How To Guide

Six examples below

Michael William Barber

Michael William Barber is a serial bigamist and conman who is believed to have married at least 12 women, cheating many out of their life savings. He used at least 20 different aliases including William Barber, Chris Barber, and Chris James, and had five different social security numbers.

Barber swept women off their feet and then he cleaned out their savings accounts, lied to them, cheated on them, and even allegedly abused some. He told one wife he was a surgeon on sabbatical, he told one he was a former professional football player, he told another he was a Vietnam vet, and yet another he was a bio-terrorism expert. He told people he was shot in Vietnam.

He was imprisoned but is out again.

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Emily Horne

Emily Horne, 30, a former British model, married five times, but did not think she should get divorced before remarrying. She faced being jailed for up to seven years after confessing her bigamist past to her fifth husband as they travelled to their honeymoon in… Read More

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Jessica

Jessica recounts her experience about getting calls from various people at various times offering her a refund of $500 from her social security. She has been told that since she has always paid her taxes on time, and has no criminal record she is eligible for a refund.

When she asks for the caller’s name the person gives a common name, but speaks ‘with a thick foreign accent’. Jessica got suspicious when everybody asked for her bank account information in order the credit the money directly into her account. She has refused to give out the sensitive information, because she is pretty certain that it is a scam.

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Matt

Matt said he got the 500 dollar SS scam too.  The person called up from 910000000000 and asked for bank info from him but Matt did not give it to him.

‘”He asked ‘Why don’t you want 500 dollars?”  I replied that I didn’t believe that there would be 500 dollars.  He went on from there at which time I let him have… Read More

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Nancy Timmerman

Nancy Timmerman, after responding to an employment ad in the local paper, received a job offer from a company calling itself Secret Shoppers Inc.

Part of the job, she was told, was to check the effectiveness and efficiency of Wal-Mart’s money gram facility. For this, the company sent her a check for nearly $2,700 drawn on Pioneer Federal Credit Union, Nampa Branch.

She was told to cash the check and then send part of the money using Wal-Mart money grams back to the company. She had heard about such scams operating in the internet world. It took time for her to realize such scams can and were being run in the ‘real’ (read offline) world too.

She took the check to the Nampa Branch of the bank. They told her the check was a fraud.

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Brooke

Brooke actually received a check for $2890 from the same place. ‘I knew it was too good to be true, but I went to a check place to cash it because I knew they would check… Read More

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Mulvie Wright

Mulvie Wright, a 76-year-old widow from St Agnes, Cornwall, died suddenly from a brain hemorrhage  and it was only after her death that her family found that she had been in contact on a daily basis with 34 bogus ‘psychics’ based in Luxembourg, Switzerland, the US and Ireland and giving them money.

One psychic told her she had done a reading and got ‘the jack of spades card which dominated the deck of your destiny – a symbol of treason and disaster that you must absolutely destroy in order to avert the curse!’

Another fake psychic (’ever present to protect and assist you’), wrote bullying letters claiming that she was missing out on untold fortunes from a lottery win (’Dear Mulvie, Quite honestly I was expecting a reply from you. Even today I was impatiently waiting for the mailman…’). Her family is not sure how much money must have gone to the fake psychics.

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RH

RH, 83, of Guildford, Surrey, received up to 70 letters a day from various scammers including clairvoyants.… Read More

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Bryan Rutberg

Bryan Rutberg a Microsoft employee in Seattle had a Facebook account and one day his daughter noticed that his status was showing “BRYAN IS IN URGENT NEED OF HELP!!!” She asked her father what was wrong. Shortly after, he found out that his account had been hacked and he kept receiving calls from friends offering to help.

Apparently, many of friends received emails saying that Rutberg had been robbed at gunpoint while traveling in the United Kingdom, and needed money to get home. One even sent $1,200 to a Western Union branch in London. The criminals had stolen his identity, hacked into his account and locked him out of it by changing the password. It took him more than 24 hours to get his account deactivated.

