Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The FBI is investigating two scams that target some of the families of the tens of thousands of Central American children who have been captured recently trying to sneak into the U.S., Al Jazeera America reports. The telephone scams involve asking families for money for phony travel costs. “One fraud scheme involved…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Authorities are dealing with a sick new scheme in Texas called “virtual kidnapping.” Victims get a call, usually in the middle of the night, from someone who says they’ve kidnapped a loved one and wants ransom money wired immediately, KSAT.com reports. The callers usually doesn’t have any contact with the person they…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The FBI is investigating the sale of bogus tickets for Miami Heat basketball games after a former NFL Hall of Fame player was scammed out of first-row seats and $200,000, WPTV.com reports. Quarterback Warren Moon was reportedly scammed, along with other NFL players Charles Woodson and Jarvis Green. The FBI confirmed it…
By Nextgov.com Officials are urging federal employees to steer clear of a new third-party application that may be fishing for personal information about their Thrift Savings Plan government retirement accounts. “A free iPhone App, TSP Funds, currently being offered through the Apple App store asks TSP participants for their account login information,” TSP said in…
By CNN In the wake of a multi-million-dollar online scam, more than 300,000 computer users worldwide could find themselves without Web access this summer. Luckily for them, it will only take a few clicks to clean things up. The FBI announced that it’s created a website where users can check whether they’re infected with malware…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Paper money has often been cited as one of the dirtiest materials we touch every day. But if someone offers to wash it for you, kindly decline. Authorities in Providence, R.I. last week arrested two Liberian nationals in an expanding “black money” scheme that has already cost three New Englanders $170,000,…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The potential to snare more bad guys in the Bernie Madoff scam is growing. Madoff’s accountant David Friehling pleaded guilty in New York on Tuesday to nine criminal charges, and has agreed to cooperate with the feds. That could mean more indictments. Friehling told U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein that…
Bernie Madoff may have had the most infamous Ponzi scheme of all time (short of Charles Ponzi), but there are still investors out there getting bilked of their retirement savings and other funds by scammers. First, we have Ponzi schemer Donald Manning sentenced to over 5 years in prison for taking $4.5 million in cash…
