[00:00:04] This is Scams and Cons News with Jim Grinstead
[00:00:10] In this week's news, we hear about a woman arrested for romance scamming
[00:00:14] and a man arrested for being a bigamist.
[00:00:17] But we begin with a boy in Taiwan who was persuaded to have both legs amputated
[00:00:22] in exchange for $1.3 million.
[00:00:25] He got only $7,200 and he must turn that over to prosecutors.
[00:00:30] The money was part of an insurance scam.
[00:00:33] The boy was convinced to put his legs into dry ice for 10 hours
[00:00:37] so both legs would have to be amputated.
[00:00:40] Business Insider said the scam was unbelievable
[00:00:43] because the temperature outside that day was only about 42 degrees.
[00:00:47] So it's highly unlikely the boy's legs would have been so badly frozen.
[00:00:51] The boy got $7,200 from one insurance company
[00:00:55] but because they were ill-gotten gains, he had to turn it over to police.
[00:00:59] The boy and his friend were arrested and were charged with fraud
[00:01:03] and aiding and abetting serious injury.
[00:01:06] If you have a question, you go to a search engine.
[00:01:10] If you're like most people, your choice will be Google.
[00:01:13] If you type in your question, hit Enter and back come the results.
[00:01:18] You've become accustomed to seeing sponsored results at the top
[00:01:21] so if you're savvy, you take those with a grain of salt.
[00:01:25] Maybe a whole shaker.
[00:01:27] When you get to the organic results below,
[00:01:30] you see something promising and click on it.
[00:01:33] You may now be headed off into a world of danger.
[00:01:36] Luke Seacris is a professional hacker who runs a business
[00:01:39] helping to keep people safe.
[00:01:41] He talked with News 10 in Rochester, New York
[00:01:44] and explained what has happened.
[00:01:46] There's different terms for it. Some call it domain squatting.
[00:01:49] Some call it domain cloning.
[00:01:51] Essentially they're buying up domains that are very, very close
[00:01:56] and very, very similar to the actual domains.
[00:02:00] And that's exactly what these scammers have done.
[00:02:03] While the Google results say the University of Pittsburgh,
[00:02:06] take a look at the web address.
[00:02:09] The real address is psychiatry.pit.edu.
[00:02:14] But look at all that trash after the slash.
[00:02:17] That's the new domain that the scammers bought.
[00:02:20] They have free will to purchase domains of different varieties.
[00:02:24] Now I get it. And then they just name that site
[00:02:27] that they've created, the University of Pittsburgh.
[00:02:30] But it's not really the University of Pittsburgh site.
[00:02:33] It can sometimes be difficult to tell,
[00:02:35] but take a look at the URL before pressing send.
[00:02:39] One good way to do that is to hover your mouse over the link
[00:02:42] and look at the bottom left of your browser
[00:02:44] to be sure the link goes where you expected to go.
[00:02:48] There has got to be a limit to what people will swallow.
[00:02:51] Apparently Jerry Sargent hasn't found it.
[00:02:53] The Mirror, a newspaper in the UK,
[00:02:56] says Sargent has claimed to be a reformed bank scammer,
[00:02:59] drug smuggler and developed a healing gift
[00:03:02] after encountering aliens during a car crash.
[00:03:05] Why the aliens were driving a car? I don't know.
[00:03:08] But that's enough of the Groucho Marx jokes.
[00:03:11] Sargent rented meeting space at Edinburgh's Grand Hotel
[00:03:15] and was selling tickets for about $700 each.
[00:03:18] The ticket sold quickly.
[00:03:21] Despite warnings from medical professionals, the show went on.
[00:03:25] Sargent said he never promised anyone a miracle
[00:03:28] or that he could cure cancer.
[00:03:30] He sees himself as a facilitator,
[00:03:32] empowering people to do their own healing
[00:03:35] and that he would never recommend
[00:03:37] that people cease medical treatment.
[00:03:39] That claim helps protect him from UK consumer protection laws
[00:03:43] that say it's unlawful to make false claims
[00:03:45] that a product is able to cure illnesses,
[00:03:48] dysfunction or malformations.
