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Thinking about holidays...? Beware!

The 13 best travel scams
From Floridian fraudsters to fake Peruvian police, these are the scoundrels out to scam you
Brian Schofield

THE PHONEY FREE TRIP TO FLORIDA

The phone rings and an electronic voice tells you to hit the number 9 to claim your prize, a holiday to the Sunshine State – at which point a salesperson comes on the line and explains that you have, in fact, won only most of a holiday. To seal the deal, you are typically told, it will cost between £500 and £700 for a supposed £2,000 luxury trip, usually to Orlando and the Bahamas.

You’re then asked for your credit-card details, “strictly for verification”, but the full fee is promptly removed from your card without your consent. If you try to get the money back, the delays begin, with calls going unanswered, packages not arriving, and staff often verbally abusing customers. And your credit-card company doesn’t have to refund you – because you read out those numbers.

The Sunday Times knows of dozens of victims of this scam, and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has been trying to shut down the perpetrators for years – but they’re still at work.

Steering clear: if you’re told you’ve won a competition you never entered, it’s a scam. If you’ve been caught by the Florida fraudsters, go to www.800helpfla.com.

THE CARD MILL

“Become a travel agent! Save 50%-75% on flights and hotels using special travel-agent-only rates. Getting a travel-agent card takes only 15 minutes!”

This internet scam, known as “card milling”, is on the increase. Greedy travellers are told that by spending up to £260 on a travel-agent ID card, they will become eligible for industry-insider rates, meaning huge discounts on flights, hotels and, most commonly, cruises.

You cough up the credit-card details, your ID card arrives – and the first time you slap it down on a reception desk, you’re laughed out of the lobby.

The problem is becoming so widespread that Royal Caribbean Cruises has just announced a crackdown on card-mill chumps – if you flash one of these cards, not only will you not get a discount, you won’t be allowed to book at full rate.

Steering clear: if you really want a career as a travel agent, there’s a jobs page at www.abta.com.

THE FLY-BY-NIGHT

Comfortably the most costly scam in the UK is the oldest one in the book – companies taking travellers’ cash, then shutting down their businesses without delivering what they promised.

Many closures are just business failures – about 25 legitimate travel firms a year go belly up, leaving, on average, 20,000 Britons with trashed holiday plans – but many are dodgy deals. In 2006, an Oxfordshire company called MAS Travel collected more than £1m of British travellers’ cash for heavily discounted flights. But the firm never purchased the tickets from the airlines, and hastily shut up shop – some travellers found out they’d been scammed only at the check-in desk.

Steering clear: ideally, you should purchase holidays only from Atol-bonded operators, whose collapse wouldn’t cost you a penny. But in these independent-minded times, when more of us put together our own holidays, the safety net is to check that your travel insurance covers airline and operator closure – many policies do.

THE HOLLOW INSURANCE

This scam has, with luck, only one year left to run – but, as a 2007 House of Commons report suggested, because it affects 10m UK travellers a year, it’s still a worry. Basically, most travel agents are on commission to sell you insurance alongside your holiday, and for far too many of them, mis-selling is too hard to resist.

A Consumer Association survey in 2006 reported that 81% of customers didn’t have their coverage properly explained to them by their travel agent, 55% weren’t told about their excess payment and 65% weren’t asked about any existing medical complaints that might have left them uncovered.

According to another 2007 survey, by Sainsbury’s Bank, 7% of customers were told a big fat lie by their travel agent – that they had to buy the insurance to get the holiday. The government is so concerned that, from January 2009, travel agents will be regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

Steering clear: make it your responsibility – because, legally, the obligation lies with you – to ensure that the agent knows about any medical conditions and precisely what your trip will entail. And remember that it is your right to shop around.

AWAY

THE FAKE RECEPTIONIST

If you’re a scam artist, the modern-day jackpot is spending some time alone with a traveller’s credit-card details before they realise anything is up. Common, and almost unstoppable, tricks include capturing all the details when you hand the card over for a meal or some petrol – but one ingenious new tactic, first reported in Shanghai, has been to call hotel rooms late at night, pretending to be from reception.

“We’re trying to process your bill, sir, but the card details seem to be wrong. Could you just bring the card down to the desk?” “But it’s two in the morning!” “Okay, just read the numbers out down the phone...”

Steering clear: take great care who gets your numbers and handles your card out of your sight. Realistically, your best defence is last-ditch – checking your credit-card statement carefully after every foreign trip. You should be refunded any money that has been taken illegally.

THE SECRET CONVERSION

There’s a more minor, but also more irritating, way you can be diddled when you hand over your card overseas. Whenever you pay by card, you should be given the choice of stumping up in sterling or in the local currency – and the sensible choice is the latter, allowing your bank to convert the sum to sterling later on.

But many shops, hotels and restaurants have other ideas, and convert your bill into sterling without asking you, using their own brazenly uncompetitive conversion rates. To add insult to injury, they stick on an exchange commission of up to 4%. Cheeky.

Steering clear: it’s a good golden rule to use the credit card only for larger purchases from established vendors, then remember to tell them you want to pay in their home currency.

THE PRETEND POLICEMEN

It’s a classic scam, because it works. The well-spoken young backpacker who told me this cautionary tale has, perhaps wisely, opted for anonymity: “I was hanging out in Cuzco, Peru, when I met a local guy, and we became friends. He showed me some of the ruins, we had a few beers, then, one night, he said, ‘You are my friend, you are kind to me. I want to give you a present.’ And he gives me a fistful of marijuana.

About an hour later, I was walking back to my hostel. Two men were waiting outside the front gate. They told me they were policemen and asked me to empty my pockets. When they found the dope, they told me I’d spend four years in prison for dealing drugs... unless I paid them $200 to forget everything. Panicking in a dark street, I paid up there and then – and never saw my ‘friend’ again.”

Steering clear: don’t do drugs. In general terms, if you get yourself into a similarly sticky situation, remember that your safety is the priority. Try calmly to make the issue public, getting other people involved, preferably the real police – although if you’ve got a pocketful of hash, that’s going to be tricky. If you’re alone, consider coughing up.

THE SHONKY EXCHANGE BOOTH

There are so many scams involving exchange booths, it’s, fittingly, hard to keep count. There will always be occasions when you need to change cash but there’s no bank about, so more informal converters come into play. Most are perfectly legitimate, but signs that all is not well include: the teller shuffling and counting out bills in absurdly small denominations, which makes keeping score a chore; a disturbance or argument that conveniently flares up just as you’re trying to count your cash; and anything involving opaque envelopes, which will probably turn out to contain newspaper clippings.

Steering clear: always change money in a pair, so one of you can concentrate while the other fends off any distractions. Get a receipt, and choose fixed premises, not a bunco booth or a bloke with a briefcase, so you’ll have somewhere to take the police if you do get short-changed.

THE DODGY DRINKING BUDDY

Many of us have been caught in the “nice” version of this scam – a friendly stranger takes you drinking in a foreign land, pays a fraction of what it’s costing you for the same round of drinks, then takes a backhander from the bar-owner at closing time for hauling your well-fleeced backsides into the establishment. No big deal.

But a nasty version has, travellers’ websites suggest, taken root in the newly fashionable slacker beach resorts of Venezuela. This time, your pretend buddy slips you a jungle version of Rohypnol, known as burundanga. This generates about three hours of stumbling incapacity, during which time you are roundly robbed.

The Foreign Office reports that burundanga is also being used in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, to sedate travellers by touch, using laced pamphlets and flyers. But booze is the most common delivery system – because who spots a drooling backpacker? Unsurprisingly, Thailand is also becoming a drink-doping hot spot.

