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[00:00:34] This is Scams and Cons news with Jim Grinstead
[00:00:40] In today's news,
[00:00:42] Sheriff's officers break an international scammer ring
[00:00:45] that has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars
[00:00:49] and 60 Minutes Australia
[00:00:51] asked if Belle Gibson is a liar.
[00:00:53] But we begin with the story of a woman who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars
[00:00:58] to a person who said she was on secret probation.
[00:01:01] 65 year old William Roy Stone Jr.
[00:01:04] was sentenced to 7 years behind bars on wire fraud charges.
[00:01:09] This comes after Stone retired from the FBI in October of 2015.
[00:01:15] Prosecutors say shortly after retirement,
[00:01:18] Stone told the woman he was still an active agent
[00:01:20] assigned to oversee her probation for fictitional federal drug crimes.
[00:01:25] He then demanded she make regular payments to him as part of her made up probation terms.
[00:01:30] Stone wasn't working alone.
[00:01:33] 64 year old Joseph Evantino de Leon was also convicted for his role in the conspiracy.
[00:01:39] Authorities say Stone and de Leon told the victim of fake federal judge
[00:01:44] had appointed them to monitor supposed six-year secret probation.
[00:01:49] They required her to text some daily reports of her activities
[00:01:52] and compensate them for supervising her.
[00:01:55] Over an 11 month period,
[00:01:57] the victim handed over more than $700,000 to Stone
[00:02:01] and over $50,000 to de Leon.
[00:02:04] The two men urged her to distance herself from family,
[00:02:08] claiming relatives wanted her inheritance.
[00:02:11] They even persuaded her to transfer inherited assets out of a trust
[00:02:14] and into her personal account.
[00:02:17] At one point prosecutors say they claimed the fictitious judge
[00:02:20] would discharge her probation if she agreed to marry Stone.
[00:02:25] As part of the ruse, the victim was warned she could not tell anyone about her probation
[00:02:29] or risk going to jail and losing her children.
[00:02:33] Stone and de Leon monitored her communications,
[00:02:36] conducted surveillance,
[00:02:38] and even staged fake phone calls with the made up judge.
[00:02:41] Stone was convicted on conspiracy of wire fraud,
[00:02:44] money laundering, and impersonation charges.
[00:02:48] Most financial scams happened via telephone.
[00:02:51] But when an international group of con artists realized they had a wealthy person on the line,
[00:02:56] they changed tactics and wanted to meet her in person.
[00:03:00] Cherokee County Georgia Sheriff's Officer started tracking the scam
[00:03:04] and discovered it was part of an international ring.
[00:03:07] Fox 5 in Atlanta tells the tale.
[00:03:10] This is a large international ring that is operating outside the United States,
[00:03:15] but stealing from citizens in the United States.
[00:03:18] That's Captain Jay Baker with the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office.
[00:03:21] He says this group targeted the victim for weeks.
[00:03:24] Investigators say the crooks claimed her identity had been stolen
[00:03:27] and they wanted to help secure her assets.
[00:03:29] We're told it quickly escalated from $1500 in gift cards
[00:03:33] to a $50,000 wire transfer.
[00:03:36] This is where the scam is a little bit different than previous scams.
[00:03:39] Deputies say the scammers went on to claim they worked with the U.S. Treasury
[00:03:42] and convinced her to buy $100,000 worth of gold
[00:03:45] and meet them so they could safeguard it.
[00:03:47] Then they asked her to do it again for double the amount.
[00:03:51] She finally became suspicious and told a family member
[00:03:53] who called the Sheriff's Office.
[00:03:55] We met with the victim, continued communicating with a suspect by phone
[00:03:59] and agreed to meet with him.
[00:04:01] And a suspect showed up at the meat location and approached her vehicle.
[00:04:04] He was placed in custody.
[00:04:05] Through that sting operation they were able to arrest 27-year-old Parth Patel.
[00:04:09] Working with the FBI, Baker says they were able to discover Patel
[00:04:12] as part of a group based out of India and the U.K.
[00:04:16] Deputies were unable to recover the woman's money.
[00:04:19] A con artist from Norwich in Britain has been sentenced to six years behind bars
[00:04:24] for defrauding seven victims out of nearly $554,000.
[00:04:30] 63-year-old Susan Goose would approach people in local pubs
[00:04:34] and spit an elaborate tale about needing money to pay legal fees
[00:04:38] for an inheritance case she claimed to be involved in.
