If you received an email from "Steve Jobs Charitable Foundation", it is a scam. The email, written in poor English, asked for donation to help young webcoders. There is no such "charity".

In most cases of scam reported in this category, they normally refer to fake organisations exploiting recent disasters by asking for donation money. There is a different case in China, and some called it the 2006 Nanjing Peng Yu Case. The real story went like this:

In 2006, an old lady by the name of Mdm Xu (aged 65), fell while trying to squeeze herself through a crowd to board a public bus. She was injured with a broken hip. Peng Yu happened to be nearby and went to her aid. He helped to bring her to the hospital and even gave her a small sum of money.

Instead of thanking Peng Yu, the old lady accused Peng Yu of causing her fall and sued him in court.

If you received any email saying that you have won an iPad from a "hotmail" account, it is a scam.

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We have recently partnered up with The apple company for a one-time promotional event today, we are giving away complimentary Apple iPads to randomly selected individuals who have been fortunate to be chosen as one of our newest winners for today. We randomly selected users from our systems database and you have matched with our latest drawing.

Five men, including two from London, have been jailed for their part in a £4.5 million global premium phone line fraud.

The gang admitted conspiracy to defraud in a scam where stolen mobile phone sim cards were used to make multiple calls to premium rate phone lines outside the UK.

Mohammad Butt, 42, of Claremont Road, Forest Gate, east London, Abrar Arshad, 35, of Oastway, Rochford, Essex, and Abiola Salami, 30, of Broadway Plaza, Francis Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, were each sentenced to three years for conspiracy to defraud mobile phone company 02.

Two other men who admitted conspiracy to defraud the company were also sentenced.

OAKLAND -- Four more people have been charged in connection to a federal visa fraud investigation of the now-closed Tri-Valley University.

On Tuesday, Vishal Dasa, Anji Reddy Dirisinala, Ramakrishna Reddy Karra and Tushar Tambe pleaded not guilty in federal court on charges of conspiracy to commit visa fraud.

The president and founder of the Pleasanton-based school, Susan Su, was indicted by a federal grand jury in April on 33 counts, including conspiracy to commit visa fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, alien harboring and making false statements. She has pleaded not guilty.

According to court documents, the four were charged with crimes related to the school, which federal investigators say was a scam to help foreign students achieve legal immigrant status in the United States by paying "tuition and fees."

On one hand, we are going to warn elderly folks to be careful when they receive distress calls that their children/grand children needs money to "bail-out" of whatever fake troubles they seemed to be in. On the other hand, this is going to cause the "cry-wolf" and dissensitization effect, because when the REAL grandson/children needs help, the elderly folks will take twice as long to respond to a real need.

So, it is not just about the lost of $37,000 and the warning signs that it sends across the entire internet. But the fact that if the elderly folks are going to receive real distress calls in future, the ones who may suffer are the kids.

"Oh, this is another scam" Hangs the phone.

Apple has yet to announce the iPhone 5, much less ship it. However, there are many websites that start to put up this "iPhone 5" for sale.

Beware of this scam when you buy such branded devices from unauthorised dealers on the internet, warned CNET.

There is a link on Facebook offering to give away 1,000 iPads for free in memory of the passing of Apple's co-founder Steve Jobs. Please ignore it, as it is a scam.

- by Trend Micro

ALBANY -- A Troy businessman who ran a nearly $5 million Ponzi scheme that conned dozens of investors could face more than 10 years in federal prison when sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court for securities fraud.

Matthew J. Ryan, 46, of Cropseyville, created a bogus financial firm, American Integrity Financial Co., to dupe investors, many of whom were senior citizens using retirement money. Victims included an entire volunteer fire department in Greene County.

Ryan led the victims to believe they were investing in "guaranteed" three-year fixed rate contracts -- and promised an annual rate of return between 3.85 percent and 9.35 percent. In reality, he used $4.8 million of their money to refinance his real estate business, identified as Prime Rate & Return, pay personal expenses such as loans for luxury cars and repay other investors in "Ponzi-like fashion," court papers said.

MELBURNIANS have been scammed out of money after purchasing cars online.

Police said the victims communicated via email with a person purporting to be selling cars, and were told to purchase the cars through eBay as it was more secure.

Then, victims would receive a deceptive email, claiming to be from eBay, which contained payment instructions for a false holding account.

Scammers, go to hell!

OREM -- All an elderly woman had to do was send in her bank account number.

When the 79-year-old Orem resident received a notice announcing that she had won $2.5 million, it seemed too good to be true. She was skeptical, police said Wednesday, but a pair of unsolicited letters looked legitimate, and one directed her to call a so-called claim agent named Mark Anderson. One of those letters prominently displays an IRS logo and claims the winnings had been processed by that government organization. The other letter -- which introduces Anderson -- purports to be from the American Gaming Board and lists a New York address.