[00:03:51] In 2017, Sargent was found guilty
[00:03:54] and was fined on claims on his website
[00:03:56] that he could cure illnesses including cancer.
[00:03:59] As for the aliens,
[00:04:01] he says the so-called gift was bestowed upon him
[00:04:04] after surviving a car crash in Romania
[00:04:07] and he said he saw the spirit of a woman
[00:04:09] who was with him leave her body.
[00:04:12] She didn't leave a forwarding address.
[00:04:14] This is Scams and Kahn's news.
[00:04:18] I'm a summer guy.
[00:04:20] I'll be on the porch enjoying a cool drink and reading.
[00:04:24] Doesn't get any better unless someone else does the cooking.
[00:04:28] I'm not going to spend the day in fresh air
[00:04:30] only to eat processed foods.
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[00:05:18] Plus, I love to grill,
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[00:05:58] The Internal Revenue Service says a Texas woman
[00:06:00] was sentenced to 10 years in prison
[00:06:02] and ordered to pay more than $2.2 million
[00:06:05] in restitution,
[00:06:07] for defrauding elderly victims in romance scams.
[00:06:10] The woman was indicted
[00:06:12] and later convicted of one count of conspiracy
[00:06:14] to commit wire fraud
[00:06:16] and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
[00:06:19] She was sent to jail for 10 years.
[00:06:21] The woman created fake identities on websites
[00:06:24] like match.com and Zeus.
[00:06:26] Like most romance scams,
[00:06:28] the woman pledged her undying love
[00:06:30] but said she needed money for unexpected events.
[00:06:33] Restitution is a very important part
[00:06:35] of the women's life.
[00:06:37] The woman was charged with a murder
[00:06:39] and a murder of two women in two different states.
[00:06:42] The woman was charged with two different events.
[00:06:45] Restitution was estimated at $2.2 million.
[00:06:48] Meanwhile, in Houston, Texas,
[00:06:50] a man was arrested for bigamy,
[00:06:52] sort of a reverse romance scam.
[00:06:54] The Houston Chronicle said the man was already
[00:06:57] under probation for bigamy
[00:06:59] after being charged with marrying a woman
[00:07:01] in another state
[00:07:03] for his three-year probation.
[00:07:05] Coleman married a third woman.
[00:07:07] The district court revoked his sentence,
[00:07:09] giving him three years in prison.
[00:07:11] The district court believed Coleman
[00:07:13] was using the women for room and board
[00:07:15] while also taking money from them.
[00:07:17] The man claimed he was a bishop
[00:07:19] who traveled to churches around the country.
[00:07:22] And if you can take one more romance scam story,
[00:07:25] a Georgia man was found guilty
[00:07:27] in Utah for scams totaling $600,000.
[00:07:31] The Justice Department said the man participated
[00:07:34] at a money laundering conspiracy
[00:07:36] that involved receiving and transmitting funds
[00:07:39] from victims of romance scams.
[00:07:41] A group that called itself the Yahoo Boys
[00:07:44] set up fake profiles online,
[00:07:46] developed relationships with their victims,
[00:07:49] gained the victim's trust
[00:07:51] and then asked the victims for money
[00:07:53] using a variety of false pretenses.
[00:07:55] These individuals were referred to as pickers.
[00:07:58] As a picker, the man provided bank accounts
[00:08:01] to collect funds from the victims
[00:08:03] and to add layers to conceal the source
[00:08:05] and destination of the funds.
[00:08:07] For these scammers,
[00:08:09] it was part of a money laundering scheme.
[00:08:11] The departments at evidence
[00:08:13] showed the man received the money
[00:08:15] from dozens of people around the United States,
[00:08:17] whom he did not know,
[00:08:19] and then he transmitted the money to Nigeria
[00:08:21] after retaining a portion of the money.
[00:08:23] This is Scams and Cons News.