[00:04:41] She even went so far as falsifying emails, claim forms and documents
[00:04:46] purportedly from solicitors and the court's handling or bogus case.
[00:04:51] Goose's deceit was uncovered after one victim lost their home
[00:04:54] for money they lent her.
[00:04:56] When police searched her home, they found no evidence of legal proceedings
[00:04:59] but did uncover records showing Goose had blown over $160,000 gambling online.
[00:05:07] At her sentencing, Goose pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud
[00:05:10] by false representation related to incidents dating back to 2011.
[00:05:16] This is Scams and Cons News.
[00:05:28] You may have seen bogus news stories claiming there was a tragic end to some celebrity.
[00:05:33] It's clickbait intended to get you on a page of endless such stories
[00:05:37] so they can feed advertising to you.
[00:05:39] But Fox 59 in Indiana says there has been a change that makes things more personal
[00:05:44] and the message frequently comes via Facebook.
[00:05:48] So like if one of your friends gets hacked,
[00:05:50] the scammer will post some shocking content like a terrible crash
[00:05:54] or a fire or some other tragedy with the phrase,
[00:05:57] I can't believe he's gone or she was so young.
[00:06:00] It's posted with a fabricated news headline and a video thumbnail.
[00:06:04] It can look very realistic and make you want to find out what happened
[00:06:08] and who they're talking about.
[00:06:09] But when you click the link to the headline,
[00:06:12] it takes you to a fake survey or a malware download or a spam list.
[00:06:16] At that point, it's a good bet that you're leaking your email address
[00:06:19] and other information to crooks who will buy it and sell it on the dark web.
[00:06:24] And that's the kind of thing that exposes you to spam emails and calls and texts.
[00:06:28] The hackers who use this scam are very good at changing up the template
[00:06:32] so it doesn't look the same every time.
[00:06:35] Belle Gibson said she had cancer and solicited money from the public.
[00:06:39] 60 Minutes Australia said she's a fraud
[00:06:42] and before the interview she was asked if she would sign a statutory declaration
[00:06:46] to promise that everything she would say is the truth.
[00:06:50] Host Tara Brown believes Gibson is a liar.
[00:06:54] Belle Gibson was a strikingly sympathetic and inspirational figure
[00:06:58] to her legion of followers when she started posting her story on Instagram in 2013.
[00:07:06] She said she was a sick young mum who found her salvation
[00:07:10] in wholesome foods and natural therapies when conventional medicine failed her.
[00:07:15] A woman who defied the doctors who told her in 2009
[00:07:20] she had an inoperable malignant brain tumour and just four months to live.
[00:07:27] Four years on, her followers lived every health high and low with her
[00:07:31] and fellow cancer sufferers had new reason to hope.
[00:07:35] Belle said she had two cardiac arrests and twice died on the operating table
[00:07:40] and told the stories in great detail on the web.
[00:07:44] The woman who pretended to have cancer and to this day still won't tell the truth
[00:07:48] that she knew she didn't.
[00:07:51] Her struggle with terminal brain cancer won the sympathy of hundreds of thousands
[00:07:54] of followers on social media here and overseas
[00:07:57] which she then parlayed into a nice learner,
[00:08:01] a wellness app, a cookbook and celebrity appearances.
[00:08:04] But well before she became famous, Belle established a habit of astonishing fabrications
[00:08:10] involving myriad serious medical conditions
[00:08:12] seemingly designed to gain maximum sympathy.
[00:08:16] You won't believe the diseases she's had.
[00:08:19] I mean in 2009 was a really bad year for you wasn't it?
[00:08:23] You had three heart operations, you suffered two cardiac arrests
[00:08:27] you died twice on the operating table, you had a stroke
[00:08:30] and you were diagnosed with inoperable brain tumour and given four months to live.
[00:08:35] Correct.
[00:08:36] And I do, I still have the heart condition and I was supposed to have surgery for that.
[00:08:41] You were supposed to have surgery?
[00:08:43] And I didn't.
[00:08:44] And why did you tell people that you had three surgeries?
[00:08:48] At the time I think going back I was late teens
[00:08:52] and I was going through a lot of emotional trauma
[00:08:57] and a lot of abuse at the time.
[00:08:59] What sort of abuse?
[00:09:02] Someone who was really prominent during my childhood was stalking me.
[00:09:06] Even the brain cancer was a mystery
[00:09:08] until another doctor looked at the test results along with new ones
[00:09:12] and said no cancer was there.
