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Frauds, Scams & Cons (General; Miscellaneous)

He's back!

A conman jailed in 2013 for duping elderly victims out of thousands of pounds has resurfaced with a new money-making venture, the BBC can reveal.

Carl Mould, 52, from Nottingham, has been posing as voice actor Edward C Harwell, offering to help people make money from audiobook narration.

It is estimated he has taken £100,000 in 18 months from dozens of customers, one of whom was left feeling "a fool".

When confronted, Mould said he had not done anything wrong.

His company Sun King Media, which was based at the Custard Factory arts complex in Birmingham, says it provides "related vocational training inspired by our continued success in global media", and claims to be "recognised by the market leaders as key account openers in a subscription based book sharing programme worth over £10m".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-43230847
 
Fake news! Fake fake news, in fact:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/28/the-true-story-of-the-fake-us-embassy-in-ghana

You may have noticed the FT story about the fake American embassy in Ghana, it made a few media outlets last year. Trouble is, it's a load of rubbish, and that (long) article at the link explains why. Short version, there is a black market for visas in Ghana, but no one has set up a fake embassy, it's a mistake and the US refuse to admit they made it.
 
A French museum dedicated to painter Étienne Terrus has discovered paintings it thought were by him were fakes.

The Terrus museum in Elne in the south of France discovered 82 works originally attributed to the artist were not painted by him.

More than half the collection is thought to be fake. The paintings cost about €160,000 (£140,000).

Staff at the museum were not aware of the forgeries until a visiting art historian alerted them.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43933530
 
James_H said:
http://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/news/20171011/bkn-20171011145713031-1011_00822_001.html
https://hi-auntie.com/2017/10/11/sexualrite/

Google translate gives a pretty garbled account, but from what I gather: a man named Ling Jing has been charging women money to do magic to help women get their ex-boyfriends back. He persuaded the young women to have sex with him as part of the magic (and to pay for the privilege). He is a practitioner of Thai Buddhism, which has many relics of pre-buddhist witchcraft and paganism. He also has a huge following on Instagram. Now, following complaints from clients who in fact did not get their boyfriends back as promised, the police are after him and he's gone AWOL.

https://auntienews.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/img_0318.jpg?w=1024&h=567&crop=1 - a picture of Ling with followers
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Seems strangely appropriate:

 
I was at Manston air museum in Kent at the weekend. They have a Spitfire & a Hurricane & wartime artifacts such as remains of a bouncing bomb which was tested nearby, & several other more modern aircraft & vehicles. This poster was on display:
upload_2018-5-9_15-31-54.jpeg


I'd never heard of bile beans before & on looking them up, it seems they were a quack cure-all remedy

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These days, such a panoply of ailments would require a variety of pills, if not a trip to the doctor. But if you were facing these symptoms in the early 1900s, you might just pop a couple of Bile Beans: black, gelatinous beans that—despite legal action, a foul smell, and general medical uselessness—captured the hearts, minds, wallets, and intestinal tracts of 20th-century hypochondriacs worldwide.
Bile Beans was a laxative and tonic first marketed in the 1890s. The product supposedly contained substances extracted from a hitherto unknown vegetable source by a fictitious chemist known as Charles Forde. In the early years Bile Beans were marketed as "Charles Forde's Bile Beans for Biliousness", and sales relied heavily on newspaper advertisements. Among other cure-all claims, Bile Beans promised to "disperse unwanted fat" and "purify and enrich the blood".
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Although the manufacturer claimed that the formula for Bile Beans was based on a vegetable source known only to Aboriginal Australians, its actual ingredients, which included cascara, rhubarb, liquorice and menthol, were commonly found in pharmacies of the period. A court case initiated in Scotland in 1905 found that the Bile Bean Manufacturing Company's business was based on a fraud and conducted fraudulently, but Bile Beans continued to be sold until the 1980s nevertheless.
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In reality, Charles Forde did not exist; the name was used as an alias for Charles Fulford, who had no scientific training. The beans were initially manufactured in America by Parke Davis & Co. of Detroit, until the Bile Bean Manufacturing Company set up a production facility in Leeds, England,[8] trading under the name of C. E. Fulford Limited, which also sold other patent medicines, including the Zam-Buk ointment,[a] Pep pastilles and later Vitapointe hair conditioner
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There's still a billboard in York
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Charles Fulford died rich but early at the age of 30. With Charles out of the picture, his brother Frank took over, and things proceeded apace. He bought early radio ads, covered the U.K. with giant painted signs, and kept reinventing Bile Beans to fit the latest health trends. In 1940, as people became increasingly concerned with weight loss, a new campaign promised to “disperse unwanted fat” and “tone up the entire system.” Two Bile Beans, taken at bedtime, let you “slim while you sleep,” assured the ad, which also showed a smirking, pearl-strewn woman. Frank got rich enough to buy a castle, and died, even richer, in 1943.
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These days, most people would be put off by the name alone.
Marketing was a bit primitive back then.
 
Space cadets.

Indian police paraded a man and his son in "space suits" before arresting them for allegedly defrauding a businessman by pretending to work for Nasa.

The duo allegedly convinced the businessman to buy a copper plate for $213,156 (£157,600), which they claimed had "special properties", police said.

They had told him that with his investment, they could sell the plate to the US space agency for a profit.

The men were arrested after the businessman complained to the police.

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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-44053709
 
The California medical board is threatening to revoke the license of Dr. William Edwin Gray III for selling homeopathic sound files over the Internet that he claims—without evidence or reason—can cure a variety of ailments, including life-threatening infections such as Ebola, SARS, swine flu, malaria, typhoid, and cholera.

