David Napstead, The Story of a Small-Time Con Man

Normally, I write about big name fraudsters, but there are a lot of small-time crooks out there committing fraud on a daily basis. When you add up the amount of misery caused by these fraudsters, they cause a lot of suffering to hard working people. My friend, Paul Young of Prying1 wrote me about one of them, David E. Napstead.

Napstead in the past has offered nonexistent cellular services to his unsuspecting victims. Like most of the flim-flam men out there, he has phony business cards and a cell phone to conduct business.

Please note, that setting up a phony website is also becoming very common.

A recent comment on Paul's blog indicated that Napstead had been arrested after setting up a phony "debt consolidation" business and bilking those who already were suffering financial difficulties.

Pardon my "French," but what a "dirt bag!" Napstead is no "Robin Hood."

For the full story from Prying1, link here.

If you have been the victim of Mr. Napstead and the crime is yet to be reported, the Las Vegas Police Department might be interested.

Fraud come-ons from people lacking morals surround us, daily. They are found posted on telephone poles, newspaper classifieds - and of course - on the Internet. Because of the "sheer volume" of scams that exist out there (sadly enough) law enforcement lacks the resources to bring a lot of these small-time criminals to justice.

When you are dealing with an "unknown operator" of a business, it pays to do your homework before giving them one "solitary penny."

Here are some resources to do your homework:

Consumer World: Consumer Agencies

Better Business Bureau: BBB.

Quite frequently, a common mistake made (when doing your homework) is that if no information comes up (negative or positive); someone assumes the entity they are "checking out" is legitimate.

If you can find no information - whatsoever - do as Paul suggests in the theme of Prying1: "Dig a a little deeper" before giving up any of your hard earned money.

Here is a previous post - I wrote - specifically on that thought:

BBB Worker Takes Job Processing Fraudulent eBay Transactions