Steering clear: with the “nice” scam, it’s probably best to relax – frankly, if everyone knows what’s happening, what’s the harm? To avoid getting burundangaed, watch your own drink in a bar, favour bottled products and always think carefully about going clubbing before you fly solo.

THE UNLICENSED TAXI

You’re tired, there’s a queue at the taxi rank, so you accept the cheery offer of an unofficial taxi. From this point on, a good outcome is that you’ll be overcharged, or forced to stop off at the driver’s brother’s souvenir shop on the way to your hotel.

The bad outcome is unthinkably bad. In 2006, an Austrian couple on a round-the-world trip got into a fake taxi at the bus terminal in La Paz, Bolivia – and were kidnapped. Their bank cards and Pin numbers were taken and they were held captive for five days, while their bank accounts were emptied. They were then killed.

Steering clear: never get in unofficial taxis – full stop. And, sadly, it seems the old traveller’s tradition of sharing taxis to save money is no longer safe – the poor Austrian couple, and the others who have escaped similar ordeals (chiefly in South America), were partly undone by gang members posing as travellers and getting into their taxi. Only share rides with those you trust, and never permit the driver to pick up another passenger.

THE SHOESHINERS OF ISTANBUL

Some scams are much more harmless. The many young men who scratch a living shoeshining in Istanbul have an elegant moneymaking trick. They’ve developed the art of inadvertently dropping their brush behind them in the street, in a holidaymaker’s path.

You pick it up and take it to them, and they thank you effusively for saving the vital tool of their trade – it’ll probably turn out to be their grandfather’s shoe brush. To say thanks, they offer you a free shine, and, as your toes are buffed, you’ll hear a long hard-luck story, designed to loosen the stiffest wallet.

Steering clear: Why steer clear? If your shoes need polishing, accept the offer, enjoy the story and pay the man. Once your leather’s nice and shiny, you’ll be left well alone.

THE METAL-DETECTOR SHUFFLE

A clever one, this – you put your belongings on the conveyor belt, but a man bustles past you in a desperate hurry. He then gets himself held up at the detector, emptying his pockets of innumerable coins, keys and collectables. While you wait patiently, the guy who was in the queue in front of you – Mr Metal’s accomplice – waits for your bag, then nicks it.

US airports, where security chaos and wealthy travellers collide, seem most blighted by this – in 1997, a Texan oil baroness passing through Newark airport was diddled out of her handbag, which contained jewellery worth more than £300,000.

Steering clear: watch your stuff, stand your ground – and, in general, think twice about using your luggage to advertise your wealth.

AND FINALLY

THE BUS SCAM SCAM

Finally, an answer to the question: “How stupid can people be?” According to insurance-industry reports, this stunt has reeled in gullible travellers across the USA and Canada. It goes like this – you are approached by someone in a bar who guarantees you thousands of dollars if you join in a scam by getting on a bus that they will rear-end somewhere along its route.

Most of the passengers, you are promised, will be in on the fraud, and will all protest that it was the driver’s fault, while rubbing their hips and necks. And the bus company will start handing out cash and liability-waiver forms immediately. To get a piece of the action, all you have to do is pay your new friend a $250 fixer’s fee and get on the assigned bus.

Next day, you get on the bus, winking at all your fellow passengers, and, as the journey passes without incident, you slowly realise that you are an incurable chump.

http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/lif ... 287518.ece
 
The great British share swindle
By Terry Messenger
BBC Money Programme

Britain's 10 million small shareholders are being systematically targeted by an international criminal network of fake investment firms who have conned them out of millions of pounds.

When Dr John Ashley got a letter from Spain offering him free advice on his savings, he thought it wouldn't do any harm to say yes.

How wrong he was. Eighteen months later and £60,000 poorer, Dr Ashley rued the day he listened to Madrid-based investment firm Benjamin Fisher.

He is one of Britain's 10 million small shareholders who are being systematically targeted by an international criminal network of fake investment firms.

The scam investment firms, known as "boiler rooms", have fleeced ordinary British savers out of hundreds of millions of pounds in a massive swindle which may add up to the UK's biggest theft.

The Money Programme looked at three examples that have left ordinary investors out of pocket.

Dr Ashley, from Cheshire, ended up buying £60,000 of shares through Benjamin Fisher - which crashed in value and proved to be unsaleable at any price.

He was devastated. He says, "If I could have given my two kids 30 grand off their mortgage, I'm sure they'd be absolutely delighted. That would be a lot more pleasant than looking at a big hole in my bank account."

Benjamin Fisher hooked Dr Ashley by offering him a free report on a legitimate company in which he owned shares.

He returned a form requesting the report, giving Benjamin Fisher his phone number and consenting to being contacted with further information.

The next he knew, a friendly and insistent salesman was on the phone offering him shares in a mining company, supposedly with great prospects. He was tempted and invested a small sum.

The share price rose and he bought more and more from Benjamin Fisher of what are known as Regulation S shares, believing he was on to a winner.

What he did not realise was that Regulation S shares are almost impossible to sell on. And to make things even worse, the share price crashed, leaving his investment of £60,000 with a value of £5,000.

Dr Ashley is far from alone. The scam has been going for decades, starting in the US.

Boiler rooms first sprang up in pre-war New York where, according to the legend, mobsters rented boiler rooms in Wall Street offices, because that was all they could afford.

But lately, the FBI has cracked down in America, so the "boiler room" companies have turned their attention to Britain.

The City of London Police has set up Operation Archway, headed by DCI Bob Wishart, to tackle the growing threat to the UK.

DCI Wishart says: "We did a conservative estimate based on what victims have reported to us, where we believed in excess of $100m had been lost. We actually believe that figure could be far higher, potentially $400m, $500m."

Glitzy offices

The second case examined by the Money Programme concerned Pacific Continental Securities, an investment company based in the City of London.

Pacific Continental has links through intermediary companies with the firm that scammed Dr Ashley. And it has many of the characteristics of a boiler room.

Simon Mitchell from Sussex lost £45,000 on Regulation S shares bought through Pacific Continental. He fell for the bait during a visit to the firm's impressive seventh floor offices in a glitzy tower block near St Paul's.

"The place was buzzing. Every terminal was manned," he says. "There were people standing up doing the buy-buy-buy, sell-sell scenario.

"And I thought to myself, Simon, you're looking to build a relationship with a financial broker who's going to help you make good money."

But for Simon and many others, it all proved to be a facade.

Stephen Alexander is a lawyer who is helping people who lost money through Pacific Continental and has calculated the scale of the problem.

He says: "We've had in over 2,500 written complaints regarding the sales practices and the mis-selling carried out by Pacific Continental. The losses, potentially, are running into hundreds of millions of pounds."

The owner of Pacific Continental denied his company had done anything improper and claimed that the UK financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority, was aware of the firm's business practices and raised no objection.

Nondescript HQ

The third case examined by the Money Programme involved a company called Newbridge International, based in Barcelona.

Bob Walker from Darlington bought about £5,000 of Regulation S shares in a life sciences firm recommended by Newbridge International. He bought half from Newbridge and half direct from the life sciences company. They too proved unsaleable.

Although its website gives the impression it is based in a glitzy skyscraper, the only address it gives out is for a PO box number.

The Money Programme eventually tracked the operation down to a nondescript building in Barcelona.

Newbridge insisted it warned investors that its investments would be high-risk and that the shares they sold were Regulation S.

But investor Bob Walker said he received written warnings only after he had paid for his shares.

