Goodizen :: Scams

New information from the Better Business Bureau Thursday is warning seniors of the latest phone scam that's targeting the wallets of elderly Tri-State residents. Read more:  http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/money/consumer/dont_waste_your_money/Copy_of_beware-of-phone-scam-affecting-seniors1373313302605#ixzz2YaBXaEbQ New information from the Better Business Bureau is warning of the latest phone scam that's targeting the wallets of Seniors. Rose Wright is just one of several Seniors who has dealt with a convincing scam that’s recently hit the area. Wright lives a quiet life in retirement, tending to her bird feeders and saying no thank you to sales people and telemarketers. But she let her guard down recently when a caller woke her up very early in the morning. "I was sound asleep and the woman says they are issuing a new Medicare card, and they needed to confirm my information,” Wright said. Wright -- groggy and a bit confused -- asked the caller to identify h...

With accounting-fraud cases at nearly a 10-year low, complacency might be the biggest fraud risk facing chief financial officers. Large fraud-related restatements of corporate earnings reports have fallen sharply since the financial crisis, but that doesn’t mean that companies aren’t still vulnerable to them. “There still is financial-reporting fraud going on out there,” said Andrew Ceresney, the new co-director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement. And the agency is making a concerted push to uncover it. Last week, the SEC announced the formation of a Financial Reporting and Audit Task Force, which it hopes will catch accounting frauds at earlier stages. Of course, companies have made big strides in improving their internal controls since the Enron-era accounting scandals, in part because of the rules imposed by the Sarbanes-Oxley law in 2002. But accounting experts and regulatory officials say there are warning signs that a new round of f...

Forest Lake police say the young women could face charges. The Forest Lake Police Department was called to the Wal-Mart store at... Forest Lake Police  A juvenile and three adults — all sisters — could face charges after staging a phony abduction caught in a bizarre and chilling surveillance video Sunday night at a Wal-Mart store in Forest Lake. The mother of the young women contacted Forest Lake police about 2 p.m. Monday afternoon and reported that the group had perpetrated the prank, which drew intensive media coverage immediately after it was reported to police and the video was distributed as investigators asked for the public’s assistance. After interviewing those involved, and seeing video evidence on their cellphones, it was determined the incident was a prank, said Capt. Greg Weiss of the Forest Lake Police Department. In the video, the car pulls up to the front door of the Wal-Mart in the 200 block of 12th Street SW about 8:30 p.m. Sunday. The trunk pops open...

Brooklyn prosecutors had been scheduled on Monday to open the trial of an Orthodox Jew charged with paying a child to falsely testify that he was a victim of sexual abuse. Enlarge This Image Damon Winter/The New York Times Sam Kellner was charged after helping prosecutors in child sex-abuse cases. Related Gotham: After Sexual Abuse Case, a Hasidic Accuser Is Shunned, Then Indicted  (June 18, 2013) For Hynes, District Attorney Since 1990, Publicity and Campaign Rivals  (June 12, 2013) Connect With NYTMetro Follow us on  Twitter and like us on Facebook  for news and conversation. Enlarge This Image Richard Perry/The New York Times Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney. But in a dramatic reversal, they told the trial judge that their key witness was no longer trustworthy, indicating the potential collapse of a controversial case that highlighted the complicated relationship between District Attorney  Char...

ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. —  Dark sunglasses obscure his eyes. Silver chains hang from his neck. “Hello, I’m the people’s champ,” Larry Hill Jr. says, staring directly into the camera as a woman and two expensive cars pose behind him.    With those words, the Rocky Mount businessman begins his 30-second plea to local youth . “I want all my young people to think before you act. Trouble is too easy to get into, and once you get into trouble, you’ll be all by yourself,” he says in the YouTube clip  posted last November. In another clip, Hill hands out cash to Rocky Mount children as part of his “ Crime Free Summer Good Deeds Contest ” as the words “Stop the violence” flash on the screen. Despite his attempts to dissuade children from trouble, federal authorities say it’s a message Hill hasn't lived by. From February 2010 to October 2012, Hill’s tax business filed hundreds of “ false, fictitious and fraudulent refunds ” for customers, claiming millions in refunds, accor...

Seventeen months after Fox News became briefly fixated on Republican claims that hundreds of dead voters had cast ballots in South Carolina, those allegations have been completely debunked by an investigation by law enforcement that found no evidence of voter fraud. Fox  frequently  pushes  dubious  allegations of widespread  voter  fraud  that  fall  apart  under scrutiny. The South Carolina  "dead voter" claim  sprang from testimony from Kevin Schwedo, the director of the state's Department of Motor Vehicles, who said on January 11, 2012, that more than 950 residents were recorded as having cast a vote after their reported death date. Schwedo  made clear  that this could have been the result of data errors or voters dying after casting an absentee ballot, but the state's Republicans, led by Attorney General Alan Wilson, seized on the report as evidence of widespread voter fraud. Wilson  took his campai...

Randall Sutton, rear, leaves U.S. District Court in St. Louis on July 9, 2013, after pleading guilty to federal charges. Photo by Robert Patrick of the Post-Dispatch (1) More Photos ST. LOUIS  • Two more defendants accused of a role in what prosecutors have called a “Ponzi-like” pre-arranged funeral scam that could cost as much as $600 million pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges. National Prearranged Services' former CFO, Randall K. Sutton, 67, of Chesterfield, pleaded guilty of bank fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and insurance fraud charges. The company's former lawyer, Howard A. Wittner, 76, of Chesterfield, pleaded guilty a few hours later to two counts of making false statements intended to deceive insurance regulators and willfully permitting a felon to engage in the business of insurance. Under a plea deal with prosecutors, Sutton faces up to seven years in prison and Wittner faces up to five years in prison. Both men are scheduled to be sent...