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Mark Neely

Mark Neely in Australia also had his Facebook account hacked with a similar message posted. The message said that he had been mugged at gunpoint in UK and needed money to get back home to Sydney. ‘I immediately attempted to log into Facebook, but… Read More

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Roger

Roger, an educated man in his 40s was aware of lottery scams, but still when he received an email saying that he had won the equivalent of thousands of dollars in the British lottery, he fell for it. The email was well written and contained telephone numbers.

When Roger called, the lottery representative said that he would not have to pay any taxes or fees out of his own pocket. He could pay the fees and taxes out of the first installment of his winnings after he received them.

A British cashier’s check for $7,600 soon arrived and he deposited it in his bank account. After a week he mailed a check for $5,500 to cover taxes and fees, as directed. But the check never cleared, and several weeks later, Roger’s bank informed him that the $7,600 cashier’s check had bounced. Now he was out $5,500 of his own money.

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Doris Dixon

Doris Nixon became the victim of another lottery scram. She got a letter saying she’d won the lottery, and all… Read More

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Suzanne Finch

Suzanne Finch, Chief Communications Officer for the College of Business Administration at San Diego State University (SDSU) noticed an unexplained attempt to charge $2900 to her MasterCard, Her card information had been used to make purchases at Stein Diamonds, an online jewelry store in Los Angeles

Way back in 1985 she had applied for a Sears store credit card in. In 2001, Sears turned over their card accounts to Citibank, which converted them into true MasterCard credit cards — apparently a perfectly legal practice.

Finch’s personal information had also been used to open up another new credit account in her name, but without her consent. Finch filed reports with the police in San Diego and Indianapolis and also called in the FBI. She has been fortunate not to suffer any financial losses because she intimated the card company immediately, but she knows that her identity has been compromised.

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Leigh Grady

Leigh Grady of Massachusetts has been the victim of credit card scams through VistaPrint.com for several years. ‘Though I have been a… Read More

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Donnie

Donnie’s wife noticed signs of dementia over the years but it was only when he was finally diagnosed with dementia was she able to put it together. He had been driving poorly, he had terrible financial insight, exercised poor judgment dealing with the children; there were also anger outbursts, repeating stories from the past over and over and always talking about the future but never living in the present.

Concerned with memory loss, Donnie went to a neuropsychologist who tested him and he was diagnosed with dementia. Unfortunately one month later he fell down in the bathroom and developed a subdural hematoma, which later presented with hallucinations and seizures. In the hospital he was found to have frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Now there are days when he seems normal and days which are not too good.

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Carole Woodvine

Carole Woodvine (53) first noticed that her mother Nancy was becoming confused about six years ago. She often seemed vague and confused. After a year, she was getting worse and Carole decided to give up her… Read More

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Alexandra

Alexandra was initially suffering from dermatomyositis, then had fused vertebrae in the neck for which she underwent nine surgeries. Later she started getting reflux, itchy swollen skin, joint and muscle pain and tiredness combined with hundreds of little red spots (telangiectasia). Her mouth was tight and getting smaller too. She diagnosed herself with scleroderma, which was confirmed by various tests. That was nine years ago.

She has been ill for 20 years. In between when having dental surgery, she suffered a brain hemorrhage from which she recovered. ‘I have pulmonary fibrosis which is quite severe, chronic reflux and constriction of the ‘food tube’. I have areas of skin involvement,’ she says.

She uses aroma therapy along with massage, meditation with healing music and lives within her limitations. She also has a pet cat, which helps her a great deal.

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Bill

Bill started suffering from reflux, and also found it difficult to close his hands. One day he stated feeling tired and it was found that his hemoglobin was only 5. He was ER… Read More

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Therese Landfeld

Therese Landefield works as a front desk receptionist in Seattle, Washington. She was a stay at home mom for many years before returning to work as a receptionist. ‘It was fun to go back to work, it’s good to be out, there’s a life beyond a kitchen sink. Going back in the workplace is fun. The obstacles of working as a receptionist were that I had to make sure that my kids, who were used to having me available all the time, felt good about having a working mom.’

She has been able to bring her organizational skills – organizing the schedules of four children at three different schools and being involved in their extra curricular activities – to her job. At her work place she answers phones, does projects, sets up conferences and whatever other work comes her way.

