Fraudster Writes a Bad Check to Post Bail

A Sacramento man - who got caught writing a lot of back checks and doing some on-line banking fraud - wrote a bad check to bail himself out. Although, the bail bondsman was savvy enough to catch the fraud on the first check for $3,200.00, he accepted another one for $9,800.00 and bailed the fraudster out.

Of course, the second one was bad, also.

Nonetheless, the fraudster is being sentenced and is facing up to ten years in prison.

There was no information how they got this guy into court, or if they had to send the "bounty hunter" out to ensure he appeared.

There was also no comment as to whether the bail bondsman was able to collect on the second check.

For the full story from KCRA.com, link here.

When accepting any large check, the only way to verify it is good is to contact the actual owner of the account. It's also a pretty good idea to make sure, the writer is the actual person; especially when dealing with an identity thief.

It isn't uncommon for some of these crooks to set-up a fraudulent telephone number so when the item is verified, it appears to be legitimate.

Here is a previous post, I did on bad checks:

Don't Trust a Bank to Tell You Whether a Check is Good, or Not

When Someone Rips You Off - Take Action!

Consumers are ripped off daily, especially when hiring independent specialists from the "service industry."

Eric Larsen (Ashbury Press) wrote an interesting article on what to do before you buy - and maybe more importantly - how to effectively file a consumer complaint. Here is a quote from the article:

"New Jersey has one of the strongest consumer protection agencies in the nation, said Kimberly S. Ricketts, who was appointed director of the state division by former Gov. Richard J. Codey one year ago."

"The division has full enforcement authority over New Jersey's Consumer Fraud Act and can levy fines up to $10,000 for first offenses and $20,000 for subsequent offenses by businesses. "While dealing with consumer complaints is certainly at the core of our mission, we want to educate consumers before they have a complaint," Ricketts said."

Ricketts said the top five complaints the division receives are, in order: 1. home improvement contractors; 2. autos; 3. banking, financial and investment complaints; 4. home furnishings and appliances; 5. hometown businesses such as health clubs, movers, travel agencies and employment agencies.

Here is how to effectively practice the art of "Caveat Emptor," or let the buyer beware:

How To: File a Consumer Complaint

The biggest problem out there is too many people don't report this type of activity. Although this article is specific to New Jersey - most States have an agency that is responsible for this. Not reporting these frauds only means that you will never have a chance of getting satisfaction and that someone else will probably get "ripped-off."

I recently had a relative ripped-off for a considerable amount of money in a home improvement scam. Although, we were both novices in the "consumer fraud world" - the two of us put our heads together and filed with some local agencies. Even though the "contractor" had disappeared (3,000 miles away), he was arrested - transported cross-country in a prison bus - and charged criminally. In the end, my relative, was made financially "whole" and got a lot of satisfaction out of knowing he had prevailed and put this gentleman "out-of-business."

Interestingly enough, this fine fellow ripped off a lot of people and amazingly enough - most of them gave up and wrote it off as a "loss." In this case, many of the people concerned - were upper middle-class and well educated. The sad fact is that most of them didn't know where to begin and gave up.

In case you need a resource, here is a good one. It lists resources within the United States and all over the world, where one can seek help and take action:

Consumer World: Consumer Agencies

Nigerian Scam Humor - At Least We Can Chuckle While They "Chop Our Dollars."

If a scammer from Nigeria offers you a bogus payment for your eBay auction item - failure to ship the merchandise to him might bring action from law enforcement authorities.

Apparently, this actually happened as reported by the Register:

"Just thought I had to share this one with you - a scammer won an ebay auction and then sent me a fake paypal receipt to try and get me to send the goods to Nigeria; I ignored them, obviously...but now they've got the police onto me!"

No one was arrested, but this does make for an amusing story. I suppose in the "electronic age," where we register our complaints to a "computer," it was a matter of time before this happened.
For the full story, link here.

Of course in a land, where popular music paints the 419 artists as heroes, it's no wonder we are seeing this. Osofia, a Nigerian musician, had a recent hit called "I Go Chop Your Dollar," which is a parody of the 419 (Advance Fee Scam).

For the video, click here.

The anti 419 folks are known to have a sense of humor, also. Here is a link to the Ebola Monkey Man and Artists Against 419. Sadly enough, it seems that there are a lot of people fed up with the fraud coming from Nigeria (and elsewhere) and trying to do something about it.

And in the recent bribery scandal rocking Congress in the United States- Nigerian Vice President Abubakar Atiku (who was the alleged intended recipient of the bribe) released a statement through a staff-member - accusing Congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana of being a 419er.

Innocent, or guilty - Vice President Atiku obviously has a pretty good sense of humor. I guess time will tell (and the court system), who is joking and who is telling the truth?

Maybe we can get Osofia and Congressman Jefferson on Saturday Night Live to do a parody? Winona Ryder's appearance during her shoplifting trial was immensely popular.

Here is an alternative view of Nigerian Fraud:

419 From the Other Side of the Fence

For more on the alleged 419 scam involving a Congressman:

Is the Latest Congressional Scandal a Nigerian Fraud

Cyber-Scammers Use "Sucker Lists" to Target Victims

The Internet is full of scam lures involving winning the lottery. The most notorious are those where cons send you a check, tell you to cash it for taxes and tariffs and wire the money back to them so your "winnings" can be released to you. But after you wire the money to them, they fade into the "electronic mist" of the Internet and someone notifies you that the check you just cashed was a fraud.

Unfortunately, the "lottery lure" seems to be so lucrative that I get a spam e-mail just about every day saying I won a vast fortune.

Of course, there are dozens of so-called "legitimate" and often downright "illegitimate" sites out there promising you "inside information" on how to win the lottery. Rumor has it that some of them employ various forms of spyware and even malware to record your personal information, which is then used for other (often) unscrupulous purposes.

If you don't understand how spyware and malware works, I recommend taking the time to educate yourself.

Spybot is a free program use can use to protect yourself from a lot of these nasty programs. Of course, employing anti-virus protection (updated) and even a "firewall" is highly recommended, also. Alex Eckelberry - who is the CEO of Sunbelt Software - does a great blog on computer security - which is a great place to learn about crimeware and how to avoid it.

In a recent article from the "Lottery Post," some of these "Lotto Operators" were scamming senior citizens using information obtained from what they refer to as "sucker lists." Although, I made mention of how information is stolen via technology above - all too often - it is also simply handed over by the future victim in the hopes of "winning the lottery."

As reported in the Lottery Post:

"Using so-called "sucker lists" - lists of consumers who had been defrauded by telemarketers in the past - the defendants called elderly consumers with offers to sell "likely winning lottery numbers" when, in fact, the real purpose was to gain authorization to electronically debit the consumer's checking account."

"The scam began when seniors received telemarketing calls falsely telling them they had been "selected to receive the most likely winning combinations of the Lottery." The caller claimed that the company's "scientific formula" provided the most likely winning lottery combinations."

Of course, the seniors targeted in this ended up having a lot of money charged to their credit cards for "useless" information.

For the full story by the Lottery Post, link here.

If you have been a victim of a telemarketing scam, the best place to report it is the Federal Trade Commission.