New scam targets those who tap credit cards

[00:00:04] This is Scams and Cons News with Jim Grinstead. In this week's news, a woman uses a fake baby bump to scam a man into paying for her pregnancy. And Minnesota legislators consider a fund that would reimburse scam victims for at least some of the money they lost. But we begin with a brand new scam that's moving across the country.

[00:00:29] Like skimmers that swipe credit card information when a card is inserted into a machine, these skimmers kick in when someone taps to pay. The Knox County, Tennessee Sheriff's Office is one of the first to make an arrest in such a case. KCSO arresting 11 people that stole over $20,000 off of people who use the tap to pay method. I guess with this skimming, this tap to pay, you know, it's like any other device where

[00:00:55] you run a credit card through where you can put a device on top of it, a skimmer to get the information. Apparently that can be done on tap to pay as well. So you really have to be careful where you're using your card. Local businesses say these types of fraud are things they monitor for. Now it's just another thing they have to worry about. Businesses in the area saying they will be paying closer attention to their card readers. With these busts, KCSO became the first agency in the country to arrest people for this type of fraud.

[00:01:21] From what I understand, this may be one of the first or earliest arrests of this type of situation in the country. You know, we just got to be vigilant about this kind of thing that's going on out there. Know what's going on in your own credit cards. A former Brooklyn crypto podcaster has been sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison for orchestrating a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme with a Seinfeld twist. Thomas John Safgra, known to followers as T.J.

[00:01:48] Stone, was sentenced to 45 months behind bars after pleading guilty to wire fraud. The 56-year-old man defrauded at least 17 victims of more than $2 million between 2016 and 2022. Prosecutors say Safgra convinced friends, neighbors, and even his child's baseball coach to invest in bogus ventures, including a company called Vandelay Contracting Corporation.

[00:02:16] It's a fictional reference to Vandelay Industries from the hit TV show Seinfeld. There is nothing funny about the use of the Seinfeldian company to carry out this fraud, said U.S. attorney John Durham, noting that the scheme caused severe financial and emotional harm to victims. According to court documents, Safra Promise investors returns from real estate and cryptocurrency ventures, but instead used their money for personal expenses or to pay earlier investors.

[00:02:45] That's the hallmark of a Ponzi scheme. When investors began demanding their money back, Safra fled to Arizona under a false identity. He was eventually arrested in Las Vegas after failing to pay his casino bill. In addition to prison time, Safra must forfeit $1.3 million. Restitution to the victims will be determined at a later date.

[00:03:10] Prosecutors noted that despite having a supportive family and previously successful business ventures, including a comedy podcast with more than a million listeners, Safra chose to cheat and swindle his neighbors and friends out of their savings. In a major crackdown on alleged e-commerce fraud, the Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against ClickProfit and its co-founders.

[00:03:34] The company is accused of running a passive income scheme that promised investors huge returns from Amazon storefronts. The FTC alleges that ClickProfit charged customers up to $75,000 for initial investments, plus additional fees for inventory. The company claimed to use AI technology in partnerships with major brands to generate significant profits. However, the FTC says these claims were false.

[00:04:03] According to the complaint, about 95% of ClickProfit's Amazon stores were suspended or terminated for policy violations. Most consumers were unable to recoup their investments, which left many in debt. The lawsuit seeks to permanently ban ClickProfit from doing business and provide monetary relief to victims. Minnesota legislators have a plan that could help scam victims get restitution. Fox 9 explains.

[00:04:31] If the state catches a scammer and a court orders that person to pay more than just the restitution they owe the victim, say, a fine or something like that, the state would then take half of that money, put it in a restitution fund, and from there, people who got scammed and have no other way of getting their money back could get their own restitution. He pleaded to me not to let the rest of the family know what was going on because he was embarrassed.

[00:04:59] Dennis Anderson got duped by what's become a classic scam. One guy posed as his grandson who just caused a serious car crash, and another guy said he was the public defender trying to get the grandson out of trouble. When the public defender said he needed $20,000 in cash for bail immediately, I didn't wait to act. I was desperate to help my grandson. Almost as soon as Anderson sent the $20,000, the scammers came for more,

[00:05:25] saying the crash victim was pregnant and she had a miscarriage, so they needed more money. He stopped it there, though, and police even caught the courier who came to pick up the extra money. But they never caught the crooks, and Anderson was down $20,000. Minnesotans on the whole lost about $130 million to scammers in 2024, and usually without being able to catch whoever did it. But they're left without any money, and they're left, as we've heard, tens of thousands of dollars in the hole.

[00:05:53] Some of the scammers do get caught, though, and under a new bill, their punishments would include paying into a consumer fraud restitution account. People who can prove they got scammed but couldn't find the scammer could get paid back from the restitution account. The Consumer Fraud Restitution Fund would have been a lifesaver, not just for me, but for many others who have fallen victim to this heartless scam. Officials say the bill has bipartisan support and is likely to pass.

[00:06:21] A Montgomery County, Ohio man is being sought for the possible use of counterfeit money to buy Girl Scout cookies. Police have a photo and hope to make a match soon. This is Scams and Cons News. A Waukesha, Wisconsin woman lost more than $700,000 in a scam, and the man responsible is going to jail for six years.

