US: 17 defraud Holocaust Fund

This blog talks about 17 defraud Holocaust Fund.

17 people were charged in federal court with a long-running scam that defrauded Holocaust funds for survivors out of $42 million.Some of the fraudulent claims date back to 1993.

It was also said that employees of the Claims Conference -- approved more than 5,500 fraudulent applications, resulting in bogus payouts from the German government through the fund.The U.S. Attorney's Office in New York said that the workers and also those who were part of the conspiracy kept a portion of the payments..

"If ever there was a cause that you would hope and expect would be immune from base greed and criminal fraud, it would be the Claims Conference, which every day assists thousands of poor and elderly victims of Nazi persecution," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.

Investigators  found something was amiss in two funds administered by the Claims Conference: the Article 2 Fund and the Hardship Fund. The Hardship Fund actually was designed to make reparations to Jewish survivors of Nazi persecution who were forced to leave their homes and flee the Nazis. The majority of the payments were given to former Soviet Bloc residents who fled the Nazis but were not under their occupation. Each applicant gets a one-time payment of about $3,600.

The Article 2 Fund is meant for Jewish survivors who were in hiding under a false name or were confined to a Jewish-designated ghetto, labor camp or concentration camp.When  those who are eligible cannot earn more than $16,000 a year after taxes, they get about $411 a month.

Six employees of the fund were also accused to have processed false applications from some people who were not even born during World War II.
Some of the  conspirators from outside recruited people, who provided identification such as passports and birth certificates, which were then altered and submitted to the corrupt insiders. The applicants took a portion of the payout and gave the rest back to the gang of conspirators, authorities said.

It was claimed that funds established and financed by the German government to aid Holocaust survivors were siphoned off by the greedy, and not paid out, as intended to the worthy.

For more information to understand the meaning of scam see tutorvista scam definition.

Charter Oak Federal Credit Union latest target of a phishing scam

This blog is about the news on phishing scam reported on 2nd November 2010.

A phishing scam was reported targeting customers of the Charter Oak Federal Credit Union in the Connecticut area. The scam swamped the Groton and New London areas with an automated message informing customers and non-customers alike that their card has been suspended.

Those who received the call were then asked to call up a number, presumably in Des Moines, Iowa (shades of a similar scam currently underway on customers of the Andrew Johnson Bank residing in the Green County and Knoxville area).
People who called up the given number were asked to verify their credentials by submitting their credit card number, ATM PIN number and its expiry date.

Fifty people were reported falling for the scam. Victims shuddered on recalling the scam as it seemed so real. They said, "anyone receiving the call will instinctively panic and be prone to calling up the phone number to give away their confidential details".

For more information on the meaning of scam, you may check out tutorvista scam definition where you will find the clear meaning of scam.

Energy

In physics, energy is a quantity that is understood as the ability to perform work.The quantity of energy can be assigned to any particle , object or system of objects as a consequence of its physical state.

There are different forms of energy. they are potential,kinetic, thermal, gravitational, sound and elastic.Most of the time the forms of energy are  named after a related electromagnetic energyforce. Here is provided a link on the definition of kinetic energy.

Any form of energy can be transformed  into another form. When energy is in any form other than thermal energy, it may be transformed with good or even perfect efficiency, to any other type of energy.However,in thermal energy,  there are often limits to the efficiency of the conversion to other forms of energy, due to the second law of thermodynamics.

See the given link on the law of conservation of energy.

Energy is a scalar quantity. In the International System of Units, energy is measured in joules, but in some fields other units such as kilowatt-hours and kilocalories are also used.

South Florida eBay scammer busted

A Brazilian businessman, Nilton Rossoni, 50, with multiple aliases who had lived in Sunny Isles Beach and Fort Lauderdale, was sentenced to 5 ½ years in federal prison for running one of the biggest eBay scams in history.


He was convicted in October of hauling in $717,000 from more than 5,500 eBay buyers, by creating at least 260 different auction accounts, and using dozens of e-mail addresses with Yahoo, Google and AOL, as well as nearly 60 private postal boxes.

Rossoni planned and directed the intricate online retail scheme with the help of his son, Nilton Joel Rossoni, 28, according to an indictment. The younger Rossoni  graduated with a business administration degree from the University of Miami in 2007. He is believed to be on the lam in his native Brazil.

To understand the meaning of scam, you can see tutorvista scam definition.Here, you can find the clear meaning of scam.

