Lottery Bandit Nabbed in California

While too good to be true lottery scams hit the news all the time, stories of crimes involving real lotteries happen less frequently.

Apparently, a 37-year-old Ceres, California man was arrested by local and state detectives after stealing thousands of lottery tickets in a series of burglaries stretching throughout California's Central Valley. I suppose this takes the gambling addiction warnings on the California lottery site to a new level?

The lottery addict in question, one Matthew Roberts, is a suspect in 30 burglaries from November to June that had one common denominator -- the theft of lottery tickets. During the arrest at a house in Ceres, several other people were arrested for drug and parole violations, also.

Investigators with the California Lottery’s Law Enforcement Division began to see a pattern in the lottery ticket thefts that were occurring, according to the press release on this matter. They began working with the local authorities in the area where the burglaries were occurring.

In May, alert SaveMart grocery store employees noted an individual attempting to cash in a on a winning lottery ticket reported stolen in the burglaries. They were able to get a license plate number and this led to Roberts being identified as the lottery ticket bandit.

Roberts has been charged in three of the burglaries and for auto theft. According to the authorities, there will be additional charges filed in the coming weeks as well as additional arrests. I guess this means that there might be additional lottery bandits still at large?

In this instance, we are probably dealing with a not so bright criminal. Given that lottery security is extremely tight and the inventory is tracked by computer -- stealing lottery tickets probably isn't the smartest way to win a lottery. It's pretty obvious that the alert employees at SaveMart were tipped off electronically that the ticket(s) being presented were "hot."

This isn't the first time in recent history, the California Lottery Police have made headlines. In May, it was announced that they were using undercover agents to catch dishonest retailers, who were cheating winners out of their prizes. Winning tickets of $500 to $25,000 were presented to retailers and several of them were caught pretending the prize was smaller and keeping the proceeds for themselves. Several arrests were made throughout California as a result of the sting.

California Lottery Nails Dishonest Retailers

When you cash in a small lottery prize at a lottery retailer, the amount might not exactly what you were were entitled to receive.

On 7/1/08, the California Lottery announced that they are using undercover agents to sting dishonest retailers, who cheat lottery winners out of their prizes. The press release on this matter pointed to a case in Morgan Hill, California where a dishonest retailer (and another individual) are being charged with grand theft of lottery tickets ranging in value from $500 to $25,000.

I decided to see if I could find any additional information on arrests and discovered another one that was reported by cbs13.com in Lodi, California. CBS 13 in Sacramento, with cameras rolling, approached Baljut Kang (one of the two arrested in Lodi), who refused to talk at first. Eventually, Kang stated to the reporter that the undercover agents found "some ticket in the garbage," which made them think she and her son were committing fraud (?).

According to the article, an undercover agent turned in one ticket worth $990 receiving only $24. Another ticket was presented at the retailer worth $25,000 and the agent was paid $10 for it. The article also states that this was the result of a statewide lottery sting. Other retailers were caught in Southern California.

The official press release indicates that this is the first enforcement effort of this kind anywhere in the country. This made me wonder if other States should run sting operations, also?

While dishonest retailers getting caught cheating customers is something new, lottery scams are big business for criminals. Spam e-mails, unsolicited telephone calls and even snail mails are used to dupe people into thinking they have won the lottery. Frequently, a person is then asked to negotiate a fraudulent instrument to cover tariffs and taxes and wire the money across an International border.

The California lottery has an interesting page, which can be seen on their website warning the public about this type of activity. In February, I did a post on the eve of a $270 Mega Million Lottery prize, about fraudsters attempting to impersonate the California lottery to trick unsuspecting people into cashing worthless checks.

Please note that scams -- where unsuspecting people are duped into cashing worthless checks and wiring the money before the financial institution catches on -- aren't limited to the lottery variety. Other varieties involving bogus financial instruments include work-at-home (job) scams, secret shopper, romance and auction scams. Known bogus items in circulation are Postal Money Orders, Travelers Express (MoneyGram) Money Orders, American Express Gift Cheques and Visa Travelers Cheques. A good site to learn more about scams involving fake checks is FakeChecks.org.

In California when you claim a ticket for a prize under $600, the retailer has to validate it in a machine, which prints a receipt showing exactly how much the prize was for. A good idea is to make sure you take a look at this receipt to ensure you are getting the right amount of money.

If you note suspicious activity, I'm sure that the dedicated law enforcement personnel at the California Lottery would like to hear from you. They can be reached at 1-800-LOTTERY.

Mega Millions Lottery spoofed in scam

The California Lottery announced that the Mega Millions lottery -- where $270 million was won last night -- is now being being used to trick people into cashing worthless checks.

The intent behind this is to get people to cash a bogus check and send the money back to them before your bank, or financial institution of choice, realizes the item is NO GOOD!

Most of the time they prefer you wire them the money so it has disappeared into thin air when the criminal aspect is discovered. Once the money is picked up -- especially via Western Union or MoneyGram -- the sender has little to no recourse.

The intended victim is lured into cashing the check and (normally) wiring the money with a promise that there is a LOT more MONEY (please) on it's way. Of course, more money never arrives and the person cashing the check ends up being held liable. Please note, there are stories circulating about people getting arrested for cashing countefeit financial instruments, also.

From the press release on the California Lottery site:

While eyes are watching to see if someone is lucky enough to capture the $270 million MEGA Millions jackpot tomorrow, California Lottery officials warn of a scam arriving in some mailboxes.

The letter from LOTTO LINE claims the recipient has won USA MEGA MILLIONS and includes a check to be cashed and used to pay administrative fees. The check may look authentic, California Lottery officials say, but beware that if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Apparently, this isn't the first (or probably the last) time the California Lottery has been impersonated. Here are the previous alerts, I found on the site about this:

CA Lottery Africa Scam

Lottery Logo Scam

Good Samaritan Lottery Scam

MEGA Millions Mail Scam Fradulent Check Scam

International Lottery Scheme Email Scam

Lottery scams are not the only scams involving bogus financial instruments. Counterfeit checks and other bogus financial instruments are sent to the "unwary" all the time. Known bogus items in circulation are Postal Money Orders, Travelers Express (MoneyGram) Money Orders, American Express Gift Cheques and Visa Travelers Cheques.

