Modern Age - Modern Scam

MODERN AGE - MODERN SCAM TOP 5 MOST INTERESTING INTERNET FRAUD CASES DIRTY DANCING SAKAWA BOYS Only troubles await when scam becomes a religion. Take the boring-looking Nigerian 419 scam scheme and mix it with a pinch of black magic. Now we are talking! THE VILLAINS The witches of internet era; unemployed young male Ghanaians, having access to the fastest internet in Africa. THE MOTIVE White people came and took their gold. So it is OK to take at least something back by employing the majestic technology - Internet. STOLEN: Since 1993, scamming is one of the biggest shadow economies in Ghana. Nobody knows the exact amount, as most of the crimes are unreported, but we can be sure that the losses are at least few dozen million dollars per year. HOW IS IT DONE? Sakawa can appear as any fraud type: lottery, hit man, auction or romance scam. Usually it's a beautiful girl which makes you to fall in love with her and then asks you to send the money or on-line shopping using phished credit cards. THE SUBCULTURE There are clothing brands, music genre, and special movie series related only to Sakawa cult. RELIGIOUS MOTIVE The JuJu priest enchants your spam e-mails to be success- ful just for a few bucks. And since the God doesn't care too much of what you do as long as he gets paid, it becomes an irresistible ritual to boost your scam e-mail reach and fraud conversion rate. PONZI, Is it You Again? It's been a long time since Egyptians built pyramids. Modern age builders use less muscle, but their creations are definitely not less spectacular. %23 WHO DARED? The Ponzi of the 21st century- Robert Allen Stanford, CEO and former chairman of Stanford Finance Group. Not only US, but also Antigua and Barbuda citizen, born in 1950. HOW MUCH? $7,000,000,000 USD. Yes son, seven billion US Dollars. ARE YOU FOR REAL? YES! WHEN AND WHERE? AND HOW? He went unnoticed for whole 20 years. The scheme, as usual, isn't very complex Stanford Financial Group was just offering higher than market return on investment and that, basically, was all what was needed to attract wealthy, but naive investors. Oh, and don't forget to wrap it around with those good old tricks like bribery, money laundering, and political manipulation. SENTENCE? After the charge of 10 counts of mail fraud, 7 counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to hinder the investigation and a bucket of other finance-related crime, Standford vwas sentenced for 110 years at a Federal prison in Florida. GRAND THEFT CC If you will ever lose your plastic credit card, call this guy. He probably knows where's your CC's at. THE VILLAIN The mighty Cuban-American Albert Gonzalez from the ShadowCrew. Born in 1981. It is funny that at the time when Grand Theft CC was performed, Albert Gonzalez already was an FBI informant. He became one after being caught dealing with stolen credit and debit card numbers in 2003. CREDIT CARDS, YOU SAY. HOW MANY? A lot. More than 130 million Credit and Debit cards. WAS HE CAUGHT? Yes, indeed. The campaign ended on May 7, 2008. VICTIMS Customers of 7-Eleven, Citibank, Hannaford Brothers, Heartland Payment Systems, T.J. Maxx, OfficeMax, Barnes & Nobles (BN), Dave & Busters and other well-known brand names. PUNISHMENT 20 years at the low-security Federal Correctional Institution. It is planned to release Albert in 2025. Let's hope there will be a better prevention from SQL injections then. DADDY, PLEASE, CAN WE SCAM THEM?! Dynamic Scam Family Duo. WHO AND WHERE? Nilton J. Rossoni and Nilton Joel Rossoni. On eBay auctions, where else? WHEN? Between the October 2003 and June of 2008. SCAMMING BROTHERS? Not really. The duet of J. and Joel Rossonis were, in fact, father and son. Both smarty-pants where acting freely between October of 2003 and June 2008. THE METHOD Simple and complex at the same time - the scamming father and a little apple of his eye created 260 fake eBay accounts, few hundred of e-mail addresses and rented 60 private P.O. Boxes. All other was just a formality The formality that ended with 5,500 fake transactions and up with 1,400 consumer reports. HOW MUCH DID THEY STEAL? 717,000 US dollars. PUNISHMENT Senior Rossono earned himself 68 months in federal prison. According to U.S. Department of Justice he will be released on July 26, 2014. Will eBay be ready to protect its customers this time? Rossono Jr. contrary to his father, managed to flee back to Brazil. However, if you are interested you can always Google his Facebook account. LET ME VISIT YOU, MY LOVE. IT SHOULD NOT COST TOO MUCH! People love to chit-chat with their beloved ones. People are even keen to send money to their dearests in need. But what will the online lover give you in return? VICTIMS About 6,000 Americans in 2012 2 SCOUNDRELS A lot of guys all around the world - mainly from the developing or third-world countries. WHAT ARE THE LOSSES? More than $50 million each year. HOW? After the love is officially expressed, the beloved one asks to help him a bit. For example, send him/her $5,000 to come to USA from Nigeria or Ghana. Naive love-seeker sends the money. But the on-line found bride/husband never comes. "BUT HE PROMISED ME ..." Shh... HOW TO REMAIN SAFE? We will give you only the best pieces of advice of how to keep internet's hands out of your pockets. African Princes don't die. And even if they had - you surely wouldn't be on the top of their heritage list. And if, in the extremely (chance of 0.000000001%) rare cases, you are - why would you get this information by e-mail? On-line dating can provide some most joyful moments in one's life. But think twice before paying for your overseas husband-to-be plane ticket or business debts. Do a simple market research before investing your hard-earned money. If the interest rate you're offered seems to be 10 times higher than the market's average - run away and don't look back. 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