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Gretta Haberman

Gretta Haberman in St. Clair Shores in Michigan talks about her experience as a receptionist. ‘You are the first person a client sees when walking in the door. Look presentable.… Read More

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Frances Connors

Frances Connors was surfing the popular social networking website when the ding of an instant message alert sounded. It was from a pal and the online chat started off with innocent chit chat. ‘She tells me she was robbed at gunpoint, her credit cards, phone and cash stolen. She asks if she can ask a favor of me. She needs tickets to get her (and her family) out of there. She needs cash and she’ll pay me back tomorrow.’

Frances thought it was strange and was on the phone with common close friends who did not know that she was supposed to be in London and were unable to reach her. Frances then told the person she was chatting with that she was going to call the police and the person disappeared. Her friend’s account had been hacked. Fortunately nobody sent any money. But her friend faced a lot of problems getting back into her account.

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Natasha Cann

Natasha Cann, 32, who lives in Australia, used her Facebook account for sometime in… Read More

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Michael Wnuck

Michael Wnuk, well over 60, met Lidiia, 38, while traveling in Poland. She said she was a healer who could treat any disease including incurable cancers. ‘Right at the start she told me that she was in love with me, and if I marry her she would cure my cancer. A month later she arrived in Chicago and 11 days later we got married at the Circuit Court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.’

He later found out that the marriage was a fraud, because she continually kept on ripping him off, bad-mouthing him to his friends and wishing that he was dead. She finally staged an incident and accused him of abuse, when to a battered women’s shelter and got a restraining order from court.

‘Some months later the divorce process, which I originated, was completed at the same court. This time it was with a different judge and the judgment was based on the Marital Settlement Agreement. Lidiia had total of three lawyers helping with her legal affairs, all paid by the state. Now, she is… Read More

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Maite Fineza-Ignacio

Maite Fineza-Ignacio was happy with her career, her husband and her 3 year old son. One day while driving, she started feeling tired and sleepy and also felt she could not breathe. Her doctor told her to get a thyroid scan done, and as she was going to the lab, she almost passed out. There was nothing wrong with her thyroid.

The following day, she was taken to ER and later put in ICU and on a respirator. Eventually, many tests later, she was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis.

‘Illness forced me into early retirement, medical bills put a huge dent in our finances, I have to sleep with a machine that helps me breathe, and I am still unable to do some of the things I used to do. But life has a way of working out. I spend a lot of time with my son and still get to explore new business opportunities. I have renewed confidence in myself, and I know I will only get stronger,’ she says.

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Jody Wobbe… Read More

Andrew Hearn

Andrew Hearn, of Bognor Regis UK, says that twice money was removed from hi Nationwide account on a single date and he found out by chance when he was checking his account on line.

‘I phoned head office and they were most helpful, turned out it was a group in the Philippines doing this scam. The disturbing thing was that I was told that it could have been in the last 2 months and was most probably a victim of cloning. Also I cannot understand how they cannot trace back to the source with all this electronic tagging.

‘There have been one or two garages near me that had someone install a second device to record transactions and pass on information. Also when you get your receipt, your last 4 digits are blanked out, but the garage operator at the till also has a full record of your card number. At least I get my money back in about 5 days. Security is a joke!’

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Elaine

Elaine who lives in London discovered that around £1200… Read More

Tarik Pierce

Tarik Pierce, a writer, wrote about his experience with a telemarketing fraudster. One day he received a phone call purportedly from the Bank of America, offering him a new line of credit. As he used to get phones from Bank of America off and on, he did not pay much attention, till he started hearing a scratching sound.

He figured out that it was not a genuine call, but let the conversation continue. The telemarketer tried to sell him the good points of having a second line of credit. Before he could ask for other bank information, Tarik informed him that his attempt at gathering information was denied and that was the end of the conversation.

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Gecko Communications Inc.

U.S. Attorney Bradley Schlozman said. “Telemarketers deliberately targeted thousands of credit-challenged persons and promised them that, in exchange for a payment of about $219, they would receive a major credit card. In reality, not a single customer received a credit card; at most, victims only received applications for credit cards. These were low-income and credit-challenged people… Read More

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Crystal Barber

Crystal Barber was scammed by a cashier’s cheque scam just a day before her marriage.