A great place to learn about these scams is FakeChecks.org.

The FraudAid people (Annie and team) have an excellent page on their site about lottery scams, also.

Full alert from the California lottery, here.

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.

If You've Really Won the Lottery - Why Are They Asking You to Send Money?

I've written a lot about the various Advance Fee scams out there - and judging from my inbox - the lottery variation of the scam is huge.

I sometimes get four or five notifications that I've won a lottery, or sweepstakes, daily.

Last evening, I read an article written by Linda Leatherdale of the Toronto Sun about a grandmother losing a lot of her hard-earned money as a result of falling for them.

Linda Leatherdale writes:

But more than anything, she wanted to pay for a university education for her three grandchildren. So she entered the sweepstakes.

Lo and behold, a few months later she received a letter that she had won. Ecstatic, she read what she believed to be an authentic lottery letter, which asked her to send
in $25 to collect her prize.

CASH MAILED OFF

Not trusting giving out personal financial information, via cheques or credit cards, she sent cash. Then other letters arrived -- from the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the world. Some invited her to play a new lottery, others said she'd won and to send money to collect her prize.

Toronto Sun story, here.

I've seen the lottery scams, where a high-dollar financial instrument is mailed to the "intended victim," along with instructions to wire the money back - but mailing the smaller amounts ($25 to $50) was an activity that was new to me.

With Spam software that sends these "winner notifications" by the millions - I can see, where this could be a lucrative enterprise for the fraudsters behind this.

I guess the moral of the story is to look for the behavior. I've never won the lottery (I play Mega Millions sometimes) - but if I did - I doubt anyone would be asking me to send money.

It would probably be the other way around, or they would be sending me money!

Linda's article mentions "Phonebusters" as a good resource to educate people on Internet scams. I agree and you can link to them, here.

Down here in the U.S., another good resource is the FTC, link here.

Please note that these "lottery scams" cross borders with the click of a mouse.

You can also report these scams at both of these sites, which is something I highly recommend!

Doing so might save another grandmother out there!

For another post about lottery scams and the sheer amount of spam circulating "winner notifications," link here.

7-Eleven Clerk accused of stealing winning lottery ticket from customer

This story shows why it might be important to be careful when checking your lottery ticket at your local 7-Eleven.

Art Campos at the Sacramento Bee is reporting:

A man who went to a 7-Eleven in Roseville to check on his lottery tickets had picked the right numbers, but state officials said it was the clerk who almost hit the jackpot.

The female clerk told the customer he won $4 on his Mega Millions picks for Aug. 14, and then pocketed his winning ticket worth $555,000, California Lottery officials said.

However, the clerk's alleged scheme fell apart after the unnamed victim became suspicious and called lottery officials.

It turns out that the California lottery officials were not very amused:

Donald Currier, the lottery's chief legal counsel, said it was the second time in two years that a retail clerk had been arrested for allegedly stealing a winning ticket.

"To any clerks out there who think they can steal a winning ticket, we'll get you," Currier said. "Clerks just don't get away with it."

Apparently, this also happened in 2006 in Southern California.

Lottery security officials recommend you always sign your tickets. This will make it a lot harder for a dishonest employee to try to take advantage of the situation.

Sacramento Bee article, here.

80 year old man loses over $700,000 to advance fee (419) scammers

With spam e-mails offering too good to be true come-ons filling up our mailboxes, we often forget that there are some very real people who get victimized after falling for one of them.

Of course with the availability of botnets -- which command legions of spam spewing zombies (compromised computers)-- even if only a few people fall for the scheme, the scammers still make a tidy sum off of other people's misfortunes.

An example of this can be found on the Newport Beach Police website, where an elderly gentlemen lost a lot of money (probably his life savings) to one of these schemes:

Recently, an 80 year old resident of the city learned he was a victim of an international lottery scam. He originally received an email claiming he had won an overseas lottery which required him to pay a processing fee to have the funds released. This scam continued for a two year period and ended with the victim losing over $700,000.00.

Scam operators (often based in Canada) are using email, telephone and direct mail to entice U.S. consumers to buy chances in high-stakes foreign lotteries from as far away as Australia and Europe. These lottery solicitations violate U.S. law, which prohibits the cross-border sale or purchase of lottery tickets by phone or mail.

This type of scam is often referred to as an Advance Fee (419) scam.

Of course, the lottery scam isn't the only one out there. There are work-at-home (job) scams, secret shopper, romance, lottery and auction scams being sent out in millions (billions ?) of e-mails, also. And if you don't have your own financial resources, the scammers will gladly provide you with a wide array of counterfeit financial instruments to negotiate. They could care less if you get arrested and expect that you will wire them any proceeds if you successfully pass the bogus instrument.

Please note, that just because you initially are able to pass the instrument doesn't mean that someone won't come after you, later.

The news release from Newport Beach Police Department offers the following advice on how to report scams like this:

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

They also point to a page on the FTC website about cross border scams, which can be seen here.

If you are a more "visual type," I recommend going to fakechecks.org, which has a series of video presentations on this subject.

Google name used in Internet deployed Lottery Scam

If it's too good to be true, it probably isn't (especially on the Internet). A spam e-mail, I received today informed me that I've won Google's lottery and 500,000 euros.

Trusted names are used to provide a false sense of legitimacy. Since I myself am a Google fan (user), I decided to comment on this one.

When the (eventually unfortunate) winner answers one of these, they are asked to send (wire transfer is preferred) money to cover taxes and tariffs to get their prize released.

Frequently, the scammer will send a counterfeit check (normally official, or cashier type) for their intended victim (winner) to cash. Eventually, the counterfeit check is discovered and the lottery winner is left hold the bag. Besides, financial consequences, (if I am to believe people reading this blog), cashing these items can cause someone to get arrested, also.

Unfortunately, the crooks behind these scams are normally safe in another country and rarely (if ever) get caught.

