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Not new, but a strange one here;

Robert Hendy-Freegard is a British barman, car salesman, conman and impostor who masqueraded as an MI5 agent and fooled several people to go underground for fear of IRA assassination. Amongst other scams he seduced five women, claiming that he wanted to marry them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hendy-Freegard

There's a fillum being made about him, as indicated in this ineptly-headlined Shropshire Star article -

Barman's bizarre and cruel IRA plot hoax turned in new film

Robert Hendy-Freegard worked as a barman at a pub in a quiet rural market town.
His cunning plans appeared to be far more Johnny English than James Bond in their execution.

Yet somehow Hendy-Freegard managed to not only convince his victims that he was an MI5 agent, he also conned them out of hundreds of thousands of pounds while forcing them to go into hiding for up to a decade.

Now the story of Robert Hendy-Freegard, who was jailed in 2005 for his audacious cons, is being made into a film, with James Norton playing the smooth-talking conman.
 
A US Army veteran collected more than one million dollars in disability benefits before authorities could determine he was no longer - or perhaps never had been - paralyzed by service-related injuries.
Veteran Charged With Fraudulently Obtaining $1M By Allegedly Falsely Claiming To Be Paraplegic

A U.S. Army veteran from Windsor Mill was arrested Thursday for allegedly fraudulently obtaining more than $1 million in Veterans and Social Security Administration benefits by falsely claiming he was a paraplegic, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.

William Rich, 41, allegedly misrepresented his physical condition in Veterans Administration disability compensation claims, in communications with the VA and during medical examinations while seeking VA disability benefits by claiming he is paralyzed and unable to walk, according to a statement from the office. ...

Rich received $800,000 in VA benefits and more than $240,000 in Social Security Disability Insurance Benefits, the statement alleges. ...

But six weeks after his injuries, Rich made substantial progress toward recovery and no longer was paralyzed, according to the statement. An MRI in August 2005 revealed no spinal cord impingement and that he could move his lower extremities.

A doctor conducting an exam in October 2007 determined Rich was paralyzed, but said he didn’t have access to Rich’s complete claims file, so he couldn’t review the earlier report. Rich then received permanent disability from the VA. ...

The VA’s Office of the Inspector General audited claims in 2018 and learned Rich’s alleged conduct was inconsistent with his purported condition, according to the statement. Special Agents for two years conducted surveillance and saw him walking, going up and down stairs, getting into and out of vehicles, lifting, bending, and carrying items – all without visible limitations or assistance of a medical device ...

The affidavit further alleges the only time the agents saw Rich use a wheelchair was in connection with his medical appointments, particularly five between March 2019 and February 2021. The agents reported seeing Rich load the wheelchair into the trunk of his car before or after a VA medical appointment, using the wheelchair at the appointments or wheeling himself to his car, then loading the wheelchair into the car. ...

Rich’s social media accounts feature photos of him standing in front of a mirror at a gym and videos of him lifting weights, according to the statement. ...

If Rich is convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for wire fraud and a maximum of 10 years in federal prison for theft of government property. ...
https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2021...-allegedly-falsely-claiming-to-be-paraplegic/
 
A US Army veteran collected more than one million dollars in disability benefits before authorities could determine he was no longer - or perhaps never had been - paralyzed by service-related injuries.

https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2021...-allegedly-falsely-claiming-to-be-paraplegic/
So Special Agents surveilled him to see if he really was paraplegic, for 2 years! Surely after seeing him walk unaided the first time would be enough evidence that he wasnt paraplegic, I think these Agents need to be investigated for falsely obtaining wages for an unnecessary job!
:p
 
So Special Agents surveilled him to see if he really was paraplegic, for 2 years! Surely after seeing him walk unaided the first time would be enough evidence that he wasnt paraplegic, I think these Agents need to be investigated for falsely obtaining wages for an unnecessary job!
:p
There have been numerous publicised instances of this type of fraud in the UK. Some idiots have posted their physical activities on Facebook, whilst claiming benefits for severe disability. DSS get calls from whistle blowers all the time.
 
There have been numerous publicised instances of this type of fraud in the UK. Some idiots have posted their physical activities on Facebook, whilst claiming benefits for severe disability. DSS get calls from whistle blowers all the time.
Indeed, I regularly see programmes were people are found to be scamming the benefits agency or insurers, when there social media is looked at and it shows them, for example, at body building contests or jet skiing on holiday, it just confirms to me that some people are just plain dumb.
 
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Had this in a local group email just now. The sender's name was given along with the location so I'm inclined to believe it.

Another scammer on the prowl.
Hi all, I was at Waitrose in Sandbach yesterday and while packing my groceries into my car, a silver A3 Audi pulled up next to me and a well dressed gentleman with a very broad Italian accent holding a huge map (suspicious already as he had a smartphone on the passenger seat!) asked if I could help him.

