claiming that three people on his vessel, including a child, were "jumping in the water" because the vessel was sinking. He admitted sending a similar message on Jan. 1, 2011. U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Sean Mahoney, commander of the San Diego sector, said the Coast Guard has direction-finding technology that allows it to pinpoint the origin of emergency calls. "Hoax calls are not a joke," Mahoney said. A false call "endangers search and rescue crews, ties up resources that may be needed for real emergencies, ...

by Marcus Kwesi O'Mard on Mon, May 28, 2012 at 6:31PM FOX Sports almost brought down the Internet late Saturday night when it tweeted news that Lionel Messi was dead. The hoax tweet was removed seconds later, but screenshots were already taken and circulated, according to the Daily News. "We regret the earlier tweet and offer our apologies to those that were offended," a FOX Sports statement said. "Clearly we were hacked." The hoax tweet went out on Fox Sports Latin America's official handle, @FOXSports_norte. Over 250,000 followers received news saying (in Spanish): "We must report the sad news that Leonel Messi died of cardiac arrest during training #RipMessi." The FC Barcelona star is very much alive and well. He is in Argentina training with the national team ahead of its FIFA World Cup qualifier against Ecuador on June 2. This story offers further proof that you shouldn't believe everything you see or hear on Twitter. ...

Addicted as we are to our online life and our mobile devices, it's no surprise that a growing number of cybercriminals are lurking out there with us. Their newest target is our cellphones. Complaints of cybercrime topped 314,000 in 2011 — up 3.4 percent from the previous year, according to a recent report issued from the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership of the FBI, the National White Collar Crime Center and the U.S. Department of Justice. Online crime occurs in varied forms, from identity theft that uses personal information to commit fraud, to phony job schemes involving bad check deposits, to "romance scams" that seduce the lovelorn to send money to a pseudo-suitor. Nationwide, the average victim who filed a complaint last year was duped out of $ 4,187, reported the center, known as IC3. Cybercrime is thought to be a much larger problem than the numbers released last week suggest. Internet crime is "grossly underreported" nationa...

Bomb hoax closes North Yorkshire school 3:24pm Monday 28th May 2012 in News A BOMB hoax forced a North Yorkshire primary school to close today. Rossett Acre Primary School in Harrogate was evacuated just before lunch following an email threat that police have said was a "malicious hoax". North Yorkshire Police and the Metropolitan Police Service - which is investigating similar threats made to other schools across the UK - said there was no risk to pupils or staff. The Harrogate threat led to pupils being evacuated to the school's playing fields, where they were collected by their parents. A spokesman for North Yorkshire County Council said the message claimed there was "an explosive device on the premises". He said yesterday: "Investigations have established the message was a malicious hoax and the school will reopen as usual tomorrow morning." The Met said it was investigating a "suspected linked series of malicious communi...

Microsoft has no problem asking Google to remove links on Google search results related to software piracy of Microsoft's various products. In fact, Microsoft's the top copyright owner to submit URL removal requests to Google in the past month by a fairly hefty amount. According to Google's new Transparency Report, Microsoft – or companies reporting on behalf of Microsoft – submitted more than 8,000 different removal requests since July of last year, targeting a grand total of more than 2.5 million URLs. That's a median of roughly 50,000 URLs per week that Microsoft asks Google to remove, which includes links from domains like todoroms.com, thewarezscene.org, or torrentreactor.net. The peculiarity, however, is that Microsoft allegedly seems to have no problem keeping some of these URLs on its own Bing search service; It just doesn't want them to be searchable on Google. Huh? Techdirt's Mike Masnick ran a little experiment where he to...

« Kim Kardashian Disses Nasty Tabloid Rumor | Home | 'Top Chef Masters' Announces Season 4 Cast! » May 25, 2012 03:00 PM by Megan Thompson The word phony has been thrown around a lot in regards to Alexis Bellino, star of The Real Housewives Of Orange County. This Bravo star isn't happy that Heather Dubrow's hubby is calling her phony. Keep reading to watch an exclusive Bravo clip where the Dubrows discuss the comments they made about Alexis. Let's just say they are brutally honest! There is a lot of phony going on in the OC, am I right? All the women like sporting fake hair, fake boobs, fake tans and even fake engagement rings  (if you are getting one from Slade.)  But apparently, Alexis is too phony for her fellow OC cast mates. When Heather and Terry met Alexis they didn't get a very good impression of her. When someone asked Heather what she thought of Alexis, Terry chimed in with "phony." Last week the whole phony comment was thro...