For a more detailed explanation on how these scams work (the lottery variety is one mutation of them), I did a post:

Counterfeit Cashier's Checks Fuel Internet Crime

A lot of the spam deploying these scams is facilitated using botnets (groups of zombie computers) that were taken over after another unfortunate Internet user opened an attachment in a spam e-mail, they probably shouldn't have.

Here is a post, I did at the beginning of the year describing this problem (getting worse all the time):

2006 was the Year of Internet Crime - 2007 is predicted to be even worse

Here is the e-mail I received (complete with all the bad grammar and spelling mistakes). Bad grammar and spelling mistakes are common in these e-mail lures.

Another clue is always the instruction not to tell anyone they are a winner.

From:nelson@nelsonbeilean.orangehome.co.uk
Subject:ISP Nomination/Email Award.
Date:Wed, 4 Apr 2007 17:53:07 +0200 (CEST)
To:FROM: LOTTERY COORDINATOR,INT. PROMOTIONS AND PRICE AWARD DEPARTMENTGOOGLE. Bolos Avenue 12900 kd .RESULTS FOR CATEGORY "A" DRAWS

Congratulations to you as we bring to your notice, the results of the First Category draws of E-MAIL LOTTERY organised by GOOGLE INT. We are happy to inform you that you have emerged a winner under the First Category, which is part of our promotional draws. The draws were held on 30th of March 2007 and results are being officially announced today 4th of April 2007. Participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from 5,500,000 email addresses of individuals and companies from Africa, America, Asia, Australia, Europe, Middle East, and Oceania as part of our International Promotions Program. Your e-mail address, attached to ticket number 675432890044/376, with serial number 2200-33 drew the lucky numbers 1-0-11-44-03-22 and consequently won in the First Category. You have therefore been awarded a lump sum pay out of One million (1,000,000.00) euros, which is the winning payout for Category A winners. This is from the total prize money from 1,500,000 euros shared among the 2 winners in this category. Your fund is now deposited with the paying Bank. In your best interest to avoid mix up of numbers and names of any kind, we request that you keep the entire details of your award strictly from public notice until the process of transferring your claims has been completed, and your funds remitted to your account. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming or unscrupulous acts by participants / non participants of this program. Please contact your claims agent immediately for due processing and remittance of your prize money to a designated account of your choice:To file for your claim, please contact the CLAIMS agent.

Mr.Windy Smith.Cable Trust AgencyEmail: *(e-mail
addresses and telephone numbers removed) Academias53,11269 Athens
Greece.

You are advised to contact the agents by Email address.

NOTE: For easy reference and identification, find below your reference and Batch numbers.

Remember to quote these numbers in every one of your
correspondence with your claims agent.
REFERENCE NO:GPINT/7980/4376/06 BATCH
NO: 33/904/G3K. Congratulations once again from all our staff and thank you for
being part of our promotions program.

Sincerely Yours,

Dr.
Nelson Beilean.

PROMOTIONS COORDINATOR.

13 percent of the U.S. population were fraud victims, according to the FTC

More than one out of ten people fell victim to a fraud scheme last year, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Of even greater interest was the fact that weight-loss scams came out number one, over lottery and buyers-club scams.

From the FTC press release on this:

The Federal Trade Commission today released a statistical survey of fraud in the United States that shows that 30.2 million adults – 13.5 percent of the adult population – were victims of fraud during the year studied. More people – an estimated 4.8 million U.S. consumers – were victims of fraudulent weight-loss products than any of the other frauds covered by the survey.

Fraudulent foreign lottery offers and buyers club memberships tied for second place in the survey. Lottery scams occur when consumers are told they have won a foreign lottery that they had not entered. Victims supplied either personal information such as their bank account numbers or paid money to receive their “winnings.” In the case of buyers clubs, victims are billed for a “membership” they had not agreed to buy. An estimated 3.2 million people were victims of these frauds during the period studied.

Here is another set of statistics worth evaluating:

Print advertising – direct mail, including catalogs, newspaper and magazine advertising, and posters and flyers – was used to pitch fraudulent offers in 27 percent of reported incidents. The Internet, including Web sites, auction sites, and e-mail, was used to make 22 percent of the fraudulent pitches. Television or radio accounted for 21 percent of the pitches, and telemarketing accounted for nine percent.

Interestingly enough, at least according to this survey, the Internet is only one venue used to pitch fraudulent schemes. Almost half (48 percent) were pitched by more traditional marketing venues, such as direct mail, newspaper and magazine advertising, television advertising and telemarketing.

Schemes pitched via the Internet only accounted for 21 percent of the reported incidents.

The full release by the FTC, along with consumer tips can be read, here.

The FTC has another page worth reading (I like the fact that it points out certain behaviors that most fraudsters exhibit), here.

Both of these links contain information on where to report fraud, which is highly recommended. The sad truth is that a lot of fraud victims never report being taken advantage of. Admitting that you were taken in by one of these schemes is embarrassing to a lot of people.

Trust me, there are a lot of people out there that fall for something that's too good to be true. Not reporting a scam probably means another person is probably going to end up being victimized by it.

With all the publications, television and radio shows, and direct mail come-ons out there, the FTC needs help identifying all the fraud that is out there.

I wonder what would happen if laws were passed that required advertising (marketing) mediums to exercise a little due diligence (act with a certain standard of care) before accepting money to plaster some of these fraudulent schemes all over the place?

One thing is for certain, most fraudsters aren't going to be able to get their customers to promote their goods, or services without paying them to do so!

Be Wary if You are a Winner in the Coca Cola Sweepstakes

Coca Cola is constantly running marketing campaigns and the cyber-scammers of the Internet are using their name in their latest effort to defraud people.

Here is a recent warning from the good people of Sophos:

Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have warned of an email scam that pretends to be notification of a lottery win from Coca Cola.

The emails, which have the subject line "COCA COLA PROMOTION", have been spammed out to internet users claiming that the recipient has won $2.5 million in a lottery held by Coca Cola earlier this month. The email recipient is told they are one of only 50 lucky winners around the world who were selected randomly after computers found their email address on internet websites.