[00:08:30] To the Dixie Mafia,
[00:08:32] Crime Capsule brings you new stories
[00:08:34] of true crime in American history.
[00:08:36] I'm your host, Benjamin Morris.
[00:08:39] Join us for exclusive interviews
[00:08:41] with authors from Arcadia Publishing,
[00:08:43] writing the hottest books
[00:08:45] on the most chilling stories of our country's past.
[00:08:48] You can find us wherever you get
[00:08:50] your favorite podcasts
[00:08:52] or on EvergreenPodcasts.com.
[00:08:54] Crime Capsule,
[00:08:56] history so interesting, it's criminal.
[00:09:03] Scammers died two weeks earlier.
[00:09:05] A woman was shocked to get a message
[00:09:07] on Facebook from her,
[00:09:09] asking how she was doing.
[00:09:11] It's a scam called ghost hacking
[00:09:13] and it was reported by the Daily Mail in the UK.
[00:09:15] Here's how it works.
[00:09:17] Scammers look for people who recently died
[00:09:20] and who also have Facebook accounts.
[00:09:22] They then create a cloned account
[00:09:24] to contact people on the deceased person's friend list.
[00:09:27] In this instance,
[00:09:29] the scammer contacted a family member
[00:09:31] who was a university student
[00:09:33] saying the deceased mother
[00:09:35] found a great investment opportunity.
[00:09:37] The message seemed friendly enough.
[00:09:39] It began with a how are you doing message
[00:09:42] and then was followed by a great opportunity.
[00:09:45] Get a compensation payment worth $150,000.
[00:09:50] It's likely the scammers got the woman's name
[00:09:52] from obituaries or other public sources.
[00:09:55] They then used that information
[00:09:57] for faking Facebook accounts,
[00:09:59] closing bank accounts and receiving the money,
[00:10:02] or open credit card to the deceased's name.
[00:10:05] To protect yourself,
[00:10:07] make sure the person's digital life
[00:10:09] is either cloned or memorialized.
[00:10:11] Many services have a way of protecting accounts
[00:10:14] once they know the person has passed.
[00:10:16] It's also good to let banks
[00:10:18] and other financial advisors in their life
[00:10:20] know what has happened
[00:10:22] and to be on the lookout for scammers.
[00:10:24] Here's another death scam.
[00:10:26] Seeing your own obituary in the newspaper.
[00:10:29] CNN said these obits aren't real
[00:10:32] and are posted by people known as obituary pirates.
[00:10:35] Here's AI voice Jeff,
[00:10:37] reading from the CNN report
[00:10:39] on the fake death of writer Deborah Vanken.
[00:10:42] Hawn met January morning
[00:10:44] as Vanken read about her own death
[00:10:46] while sitting in a Santa Monica hospital waiting room
[00:10:49] where a friend was undergoing surgery.
[00:10:51] She felt a whirlwind of emotions.
[00:10:54] I oddly didn't panic.
[00:10:56] I was mostly confused at first,
[00:10:58] then outraged.
[00:11:00] Vanken, a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times,
[00:11:03] told CNN,
[00:11:05] I was sad,
[00:11:06] reading your own obituary is a surreal experience.
[00:11:10] After speaking with experts,
[00:11:12] I was scared,
[00:11:13] for myself,
[00:11:14] for all journalists,
[00:11:15] and for our society.
[00:11:17] The obits are posted on sites
[00:11:19] that publish a continuous stream
[00:11:21] of unrelated articles
[00:11:23] on random topics.
[00:11:25] They don't contain much information
[00:11:27] but are filled with key words
[00:11:29] to capitalize on what people are searching on Google.
[00:11:32] Vanken found out about her obituary
[00:11:35] from her dad
[00:11:36] after he was alerted to it
[00:11:38] by an aunt who gets Google updates
[00:11:40] every time her name appears online.
[00:11:42] In an essay for the Los Angeles Times,
[00:11:45] Vanken shared her reluctance
[00:11:48] to read the obituaries
[00:11:50] and the experience changed
[00:11:52] how she thinks about death.