[00:06:52] The woman in this case losing almost her entire life savings, 707 grand. Scammers convinced her that her bank account was hacked, and she believed them when they told her it was safer to put her cash to gold bars. The pickup man of the operation, a Chinese national named Junji Liang, learned his sentence today. Hearing his sentence from a Mandarin interpreter, Junji Liang, surprised a judge sentenced him to more than six years in prison, more than the state requested. This is a substantial term of incarceration.

[00:07:21] You should be a result for what you've done, sir. You deserve every day you're going to be behind Fonji. Liang pleaded no contest to scamming a Waukesha woman out of more than $707,000 in cashier's checks and gold bars. Court documents indicate the woman was targeted with a pop-up on her computer, telling her to call a phone number. Then, the person on the line, pretending to be from her bank and the Federal Trade Commission, convinced her that her bank accounts were hacked, saying it was safer to transfer her money in cashier's checks and gold bars.

[00:07:50] Waukesha police arrested Liang, the pickup man of the operation, in a sting in January of last year. Detective Luke Hallmark led the investigation. He could have been gone for a matter of moments, so with the quick withdrawal for our victim to communicate with us and to get us on board, and we can bring a resolution where he wasn't able to flee the state right away. Prosecutors and police say he's part of a criminal network scamming people across the country. Police say authorities have an arrest warrant for him in Texas and another case in Colorado.

[00:08:19] He is most certainly not just the low-level guy. The bottom was the total poll. The FBI says these cross-country scams likely originate overseas, targeting people who are older and not as familiar with technology. Athens, Ohio is the latest city to be taken in by scammers, this time forfeiting more than $700,000 in taxpayer money. AI narrator Mark tells the story.

[00:08:43] In a sophisticated cyber scam, the city of Athens, Ohio, fell victim to a $721,976 theft in November 2024. The scam began when criminals impersonated Pepper Construction, the company building the city's new fire station. The scammers cleverly inserted themselves into legitimate email exchanges between city officials and Pepper Construction.

[00:09:08] They created fake email addresses that were nearly identical to the construction companies, with only slight changes in spelling. On November 14th, the scammers requested that the city's payment be made via electronic transfer, instead of check. Unsuspecting city employees complied, sending over $700,000 to a fraudulent bank account. The fraud was discovered a few days later, when an employee in the city auditor's office noticed discrepancies.

[00:09:37] The city immediately notified local police and the FBI. In early December, Athens filed a civil lawsuit against the unknown perpetrators. As of January 2025, $349,522 remains frozen in the scammers' bank account. The city is working with its insurance company and law enforcement to recover the stolen funds. Andrew Cheeky, the city's deputy service safety director, expressed the community's distress, saying,

[00:10:07] The citizens, our community as a collective, are victims of highly organized crime. He added that they are hoping to learn soon how much they will recover through their insurance policy. In a tale that seems straight out of a workplace comedy, a Spanish civil servant named Joaquin Garcia managed to skip work for six years while still collecting his full salary, all without anyone noticing.

[00:10:31] The incredible feat of workplace evasion only came to light when Garcia was about to receive an award for 20 years of dedicated service. Garcia, a building supervisor at a water treatment plant in Cadiz, Spain, had been employed by the local government for more than two decades. At some point, instead of requesting a transfer or resigning, he simply stopped showing up for work.

[00:10:56] Due to bureaucratic mix-ups, two different departments each thought the other was overseeing Garcia's duties, allowing him to vanish from the workplace undetected. For six years, Garcia continued to receive his annual salary of $41,500 while enjoying an extended, unauthorized vacation. The ruse was only discovered when his employers attempted to honor him for his long service, only to find out that he hadn't been in the office for years.

[00:11:24] Jorge Blas, Cadiz deputy mayor, was tasked with unraveling this bizarre situation. When confronted, Garcia had no clear explanation for his prolonged absence. His lawyer later argued that he'd been a victim of workplace bullying and chose not to report it for fear of losing his job. The outcome? Garcia was fined $30,000, equivalent to one year's salary after taxes, for his six-year absence.

[00:11:53] This amount was the maximum the company could legally reclaim. A 23-year-old woman from Staffordshire, England, has been jailed for an elaborate 13-month deception in which she faked pregnancies, including twins, to manipulate a man she met online. Libby Vernon used a fake baby bump, false medical records, and even staged a gender reveal party to convince the victim and his family of her lies.

[00:12:21] The relationship began on a social media app where Vernon fabricated details of her life. She later claimed to be pregnant, sharing fake ultrasound images and photos of a newborn. When the man grew suspicious, Vernon falsely claimed the baby had died of sudden infant death syndrome and even sent a fake death certificate. She then pretended to be pregnant again, this time with twins.

[00:12:46] The ruse unraveled in June 2024 when hospital staff confirmed that she was not pregnant and discovered her wearing a silicone baby bump. The victim described his devastation, saying he mourned the loss of the babies that felt real to him. Vernon pleaded guilty to multiple charges of sending false communications with intent to cause harm. She was sentenced to six months in jail and issued a two-year restraining order. This is Scams and Cons News.