SHARE AND DISCUSS KOLKATA: A bomb hoax today created panic in New Jalpaiguri-bound Pahariya Express. The train, which had departed from Digha, was stopped at Tamluk station in West Bengal's East Midnapore district at 6:10 PM following the bomb scare, railway officials said. The call gave tough time for the security personnel who frantically carried out search in S1, S2 and S3 compartments. However, it was found that the call was hoax, they said. The train was searched after Tamluk GRP received a message from their Mumbai counterparts that they had received a telephone call from an anonymous caller that a bomb had been planted on board, the officials said. Read More @ Source Michael Jackson's Kids *Extremely Rare Pictures* Michael's Kids are just like normal everyday children. They laugh, cry, and PLAY like normal kids do. Michael was.. IS and amazing father. They got a chanc...

AN ELECTRONIC BENEFIT TRANSFER CARD, food stamp recipients use to purchase food, is seen at the Sacramento County Economic Development Department in Sacramento, California. (RICH PEDRONCELLI | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS) Published: Thursday, May 24, 2012 at 11:54 p.m. Last Modified: Thursday, May 24, 2012 at 11:54 p.m. WASHINGTON | Food stamp recipients are ripping off the government for millions of dollars by illegally selling their benefit cards for cash — sometimes even in the open, on eBay or Craigslist — and then asking the government for replacement cards. The Agriculture Department wants to curb the practice by giving states more power to investigate people who repeatedly claim to lose their benefit cards. It is proposing new rules Thursday that would allow states to demand formal explanations from people who seek replacement cards more than three times a year. Those who don't comply can be denied further cards. "Up to this point, the state's han...

26 May 2012 Last updated at 07:23 ET A security alert in north Belfast was a hoax, police have said. The Limestone Road was cordoned off for a time on Saturday following reports of a suspicious object. The road has since reopened. Read More @ Source The Viva Las Vegas Wedding - Full Interview(2012):With Special Guest Ty Malachi On KLAV Radio PT.1/2 Viva Las Vegas Wedding Show with host Brian Mills and and co-host Diana Moran, live on KLAV 1230 AM Radio! Ty Malachi (Corey Melton) Aka. The Main Attraction first radio interview in Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chaple. This is Part 1 of 2 of The Main Attraction's radio interview Video Rating: 4 / 5 Fraudulent Stories Here

Cases like the one of the phony dying bride seem to pop up more and more now that people can use the internet to raise money for shaky "causes," but preying on the generosity of others for financial gain is not a phenomenon exclusive to the era of the social network. In this case, phony dying bride Jessica Vega, 25, spun a tale of terminal cancer and a final dream of a big wedding. Two years ago, Vega told family and friends that she was terminally ill with the frightening disease, and that all she wanted in her supposed twilight time was to marry her boyfriend and the father of her child, Michael O'Connell. And according to a local news source, the Albany Times-Union , Vega's loved ones coughed up for the phony dying bride- the paper says friends and family "donated her dress, the wedding rings, an Aruba time-share for the honeymoon and more for her 2010 wedding." It wasn't just those who knew the phony dying bride that invested in V...

GALVESTON — A fishing vessel that issued a distress call off Galveston could have gone down with all hands, but U.S. Coast Guard officials said Wednesday that the call might have been a hoax. The Coast Guard called off its search about noon Tuesday after helicopters, jet aircraft, rescue boats and two cutters scoured an area the size of Delaware for nearly two days. Chief Warrant Officer Lionel Bryant said officials are not discounting the possibility that the vessel was lost, but they are suspicious because no one had heard of the vessel that identified itself in a distress call about 1:15 p.m. Sunday as either the Scallywag or the Skylark. The Coast Guard got no response after putting the name and description out to the public, Bryant said. "If it was a fishing vessel you would assume they would have some communication with home base," he said. Searchers also were unable to find the debris and oil sheen that a sunken vessel would normally leave in the water, B...

