Articles Tagged with scam

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A software engineer from Seattle who was reportedly largely influenced by the movie “Office Space” is facing charges after he allegedly pilfered over $300,000 from his former employer by editing the software. 

Last Spring, Zulily.com noticed that there was an issue with the way their checkout system was operating. 

According to reports, they learned that some of the charges from purchases and shipping fees were incorrect. They also found that the price of some of their merchandise had been lowered. 

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A married couple from Virginia accused of pilfering more than $1.4 M from the Paycheck Protection Program was taken into custody at the airport when it was discovered they were leaving the U.S. in a purported attempt to escape criminal penalties.

Since the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) put many small businesses in danger of having to shut their doors, the U.S. Small Business Association began offering a loan called the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). It was designed to help owners keep their employees on the payroll during the pandemic.

A press release from the Justice Department informed the public that they found purportedly fraudulent PPP applications submitted to at least a dozen institutions during the months of April and May, and they asserted the responsible parties were a couple from Ashburn.

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Two arrests were made after the authorities allegedly traced FedEx packages containing $81,000 to a suspect reportedly wrongfully charging people money for removing viruses from their computers.

Last Thursday, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office reportedly received a call from a person who wished to remain anonymous. The caller, who asserted that they were the victim, reported a situation involving the elderly New Jersey resident being scammed out of money. The person said they thought they had sent $11,000 to someone who called to inform them that they had a computer virus and would remove it for a fee, but after mailing the money they suspected they had been scammed.

When the authorities investigated the claim they reportedly uncovered details that appeared to coincide with those that the caller had given. It was allegedly found that someone who was offering their services to remove computer viruses was using FedEx shipments as a means of accepting payment.

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An Uwchlan Township woman allegedly claimed she had cancer in a purported attempt to scam people who donated to her fundraisers out of the money they pledged to assist her.

31-year-old Jessica Smith reportedly said she was being treated for Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer, and she reached out to the public using GoFundMe and Facebook in an alleged attempt to raise money.

In the fundraisers, Smith, reportedly using the name Jessica Veronica Cornell, allegedly stated that she was suffering from her treatments and that she was struggling to make ends meet due to the high cost of her medical bills.

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Three women who run Los Angeles County stores are the main focus of an investigation that led to charges against 17 people who allegedly took part in the misuse of food stamp benefits.

Maria Teresa Ramirez, 37, her 54-year-old mother Maria Magdalena Salgado, and 37-year-old Yessica Raquel Garay each reportedly run different locations of three convenience stores owned by the mother and daughter.

Over a 6-year period beginning in 2011, the three women allegedly afforded some of their customers with cards containing SNAP funds the ability get cash instead of food if they agreed to give some of the money obtained to the store as a fee for the service.

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Three people have been accused of allegedly accepting money from donors after claiming they were family members of a little girl with cancer, and it was discovered that they allegedly have no relation to the child or the fundraising efforts for her recovery.

The family of a 6-year-old girl named Kaylee who was diagnosed with a type of cancer called Wilms’ tumor, which mostly affects youngsters and is found in the kidneys, started a fundraiser in hopes of gaining financial support for their daughter’s medical needs. A campaign that they dubbed “Kicking it with Kaylee” was created by the child’s relatives to raise awareness of their cause.

People in Syracuse, New York, and some surrounding neighborhoods reported that they were visited at their homes by three people who said they were Kaylee’s family members that presented a picture of the child when asking for donations. It is believed that the photo was taken from an online news site and being used to help convince people that they were legitimate proponents for the cause, and donators allegedly gave hundreds of dollars in support.

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Two Delray Beach men have been suspected of taking part in a scam when they were found participating in profiting from illegal brokering practices involving the urine of patients with substance abuse problems who are in treatment and recovery programs.

It is reported that the urine collected from substance abuse treatment patients is a highly lucrative item for the labs that test it. When a lab acquires a contract with a treatment center in need of extensive urine testing they stand to profit quite a bit because insurance companies, though they often only pay for a portion of the charge, are billed up to $5,000 for the process.

In the state of Florida, it has been outlawed with a patient-brokering law in place prohibiting the acceptance of “any commission, bonus, rebate, kickback, or bribe, directly or indirectly, in cash or in kind,” to protect against treatment centers and labs from profiting illegally through patient and lab service referrals.

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A federal investigation of a company in Irvine that offers financial and insurance services has led to charges for three executives of the firm who have allegedly been found to have stolen investments totaling over $4 million from several elderly clients.

50-year-old Mehmet Fatih Biyikoglu is the CEO and founder of Five Star Financial Services, LLC, a financial management and insurance firm in Orange County. 58-year-old Anna Marie Holt serves as the company’s president and chief operating officer, and Ida Shaghoian, 38, was a sales agent who was also once married to Biyikoglu.

The company practices have been under investigation that has led to accusations against Biyikoglu, Holt, and Shaghoian purporting that between 2014 and 2015 they recruited clients, typically elderly people, and assured them that if they invested into certificates of deposit they would earn significant returns. Instead of taking the clients’ money and putting it into a JP Morgan Chase Bank CD account as promised, the suspects have been accused of taking over $4 million in investments and using the cash for personal items such as real estate, jewelry, and expensive automobiles.

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An ex-insurance agent from San Clemente has been accused of using fraudulent practices to profit off of investments he made for at least six elderly clients in Southern California.

55-year-old Mark Malatesta, a man employed as a licensed insurance agent, was taken into custody on Monday after the California Department of Insurance detectives found what they believe is supporting evidence that he was taking part in a monetary ruse which cost his former clients over $1.6 million. The alleged victims were reported as senior citizens, who are said to be a target demographic of an increasing number of deceptions designed to cheat them out of their money, as reported by Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones.

Malatesta has been accused of a procedure called “churning,” wherein a broker who typically has permission to make independent determinations on how to invest money from the client’s account performs transactions “chiefly to generate commissions that benefit the broker,” as described by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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After an FBI investigation into what they believe is a fraudulent operation targeting homeowners facing foreclosure by offering low interest loan modifications, three men from Southern California are facing federal charges as suspects in the alleged hoax.

At the start of 2014 under the name Hope Services, homeowners in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure were offered deals for modifying their loans in order to assist them and stop the seizure of their properties. The potential clients were told they were preapproved for the process and they were asked to submit three payments, which would be held in an account, in order to complete the new loan agreements.

Toward the end of 2014 many complaints were received about Hope Services from people who had submitted payments and did not receive their modified loans as promised. The alleged scam operation then changed their name to HAMP Services, which has the same acronym as an existing government program for home loan modification, and they continued to solicit services to new victims until April 2015.

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