[00:09:15] Belle believes she's the victim of people who did not tell her the truth.
[00:09:19] That's the story of scam artist Belle Gibson, but there's a coda.
[00:09:24] You're 23 right?
[00:09:25] Well actually how old are you?
[00:09:28] I've always been raised as being currently a 26 year old.
[00:09:34] How old are you?
[00:09:35] Well I live knowing as I've always known that I would be 26.
[00:09:40] Okay Belle.
[00:09:42] This is a really, really simple question.
[00:09:45] How old are you?
[00:09:46] I believe that I'm 26.
[00:09:48] I have two birth certificate and I've had my name changed four times.
[00:09:54] The identity crisis there is big, but that was my normal when I was growing up Tara.
[00:09:59] What do you know the truth to be now?
[00:10:02] That's probably a question that we have to keep digging for
[00:10:05] because it's not something I've ever understood or had answers around.
[00:10:09] So when you needed to file some financial documents
[00:10:13] how did you choose the birth date you gave if you don't know?
[00:10:17] With my most recent deed poll paper which has
[00:10:20] the younger of the age and the most recent of the name.
[00:10:24] Right, so currently then according to those documents you're 23.
[00:10:30] Correct.
[00:10:31] Belle has said she will pay back the money donated to help her.
[00:10:35] Estimates put that at $300,000.
[00:10:38] 60 minutes says no one has received a cent.
[00:10:42] Months later Belle's brother Nick said he's angry
[00:10:45] and exposed more of Belle's misdeeds.
[00:10:48] The time mum was in the hospice, you know slowly passing away.
[00:10:54] Belle had the nerve to come to Brisbane to my home and clear the garage out.
[00:11:00] Mum had jewelry up there as well in boxes
[00:11:03] and I went back up there and it was all cleaned out
[00:11:07] and then I'd contact Belle maybe about a few days later, a week later
[00:11:12] and she couldn't say anything.
[00:11:15] She didn't want, she avoided all.
[00:11:18] Mum had jewelry before she passed on her body
[00:11:23] and then when I went back to visit mum at the hospice it was gone.
[00:11:28] You want your sister to go to jail?
[00:11:30] Yeah just to get a wake up call
[00:11:33] and if I had every single family she's hurt in front of me right now
[00:11:38] I'll be saying sorry to them
[00:11:40] and if I had the money I'll give it back to them.
[00:11:44] Mark Lewis is a good guy.
[00:11:47] When he saw a car by the side of the road with a passenger shaking the driver
[00:11:51] he was concerned.
[00:11:53] The passenger then flagged Lewis down.
[00:11:55] Lewis pulled over to see if he could help.
[00:11:58] And that's kind of when things got a little wild.
[00:12:00] The guy that waved us down walked up the passenger side of the door
[00:12:02] and just immediately opened the door
[00:12:04] and he started like leaning in, he had his hand on my apprentice's leg.
[00:12:08] He told a story of being a millionaire from Dubai
[00:12:11] and needed money to help a family member.
[00:12:13] He offered jewelry for cash.
[00:12:15] Lewis said he knew that he needed to get away.
[00:12:18] As he drove away the black Mercedes SUV with California plates
[00:12:22] and the men inside began to follow.
[00:12:25] Terrified.
[00:12:26] I'm not ashamed to say it, I was terrified.
[00:12:27] At that point it became you know oh those idiots whatever
[00:12:30] and then it became dude we gotta get it, we have to go.
[00:12:33] We have to get out of here, we have to, we have to get home.
[00:12:36] This game is an old one but isn't seen often these days.
[00:12:39] The jewelry and cash offered is phony.
[00:12:43] The people in the SUV eventually gave up
[00:12:45] and marked his passenger got home safely.
[00:12:49] It's a romance scam and Connie Rottolo was the victim.
[00:12:53] The scammer took her for $468,000.
[00:12:57] Once she realized what happened
[00:12:59] she searched the internet for support groups
[00:13:01] that understood what she was going through.
[00:13:04] She found a group that called themselves
[00:13:06] the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center.
[00:13:09] They offered to help but they needed money.
[00:13:13] Connie got scammed again.
[00:13:14] She told CBS New York.
[00:13:17] I wish I had the person in front of me.
[00:13:20] I would really, I, you know, bad things would probably happen.
[00:13:26] I would be arrested.
[00:13:28] This is Scams and Cons News.
[00:13:43] Thanks for watching.