DCI Bob Wishart had this warning for investors about boiler rooms: "Their incentive is purely down to extracting as much money as they can from every individual they can, and moving on."

And Jonathan Phelan of the Financial Services Authority says: "If every consumer was willing to hang up the phone and recognise what a boiler room was, then the menace of boiler rooms would be dead and gone for ever."

When it comes to fantastic sounding investment schemes, it seems that the old adage is as true as ever: if something appears to be too good to be true, then it probably is.


City of London Police is responsible for co-ordinating Operation Archway, the national intelligence reporting system for boiler room fraud. If you think you have been a victim of this type of fraud, visit the City of London Police website at: www.cityoflondon.police.uk

The Money Programme: The Great British Shares Swindle, BBC2 at 1900 on Friday, 21 March.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7306363.stm
 
rynner said:
THE DODGY DRINKING BUDDY

But a nasty version has, travellers’ websites suggest, taken root in the newly fashionable slacker beach resorts of Venezuela. This time, your pretend buddy slips you a jungle version of Rohypnol, known as burundanga. This generates about three hours of stumbling incapacity, during which time you are roundly robbed.

The Foreign Office reports that burundanga is also being used in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, to sedate travellers by touch, using laced pamphlets and flyers. But booze is the most common delivery system – because who spots a drooling backpacker? Unsurprisingly, Thailand is also becoming a drink-doping hot spot.
Interesting from a UL point of view?
Are there actually any drugs which can be transmitted by touch?
 
H_James said:
Interesting from a UL point of view?
Are there actually any drugs which can be transmitted by touch?

Sure, but they're nerve gas agents - I think it's highly unlikely that a street criminal is going to be able to synthesize it, keep themselves from being exposed while handing it out in the street - (I think you'd notice somebody wearing rubber gloves while trying to hand out flyers ) - and then follow their victims around until it took effect especially when they could just knock them on the head or pull a knife and demand the goods.

It does sound like the FO is taking an urban legend seriously:

Do not accept pamphlets in the street or major shopping centres, as there have been incidents of these having been impregnated with potent and disorienting drugs, which permeate the skin. Tourists’ drinks have also been spiked.


It's more likely tourists get disoriented from the heat and too much booze, get robbed by opportunists and blame something else.
 
Couple made up 16 children in benefit fraud
Steven Morris The Guardian, Friday April 11 2008

A man who claimed more than £75,000 in benefits by inventing 16 children who did not exist to fund his gambling addiction was jailed for 20 months yesterday.

David Wilshaw, 58, and partner Nancy Stevenson, 59, fabricated a huge family to milk the system for four years. The fraud began when Wilshaw applied for tax credits for two of Stevenson's children who did exist and nobody asked to see birth certificates or other proof. He went on to make up the names of 16 children and pocketed more than £400 a week for them between 2003 and 2007.

Bristol crown court heard Wilshaw spent up to £600 a week in betting shops and Stevenson drank at least two bottles of brandy a day. :shock:

Wilshaw, who masterminded the scheme, was sentenced to 20 months in prison after admitting 42 charges of fraud, two charges of handling stolen goods and obtaining property by deception.

Stevenson avoided jail because she had played a "lesser role" and Wilshaw had transferred just £9,000 of the money into her account. She admitted one charge of money laundering and a further charge of tax credit fraud and was given a 12-month supervised community order.

The court heard that Wilshaw would claim he was adopting or fostering the 16 children - despite living in a one bedroom flat. 8) The couple were arrested in March after 12 Inland Revenue investigators swooped on their home in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.

Wilshaw, who had 85 previous convictions for fraud, said after his arrest in March: "I'm doing a public service by identifying this massive loophole." :roll:
He will appear in court again next month for a confiscation hearing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/apr/11/ukcrime1
 
Jobless lorry driver 'sold' The Ritz hotel to businessman in £250million con
By BETH HALE
Last updated at 09:35am on 18th April 2008

When businessman Terry Collins was offered the chance to buy the Ritz Hotel for a knockdown price of £250million it was an opportunity that sounded too good to be true.

And it was indeed too good to be true. The hotel, with an estimated market value of around £600million, was not on the market.

Yet two conmen managed to persuade Mr Collins, co-founder of a large and reputable property company, that the hotel's owners, the Barclay brothers, were prepared to sell it at a bargain price.

Anthony Lee and Patrick Dolan convinced an intermediary that they represented the Barclays and even had a team of lawyers on board to give the plan respectability.

Negotiations went on for months and eventually Mr Collins, of London Allied Holdings, borrowed £1million from Dutch businessman and financier Marcel Boekhoorn to pay Lee a deposit in December 2006 for the release of 27 boxes of purchase documentation held by his solicitors.

But the papers did not exist and the Barclays were oblivious of the ruse.

Lee turned out to be an unemployed lorry driver and bankrupt with no connections whatsoever to the brothers. Dolan, too, was unemployed.

The elaborate fraud emerged yesterday in a judgment handed down at the High Court in London as the two victims of the fraud battled over the £ 1million which was immediately spent by Lee and Dolan.

Lee, 47, bought a £55,000 Land Rover as a Christmas present for his girlfriend Jennifer Hodgson, then took her on a luxury cruise.

He sent £59,000 to his creditors and paid rent arrears on his Yorkshire bungalow.

Dolan, 66, bought a Mercedes for £43,000 and splashed out on a lavish day at Cheltenham races, where he bet and lost heavily.

He paid off the £30,000 mortgage on his house in Barnet, North London, and paid £293,410 to his wife.

In yesterday's judgment, Mr Justice Henderson said: "The Barclay brothers were known by Mr Collins to have the reputation of being extremely secretive in the conduct of their business affairs, and it did not strike him as implausible that they would wish to structure a transaction of this sort through an intermediary such as Mr Lee."

For five months Mr Collins was engaged in extensive and detailed negotiations with Lee and his solicitor.

To clinch the deal Lee convinced Mr Collins that another buyer was on the scene.

It was at that point that Mr Collins contacted Mr Boekhoorn, of a firm called Apvodedo, and outlined the opportunity. An agreement was reached.

The judge continued: "Readers of this judgment will perhaps have guessed by now that Mr Collins and London Allied Holdings (and indirectly Apvodedo and Mr Boekhoorn) were the victims of an elaborate fraud.

"Mr Lee and Mr Dolan were not currently involved in the property business, nor were they authorised in any way to act as intermediaries on behalf of the Barclay brothers.

"Mr Lee was an unemployed HGV driver and was an undischarged bankrupt throughout his dealings with LAH.

"Mr Dolan was a former contracts manager for a construction company-who had also been unemployed since 2000."

Mr Collins sued the pair as soon as he realised he would not receive the documents or a refund, and a High Court judge agreed an order allowing the tracing of funds.

Originally, Apvodedo helped LAH in its efforts to recover the money, but in October 2007 issued a claim for £1million against Mr Collins and LAH.

Mr Collins says he is not liable for the money because both he and Mr Boekhoorn believed the deal was genuine.

Mr Justice Henderson dismissed Mr Boekhoorn's application for an immediate ruling over the money and said the case needed to go to full trial.

North Yorkshire Police said an inquiry was continuing, although no arrests have been made.

Mr Collins said it was the legal element of the deal that had been so convincing.

"If the lawyers hadn't been there we would have laughed in their faces," he said. "We are still very angry."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... ge_id=1770
 
when i worked for a govt dept a few years ago, things were moving towards having a small number of 'superagents' do our construction work for us, as apparently it's better value than using lots of smaller companys.