LORTON, Va. (WUSA) -- $1500 for a late model Mercedes probably sounds fantastic.

But think twice.

Fairfax County Police are out with a big warning tonight after three armed robberies involving Craigslist car deals, one in Clifton and the other two in Lorton.

Police say don't take a bunch of cash and meet someone in a secluded spot at night. Twice perspective buyers agreed to meet strangers down dead end Wadebrook Terrace at Pohick Rd in hope of getting a good deal on a car. They ended up at the wrong end of a gun.

Full Tilt Poker

CALGARY - Potentially thousands of Canadian online poker players have been cheated by troubled gaming site Full Tilt Poker out of their holdings, alleges a class-action lawsuit launched Friday.

The lawsuit comes just one day after the site's license was revoked by regulators accusing the company of breaching regulations, included false reporting, unauthorized provision of credit and failing to report material events.

It is the latest development for the embattled company, which has been accused by U.S. federal prosecutors of running a Ponzi scheme and paying its directors more than $440 million while defrauding players, even after charges were filed against it in April.

50% Off! Too good to be true?

"50% DISCOUNT ON ELECTRONIC GOODS!!! BUY HERE BUY HERE!!!!"

Christmas is coming around the corners and scammers all around the world are on the loose to scam money from you so that they can pre-order some turkey and sausages for Christmas.

Becareful when its too good to be true. Buy from the shop, not the "man" who claims to be.

According to police, a man hailing from southern India made his accomplices distribute hundreds of pamphlets in east Delhi claiming he was representing two major electronic brands and that these companies were offering 40-50% discounts this festive season.

"In the beginning, the accused began offering smaller electronic items at half the cost. Many customers, assured that they will get good returns, then began to make advance bookings. The shopkeeper claimed that he would deliver the costly items like laptops, LCD TVs, three-door refrigerators among others a day before Durga puja. However, on Saturday...

This is ... unbelievable.

Research out of the UK today says that perhaps as many as 200,00 people in that country have been victims of online romance scams and the same study says over 1 million people personally know someone who has been scammed by one of these heartless fraudsters.

The online research was conducted by the UK's University of Leicester found that 52% of people surveyed online had heard of the online romance scam when it was explained to them and that one in every 50 online adults know someone personally who had fallen victim to it. The results confirm the law enforcement belief that this type of crime is often not reported by those affected, in many cases due to embarrassment at having been duped, or through a continuing hope that there will eventually be a genuine romance, the study found.

Katie Stuart lost $100k to a Nigerian love scammer whom she met online 2 years go. Even with the help of Consumer Protection and WA Scamnet (launching its new website), they managed to catch the scammer but she did not get all her money back. Consumer Protection estimates West Australians lost about $5 million to scammers last financial year.

She soon struck up a friendship with a man called Paul, who, over the course of a few weeks, convinced her he was interested in a relationship.

Eventually Paul, who said he lived in the US, persuaded Ms Stuart to become a joint-venture partner with him in a property he "owned" in Florida. Ms Stuart said initially he only asked for a few thousand dollars to help "renovate" the house, but over the course of a year, more small amounts soon added up.

It is a great day to celebrate when a scammer is brought to justice, especially one who cheated both money and love. 

Sin Chew Daily reported that an Australian woman who lost an undisclosed amount of money in an online romance scam decided to hire a private investigator to help locate the fraudsters.

Her persistence was duly rewarded when four suspects, including three Nigerians, were nabbed in Malaysia last Friday.

Kenneth Marsh

NEW YORK, Sept 20 (Reuters) - The ringleader of a $20 million phony stock-tip scam was sentenced to eight years in prison on Tuesday in the latest, and most severe, punishment to come out of what prosecutors called a classic "boiler-room" fraud.

Kenneth Marsh, 44, pleaded guilty in April to one count of securities fraud. He was the owner and CEO of Gryphon Holdings, which operated as Gryphon Financial from 2005 to 2010, an investment-advisory services company based in a strip mall on Staten Island.

A federal judge in Miami on Friday handed down one of the most punitive criminal sentences for Medicare fraud in history, sentencing purported behavioral health provider Lawrence Duran to 50 years in prison and $87 million in restitution for orchestrating a $205 million criminal scheme over eight years.

Kweku_Adoboli

UBS rogue trader arrested!

Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Kweku Adoboli, the trader arrested yesterday after UBS AG said it discovered unauthorized trades that caused a $2 billion loss, was charged with fraud and two counts of false accounting dating back to 2008 by London police.

The 31-year-old was remanded in custody at a magistrates court in London today until Sept. 22, when he can make an application for bail. Adoboli’s false accounting offenses started in October 2008, according to the court charge sheet. He is also charged with fraud dating back to January 2009...