Gray claims that sound waves can carry “the energetic signal in homeopathic remedies” to treat patients. He claims to be able to collect that energy by placing vials of homeopathic remedies (like water) in electrified wire coils and recording any emitted sounds. With this method, he produced 263 “eRemedies,” which are 13-second recordings (conveniently available as either .wav or .MP3 files) said to sound like hissing.

Patients—who are not examined or even seen by Gray—can get these “remedies” via Gray’s website, mdinyourhand.com. There they can “dose” themselves with the recordings to treat a variety of ailments. The website lists 23 ailments the recordings treat. A user simply answers a series of questions about their condition and the website serves up the appropriate eRemedy. The individual recordings go for $5 a pop and users can also subscribe to receive 25 for $100.

Even homeopaths seemed wary of Gray and his claims. Robert Stewart, who founded the New York School of Homeopathy, wrote to the Times in an email: "He's on his own in this."

https://arstechnica.com/science/201...-selling-5-homeopathic-sound-waves-for-ebola/
 
Homeless man and couple ‘completely made up’ viral story that raised $400,000

Couple and homeless man charged with theft by deception and GoFundMe money will be refunded, prosecutor said

A feelgood tale of a homeless man using his last $20 to help a stranded New Jersey woman buy gas was actually a complete lie, manufactured to get strangers to donate more than $400,000 to help the down-and-out good Samaritan, a prosecutor has said.

“The entire campaign was predicated on a lie,” Coffina said. “It was fictitious and illegal and there are consequences.”

Bobbitt was arrested on Wednesday night by US marshals in Philadelphia and remained in custody on Thursday on probation detainers and a $50,000 bond.

Investigators searched the Florence, New Jersey, home of D’Amico and McClure in September after questions arose about what happened to the money they raised for Bobbitt. The couple claimed he helped McClure get gas after she became stranded on Interstate 95 in Philadelphia last year.

Coffina said almost no part of the tale was true. McClure didn’t run out of gas. Bobbitt didn’t spot her in trouble and give her money.

Less than an hour after the couple set up the page to solicit donations, McClure sent a text message to a friend acknowledging the story was “completely made up”.

It’s not exactly clear what happened with the money, though Bobbitt’s attorney has said it’s all gone.
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This could maybe go under "World's Oldest People"...

Political parties in Turkey are crying foul after thousands of unlikely voters appeared on the electoral roll.

Among the oddities are many first-time voters over 100 years old - and one aged 165.

CHP says there are more than 6,000 registered voters over 100 years old, many of which are supposedly older than the oldest documented living person, currently 116.

It includes 165-year-old Ayse Ekici, allegedly born in 1854, at the time of the Ottoman empire, and registered to vote for the first time his year, CHP said.

Another voter, known only as Zulfu, is supposedly 149. There is also Ayse, said to be 148 years old.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46946282
 
I'm trying to put together a checklist for autistics (who have particular problems with this). I need a seed crystal list before taking it to the autistic groups!

Apart from "if it seems too good to be true, it is" my mind has blanked.

No, not quite "look at the url".

Anyone willing to donate their top tip (blergh) to get us going? or an existing list you rate and that we can adjust?
 
Frideswide said:
I'm trying to put together a checklist for autistics (who have particular problems with this). I need a seed crystal list before taking it to the autistic groups!

Apart from "if it seems too good to be true, it is" my mind has blanked.

No, not quite "look at the url".

Anyone willing to donate their top tip (blergh) to get us going? or an existing list you rate and that we can adjust?
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A checklist of what, for what purpose?
 
Frideswide said:
I'm trying to put together a checklist for autistics (who have particular problems with this). I need a seed crystal list before taking it to the autistic groups!

Apart from "if it seems too good to be true, it is" my mind has blanked.

No, not quite "look at the url".

Anyone willing to donate their top tip (blergh) to get us going? or an existing list you rate and that we can adjust?
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What is the 'sellers' motivation?
 
Just go with it Mytho, she knows what she's doing .. something to do with autism .. what's a seed crystal list Fridesy?
 
lololol It's the starter - the thing you use to get teh rest to form. Much easier to get a group of people to come up with and critique and therefore own a list if you prime them with a short starter!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_crystal
 
Coal said:
So you're saying we're super saturated then?
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*adore* no, I'm saying these autistics are - I need something to get them crystalising!
 
Frideswide:

Would it help facilitate orientation to start with the more general subjects of falsehood, lying, and deceit?

It strikes me that jumping directly to the concept of a con might be enough of a leap to require digressions and explanations that would bog down, or even crash, the exercise (whatever it is).

It's less of a leap if you first orient the audience to the general themes (cf. above) and then lead them to cons with reference to (e.g.) lies and deceits via actions / outcomes rather than words alone.
 
YES! an excelent idea. They are well up for it by the way, I'm not imposing anything :D

Can people who are not registered still read?
 
I wonder if MI6 were responsible for tracking him down?

One of Britain's most wanted fugitives, who was extradited to the UK from Switzerland after years on the run, has appeared in court.

Mark Acklom allegedly posed as an MI6 agent to con a Gloucestershire woman out of her £850,000 life savings. The 45-year-old, of no fixed abode, faces 20 fraud offences, including eight of fraud by false representation. Mr Acklom was remanded in custody and will next appear before Bristol Crown Court on 25 March.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-47342976
 
Warning : Article in Swedish!

https://www.skovdenyheter.se/article/kd-politiker-atalas-har-berattar-han/

But summary : Local politician claims he fell for a Nigerian "You've inherited 6 million USD!" scam. Transferred about 1 million Swedish Kronor (SEK) of his own money. Then borrowed another 500 000 SEK from family. Unfortunately, he also had access to the bank accounts of his political party (the Christian Democrats)... 2 million SEK embezzled.

Grand total lost, 3.5 million SEK (about 285 000 GBP). Quite impressive (and sad).
 
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