scam

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Is That Mystery Number a Scammer? Galaxy S7 Knows

Thanks to partnership with Whitepages

(Newser) - About to buy the new Galaxy S7? Your contact list just got a whole lot bigger. Samsung and Whitepages are announcing a partnership that packs caller ID, spam and scam detection, and even a nearby business search directly into the native dialer, reports Engadget . This means that an incoming call...

Charges: Tinder User Scams Thousands From Women

He allegedly told them his mom and sister had cancer

(Newser) - The "classic dating scams of yesteryear" are alive and well online, according to a New York City DA. The New York Times reports a 35-year-old man named Brandon Kiehm was charged Tuesday with using Tinder to defraud two kind-hearted women out of $26,000. Kiehm—using a fake name—...

IRS Scam Gets Scary When Scammers Call the Cops

'I was scared for my family's life'

(Newser) - Scammers took the common IRS ruse to dangerous new heights this week in Colorado Springs, calling in multiple fake emergencies to 911 and causing armed police to surround their victim's daughter, Consumerist reports. Jim Davis received a phone call Monday morning from a man claiming to be an IRS...

How a Gang of Strippers Robbed From the Rich

By drugging them, says suspect Rosie Keo

(Newser) - Rosie Keo is due in court next month for her alleged involvement in a scam involving strippers who robbed male clients of at least $200,000. But in her telling, Keo alone made much more. Makes sense, if her story is true about strippers drugging doctors and Wall Street executives...

Cops: Craigslist Mover Swipes Couple's Stuff

He allegedly made off with more than $30K of their belongings

(Newser) - Craigslist can be a great place to rent an apartment, buy a used microwave, and hire some movers—provided you don't mind if those things are roach-infested, busted, and wildly untrustworthy, in that order. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports a Missouri man has been charged with felony theft after...

Massive IRS Scam Nearly Claims Ivy League Reporter

Lisa Bennett has written about scams before, but almost fell for this one

(Newser) - When Ivy League-educated journalist Lisa Bennett, who has covered scams among other money-related topics, got a call from the IRS earlier this year, she was told she owed $5,347 in back taxes and that the police were coming to get her. Her first reaction was relatively logical—"That’...

Man Allegedly Treated Scores of Patients as Fake Doctor

Suspicions grew when he kept bumming rides

(Newser) - A New York man charged with treating up to 100 patients while pretending to be a clinical psychologist and physician over the past three years was done in by his penchant for bumming rides from patients and cooking them meals, CBS New York reports. Donald Lee-Edwards, 43, was charged this...

Man Loses $714K to Fortune Teller
Man Loses $714K
to Fortune Teller
Jun 6, 2015 9:59 AM CDT

Man Loses $714K to Fortune Teller

Over a broken heart

(Newser) - Last year, cops in Manhattan say a fortune teller scammed a woman out of $217,000 on the pretext of getting a curse removed. Seemed like a lot of money, until this guy: Over the course of 20 months, the broken-hearted 32-year-old shelled out a total of $713,975 to...

Elaborate Insurance Scam Ends in Housekeeper's Death

Cops: Dad, son planned murder of Anita Fox, 72

(Newser) - A father and son in Texas committed the ultimate crime of "greed," police tell NBC DFW . Cops say Gerard Gorman, 48, and his son Bernard Gorman, 27, allegedly followed 72-year-old housekeeper Anita Fox on her rounds for a few days last September, then murdered her in her employer'...

Behind Health Exec's Luxe Life: Fake Spinal Screws?

Despite whistleblower, FDA never shut company down

(Newser) - Medical firm founder Roger Williams owned private planes, flashy cars, and a yacht dubbed "Spare Change"; he had courtside seats to see the Lakers and enjoyed spending thousands at strip clubs. But an investigation by the Center for Investigative Reporting suggests his $18-million-a-year California company, Spinal Solutions, made its...

Elderly LA Woman Vanishes, Found Years Later in Maine

Sarah Cheiker apparently gave her money to 3 companions

(Newser) - An elderly woman is still fuming after three people allegedly took her money and left her to live in squalor in rural Maine, a source tells the LA Times . The paper today revisits a story that has its start around 2008, when three people randomly knocked on the Los Angeles...

Woman Who Thought She Was Dying Stole $644K

Cancer patient Shirley Player ended up bouncing back—but not from her crime

(Newser) - A British woman who was quite sure her cancer would kill her sooner rather than later decided to steal nearly $644,000 from her employer—but she ended up beating the disease and is now going to prison to serve a four-year sentence. Shirley Player, 61, stole about $92,000...

Feds: Stripper Crew Drugged Rich Men

...then ran up massive charges on their credit cards

(Newser) - A crew of New York City strippers scammed wealthy men by spiking their drinks with "molly" or other drugs, then driving them to strip clubs that ran up tens of thousands of dollars on their credit cards while they were too wasted to stop it, authorities said today. A...

Guy Says He's Jared Leto's Stylist, Tricks Top Shops

Also claims to work for Johnny Depp

(Newser) - A pricey New York menswear shop generally asks for ID when phone orders are picked up. If you're a celebrity's assistant, however, you can sometimes get by without getting carded. That was handy for a man who recently visited Carven after placing orders by phone with a stolen...

Cops: Fortune Teller Scammed Woman for $217K

Victim was trying to have a curse removed

(Newser) - The going rate to have a curse removed is apparently $217,040. That's how much a 22-year-old woman in Manhattan paid a fortune teller over the course of about a year to be officially de-cursed, the New York Post reports. The woman finally wised up and went to police,...

Guy Falls for Scam, Travels 1K Miles to Claim 'Lotto Win'

After 2 years of back-and-forth with scammer

(Newser) - Those of us with relatives who got really excited about that distant relative who left millions in a Nigerian bank account can just nod sagely here: A couple of years ago, an Indian man received a text notifying him that he'd won somewhere between $319,000 and $478,000...

Scam Alert: Beware of a Call That Only Rings Once

New trick involves getting you to call back

(Newser) - The Better Business Bureau calls it the "One-Ring Phone Scam": Scammers call your phone, let it ring once, and hang up. That prompts you—the scammers hope—to call back, allowing them to pile on charges while you're connected. The calls usually come from outside the US, but...

Woman Drops $500K in ChristianMingle Scam

Man behind the computer wasn't the hunky UK citizen he appeared to be

(Newser) - This dating scam didn't just break hearts, it broke the bank, too: A San Jose woman, 66, was conned out of $500,000 on ChristianMingle.com after a Nigerian man, pretending to be UK citizen "David Holmes," befriended her on the site. After several phone calls, texts,...

Woman Rents Out Home... That She Doesn't Own

4 students forked over $1.8K, moved in, then got kicked out

(Newser) - Four students thought they got a good deal when they found a home to rent in South San Francisco for $450 a room. Just one problem: After paying the woman they thought was the landlord $1,800 and moving in on Nov. 1 ... they were kicked out last Thursday when...

Insurance Broker Scams Tom Hanks, Goes to Jail

Jerry Goldman sentenced to 27 months

(Newser) - A Southern California insurance broker who overcharged Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, hundreds of thousands of dollars has been sentenced to more than two years in federal prison. City News Service says Jerry Goldman received a 27-month sentence yesterday. He also was ordered to pay about $840,000...

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