To collect their winnings, people are told to call, phone or fax an agent who claims to be working on behalf of the soft drinks giant.

However, Sophos warns computer users that this is a ruse to steal personal details, and that the fraudsters behind the scam campaign can use such information to steal money from bank accounts and commit identity fraud.

For the full release by Sophos, link here.

The Internet criminal community is always mutating their scams - in this instance - we not only have a lottery scam, but potentially a ploy to commit identity theft.

The lottery scam is one of many advance-fee type scams. If you want to learn about other variations of this type of scam, here is a link.

Word of mouth is fraud's worst enemy!

FraudAid, a website dedicated to helping fraud victims has a saying, "Silence is fraud's best friend. Word of mouth is fraud's worst enemy. Pass the word!"

In a world, where fraud victims have a hard time getting anyone to even talk to them this saying makes a lot of sense.

FraudAid was conceived by a woman by the name of Annie McGuire, who fell victim to a fraud scheme, herself. Her personal story, which is told in great detail on the site proves that just about ANYONE can become a fraud victim.

In my personal dealings with victims, you would be surprised who has been scammed.

The problem is that most people -- especially those who think they should have known better -- rarely report that they have become a victim of fraud. FraudAid strives to educate all of us that the lack of communication enables fraudsters to victimize people (who if they have been made AWARE) might not be have been taken in by a fraud scheme.

Thus, the reason there seems to be so much fraud and the experts compiling all the statistics disagree on how much fraud exists. After all, "Silence is fraud's best friend."

The FTC just released their estimate of identity theft victims, which has raised a lot of speculation about how accurate their number is.

I have no doubt that the FTC did the best they could, but if fraud isn't reported, it's hard to quantify.

The FraudAid site is a wealth of information for someone, who is trying to seek help after becoming a victim. Of the greatest importance (in my opinion) is how to deal with the authorities.

One page on the site shows the average person how to write a narrative that will get the Police interested in going after your case.

It also goes into great detail on what law enforcement agency specializes in what type of fraud. This can be confusing for someone dealing with being victimized for the first time.

The site also addresses a growing phenomenon, which is how to avoid getting arrested after becoming a victim. With all the auction fraud and stolen financial information being sold wholesale, fraudsters have developed a need to launder the proceeds of their illicit transactions.

The way they do this is by tricking people to do it for them. This is accomplished by hiring them under "false pretenses" to negotiate all their illicit transactions and wire the money to them. This scam is often referred to as a work-at-home, job, or check-cashing scam.

Another variation, known as a reshipping-scam, tricks people into reshipping stolen merchandise.

In reality the victim is taking all the risk for the scammer -- and more and more often -- the rap for them when they get caught. Sadly enough, the end result is almost certain financial ruin and possibly being charged with a host of crimes including, check fraud, money laundering and receiving stolen goods.

Some of detailed information on the different scams that can be found on FraudAid include investment, Nigerian (419), sweetheart/romance, lottery sweepstakes, lottery, work-at-home, visa/green card, counterfeit check/money order and reshipping/package processing scams.

Also covered on the site is how to protect yourself and recover from identity theft. Many fraud victims later become a victim of identity theft when a fraudster sells all the information they've data-mined off them.

The site even contains information on child safety and human trafficking.

Backing all this up are a host of research tools for fraud, where to report it and how to take political action.

Annie is now backed up by a group of volunteers, one of whom, Karrie Brothers, assisted me with a lot of information on the current going-ons at FraudAid.

To grow this effort, Karrie and Annie are actively seeking volunteers to assist them. Being one of the few resources where a victim can turn to, they are getting a lot of business!

FraudAid gives a good explanation of why volunteers are needed and they are trying to grow their organization:

Fraud, by every measure, is one of biggest and fastest growing industries in the world.

One study values worldwide corporate fraud at over two trillion dollars. This is not counting consumer and Internet frauds for which there is no reliable assessment. Another study estimates that 6% of global product is laundered money.

The fraud industry is run by many, many skilled professionals. The anti-fraud industry is small and, by comparison, run by very few skilled professionals.

That's why if you have the skills you can make a real difference!

Fraud Aid, Inc. is a volunteer anti-fraud organization. We, as all other anti-fraud organizations, are out-numbered and need your help.

We have the frauds. Do you have the time?

To grow the organization, they are recruiting a wide range of volunteers with law enforcement, legal, IT and education experience. There are also opportunities for people with no experience, also.

Even if you think you are aware of all the fraud schemes out there, FraudAid is a great place to learn more about them. After all, if people weren't being taken in by the schemes, fraud would probably disappear pretty quickly!

If you want to learn more about FraudAid, the site can be seen, here.

When sweepstakes scammers target the elderly should it be considered elder abuse?

Photo courtesy of speedwaystar at Flickr

Lottery and sweepstakes scams are on the rise and there seems to be little help for the victims, who fall for them. There also seems to be not very many consequences for the criminals, who are stealing people blind.

Paul Wenske of the Kansas City Star did a telling story in the Kansas City Star, which focuses on how senior citizens in the Midwest are being targeted and losing their entire life savings in the process.

From the Star article:

Canadian telemarketers spent two years bilking Walter Blevins of Arkansas City, Kan., out of $300,000 — his life savings.

The scammers initially told the 78-year-old former aircraft worker he’d won $2.2 million in a lottery. He just needed to wire cash to cover the taxes and other fees on his windfall.

The article also states that no one seems to be able to help these people once they've sent the money, but these crimes are now being classified as "cross border fraud."

The Missouri AG has tried to step in, but is limited in his jurisdictional powers to sending cease and desist letters to the scammers up North:

Seniors who make the mistake of responding to one mailing or phone call often end up on lists that are sold and resold, resulting in a flood of junk mail.

Late last year, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon launched “Senior Sting,” an ongoing operation in which 300 seniors were asked to save such solicitations. They collected 8,000 pieces of mail in the first month.

Don Burnett, of Louisiana, Mo., said at one time he was receiving eight mailings a day from foreign lotteries, sweepstakes and check schemes.

Interestingly enough, a lot of these solicitations are coming in junk mail and telemarketing calls and not from spam e-mails.