Some of those 'superagents' have been on the take:

UK Construction Firms Accused In Price-fixing Probe; Balfour Beatty, Carillion Granted Leniency - Update [BBY.L]

4/17/2008 8:20:16 AM The Office of Fair Trading accused 112 construction firms in England for engaging in bid rigging activities, as part of the largest-ever investigation into the industry.

U.K's construction majors Balfour Beatty Plc (BBY.L, BAFBF.PK) and Carillion Plc(CLLN.L, CIOIF.PK) are among the 112 construction companies accused by the Office of Fair Trading, or OFT, for plotting plans to con taxpayers in a bid-rigging scandal.

In two separate releases, Balfour Beatty and Carillion said that the OFT has granted leniency to the companies, thus reducing any fine which might ultimately be levied.

Other firms that are reportedly included in the allegation are Connaught Plc, Interserve Plc, Morgan Sindall Plc, Kier Group Plc, Rok Plc, Galliford Try, Ballast Nedam NV and Henry Boot Plc.

The OFT alleges that the construction companies have engaged in bid rigging activities, and in particular cover pricing, a situation where one or more bidders collude with a competitor during a tender process to obtain a price or prices which are intended to be too high to win the contract.

As per its investigation, the OFT claimed that the building firms throughout the East Midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside formed a construction cartel which fixed the prices of tenders on a range of public sector and local authority projects, including hospitals, schools and universities.

Under the Competition Act, any company found to be a member of a cartel could be fined as much as 10% of its annual revenue.

John Fingleton, OFT Chief Executive officer, said, “Cartel activity of the type alleged today harms the economy by distorting competition and keeping prices artificially high.” He added, “This investigation, together with the OFT's previous decisions in the roofing sector, will hopefully send out a strong message to the construction industry about the seriousness with which we view suspected anti-competitive behaviour.”

The OFT started its cartel investigation in 2004 after receiving a specific complaint in Midlands. During the course of the investigation, OFT found more than 3 billion pounds worth of tenders as evidence of bid rigging in thousands of orders. The investigation also found bidders on a contract colluding to ensure the firm with the winning tender paid “compensation payments” to the losing bidders.

OFT has asked all the 112 firms to reply to its allegations issued in Statements of Objections which it will take into account before making a final decision as to whether competition law has been infringed.

Out of 112, 37 firms, including Balfour Beatty and Carillion, have applied for leniency while 40 other companies have admitted participation in some bid-rigging activities.

Balfour Beatty said that the company and its operating businesses have co-operated fully with the OFT in all aspects of its investigation.

As a result and subject to ongoing co-operation, the OFT has granted leniency to Balfour Beatty. The company added that it would respond to the OFT in respect of its statement of objections in due course.

Separately, Carillion noted that it has received Statement of Objections relating to tender activities in the construction sector. Carillion said that it would fully co-operate with the OFT's investigation and respond to its Statement of Objections in due course.
 
Fraudsters net a fortune in Facebook scam
By Richard Elias

A SCOTTISH businessman had almost £30,000 stolen from his bank account after revealing details of his affluent lifestyle on a social networking site, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.
The victim's account was raided within hours of him bragging online about driving his luxury German car, relaxing in his boat and skiing in the United States.

It is the latest example of a growing trend among cybercriminals to turn away from direct attacks on relatively secure bank accounts and to exploit social-networking sites, such as Facebook, Bebo and Myspace. Fraudsters routinely try to persuade users to give away apparently innocuous personal details that can be used to devastating effect.

A Strathclyde Police source said that in another recent case, a young woman in Dumfries revealed on Bebo she was about to attend a school reunion. A fraudster posed as an old school friend and was able to get her date of birth and eBay password. According to the source, the information was used within hours to steal £3,000 from the woman's bank account.

"The victim was lured into a false sense of security by a series of innocent questions, the answer to one of which simply opened the door to her savings," the source said. "Many people think they are too smart to be conned and would recognise the scams, but they do not have any idea about how professional these (scams] are. They have come a long way since the days when they were mis-spelt, amateurish and clearly made up."

In the case of the businessman, which occurred last year, he wrote on Facebook about driving his BMW coupe and spending time relaxing in his boat or "skiing in Colorado".

The police source said: "The description clearly indicated an individual with wealth and it would have leapt out of the pages to the gang. He may well have just written: 'I'm loaded.' The fraudsters then just send him a bogus e-mail, purporting to be from the networking site, asking him to confirm certain details such as his name, date-of-birth and e-mail address, which he subsequently provided and that was enough to see him ripped off for about 30 grand.

"This is becoming a real problem because many people who use Bebo or the such like are not on their guard as they would be if they were checking their bank account online."

It is estimated that one-in-four online social networkers – around 11m in the UK alone – has posted details that fraudsters could use. Fraud experts say almost 90% of users register their full name. Details about where an individual went to school or college and even which football team they support can all be used to help the gangs hack into accounts.

Part of the problem is that many computer users only have one password which they use for everything from a social networking site to a bank account. Some sites allow users to recover a lost password by answering a standard security question, typically "what is your mother's maiden name". A fraudster who can get the answer to that – plus a few other details – has the potential to raid a bank account within hours.

"I've seen e-mail addresses posted, dates-of-birth, property details, even home phone numbers," said the source. "Just one of these pieces of information can be used to extract more personal details, but all four is just giving these people an open invitation to steal. If a stranger came up to you in the pub and asked for that information, there's no way you would give it to them, so why stick in online for everyone to see?"

Online security company Symantec, has just published its latest survey on internet crime, looking at instances across the globe over the past six months. It says the UK is fourth in the table of countries worst hit by crime gangs. Some gangs will use the information they glean to rip off unsuspecting customers; others will sell the details to other fraudsters through instant messaging sites, which may only run for a few hours. It is here that credit-card numbers can be bought for £5, while passwords are on offer for 20p.

The Symantec report states: "Underground economy servers are black market forums used to advertise and trade stolen information and services, typically for identity theft. Their locations is constantly changing due to the nature of these servers, which are often hosted as channels on internet relay chatrooms."

How to stay safe

Protect yourself against identity theft:

• Buy a shredder;

• A classic scam is to redirect your mail to a "dead letterbox". If your mail stops coming, contact Post Office;

• If you live anywhere with a communal hall, make sure your letterbox is secure;

• If you go away, even briefly, tell your bank, credit card firm and the Post Office, in order to stop mail gathering at door;

• Never let credit cards out of your sight when paying;

• Never post your home number, address or personal e-mail on networking sites

http://news.scotsman.com/scitech/Frauds ... 3976699.jp
 
Art teacher sold fake pottery for thousands
By Richard Savill
Last Updated: 3:17AM BST 02/05/2008

A former public school art teacher duped auction houses into selling fake antique pots he made in his shed.

Jeremy Broadway, 52, who used to teach at Bryanston school in Dorset and has a masters degree in ceramics, made thousands of pounds from his fraud.

Bournemouth Crown Court was told that he spent hours copying the work of the renowned late potters Bernard Leach and Lucie Rie.

He made dozens of bowls and vases that he stamped with his own version of the potters' seal to make them appear genuine. He then convinced auctioneers, including Christie's and Bonhams, to offer them for sale.

Bonhams unwittingly sold two fake Leach vases and a Rie pot for a total of £8,900.

Christie's put three bowls purportedly made by Rie up for sale for £17,000 but withdrew them before the auction after doubts were expressed about their authenticity.

Broadway was caught after he returned to Bonhams with more pieces and its head of contemporary ceramics, Ben Williams, discovered they were fakes.