She was using Ebay to sell a wedding dress that didn’t fit because she learned that it would be cheaper to buy a new one than to alter the old one.

She thought she had found a buyer from England but instead of using Pay-Pal, a trusted internet paying system, the buyer insisted on sending her a cashier’s check for $2,350 more than she was asking.

He then asked her to wire the extra cash back to England. The check was a fake but the U.C.B. bank in Lawrenceburg cashed it nonetheless. Now the bank wants their money back, and they want Crystal to reimburse them.

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Sandra

Sandra of Florida though she could be smart and fell into a trap anyway. She says, ‘I was contacted about giving dance lessons from a girl that supposedly works in a club in the UK. She asked me how long would it take for her to learn the dance style… Read More

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Cathryn

Cathryn was a chubby child and grew up to be fat. When she was 22 years old, she was 5’7” and weighed 220 pounds. Seven years ago she was obese, unemployed and living with her family. Finally one day, she decided she would lose weight and went for a walk. Then she stated walking daily and eating less. She also started first running and then jogging. She lost 60 pounds.

She stayed at 160 pounds for four years and then cardio kickboxing and started an eating plan. In five months she lost a further 30 pounds. She says that anyone can lose weight ‘by understanding what you eat, being active, and some good ol’ fashion discipline and will power, you can do it! Hey, it sounds like a lot, but it’s not rocket science! Just start walking.’

‘I’ve gotten my bachelor’s degree, hiked the entire south rim of the Grand Canyon in a day (20 miles), and become a part time aerobics instructor!’

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Jimmy

Jimmy lives in Spartanburg, SC and lost a whopping… Read More

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Stuart

Stuart runs his own coaching and training business. Once he had his wallet stolen and immediately called up the banks to stop all activity on his cards. However, since he fumbled with some questions, they did not do so. Later he found that the criminals and withdrawn £4,000 from his business account, £300 from his personal (bank account), £14,000 from his Visa card, spent £2,500 to buy a video camera and £1,000 in a clothing shop.

His wife had received a call from somebody saying a cheque had been returned and asked to verify the address. His wife also gave out some security information. It took Stuart four months to get his identity back and he had to take out time from his work for this and deal with the fall-out of the crime.

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Sharon

Sharon remembers that once she had bought an expensive sofa along with a few smaller decorative items at a large furniture/appliance store here in Omaha. The cashier asked for her credit card, her driver’s license, and an additional… Read More

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Steve

Steve, a financially successful Massachusetts man in his 30s, received an email wherein the writer claimed to be a hit man hired to kill Steve. The hit man offered to call off the job if Steve gave him $75,000 — $15,000 more than he said he had been paid for the hit.

This hit man seemed to have done some research on Steve. He knew Steve worked in the financial services industry and that he could afford the $75,000 price.

Steve was given a phone number to call… four days to raise the money… and a warning not to contact the police. But Steve did go to the police, who had seen similar emails and explained to him that this was only a scam and that his life was not in danger.

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Mark O’Neill

Mark O’Neill is a writer and once when he was on his computer doing some work and chatting when he received an instant message, ‘I am hitman. I been paid lot of money to kill you by good… Read More

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Ellen

Ellen of California started suffering from depression after the sudden death of her father. She felt overwhelmed and found it difficult to get out bed in the morning. Finally she decided to see a therapist.

Her therapist helped her through the grieving process, and she was able to talk to her about anything and everything without being afraid that she was being ‘judged’. ‘Seeing a therapist has been an extremely positive, life changing experience for me. Equipped with the insight and interpersonal skills that I have gained through my experience with therapy I have grown into a more confident person who is much more patient with both myself and with others,’ she says.

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John

John says that he was suffering from depression since he was a teenager, but did not discover it till he was almost fifty. He felt his marriage was falling apart at around the same time. He finally hit rock bottom and found himself in hospital where the doctors were able to stabilize and treat him.

He is taking the right… Read More