The article speculates that the fraudsters doing this are compiling telemarketing lists. While this is probably true, an information broker (InfoUSA) was recently accused of selling market segment targeted lists to some of these scammers.

Given the fact, most of these enterprises pose as legitimate businesses, I wonder how hard it is for them to simply purchase these lists?

The article also cites information from the Federal Trade Commission and the National Consumer League's Fraud Center.

The NCL site has an entire section on Elder Fraud, which can be reached by clicking, here.

Not to be outdone, the FTC also covers this subject in great detail on their site, here.

What's interesting to me is that I see elder abuse becoming a hot issue. The National Center for Elder Abuse is an organization that lobbies for stricter laws when senior citizens are abused.

While most of these telemarketing scams are considered fraud -- which many think of as a low priority crime, perhaps if when it involves senior citizens, we think of it as elder abuse -- the authorities on both sides of the border might begin to get more aggressive in prosecuting the criminals behind these schemes.

In my opinion -- stealing a senior citizen's entire life savings is nothing less and the criminals doing this deserve to be considered as what they truly are -- one of the lowest forms of life on the Planet!

Kansas City Star article, here.

NCL Releases the Top Ten Internet Scams of 2005

The National Consumers League has released their 2005 Fraud Trends: Consumers Being Hounded by Internet and Telemarketing Scams.

The "Top Ten" internet scams were:

Auction items never delivered or misrepresented, the average loss was $1,155 and this category accounted for 42 percent of all the complaints.

General merchandise never delivered or misrepresented, the average loss was $2,258 and this category accounted for 30 percent of the complaints.

Nigerian money offers. False promises of riches if consumers pay to transfer money to their bank accounts, the average loss was $6,937 and this category accounted for 8 percent of the complaints.

Fake checks sent for goods or services and victim is told to wire back money, the average loss was $4,361 and this category accounted for 6 percent of the complaints.

Lotteries/lottery clubs. Requests for payment to claim lottery winnings or get help to win, often foreign lotteries the average loss was $2,919 and this accounted for 4 percent of the complaints.

Phishing, fraudulent e-mails asking for personal information, the average loss was $612 and this accounted for 2 percent of the complaints.

Advance-fee loans, loans promised with upfront fee, the average loss was $1,426 and this accounted for 1 percent of the complaints.

Internet Access Services, cost of internet access and other services misrepresented or never provided, the average loss was $1262 and this accounted for 1 percent of the complaints.

Information/adult services. Cost and terms of services not disclosed or misrepresented, the average loss was $504 and this accounted for 1 percent of the complaints.

Work-at-Home Plans. Kits sold on false promises of big profits from working at home, the average loss was $1,785 and this accounted for 1 percent of the complaints.

Although, these statistics are based on complaints made to the National Consumer League, they doubled over the past year (scary).

Wire transfers through non-banking institutions, such as Western Union and MoneyGram were the favorite venue for the fraudsters to have their money sent to them.

Here is an interesting statistic from the survey about eBay. I'm starting to think they deserve an award for ignoring the massive problems fraud has created for their customers:

* In the fall of 2003, online giant eBay removed the link from its Web site to fraud.org. As a result, the number of auction complaints reported to NCL’s fraud center dropped to 1/6 its previous level. Based on statistics prior to eBay’s action, NCL estimates that there would have been 30,720 auction complaints in 2005, representing 71 percent of complaints.

If you are interested in more information regarding eBay, put in keyword "eBay" in the search box at the top of the page.

The National Consumer's League and it's sister site National Fraud Information Center provide a lot of great information on how to avoid being a fraud victim. There are also other relevant (social awareness) resources on the National Consumer League's site. I highly recommend both of them.

You can go directly to the site for the National Consumer League by clicking on the title of this post.

Addressing Qchex Fraud

One subject, I've received a lot of comments on is Qchex. Qchex allows people to receive checks through the internet. Their site warns the prospective consumer that they accept no liability and will not investigate anything regarding the checks they send out.

They seem to have become a fraudster's best friend.

Criminals across the world quickly took advantage of the service Qchex offers in Nigerian Letter, Lottery and Auction (Advance Fee) scams. In these scams, an unsuspecting person is promised a large amount of money from a lottery winning, or for helping foreign royalty etc. They are then sent a Qchex item, allegedly to cover a tax or tariff and are told to cash it and wire the money (normally overseas). In auction variety of this scam, Qchex are used to purchase high ticket items, which are normally shipped overseas, or they are sent an amount over the purchase price and asked to kindly wire the excess money. In the end, the check returns and they are held financially and in some cases, criminally responsible.

The banks do not always detect the fraud and more victims are created when their accounts are drained through the use of Qchex. In these instances, since the money is normally reimbursed, if the bank can't return it to someone, they themselves become the victim.

Please note that many other financial instruments are used in these scams, primarily counterfeit items. With QChex, it made the process easier since it takes skill and resources to produce quality counterfeit items.

The good news is that the FDIC and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse have officially complained. Qchex is claiming that they have now come up with a solution that will verify that the right person is using the account in question. According to Qchex, their new controls are reducing the number of complaints.

Quite frankly, due to Qchex's initial lack of response to the problem, I'm going to wait and see if they have truly taken a bite out of the criminal activity their service supports. I checked their security disclosure at http://qchex.com/security.asp today. It still has the disclosure of what I term as (no accountability), along with some ludicrous examples of how they enhance your security by doing business with them. The most amusing was "Registering your bank accounts with Qchex ensures no one else can setup or access your account numbers on the Qchex system." I guess that means if you do business with them, they will catch on if the criminals try to use your account at Qchex?

I would ask anyone, who is aware of any recent fraud with Qchex to click on the title of this post, which will take you to a site where you can complain to the FDIC.

You can also make the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse aware of any recent activity by visiting their site at:

http://www.privacyrights.org/index.htm

In many of the replies, I've received about Qchex, people were so angry they suggested suing them. There are attorneys out there that deal in fraud litigation. Here is a link to a simple search listing some of them on Yahoo.

http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com/search?fr=sbc-web&tab=&p=Fraud+Victim+Attorneys&btn=Search

I'm not an attorney, but after dealing with some of the victims on this, it is clear that they have been damaged financially.