Mr Williams then alerted other auction rooms and buyers after noticing Broadway's work for sale in their catalogues.

Broadway told the police he had inherited the pots and vases from his late father-in-law and he thought they were genuine.

But when police raided his home in the village of Child Okeford, Dorset, they found a studio in an outbuilding, with a potter's wheel and kiln.

The seal stamps were also found along with a number of recently finished bowls with the Rie mark on their bases
.

Police found that collectors across Europe had bought his bogus work between 2003 and 2006 and spent months tracking down and recovering the fakes.

Broadway was charged with obtaining money by deception but he was found mentally unfit to plead and the case was proved in his absence. He was given a 12-month supervision order under the Mental Health Act.

Broadway is thought to have made £20,000 from his deception.

Mr Williams said: "I realised I had made a mistake. I was fooled and I thought the ones I sold were real. :oops:

"It is a bit embarrassing really. I could have ignored it but it was a mistake I made that needed to be sorted out."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... sands.html
 
'Couple stole IDs to fund globetrotting'
By Tom Leonard in New York
Last Updated: 3:22AM BST 03/05/2008

A glamorous young couple dubbed a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde enjoyed a jet-setting lifestyle after stealing the identities of friends and neighbours in an elaborate fraud, prosecutors say.

Edward Anderton, 25, and Jocelyn Kirsch, 22, were a golden couple on the Philadelphia social scene - going to the best parties, eating at the best restaurants and regularly holidaying in Europe, North Africa and the Caribbean.

But, as a court will hear later this month, none of the money was theirs. It was defrauded in a scheme that netted $100,000 (£50,000) after they broke into their neighbours' homes and copied their personal details.

When police searched their apartment in Rittenhouse Square, one of Philadelphia's most expensive addresses, they found a sophisticated identity-theft operation, including an ID card-making machine, computer spyware and lock-picking tools.

The couple also had keys to many of their neighbours' apartments and to all of their mailboxes.

Police also discovered a book entitled The Art of Cheating: A Nasty Little Book for Tricky Little Schemers and Their Hapless Victims.

Investigators allege that the couple sneaked into their neighbours' homes and stole social security numbers, bank account details and even a passport.

In at least five cases, they then opened credit card and bank accounts in their victims' names, backed by fake driving licences.

Police believe they also got hold of confidential information by installing spyware software on their neighbours' computers. When police disconnected the pair's computers, the building's entire internet access crashed.

The pair also allegedly fleeced their friends, in one case even stealing the identities of some people who had invited them to stay in New York.

Miss Kirsch made no attempt to hide their lavish lifestyle, posting pictures of their expensive holidays on her Facebook internet page.

Friends who wondered how they financed their spending were reassured that the money came from Miss Kirsch's father, a North Carolina plastic surgeon, and Mr Anderton's job as a business analyst.

However, Mr Anderton, a recent Pennsylvania University graduate, had in fact been sacked after he returned to work with a Caribbean tan having told his bosses that he was off sick. :roll:

Miss Kirsch, a final-year student at a less prestigious neighbouring university, Drexel, told people she wanted to be a United Nations ambassador.

A professor was so impressed by her that he put her on a globalisation debate panel where she sat near the special guest, the Prince of Wales.

The crime spree lasted more than a year before a hairdresser, who had been presented with a bogus cheque for $2,200 for putting extensions in Miss Kirsch's hair, discovered that her mailing address was actually a UPS store.

After the hairdresser, Jen Bisicchia, received a threatening anonymous text message, she went to the police. The couple were caught when they turned up at the UPS store to collect a package of lingerie addressed to one of their victims who lived across their hall.

They now face charges including identity theft, burglary and conspiracy at a preliminary hearing on May 12.

Ron Greenblatt, Miss Kirsch's lawyer, told ABC News that the pair were "just devastated and sad and really remorseful about all this".

The pair, who have yet to plead, are out on bail and Miss Kirsch has been working in the rather less glamorous environs of a Starbucks outlet in northern California.

The case has attracted considerable interest across America. But Terry Sweeney, the police detective who handled the investigation, told Rolling Stone magazine that the couple hardly deserved to be compared to Bonnie and Clyde.

"That's only because they're young and good-looking. These two were complete idiots," he said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...'Couple-stole-IDs-to-fund-globetrotting'.html

With friends like these, who needs enemies..?
 
a pretty grim tale :(

Web scam drove student to suicide

An inquest has been told how a university student killed herself after falling victim to an internet scam.

Jaiyue Wang, 23, gave more than £6,000 in the belief she had won half a million pounds in a lottery after being contacted over the internet.

She arrived in Britain last summer from Hainan in China to study at the University of Nottingham.

Recording a suicide verdict, Nottingham coroner Dr Nigel Chapman said her death, in April, was a tragedy.

Vulnerable woman

He said: "A young university student - doesn't speak very much English, her parents don't speak English - been coming across to one of the great universities but has taken her own life because of a scam from Nigeria."

Ms Wang was found hanged at her home in Beeston last month.

Jonathan Ray, a University of Nottingham spokesman, said: "Obviously anybody who hears this story will just feel that it's a despicable exploitation of a vulnerable person whatever their status or location in life.

"It's just deeply sad that the young woman was so badly hit by what happened to her just before Christmas."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nott ... 380093.stm
 
Record level of benefits 'stolen'

Record levels of benefits and other public money are being "stolen" or overpaid, but authorities are not doing enough about it, says a report.

Some £140m of fraud or overpayments have been detected in England by a biennial Audit Commission study.

The figure - including £24m in housing benefit overpayment and fraud - had risen 26% since its 2004/05 findings.

It said some cases had been "blatant and shocking", but councils insist they are cracking down on illegality.

The Audit Commission has carried out the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) study every two years since 1996, and similar exercises are done in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

One case in this report revealed a Lincolnshire man was receiving council tax benefit, income support, incapacity benefit and disability living allowance, while running a market stall and sitting on savings of more than £100,000.

He also ran other businesses from home, drove a Mercedes and took luxury holidays, said the report. Meanwhile his wife was claiming carer's allowance to "look after him". :shock:

While the report criticises some public bodies for not following up on the information it provides, in this case the council has begun proceedings to prosecute the man.

The NFI computer system searches for "anomalies" in records provided by public bodies, then passes on the information to those organisations so they can take action.

It matches information provided by councils, the NHS, police and probation authorities and fire services, from records such as housing benefit claims, payroll and pensions, disabled parking permits and social housing applications.

In some cases it uncovers fraud from within their own ranks, such as the 2,162 local government employees found to have been overpaid housing benefit in 2006/07.

Anomalies found via the NFI could turn out to be deliberate fraud or mistakes that need to be corrected. In £24m worth of housing benefit overpayment found, 31% was classified as fraud, 62% claimant error and 7% local authority error.

The NFI is only one way of discovering fraud and mistakes - the total amount of housing benefit fraud was estimated at £760m for 2005/06.

The Audit Commission said its latest figures did not necessarily mean more fraud was taking place, but that more was being uncovered.

Commission chairman Michael O'Higgins said where there was fraud the crimes were by no means "victimless".

"Some of the fraud found is both blatant and shocking.

"People are stealing homes, pensions, student loans, parking places and benefits, seemingly confident that no one is tracking them. They are wrong.

"We urge all public bodies to put in place the necessary trained staff to work with us and follow up any matches. It makes both moral and financial sense to detect fraud and over-payment."


'Sophisticated methods'

The study focused on a range of services and also found:

More than 16,000 blue badge parking permits for disabled people were being fraudulently claimed in the names of dead people.