Assuming it was directions he needed help with, I said I would try to help. He then put away the map and engaged me in conversation saying he noticed I had an accent and talked about how he loved South Africa.

After a few moments of conversation, he tells me he has been in the UK for 2 weeks working for a watch company that supplies John Lewis and premium jewellery stores and he was now on his way to the airport to go back home.

He took out some watches - a mans chronograph and a woman's watch, both in beautiful presentation boxes and said I could have them at no cost as he would have to pay duty at the airport if he travelled with them.

I said I could not take up this generous offer and he then offered a third even more expensive (so he said) gents watch. He put them on a bag and offered them to me and at the same time asking if I could help him with £250.00 to pay his car hire - he even showed me (very quickly!) a piece of very crumpled paper as proof.

When I said I did not have that kind of money on me, he asked how much I had on me and I said £5.00 - the bag with the watches was quickly put on the passenger seat and he reversed and drove away - very annoyed judging by the colourful expletives hurled at me.

This is an old scam and the watches we, in all likelihood, cheap Chinese rip-offs. Please be aware that anything that is too good to be true is probably a scam. I did report this to the Waitrose customer service desk but not the police.

Description of person involved – Hair: Curly salt & pepper in colour, Top: Nice shirt - no tie, Age: 40 ish, Build: slight, Ethnicity: Caucasian, Sex: Male, Other details: Very broad Italian accent Description of vehicle involved – Colour: Silver, Make: Audi, Model: A3, Type: Car, Other details: Said it was a hire car from Enterprise.
 
Had this in a local group email just now. The sender's name was given along with the location so I'm inclined to believe it.
Yep, I had one of those blokes approach me in a car park. Pretended to be Italian too.
I said "I am arresting you on suspicion of handling stolen goods. You do not have to say anything, but if" and by that point he had jumped into his car and was off.
 
Yep, I had one of those blokes approach me in a car park. Pretended to be Italian too.
I said "I am arresting you on suspicion of handling stolen goods. You do not have to say anything, but if" and by that point he had jumped into his car and was off.
Awesome!
 
Had this in a local group email just now. The sender's name was given along with the location so I'm inclined to believe it.

I had this in a motorway services several years ago, but the goods were “luxury, designer” leather jackets. The attempted vendor needed money quickly because he had (IIRC) been let down in some way by his employers (a fashion company that even l had heard of), and so was selling their stock off at 10p on the £ to make his fare home and spite them.

lt turns out that “Fuck off, thief!” means the same in English and Italian. Who knew?

maximus otter
 
I had this in a motorway services several years ago, but the goods were “luxury, designer” leather jackets. The attempted vendor needed money quickly because he had (IIRC) been let down in some way by his employers (a fashion company that even l had heard of), and so was selling their stock off at 10p on the £ to make his fare home and spite them.

lt turns out that “Fuck off, thief!” means the same in English and Italian. Who knew?

maximus otter
I remember seeing some Italian-looking guy being arrested in a Tesco's car park one day, next to his car. The car was stuffed full of expensive-looking shirts.
 
I remember seeing some Italian-looking guy being arrested in a Tesco's car park one day, next to his car. The car was stuffed full of expensive-looking shirts.

That poor fella! Stuck in the UK again, because Dolce & Gabbana couldn’t afford to fly him home!

:rofl:

maximus otter
 
My sister got scammed to the tune of £800 recently. Had a text purportedly from her daughter T asking for money. It wasn’t from T’s usual phone but was ‘from her new phone’.

The txt asked her to transfer the money not to T’s a/c but to a different one as T’s a/c ‘had been frozen’ so she couldn’t pay from it.

I can’t believe it but she fell for it, went to her bank & transferred the money. She’s now in talks with her bank as to whether they’ll refund the money.
 
My Mum told me that a neighbour got scammed recently.
This (elderly) woman was walking along the road and a young man fell in to walking alongside her.
She thought she recognised him as a young workman who'd been working at a property nearby, so she engaged him in friendly conversation.
She asked him if he was available for a bit of simple building work on her house. He said he could do it and would need some money upfront for materials, etc. So she gave him £200.
She never saw him again, as you'd imagine.
I pointed out to my Mum that this woman had got off lightly. His original intent may have been to mug her and rob her, but she avoided the 'mugging' part.
 