Robin Hoods Against Internet Fraud

In the international fight against on line scams, there is an interesting site, "Artists Against 419"(click on title to view). Some believe they are responsible for the recent hacking of "phishing sites". Here are some other sites from around the world that attract people who try to fight internet fraud- The 419 Coalition, Scam-O-Rama, 419eater and 419Legal. Some of these sites promote "baiting" fraudsters into thinking they have a "dupe" on the line. Please engage in this at your own risk.

419, or Advance Fee scams mutate frequently and involve, check fraud, wire transfer fraud, credit card fraud, telecom fraud and of course identity theft

Here is a (List of fake lottery web sites). Lottery scams have become a prevalent form of internet fraud. Last, but not least (The Ebola Monkey Man) is a unusual "editorial" on these types of scams.

Tools to verify those too good to be true financial instruments you got in the mail

(Counterfeit check picture courtesy of cknlomein at Flickr)

There are a record amount of counterfeit cashier's checks, official checks, money orders, travelers and gift cheques in circulation. This is an attempt to pass on information that the average person can use to tell IF the item is real or a counterfeit (fake).

As a disclaimer -- this is only a guide and if you deposit or cash items from people you don't know -- you do so at your own risk. The quality of these items is getting better all the time.

I’ve put together a list of the known counterfeit items in circulation, along with the current telephone numbers to verify them. You will probably receive these items after being lured with a (too good to be true) get rich quick scheme that doesn't make very much sense.

The best method to verify an item is to go to the maker, or issuer of the check (cheque). They probably will know if they issued it. The key here is to make sure you are speaking with the real issuer (maker) of the item.

Never trust a number provided on the instrument, fake telephone numbers are sometimes set up that will even verify in 411 (information).

Simply stated, as long as the communication companies think they are being paid, setting up a fake number is no problem. We are seeing fake numbers set up by scammers pretty frequently.

Since these numbers are often set up in 411 (information) rather easily, I recommend using Phonevalidator.com. This site provides a service that shows if a number belongs to a cell, or a land line. It also provides telephone directory and Google results for the number queried.

Quite often, fake numbers set-up to verify checks are cell phones.

The Internet is a good way to find the true issuer (maker) of an item. The key is to make sure you are visiting a legitimate site.

Fake websites (especially those pretending to be financial institutions) are a growing problem, also. An easy way to check if a site is legitimate is by using TrustWatch, which verifies whether a site is known (trusted) or not.

If you are interested in taking a look at some fake sites, claiming to be financial institutions the Artists Against 419 has some great examples of them on their site.

A common denominator in most of the scams is that there will be a request to send the proceeds, minus your paltry cut (normally via wire transfer) back to the person sending you the instruments. That is (unless) they are buying goods from you. In this case, your property is what they want you to send to them.

Some of these lures include, but aren't limited to (new lures surface frequently), secret shopper, romance, lottery, work-at-home and auction scams.

The National Consumers League recently set up a site (fakechecks.org), which is a great reference on Internet scams involving checks (complete with visual presentations), here.

So far as auction scams, eBay will no longer offer any protection for paper financial instruments on their site.

Here are some of the known items being counterfeited in large quantities and literally circulating worldwide:

Visa Travelers Cheques: 1-800-227-6811.

MoneyGram Money Orders (counterfeits may still use the old Travelers Express logo): 1-800-542-3590.

US Postal Money Orders: 1-877-876-2455 (mail fraud) option 4, then go to option 2.

American Express Gift and Travelers Cheques: 1-800-221-7282.

FDIC Alerts on the counterfeit cashier's and official checks in circulation, here. There is a feature that allows you to search them. I would try it by using the name of the institution.

Counterfeit cashier's and official checks change almost daily. The counterfeiters use legitimate account numbers and convincing looking check stock that will verify in most automated telephone verification systems.

It's probably good advice to never trust an automated system. In the case of a counterfeit, real ABA/account numbers are used by the counterfeiters. Because the information is real, they get past an automated verification system fairly easily. If you really want to know and believe an item is a counterfeit, ask to speak to a live person, preferably in the fraud department.

If you are dealing with a suspected counterfeit cashier's, or official check, I highly recommend reading a post I collaborated on with Tom Fragala (CEO of Truston Identity Theft Protection Services):

Counterfeit Cashier's Checks Fuel Internet Crime

Bank employees sometimes verify counterfeit instruments as legitimate. In some instances, especially at a teller window, they have been mistaken. If this occurs, you will be notified days later and the bank will take no responsibility.

Even more alarming, I have talked to and get comments/e-mails from people all the time who are getting arrested after trying to negotiate these items.

Here is what I wrote about this growing phenomenon in a previous post, along with my personal speculation as to why this is happening more frequently:

When the check is discovered to be fraudulent, anywhere from right on the spot to about ten days later the person passing the item is left holding the bag. This can translate into a loss of their freedom (getting arrested), being held financially liable, or a combination of both these consequences.

The real victims can probably blame this new phenomenon on all the criminals, who are pretending to be victims and then cashing the items themselves. Here is how I described this in a recent post, where an International task force discovered millions of dollars (face value) of these items destined to be shipped, worldwide:

A new trend has been noted called reverse-scamming, also. This occurs when scammers have the bogus instruments sent to them, cash them and then never follow the instructions to wire the money.

If confronted, these reverse scammers will normally claim to be victims. A key way to pick out a reverse scammer is that, in most instances they forget to wire the money back to the scammer that sent them the counterfeit instrument.

Counterfeit MoneyGram Money Orders being passed via Internet Scams

Recently, MoneyGram removed the Travelers Express name from their money order product. The new version is branded simply as MoneyGram, printed in Spanish (Espanol) in addition to English.

The old version with the Travelers Express name have been counterfeited and circulated via Internet scams for a couple of years. A lot of them had Walmart's logo printed on them. We've seen similar counterfeit American Express Gift Cheques and Postal Money Orders in recent years, also. Some of these items are still in circulation, including the older Travelers Express version.