Nearly 160 public sector staff were working without a valid visa to work in the UK, and were dismissed or resigned. They were working in London councils, the NHS, probation boards and police authorities.

In 2,819 cases occupational pensions were being paid after the death of the pensioner, with overpayments exceeding £6m.

Payments from local authorities to private care homes for residents who had died were detected in 300 cases.

Councils form the biggest group of organisations providing information for the NFI, which will be extended to cover central government and private sector employees from October, although submitting information will be voluntary.

Chairman of the Local Government Association Sir Simon Milton, said all councils had dedicated fraud teams, many of which had recouped "significant amounts of revenue and resources".

"This report demonstrates that councils are working hard to crack down on illegal claims for benefits, council tax discounts, compensation and disabled parking badges."

He said councils and the Audit Commission had increasingly sophisticated methods of detecting fraud, but also still relied on "law-abiding people to be their eyes and ears".

Once council singled out for praise was Southwark, in London, which has so far recovered 30 properties after using NFI information about tenancy fraud.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7409024.stm
 
Has anyone mentioned the speaker scam? Someone I know actually fell for it :? and several other people I know have been approached by scammers of this type...
Basically, it involves packaging some terrible speakers in the boxes of some very good speakers, claiming to be delivery drivers with a surplus shipment, which has to be get rid of at a reduced price.
 
A related one was described by rapper Ice-T in last saturday's Guardian magazine - selling fake diamond rings at the bus station. As in 'I bought this ring for my mother, it cost $800, but I can't afford my bus home, and you can have it for $100 as I desperately need to get home'. He said it was OK, as only greedy people fall for that sort of thing. :?
 
He said it was OK, as only greedy people fall for that sort of thing. Confused

To quote Mr Wednesday from Gainman's American Gods - "You can always con a honest man, but why do the extra work"


"People are stealing homes, pensions, student loans, parking places and benefits, seemingly confident that no one is tracking them. They are wrong.

If they're wrong, then why are record levels of benefits being stolen? :? I always think that when i see the scare posters on the bus that make like they're watching you or following you all the time. Creepy and unpleasant, and also dumb, because if they really could bust all the benefit cheats, they'd be doing it rather than talking about doing it...
 
Hedge fund fraudster hunted after suicide 'mystery'
By James Quinn in New York
Last Updated: 10:46PM BST 11/06/2008

An international manhunt is underway after an American hedge fund fraudster disappeared, appearing to have committed suicide, just an hour before he was due to start a 20-year prison sentence.
The FBI and New York State Police are leading the search for Samuel Israel III, the founder of the Bayou Group of hedge funds who was sentenced in April and ordered to pay $300m (£150m) in restitution to defrauded clients.

Mr Israel had been due to surrender himself to authorities in Massachusetts at 2pm on Monday afternoon, but at 12.30pm that day, officials at the Bear Mountain Bridge in northern New York State spotted his burgundy GMC 4X4 car.

The keys were still in the ignition of the vehicle, with the words "suicide is painless" – the theme from former US television series M*A*S*H – etched onto the vehicle's bonnet in dust. Prescription medication was also found in the glove compartment.

Bruce Cuccia, a senior investigator with the New York State Police department, said: "Besides that, there was nothing much in the car. No witnesses saw anybody jump from the bridge," adding that video cameras on the bridge, which sits above the deepest point of the Hudson River, did not film him leaving the vehicle.

After a full day of searching by the police and the FBI, the US Marshalls Service, which is responsible for tracing on-the-run felons, began its own search.

No body has been found, and authorities have yet to determine whether or not Mr Israel committed suicide.

Mr Cuccia pointed out that bodies of those who jump from the Bear Mountain Bridge, which is about 40 miles north of Manhattan, usually appear after a few days.

Mr Israel's girlfriend, Debbie Ryan, is reported to have told police that he left their home in Armonk, New York, around 9.30am that morning to leave for prison, and that she has not heard from him since.

Not everyone was convinced by his apparent suicide, however.

"I'll believe it when I see a body," Ross Intelisano, a lawyer representing investors who lost $25m in Bayou's collapse told the New York Times.

"All of the clients I spoke to, their initial reaction was that it's a ruse. It's just another fraudulent act."


The $450m fraud at Bayou Group, of which Mr Israel was founder and chief executive, ranks among the worse in the hedge fund industry, whose participants specialise in actively investing money in a variety of complex ways that should lead to higher returns that the traditional fund management industry.

Investors in the firm's funds lost more than $450m between 1998 and 2005, after directors hatched a scheme to conceal losses by faking audited accounts to hide losses.

In addition to Mr Israel, Bayou''s former chief financial officer Daniel Marino and hedge fund manager James Marquez were sentenced to 20 years and 51 months respectively in January.

All three had pleaded previously pleaded guilty to their respective crimes.

In sentencing Mr Israel in April, US District Judge Colleen McMahon, who referred to him as the "mastermind" of the scheme, said: "Financial fraud, white-collar crimes are every bit as heinous as every other type of crime and they will be punished severely."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... ry%27.html
 
Forty charged in bogus crash case

Forty people have been charged over an alleged £5.3m insurance fraud after a two-year investigation by Bedfordshire Police and the Insurance Fraud Bureau.

Those charged are accused of making false insurance claims following staged vehicle collisions.

The arrests were made during dawn raids by police in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Berkshire.

Twenty-six defendants are due to appear at Luton Magistrates' Court on Tuesday and Wednesday on a range of charges.

These include conspiracy to defraud, possession of criminal property, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, and obtaining, or attempting to obtain, a money transfer by deception.

Fourteen other people are expected to appear before Luton Magistrates on 24 July.

The police operation called Exhort started in May 2006 and centred on Luton.

It relates to an insurance fraud sometimes known as "cash for crash".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7457908.stm

I found this especially fascinating, since it was only a week or so ago that I read a crime novel (set in California) where such staged crashes formed a big part of the plot.
 
Schoolboy hacker Omar Khan who upped his grades faces 38 years in jail
Chris Ayres in Los Angeles

It could be a long time before Omar Khan goes to college: as long as 38 years, according to Orange County prosecutors, who have arrested and charged the 18-year-old student with breaking into his prestigious high school and hacking into computers to change his test grades from Fs to As.

If convicted on all 69 counts, including altering and stealing public records, computer fraud, burglary, identity theft, receiving stolen property and conspiracy, Mr Khan could spend almost four decades in prison.

He is currently being held on $50,000 (£25,500) bail and is scheduled to appear in court today.

Mr Khan’s defence lawyer, Carol Lavacol, described her client as “a really nice kid” and said: “There’s a lot more going on than meets the eye.”

Prosecutors claim that between January and May, Mr Khan, who lives in Coto de Caza, one of Orange County’s oldest and most expensive gated communities, repeatedly broke into Tesoro High School, which was made famous by the reality TV series Real Housewives of Orange County.

In an alleged plot that resembles the script to the 1986 high school comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, prosecutors claim that he then used teachers’ passwords to hack into computers and change his test scores. In at least one test, an English exam, Mr Khan had been given an F grade because he was caught cheating.

Prosecutors claim that the teenager, who is alleged to have broken into the school late at night with a stolen master key, also changed the grades of 12 other students, and that he installed spyware on school hard drives that allowed him to access the computers from remote locations.

Tesoro High has 2,800 pupils and often appears in Newsweek magazine’s annual list of best high schools.

Mr Khan’s plan, the prosecution argues, was to get a place at one of the colleges within the University of California system. After his application was rejected, he requested copies of his student records, known as “transcripts” in the US educational system, so he could appeal. But when teachers looked at his files and noticed all the A grades that had magically appeared next to all the courses he had taken they realised something was wrong.