GALVESTON - A fishing vessel that issued a distress call off Galveston could have gone down with all hands, but U.S. Coast Guard officials said Wednesday that the call might have been a hoax. The Coast Guard called off the search about noon Tuesday after helicopters, jet aircraft, rescue boats and two cutters scoured an area the size of Delaware for nearly two days. Chief Warrant Officer Lionel Bryant said officials are not discounting the possibility that the vessel was lost, but they are suspicious because no one had heard of the vessel that identified itself in a distress call about 1:15 p.m. Sunday as either the Scallywag or the Skylark. The Coast Guard got no response after putting the name and description out to the public, Bryant said. "If it was a fishing vessel you would assume they would have some communication with home base," he said. Searchers also were unable to find the debris and oil sheen that a sunken vessel would normally leave in the water, B...

Bank customers are falling victim to a new and sophisticated type of credit card fraud which has increased threefold since the beginning of the year. Victims are telephoned by fraudsters and duped into revealing their PIN and then handing over their bank card to a courier in this new form of crime, which has seen more than £750,000 taken from customers since the beginning of the year. The scam involves a person being called by someone claiming to be from their bank. They are told that their debit or credit card needs collecting as it needs replacing following fraud on their account. The caller often suggests that the person hangs up and calls the bank back if they want to ensure the call is genuine, but stays on the line, tricking the person into thinking they're calling their bank. The criminal will then ask the person to key in their PIN number, before sending a courier to collect the card. The victim is told the card is going to the bank to be changed but it is actua...

Jessica Vega is accused of lying about having cancer and bilking people out of thousands of dollars to pay for her wedding and honeymoon. Woman feigned terminal cancer to get donations for extravagant wedding and honeymoon Jessica Vega pleaded guilty last month; indicted on fraud and grand larceny She was sentenced to 300 hours community service and 5 years of probation New York (CNN) -- A New York woman who pretended to have terminal cancer to pay for an extravagant wedding and honeymoon has been ordered to give back thousands of dollars she received from sympathetic donors. Jessica Vega, 25, pleaded guilty last month to the scheme and was indicted on fraud and grand larceny charges as well as one misdemeanor. After spending eight weeks in jail, Orange County Court Judge Robert Freehill ordered Vega to return the $ 13,368.48 she gained in gifts and donations while posing as terminally ill. She was also sentenced to 300 hours of community service and...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York bride who faked having terminal cancer to swindle well-wishers into funding her dream wedding and honeymoon to the Caribbean on Wednesday was ordered to repay more than $ 13,000 to her victims , prosecutors said. Jessica Vega , 25, pleaded guilty last month to fraud and forgery charges for deceiving people in the Hudson Valley area of New York into thinking she had only a few months to live, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said. Moved by her tale, individuals and businesses donated thousands of dollars to pay for her wedding in May 2010 and her honeymoon in Aruba. Her scheme unraveled after her husband, Michael O'Connell, contacted the Times Herald-Record in Orange County to say his bride had faked her illness. He was not charged, and the couple have since divorced, although the Times Herald-Record reported he was there to pick her up from jail on Wednesday. "To prey on people's emotions by pretending to have a ...

22 May 2012 Last updated at 06:50 ET The torch attracted a top bid of £150,400 in the auction An internet auction bid of more than £150,000 for an Olympic torch was a hoax, the seller has said. Cornwall torchbearer Sophia Cowburn put the torch on sale on eBay to raise funds for the Invictus Trust charity. It attracted a top bid of £150,400. Ms Cowburn, 19, said: "The bidding closed and then a few moments after we found out it was a hoax bidder." The auction attracted 226 bids but the winning buyer has not been contactable for comment. 'Vast donation' Despite the winning bid being withdrawn, Ms Cowburn said others parties had expressed an interest. She said: "We're currently in the procedures of going back through the other bidders to see who's real and if anybody does want to make that kind of vast donation. Continue reading the main story Search maps, check street routes and join in 70 days of live coverage in video, storie...