My Mum told me that a neighbour got scammed recently.
This (elderly) woman was walking along the road and a young man fell in to walking alongside her.
She thought she recognised him as a young workman who'd been working at a property nearby, so she engaged him in friendly conversation.
She asked him if he was available for a bit of simple building work on her house. He said he could do it and would need some money upfront for materials, etc. So she gave him £200.
She never saw him again, as you'd imagine.
I pointed out to my Mum that this woman had got off lightly. His original intent may have been to mug her and rob her, but she avoided the 'mugging' part.
I've told MrsF's mother (and MrsF) to stop using cashpoints for a start and if ever one, and definitely two strangers come up to her in the street and ask her something, to just keep walking and go into a shop. With some of the older folks especially, it's almost like they don't believe anything bad could happen.
 
There have been numerous publicised instances of this type of fraud in the UK. Some idiots have posted their physical activities on Facebook, whilst claiming benefits for severe disability. DSS get calls from whistle blowers all the time.
I think this is it - these people have their profiles as 'private' so only friends can see their 'activities' rather than the general public, so they feel safe. They forget that they may have friends who are fed up with them scamming the benefits agencies and will turn them in in a heartbeat.
 
I've told MrsF's mother (and MrsF) to stop using cashpoints for a start and if ever one, and definitely two strangers come up to her in the street and ask her something, to just keep walking and go into a shop. With some of the older folks especially, it's almost like they don't believe anything bad could happen.
I've probably mentioned this before, but on one occasion I was asked by an elderly chap in a wheelchair if I could assist him with getting money out of the cash machine, because he couldn't read the screen. He wanted quite a bit, £200 or so iirc. Gave me his card and his PIN so I got the money out which he then proceeded to put in his carrier bag. I did suggest that he put it in his coat pocket but he declined. He could easily have lost the whole lot and more. Some people are trusting beyond belief.
 
I remember seeing some Italian-looking guy being arrested in a Tesco's car park one day, next to his car. The car was stuffed full of expensive-looking shirts.
I had similar in a B&Q car park recently. 2 very tough looking blokes in a white van drew up next to me and the passenger bawled "you do want a bargain don't you?". I laughed and walked off, but watched as they tried it on with other customers. Reported to staff and they kept a watch outside. Van drove off when they realised they had been sussed. Dread to think what was in the van, but possibly not legit goods.:thought:
 
I've probably mentioned this before, but on one occasion I was asked by an elderly chap in a wheelchair if I could assist him with getting money out of the cash machine, because he couldn't read the screen. He wanted quite a bit, £200 or so iirc. Gave me his card and his PIN so I got the money out which he then proceeded to put in his carrier bag. I did suggest that he put it in his coat pocket but he declined. He could easily have lost the whole lot and more. Some people are trusting beyond belief.
SO MANY of my customers (usually the elderly but not always) put their card in the chip and pin machine and then either say their PIN OUT LOUD as they put it in, or have to flip through their wallet to find where they've written it down. Anyone of nefarious intent in the queue then knows a) where their wallet is and b) where to find the PIN (or remember what they said). I've told many of them off for flipping open their wallet in front of me to reveal all sorts of information - their date of birth is usually the big one, with their full name on their bus pass, also their NHS number (they put the card in the front too). If anyone really wanted to steal an identity, they'd only have to work on a till for a few months and they'd have their pick.
 
SO MANY of my customers (usually the elderly but not always) put their card in the chip and pin machine and then either say their PIN OUT LOUD as they put it in, or have to flip through their wallet to find where they've written it down. Anyone of nefarious intent in the queue then knows a) where their wallet is and b) where to find the PIN (or remember what they said). I've told many of them off for flipping open their wallet in front of me to reveal all sorts of information - their date of birth is usually the big one, with their full name on their bus pass, also their NHS number (they put the card in the front too). If anyone really wanted to steal an identity, they'd only have to work on a till for a few months and they'd have their pick.
Yes and before chip and pin, I often saw people just using one finger for each number, for all the world to see instead of covering the keypad up with their hand/fingers.
 
Man deliberately chops both his legs off by lying under a train in bid to claim £2.3m insurance payout.

A man deliberately chopped both his legs off by lying under a train in a bid to claim a £2.3million insurance payout, it has been claimed.

74c2e7bd-0d35-44c8-bb63-dd86dce47885.jpg


A court in Hungary ruled that Sandor Cs., 54, had climbed onto the tracks with the intention of having both his legs run over.

Sandor has faced scrutiny from the authorities since 2014 when both of his legs were run over by a train in the Hungarian village of Nyircsaszari.

Suspicion surrounding the incident was sparked when the authorities were informed that Sandor had taken out 14 high-risk life insurance policies in the year building up to the incident.

Sandor, who was wheelchair-bound after the incident and now uses prosthetic limbs, claimed that he took out the policies after receiving financial advice telling him returns are better on insurance policies than savings accounts.

His wife filed the insurance claims directly after the incident, but they refused to pay up on grounds that they suspected he had inflicted the injury on himself.