“School administrators alerted law enforcement after noticing a discrepancy in Mr Khan’s grades,” the Orange County District Attorney’s office said. “Subsequent investigation revealed that Mr Khan was in possession of original tests, test questions and answers, and copies of his altered grades. Khan is accused of stealing master copies of tests, some of which were e-mailed to dozens of students.”

The case has once again raised the question of whether technology, in particular mobile phones that can access the internet, has resulted in an epidemic of cheating in the high-school system. The Orange County Register, a local newspaper, asked its readers yesterday to respond to a poll asking if “technology is giving [students] an advantage”, or whether it is just “the same stuff using new tools”.

Another student, Tanvir Singh, also 18, is accused of conspiring with Mr Khan and faces up to three years in prison. The pair allegedly exchanged text messages last month while organising a break-in.

Jim Amormino, of the local sheriff’s department, said that he was astonished by the sophistication of the scheme, especially given the age of the defendants. “I think they [now] wish they would have put their talents into studying,” he said.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 168112.ece
 
Thirty-eight years?! Matthew Broderick did the same in WarGames and he didn't get that much!
 
rynner said:
Hedge fund fraudster hunted after suicide 'mystery'

Fugitive hedge fund fraudster surrenders
By James Quinn in New York
Last Updated: 6:42PM BST 02/07/2008

An international man hunt has ended after a fugitive hedge fund fraudster handed himself in to police after three weeks on the run.
Samuel Israel III, who tried to fake his own suicide last month in an attempt to avoid a 20-year prison sentence for his part in a $450m fraud, surrendered at a police station in Southwick, Massachusetts, this morning.

Israel, 48, disappeared on June 9, the same day he was supposed to report to prison to begin his sentence. His four-wheel-drive was later found parked close to the Bear Mountain bridge, in New York state, a common suicide spot.

He had daubed "Suicide is Painless" in dust on the bonnet of the car, the keys were still in the ignition and prescription medication was found in the glove box.

Police monitored the Hudson River below the bridge in a search for his body, but there were immediate suspicions he had faked suicide and the US Marshalls, the FBI and Interpol began a manhunt.

Debra Ryan, his girlfriend, was charged on June 19 with assisting him, with prosecutors alleging that she helped him load his belongings into a motor home and attached a scooter to it in the days before he was due to go to prison.

She has since also admitted that he woke her up early on the morning of June 9 to ask her to follow him in her car, as he dropped off the motor home at a highway rest area before returning home with her. Later that day, he left the house in his four-wheel-drive, but Miss Ryan said she never saw him again.

Police suspect he fled in the motor home, but his exact movement have not yet been established. In the end, he turned himself in just 95 miles from the federal prison in Ayers, Massachusetts, where he is due to serve his sentence.

The fraud at the Bayou Group of hedge funds, of which Israel was founder and chief executive, ranks among the worst in the industry, with investors losing more than $450m between 1998 and 2005, after directors hatched a scheme to conceal losses by faking audited accounts.

In addition to Israel, Daniel Marino, Bayou's former chief financial officer, and James Marquez, a hedge fund manager, were sentenced to 20 years and 51 months respectively. All three had pleaded previously pleaded guilty.

In sentencing Israel in April, US District Judge Colleen McMahon, who referred to him as the "mastermind" of the scheme, said: "Financial fraud, white-collar crimes are every bit as heinous as every other type of crime and they will be punished severely."

Hedge fund managers specialise in investing money in a variety of complex ways that should lead to higher returns that the traditional fund management industry.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... nders.html
 
Priest faces questions over how '£350,000 destined for Lourdes ended up in his bank account'
By Peter Allen
Last updated at 1:32 AM on 03rd July 2008

The treasurer of the Roman Catholic shrine of Lourdes was yesterday at the centre of a major fraud inquiry.

Father Raymond Zambelli, 65, rector of the site of 66 recognised miracles, has been asked to explain how at least £350,000 raised for the sick and dying ended up in his account.

More than six million pilgrims visit the town in south-west France every year, many of them donating huge amounts of money to its upkeep.

Police confirmed that an inquiry into the ' misappropriation of funds' had been launched, looking at several individuals including a priest.

Much of the money was raised for the sick and the dying who visit the shrine in the foothills of the Pyrenees in south west France every year because they believe it is a place of miracles.

Father Zambelli, who last night denied all wrong doing, was due to welcome the Pope to Lourdes in September to celebrate its 150th anniversary as a place of Christian pilgrimage.

Instead he will now be asked to explain how at least £350,000 destined for Lourdes came to end up in his personal bank account.

As a priest Father Zambelli’s annual salary would be less than £10,000, with his food, accommodation and other living costs all taken care of.

In was in 1858 that schoolgirl Bernadette Soubirous is said to have witnessed apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes.

Now more than six million visitors a year flock to the town, many of them contributing huge amounts of money towards its upkeep.

Thousands of British people are among the pilgrims, many arriving via coach or at the nearby airport of Tarbes.

The authorities were first alerted to 'unusual money movements' at Lourdes by Tracfin, the money-laundering arm of the French finance ministry.

Transactions involving Father Zambelli were picked up on June 5th, and have been tracked every since.

The case was so sensitive, however, that the prosecutor general in the nearby town of Pau wrote to French justice minister Rachida Dati asking for the enquiry to be postponed until after a visit by the Pope in September.

Jean-François Lorans wrote in the leaked note: 'This affair is particularly sensitive because Lourdes is preparing to welcome the Pope, Benedict XVI on September 13th 2008.'

Mr Lorans added that the 'arrest and questioning of Father Zambelli should not take place until after the Pope’s visit to France.'

since schoolgirl Bernadette Soubirous apparently witnessed apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1858

Visitor numbers to Lourdes are rising each year, especially because of this year's 150th Jubilee Year.

With a population of just 15,000, the town has two and a half times that number of tourist beds - more than anywhere in France except Paris.

Since Bernadette’s apparitions - she had 18 in all - more than 200 million pilgrims have made their way to the town, and there have been 66 officially-recognised miracles.

The last miracle, involving a middle-aged Frenchman with multiple sclerosis, was ratified by the Church following medical recommendations in 1999.

Today Father Zambelli said: 'I am innocent, and will clear my name.'

Local police confirmed that a preliminary enquiry into the 'misappropriation of funds' had been launched.

He added: 'A number of people, including a Roman Catholic priest, are being investigated.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... count.html
 
rynner said:
....Father Raymond Zambelli, 65, rector of the site of 66 recognised miracles, has been asked to explain how at least £350,000 raised for the sick and dying ended up in his account.....

Father Ted LIves!
 
Timble2 said:
rynner said:
....Father Raymond Zambelli, 65, rector of the site of 66 recognised miracles, has been asked to explain how at least £350,000 raised for the sick and dying ended up in his account.....

Father Ted LIves!
Craggy Island awaits!
 
Fraudster known as the Bogus Contessa is jailed
By Richard Alleyne
Last Updated: 8:23PM BST 03/07/2008

A convicted fraudster has been jailed for posing as an incredibly wealthy noblewoman to con the life-savings out of vulnerable victims.
Elda Beguinua, 63, who was imprisoned for a similar fraud 11 years ago, spun a "fairytale" web of deceit about a treasure so "staggeringly vast" that its dollar value could only be described in court as "300 followed by 41 zeros".

The designer-clad blonde pretended to be a "great, great, great granddaughter" of a Spanish nobleman and heir to fortune that included two million tonnes of gold.