Free offer scams

Free offer scams are one kind of online scams in which scammers use “free offers” as a bait to lure innocent people.

In free offer scams, people are led to share their credit card details or other financial information for the sake of availing free offers. In the end, one realizes that what was offered for free was not a true product or the free offer comes only with hidden fees. These free offers may range from free coupons, free shares, free downloads, free trials of products, free holidays and free trips to places.

Any free offer email or phone or pop-up on websites can be fake. The scammers try to create a realistic impression by dedicating entire websites for these free products. Often, when you click on the ad for the free offer, you will be redirected to another website where  you will be asked for your credit card details. There are a few warning signs to smell a free offer scam:

1. When you click on a free offer ad, you are redirected to another website with more free offer ads
2. You get to know about the offer through an Internet pop-up window while surfing certain websites
3. The website that offers the free product does not load properly

For information on the meaning of scam you can check Tutorvista scam definition.You can get the clear idea of what exactly is the meaning of scam.

Online shopping scam

The Internet is rampant with products, services, free offers, discount coupons, so on and so forth. When you buy online, you pay from your desk and wait for the product/service to reach you at your doorstep.

When you buy a product/service, and are cheated into believing that you are sold an authentic product/service, but delivered a lesser quality product or no-product, you become a victim of online scam/fraud. In brief, online shopping fraud/scam is a clear cut case of cheating wherein you are fooled by an online seller/website.

How do Online Shopping Scams/Frauds happen? Scammers pretend to sell a product/service very cheaply to lure customers. Unsuspecting shoppers or first time buyers often fall into the loop and end up giving their credit card or bank account details. Scammers often misuse these details and loot money from customers. There are several ways in which online frauds happen:

1. Online Credit Card fraud: Many customers fall into this. Most scam websites get all your credit card details promising to deliver a product at your doorstep. What you often get is a lesser quality product or no product at all. Most of the time, the address and phone number of the seller maybe wrong  and you may have no customer desk to inquire about the status of your purchase too. Sometimes, the scammer takes control of your credit card details and squanders the money in your account.

3. Free stuff: Beware of anything that comes for free on the Internet. In the name of “free” stuff or discount prices, people are fooled into buying what they don’t want, without their knowledge. This is often the case with movie ticket discounts or any other free iPod or iPad offer. Often, you become a victim who signs up for a monthly subscription for the entertainment discount club thinking you are just availing one-time discount tickets.

4. Sign-ups, fake sites: Some sites say that if you sign up or take a survey, you are liable to receive a discount or a free trip or an exciting new gadget. In most of these cases, the bigger the prize or deal, the more fraudulent it is. Phishing happens in which companies try to steal your bank account details masquerading as web giants like Amazon.com or eBay etc. Often this phishing happens through emails warning you of an account shutdown and suggesting you to click the link embedded in the email. Clicking the link takes you to a scam site similar to big online shopping sites.

5. Counterfeit goods: Counterfeit goods – from music, medicine, consumer and retail products to electronic gadgets or other services – are part of the Internet market. If you are not careful, you can be lured into buying a product with the cheapest price tag and delivered the worst counterfeit product on earth.

For information on the meaning of scam you can check Tutorvista scam definition.You can get the clear idea of what exactly is the meaning of scam.

Magazine subscription scams

Magazine Subscription scams are some  kind of invoice scams where the scammer sends you fake invoices for the magazines you have subscribed to or for magazines you have never heard of.

What is the scam about? All of us subscribe to magazines time and again. If you subscribed to a lot of magazines, the scammer can get to know about your subscription list somehow and then, send you fake invoices. He can create a duplicate invoice of the magazine and even add a fake letter to it saying they have changed the subscription date. He can offer you subscription for a cheaper price (for 10 years or 1 year) and bill you a chunk of money.

Magazine Subscription invoice scams happen with a slight variation too. The scammer sends you an invoice that looks like the invoice of a magazine to which you have subscribed. You pay without reading through the details. But if you notice, the invoice may actually be a request for a new magazine that looks like an exact replica of one you have already subscribed. There maybe a slight difference between the names of both the magazines.
Another variation of the scam is done by the magazine companies itself. You are charged extra without your notice. When you look into the extras, you are told that you have been billed for an extra supplement you never wanted/asked for.

For information on the meaning of scam you can check Tutorvista scam definition.You can get the clear idea of what exactly is the meaning of scam.