Sandor maintains his innocence and claims that he stepped on a shard of glass which resulted in him losing his balance and falling in front of the train that was just departing the station.

The incident resulted in Sandor having both of his legs amputated from the knee down.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/16696271/man-chops-legs-lying-train-crazy-insurance/

maximus otter
 
Man deliberately chops both his legs off by lying under a train in bid to claim £2.3m insurance payout.

maximus otter
Well he wouldn't be the first person to try out this type of fraud, but losing both legs is a huge sacrifice. I often wonder just how desperate some people are. And then am glad that I don't really understand this type of desperation.
 
This alleged scammer didn't appear in court as ordered. His lawyer had received a suspiciously informal death certificate indicating his client had died in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Scammer gone, or scam taken to the next level? You decide!
Lawyer: Man charged in scam missed court because he’s dead

A man charged with running a scam that cheated a woman out of more than $80,000 missed a recent court date and was supposed to be rearrested, but his attorney says that will be impossible because his client has been dead for months.

Johnny Masesa’s attorney told state’s attorneys in June that he received a death certificate saying his client died from complications of malaria in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he has family. The Connecticut Post reported police and federal authorities have been unable to confirm the authenticity of the death certificate.

Masesa and others are charged scamming a Connecticut woman out of $83,000 by posing as representatives of the Publisher’s Clearing House sweepstakes. ...

The 45-year-old Masesa was arrested in 2019 and pleaded not guilty, and posted a $25,000 bond using a Florida address, the Post reported. He was scheduled in court on Nov. 4 but didn’t appear. Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Howard Stein told the newspaper the death certificate was written by hand and appeared to have several spots where corrections were made with correction fluid. ...
FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/connecticut-africa-arrests-4aeaa07b0d583b97e30f5d395e28cf80
 
There's a need for more oversight on this scheme. This payment would in addition to other benefits.

An individual claimed blind welfare allowance from two Health Service Executive (HSE) offices at the same time for nearly 10 years, receiving overpayments of more than €30,000, an audit has found.

The internal audit, completed in April 2021, warned that people claiming the payments from different health service areas at the same time had the potential to be “systemic”, recommending a national review of the issue.

Blind welfare allowance is a means tested payment of €61.50 a week, with a further €4.40 per dependent child.

A HSE internal audit found one individual had been paid the allowance from Community Health Organisation (CHO) 7 in Dublin, as well as CHO 4 in Cork, for over 9½ years between late 2007 and September 2019.

The audit noted the payment from the Dublin office had stopped for a period from 2009 to late 2010. The report said the current systems used by each of the nine CHOs to pay the allowance were not “integrated” together.

The audit calculated the amount that had been overpaid as a result of two offices making the payments to the same individual was €30,820. ...

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/soc...from-two-offices-at-same-time-audit-1.4736842
 

Italian gynecologist allegedly offered to have sex with woman to ‘cure’ virus​


/ “Dr. Magic Flute” does not, in fact, have a "Magic Flute".

https://nypost.com/2021/11/24/italian-dr-magic-flute-offered-patients-sex-to-cure-hpv/

----------------------------------------------------------------
An Italian doctor known by the nickname “Dr. Magic Flute” was uncovered as a fraud for allegedly offering to have sex with a female patient — to “cure” her of a cancer-causing virus, according to a report.

Dr. Giovanni Miniello, 60, a gynecologist in the southern city of Bari, told the 33-year-old woman she appeared to have human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted bug that can cause cancer, although a Pap smear test was negative, Newsflash reported.

“I have saved many women from cancer. All those I have had contact with were negative afterwards,” he reportedly told her.
 
Fifteen years & they never met..

Conned volleyball star spends £600,000 thinking he was dating Brazil model for 15 years

Former Italian national volleyball player Roberto Cazzaniga was convinced he was in love and engaged to long-distance fiancé ‘Maya’ but he was the victim of an elaborate scam using a photograph of the Brazilian Victoria’s Secret supermodel Alessandra Ambrosio
Their relationship began after he was introduced to ‘Maya’ over the phone by a mutual friend named Manuela, who was later found to be the mastermind of the catfishing scheme.

The couple never met face-to-face but he claimed they were engaged and had sent her lavish gifts and financial aid for many years.

Some of the gifts that he allegedly sent her included a brand new Alfa Romeo Mito and over €700,000 (approx £590,000) for what he believed were medical expenses to treat a heart condition.

Under pressure by his teammates to look deeper into the story, Mr Cazzaniga turned to the Italian authorities who informed him that he had been the victim of an elaborate scam.

Speaking on the Italian television programme ‘Le Iene’, he went public with his story and admitted that he had been catfished by a known fraudster and had racked up thousands of euros in debt.
 
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