The newer version (MoneyGram) printed in both Spanish and English are now being counterfeited and being circulated via Internet scams. The one I saw was accompanied by a letter from Walmart Financial Services.

Like other counterfeit financial instruments, we'll probably see these circulated via romance, auction, job, secret shopper and lottery scams. The common theme is that the scammer will always request that you send a portion of the money back to them (wire transfer is the preferred method).

In the case of auction scams, they may be used to buy expensive merchandise.

Cashing these items will leave you at a minimum, financially liable. I've also been told by readers that people are sometimes getting arrested for passing them!

The new version (recently seen) have receipts attached to them. Money Order companies often attach receipts to their products as a security feature. These receipts are used to obtain refunds, if a money order is lost, or stolen.

The counterfeiters have probably added this feature to instill a false sense of security.

Like their predecessors, these counterfeit Money Orders are (normally) easy identified by calling in and verifying their authenticity.

MoneyGram has an automated system to do this, which can be accessed by calling 1-800-542-3590. Live customer service help is available during normal business hours.

MoneyGram also has a page with a lot of relevant information on how to SAFELY negotiate these items, here.

Since this is something new, if anyone would like to help get the word out, please leave a comment on this post, or drop me a line at EdwardDickson@SBCGlobal.net.

Caller ID can Cost You $$$$

Fraud using the telephone is nothing new and has been around for as long as there have been telephones. After all, a telephone is merely a communication device that can be used to dupe someone into doing something they might regret later.

Saying that telephone technology, which has grown rapidly in recent years, has given fraudsters a wide array of new tools. More and more frequently, these tools are used to depart common people and even large businesses from their hard-earned money.

Take Caller ID for instance, which is marketed as a means of protecting our privacy. When I say marketed, it's normally sold to us for a fee so we can see who is calling us. The irony of the situation is that for a fee (over even for free in an app store) -- just about anyone can make the ID appear to whatever number they desire. If you have a person stored in your contacts and their number is used, the contact information stored in your phone will appear on the screen. 

The ability to spoof (fake/impersonate) Caller ID has been around for a few years. Collection agencies, private investigators, telemarketers, and even law enforcement agencies use it to get people to answer their telephone.  Unfortunately, scammers and seedy telemarketers are now using this technology to trick people into buying questionable goods and services or even steal from them. 

The FTC has a great site to educate the public on this activity and you can file a complaint with them.

Common lures/signs of a scam to snag a victim include:

• Your banking credentials have been compromised and they ask for financial verification to verify your identity (they often spoof the financial institution's number).
• You owe the IRS money and will go to jail if you do not pay today.
• You owe for a loan and will go to jail if you do not pay today.
• That they have been monitoring your credit and you now qualify for zero interest on your credit cards. 
• You've been specially selected (for this offer).
• You'll get a free bonus if you buy our product.
• You've won one of five valuable prizes.
• You've won big money in a foreign lottery.
• This investment is low risk and provides a higher return than you can get anywhere else.
• You have to make up your mind right away.
• An offer of a free vacation. 
• An offer of a "too good to be true" business or investment opportunity. 
• You trust me, right?
• You don't need to check our company with anyone.
• We'll just put the shipping and handling charges on your credit card (If they get your payment card they often use it to commit additional fraud).

Please note that some of these scams are telemarketing come-ons. Many are also charity scams, where no money is ever given to a real charity. It is prudent to research the validity of any charity, which can be done by visiting the Charity Navigator website. 

More and more frequently, Caller ID is being used by organized (and maybe some not so organized) criminals to commit fraud. A couple of years ago, 62 people were arrested for operating from a call center in India and impersonating IRS or ICE agents. They allegedly made $75,000,000 in one year from this operation. I received several of the alleged IRS calls and they all had a Washington DC area code appearing on my telephone. With tax season here, we can probably expect to see these calls resurface again. 

Most of the calls, I have personally received or heard about involved a person with a foreign accent. I suspect a lot more of this activity comes from call centers located overseas. Unfortunately, we have all been "trained" to accept calls from people with foreign accents by corporate entities outsourcing jobs in order to save payroll dollars. 

The Truth in Caller ID Act was signed into law in 2010, which makes it illegal to spoof a number in order to commit fraud. Despite the law, the amount of this type of fraud seems to be on the rise. Due to the fact that most of these calls originate from overseas by purchasing a local telephone number -- and then forwarding the calls -- the danger of any real consequences is extremely minimal. The other option provided is to sign up for the FTC's "Do Not Call List," but this seems to be ignored by the people making the calls. 

Being able to spoof a call has become too easy. A simple Google search will reveal all kinds of "resources" available to anybody. 

In my humble opinion, the need for additional legislation to combat this growing problem is pretty apparent. Most of us are exposed to this activity "too frequently" via easily available technology, which not only includes "spoofing," but also includes professional sounding "phone trees" backed up by "robocall dialers." Perhaps the solution is to make it illegal to sell this type of technology to "anyone." The telecom types should also be forced to aggressively to come up with robust solutions to protect their customers from a service they are charging them for.

Fraudsters mutate counterfeit MoneyGram money order scam to fool victims/financial institutions

Counterfeit MoneyGram Money Orders seem to be surfacing all over the place, again! Here is what I wrote about them the last time I posted on them:

Recently, MoneyGram removed the Travelers Express name from their money order product. The new version is branded simply as MoneyGram, printed in Spanish (Espanol) in addition to English.

The old version with the Travelers Express name have been counterfeited and circulated via Internet scams for a couple of years. A lot of them had Walmart's logo printed on them. We've seen similar counterfeit American Express Gift Cheques and Postal Money Orders in recent years, also. Some of these items are still in circulation, including the older Travelers Express version.

For a long time, the counterfeiters seemed to prefer using a Walmart logo. Some of them even came with a letter from Walmart Financial Services.

The newer version, I saw on Friday bear a CVS Pharmacy logo and they are being distributed in lower dollar amounts. Presumably, the high dollar amounts $700.00 and over were being looked at too closely by financial institutions.