The fact she knew this was 57 times the total mined worldwide for the last 150 years and was "nothing but a ridiculous, make-believe amount" did not bother her in the slightest, the court heard. 8)

In a classic "advance fee" fraud, the self-styled Countess Beguinua claimed she needed money to access her vast wealth which she claimed came from Spanish galleons laden with gold spirited away 700 years earlier after her family was "ousted'' by the Conquistadors.

Her two main victims, said to be among many, parted with thousands of pounds, lured by the promise of returns of up to 350 per cent a week and never saw their money again.

Judge Jeremy McMullen QC said she was a "fraudster of the first order" who "preyed on vulnerable people" as she was jailed for five years.

He said that her earlier conviction in 1997 in which she had attempted to defraud British financial institutions out of £16 trillion showed "breathtaking audacity" but this was much worse.

"The victims in this case are not banks well able to see you through with substantial resources," he said.

"You preyed on the humanitarian kindness of two vulnerable people."

During the three week trial the jury heard Beguinua's tales of vast wealth had clearly been so much "illusion" and she used "flattery and charm" to entice people in to the fraud.

She was a "practised and persuasive fraudster who deliberately manipulated and deceived unfortunate people" out of their savings, used stolen cash to build up a multi-million-pound nest egg "back home", and employed maids, cooks and chauffeurs with other people's money.

Beguinua told jurors that the fortune was created from "galleon trading and bartering" by Senor Don Felipe Carlos Del Carmen de Avila, who, as her great-great-great-grandfather, would have lived in the 1800s.

She maintained that, after he and his family were later ousted by the Conquistadores (explorer soldiers of the 15th and 16th centuries), the treasure was shipped from Spain to her native Philippines.

Once in the Far East most was stashed in "unmarked caves and secret hiding places", where it was kept safe by retired "generals and colonels" she called "guardians".

Sadly, despite their "ex-militia" status, they had been reduced to "wearing loincloths and eating bananas and potatoes".

Her "retinue" of believers were also assured that more wealth was in 57 bank accounts in 33 countries.

Unfortunately for her credibility, 10 of the addresses she supplied were hotels. But that did not stop her claiming the deposits were so huge they could damage their host economies if withdrawn.

Two people whose savings she plundered by deceit gave up their well-paid jobs, handed her more than £23,000 they could ill afford and worked for her for nothing for about a year.

The twice married mother-of-two, now of Woodward Road, Dulwich, south east London, was born in the Philippines and is thought to have arrived in Britain in 1987.

Outside court, case officer Detective Constable Roger Noakes, of the Metropolitan Police's Economic and Specialist Crime Unit, said: "Elda Beguinua has callously manipulated victims to get money without any remorse for the misery caused."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... ailed.html
 
Another priest with his hand in the till (allegedly... ;) )

Deputy mayor resigns from office

London's deputy mayor has resigned two months into his post amid claims of financial irregularities.

Ray Lewis faced allegations regarding his time as a vicar in east London in the late 1990s and head of a youth academy scheme in 2003.

It emerged he was placed under formal Church of England disciplinary measures between 1999 and 2005.

Mr Lewis, who had special responsibility for youth, described the claims as groundless and rubbish.

London Mayor Boris Johnson appointed Mr Lewis as one of several deputy mayors with special portfolios, such as business and policing.

Mr Lewis said: "I cannot allow the things going on around me to obscure the important business of this very important mayoralty and for that reason I must step down with immediate affect.

"London faces enormous challenges and I believed in all my heart that I was best placed to do that, but it's important to get on with the business of this mayoralty without this business hanging over Boris' head.

"Yet today again we learn of another murder and yet so much time and attention's been given over to something that may or may not have happened 10-12 years ago, and of course you know that I flatly deny it."

Mr Lewis resigned the same day Mr Johnson formally opened an independent inquiry into the allegations.

Martin Narey, the former chief of the Prison and Probation Service, will be heading the probe.

It is now unclear how the inquiry will progress.

The deputy mayor faced multiple claims, including one which centred on allegations that he was entrusted with £25,000 from a woman in the congregation in the Parish of St Matthew, West Ham in the Diocese of Chelmsford.

Mr Lewis was placed on the Church of England's Lambeth and Bishopsthorpe Register - the so-called Lambeth List - in 1999.

People on the list are prevented from public ministry and preaching.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7490687.stm
 
Clerk jailed for £72m bank fraud

A bank clerk who tried to steal almost £72m from the HSBC bank has been jailed for nine years.

Jagmeet Channa, 25, who worked at the firm's headquarters at London's Canary Wharf, used colleagues' identities to plunder accounts.

A court heard Channa sent 90m euros (£71,632,807) to two accounts, within minutes, in April this year.

Channa, of Church Road, Ilford, east London, admitted conspiracy to defraud and a charge of money laundering.

Sophisticated enterprise

Sentencing him at Southwark Crown Court Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC said: "This was no silly prank. This was a carefully planned and very serious attempt to transfer a fortune in money away, and it almost succeeded.

"Others were involved, perhaps several others, and in the absence of any explanation from you I must assume this was a planned and sophisticated criminal enterprise."

The court heard how Channa was the inside man in what police described as one of the one of the largest frauds of its kind.

Following the orders of fellow conspirators, and expecting a substantial cut for his "audacious and outrageous" crime, he sent 60m euros (£47,970,227) from a trading account to Morocco.

Minutes later he wired 30m euros (£23,984,113) to a branch of Barclays in Manchester.

He was eventually found out after forgetting to leave the account he had raided with a zero balance.

The huge debit was discovered by HSBC workers in Malaysia on a Sunday who alerted their colleagues in London sparking an immediate investigation.

Two of Channa's colleagues, whose passwords were used to carry out and approve the transactions, were initially questioned but soon declared innocent.

A review of security cameras and other inquiries led officials to Channa.

Meanwhile both Barclays and the bank in Casablanca had been contacted, the account frozen and the stolen money returned.

After sentencing Det Sgt Martin Peters said: "This crime is believed to be one of the largest frauds of its kind and it is thanks to the prompt response of the police and the banks that the money was recovered."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7493443.stm
 
" . . . in the absence of any explanation from you I must assume this was a planned and sophisticated criminal enterprise."

They said this about Grannie and that fatal tin of salmon. :(
 
I got a MS update this morning. Then I found this:

Internet security breach tackled

Computer experts have released software to tackle a major security glitch in the internet addressing system.

The flaw, discovered by accident, would allow criminals to redirect users to fake webpages, even if they typed the correct address into a browser.

Internet giants like Microsoft are now distributing the security patch.

Security expert Dan Kaminsky said that the case was unprecedented, but added: "People should be concerned but they should not be panicking."

He discovered the error in the Domain Name System (DNS) about six months ago.

DNS is used to convert web addresses written in words - such as www.bbc.com - into the numerical sequences used by computers to route internet traffic around the world.

The glitch would make it simple to operate "phishing" scams, in which users are directed to fake webpages supposedly for genuine banks or businesses and tricked into disclosing credit card details or other personal data.

Mr Kaminsky held talks with computer giants such as Microsoft, Sun and Cisco in March, and has been part of a team engaged in secret research since then, developing the security patch which has now been released simultaneously for all computer platforms.

Technical details are being kept secret for another month to give companies a chance to update their computers, before hackers try to unpick the patch.

Personal computers should pick up the patch through automated updates.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7496735.stm

Although at the moment my main problem is electrical power - there have been three cuts in the last hour, barely long enough to blink the lights, but long enough to switch the computer off... :(
 
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