[00:11:54] Fraudulent pages are intended to drive traffic
[00:11:56] to websites containing ads
[00:11:58] from Google or other search engines
[00:12:00] so they can earn money on commissions.
[00:12:02] They often use names of well-known people
[00:12:05] so they can glean as much data
[00:12:07] about the person as necessary
[00:12:09] to make the obit seem believable.
[00:12:11] Ain't that puppy you saw online cute?
[00:12:14] You can just imagine him running through your house,
[00:12:17] playing fetch in the backyard.
[00:12:19] It would be so much fun.
[00:12:21] It's more likely you'll never see the puppy
[00:12:23] or the cash that's been drained
[00:12:25] from your bank account.
[00:12:27] News 5 in Cleveland told the story of a woman
[00:12:29] who was usually too shy to leave the house
[00:12:32] but took a chance on an ad she saw online.
[00:12:35] The seller wanted a $400 deposit
[00:12:38] but she was to pick the puppy up
[00:12:40] at an address that didn't match the business website.
[00:12:43] Nevertheless, she sent the money via a cash app.
[00:12:46] Before she arrived, they asked for another $600
[00:12:49] to complete the purchase.
[00:12:51] When we got there
[00:12:53] and I knew when they asked for the other $600
[00:12:58] before they would give me the dog,
[00:13:00] I knew something wasn't right.
[00:13:02] When the woman came out of the house
[00:13:05] and she said,
[00:13:06] are you here for a puppy?
[00:13:08] And I said, yes.
[00:13:11] And she said, well, you've been spammed.
[00:13:13] The picture of the house matched the one on the website
[00:13:16] but the woman living in the home said
[00:13:18] lots of people have been showing up lately
[00:13:20] looking for puppies
[00:13:21] and she has to tell them they've been scammed.
[00:13:24] Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the grease
[00:13:27] but sometimes that person gets scammed.
[00:13:30] A woman complained about a flight delay
[00:13:33] on the platform formerly known as Twitter
[00:13:35] but the CBC said scammers replied
[00:13:38] pretending to be from the airline.
[00:13:40] They say, just share your reference number for your flight.
[00:13:44] A few more details and we can help you out.
[00:13:46] You deserve to be compensated a certain amount of money.
[00:13:49] All you have to do is either click on a link
[00:13:52] download a specific app, visit a certain website
[00:13:55] maybe share some banking information
[00:13:57] and that's how this scam develops.
[00:13:59] So again, preying on airline travelers
[00:14:03] who are already typically tired
[00:14:05] perhaps a little bit stressed out
[00:14:07] that you might think that, you know, who might fall for this.
[00:14:10] And so again, she said
[00:14:12] the scammer told her that she was deserving of $1,500
[00:14:16] that they planned to deposit that money into her account.
[00:14:19] First of all, she had to download a money exchange app
[00:14:22] and ask for that money in Kenyon-ish shillings.
[00:14:25] That's when she called it when she was sure
[00:14:27] that it was a scam
[00:14:28] and cut off communication with the scammers at that point.
[00:14:31] This is Scams & Cons News.
[00:14:37] This is a member of the Evergreen Podcast Network.
[00:14:40] Hello, this is Dr. Grande
[00:14:42] the host of True Crime Psychology and Personality.
[00:14:45] On my podcast I explore and explain the pathology
[00:14:49] behind some of the most horrendous crimes
[00:14:51] and those who commit them.
[00:14:53] We discuss topics like narcissism,
[00:14:55] psychopathy, sociopathy
[00:14:57] and antisocial personality disorder
[00:15:00] from a scientifically informed perspective.
[00:15:03] What is a narcissist?
[00:15:05] How do you spot a sociopath?
[00:15:06] What science can you look for to protect yourself
[00:15:08] from these dangerous personalities?
[00:15:10] It's not just about the stories
[00:15:12] but also the science and psychology behind them.
[00:15:15] So if you're interested in true crime or mental health
[00:15:18] I'd encourage you to give my show a listen
[00:15:20] wherever you get podcasts.