Not sure, but they could be starting to use a variety of logos to make them look legitimate. If anyone reading this has seen different, please add a comment to let everyone know.

The newer items seem to be in denominations of $500.00 or less.

These items normally are obtained when a person gets involved in a too good to be true financial scheme, or is solicited by a beautiful woman (or man) needing to be rescued from a foreign locale. This normally occurs on the Internet.

Here are some examples of the lures used to pass these items, along with links to old posts:

Some of these lures include, but aren't limited to (new lures surface frequently), secret shopper, romance, lottery, work-at-home and auction scams.

Sadly enough, the lowering of the dollar amount seems to have had limited success because I am getting reports that some of these items have been cashed at financial institutions.

The saddest part of all of this is (from an earlier post):

A common denominator in most of the scams is that there will be a request to send the proceeds, minus your paltry cut (normally via wire transfer) back to the person sending you the instruments. That is (unless) they are buying goods from you. In this case, your property is what they want you to send to them.

In other words, if the item is cashed at a financial instiution, when it comes back as a counterfeit -- they will hold you and YOU ALONE liable.

Even sadder, people are also getting arrested for passing them. When counterfeit instruments started getting passed in Internet scams, the financial institutions were a lot more forgiving. This isn't necessarily the case anymore with the amount of losses being taken out there.

More and more often, criminals pretend to be victims and pass the items. I call these people, "reverse scammers" because they have no intention of wiring any money back to the original scammer.

If you are a true victim, I recommend taking to the good folks at FraudAid, who advocate for the people that are really victims. The key is being able to show all the correspondence, along with proof that money was actually wired. If you kept the money from the transaction, it is going to be hard claiming "victim status."

The best way to avoid getting scammed is to call and verify the item at MoneyGram, itself. This can be done by calling 1-800-542-3590. In almost (although not always in theory) all cases, this call will reveal the item as a counterfeit.

MoneyGram money orders aren't the only instruments being counterfeited. Counterfeit cashier's checks, money orders, gift and travelers cheques are also being counterfeited and used in these types of scams.

If you want to learn more about these scams, I recommend going to fakechecks.org, who has some great videos illustrating the scams used to pass these items.

Were camera systems hacked in the bomb threat hoaxes?

Photo courtesy of elegantmob at Flickr

The bomb hoaxes occurring nationwide are creating a lot of fear and speculation.

When reading a Slashdot entry, I came across one of the more interesting speculations about these bomb threats. The speculation is that hackers are taking control of the camera systems in the affected locations and have the ability to monitor the hysteria they are creating live via CCTV.

Here is the entry, I read on Slashdot, which is based on a news article and the comments of a certain Chief of Police:

The FBI is investigating fifteen store robberies in eleven states, committed via phone and Internet. The perpetrators hack the store's security system so they can observe their victims. They then make customers take their clothes off and get the store to wire money. From the article,

"A telephone caller making a bomb threat to a Hutchinson, Kan., grocery store kept more than 100 people hostage, demanding they disrobe and that the store wire money to his bank account. ... officials were investigating whether the caller was out of state and may have hacked into the store's security system. "If they can access the Internet, they can get to anything," Hutchinson Police Chief Dick Heitschmidt said. "Anyone in the whole world could have access, if that's what really happened."

Since most camera systems of the digital variety transmit their data (images) via the Internet, I suppose it is (remotely) possible for hackers to get into a not very well protected system and take advantage of it.

The problem is that most of these camera systems, that might have been hacked, belong to major financial institutions or retailers. As far as I know -- most of these systems operate on an intranet, which is also normally protected by a firewall -- and therefore (in theory) would be pretty hard to get into.

A hacker would have to get past the intranet and firewall to access the CCTV systems.

If you are curious about the difference between Internet and intranet, Wikipedia has a good explanation, here.

With numerous companies and institutions being targeted, all of which in theory have different intranets and firewalls, it would take a lot of hacking to take control of all the camera systems involved (my personal speculation).

I suppose it's also possible that hidden cameras were placed in one of the stores and transmitted over the Internet. It could also be possible that a live person is watching and reporting what is going on via telephone.

The problem with these other speculations is that so far, no one is reporting finding any covert camera equipment. My guess is that these places are searched pretty extensively after the threat is made.

Additionally, human beings covertly reporting the "goings on" during one of these hoaxes doesn't seem very practical, once you think about it. This has occurred in eleven States and the amounts requested aren't in the millions of dollars. It wouldn't be very feasible to use human beings over this wide an area, considering the amount of money involved.

I've learned to "never say never," but I suspect a little fast talking, possible knowledge of the victim's layout (most of these places are set up the same) and the use of fear is how this bomb threat scam is being accomplished.

When I first read about this, I reflected that fear is being used in order to get money wired to criminals. Fear is just another method of social engineering (trickery), which seems to be one common denominator in most of the scams involving the wiring of money.

Despite the fact that many of these scams are spreading quickly with the assistance of technology, it still takes a human element to make the whole thing work.

Exploiting wire transfer systems to steal money is nothing new, either. Wire transfer transactions have become a preferred method of stealing money in a lot of Internet type scams. From romance to lottery scams, with a lot of other variations in-between, Internet criminals have been tricking people into wiring money to them for quite awhile now.

When money is wired, once it is picked up (often within minutes), it's very hard to trace. Please note that these other scams involving wire transfers are predicated on tricking human beings, also.

The good news is that the FBI, Secret Service and Western Union are actively going after the people behind this. Rumor has it they are close to making some arrests.

Since the exact details of the case are being kept confidential, which is important to give the good guys an edge in catching these crooks, all the rest of us can do is speculate.

Let's wish them success in their endeavors and look forward to announcement that the people behind this have been caught! After all, this hoax (scam) is NOT very amusing!

Of note, most experts will always strongly recommend to treat a bomb hoax seriously, despite the fact that most of them are hoaxes. It is recommended that all organizations have a plan on how to handle these scenarios. NSI.org has an extensive page with some pretty good advice (my opinion), here.

Slashdot entry by Erris (531066) and posted by samzenpus, here.

The article, they are referring to comes from News 5 in Phoenix, Arizona.