Got an email early this morning from a shell game worker in LA.
The city’s street swindlers are buzzing with the news that one the more popular shell game groups has been shut down by police and it’s eight members have been arrested.
Usually, its very hard for police to catch groups because their networks of look outs means they will quickly vanish into the crowd before police get close.
Not only that, but local businesses get kick backs from the swindlers, meaning the seldom report the crime.
Juan Arroyo was the ringleader of the group, employing Santana Valencia and Adrian Sanchez as his tossers (the guys who actually play the game.
It looks like the police are finally making a move to shut down the street game.
I’m not a big fan of the Twilight books and movies and even less of a fan of the brooding, emo lite, tweens who obsessed over the stories and dream of being drag off by a pale, cheek boned vampire.
But this new spam scam email is still sad, preying on the weak fans of those who prey on the weak.
This email has been arriving in the in-box of teens around the world looking for extras for the third
This is a nationwide casting and [Portland]-area movie extras are still needed. No experience is necessary, all looks/types are wanted and the pay ranges from $80-$250 per day depending on whether it’s part or full time.”
Once the victims click on the link, they are sent to a website that requires payment before the casting call details can be viewed.
Suckers.
I’ve had several friends here in Melbourne report bad dealings with a company called Dotcom Chrome.
The company rings businesses offering to get them on the front page of Google for a couple of hundred dollars a month.
Because the word ‘Google’ and ‘chrome’ are used near each other, the victim assume the company is somehow related to Google Chrome, the new browser.
This is obviously a little dodgy but not illegal as the owners of companies like “Suny” and ” Palsonic” will tell you.
Several victims also claim that the the company mislead them about how often their ad would appear on the front page of google.
But when the victims tried to cancel their accounts, realising that the company was simply selling them a google adwords account they could simply buy themselves at a lower price, things got tricky.
Most people have found themselves having to jump through hoops, having to send letters to various parts of the world and fill in forms.
Some victims have reported harassing phone calls, emails and, in one case, an ad was created in Google adwords shortly after they started complaining about the company:
Another showed me emails where they were threatened with a smear campaign if they kept up their complaints including the rumour that they were “sued for touching my friends aunties child at a party”.
Others have reported racial abuse and various threats for trying to cancel their account or complain about the group.
When I mentioned the show on the ABC radio show, several people rang and emailed telling me that they had the same phone calls.
Of the Australian victims I have spoken with, several have been told that the AFP, Scamwatch and ACCC will do nothing as the company is based in the UK.
Google refuse to take down the unauthorised ads because, unless the company is trademarked, they are not breaking any laws.
If you want to read more complaints about this Manchester based outfit, click here.
If you have had your own experiences with the company, please let me know.
When con artists talk about victims they call them ‘marks.’ The folk wisdom if that it comes from the chalk markings that swindlers put onto the shoulders of suckers to show other con artists where the easy pickings are.
It’s similar to the old urban legend about hobos leaving marks outside of houses to tell other hobos whether a house is welcoming or unsafe.
Now, we have the 21st century version with reports of theives in the UK leaving chalk markings to tell their peers what sort of goodies a house has.
I suspect this particular story is a beat up, a hoax blown up by the newspapers.
Firstly, no criminals have been quoted as saying they know about or have used the system.
Secondly, criminals don’t tend to leave hints for other criminals. There is little honour among theives.
Thirdly, it’s the kind of story which is easy to fake and hard to prove false.
“Andy Warhol looks a screm
Hang him on my wall
Andy Warhol, silver screen
Can’t tell them apart at all.” - David Bowie
It takes balls to be a swindler.
But sometimes even I am impressed by the braziness of some con artists.
Victor Lustig sold the Eiffel Tower. Gregor McGregor sold a country that doesn’t exist. George C Parker sold the Brooklyn Bridge twice a week for ten years.
You can add to that list a pair of Utah con artists who sold paintings by a dead man of a man who does not exist.
The couple sold six Andy Warhol paintings for $100,000 to their victim who ponied up a $25,000 deposit.
Problem is, the paintings were dated 1996 and Warhol died in 1987.
Not only that, the portraits were of Matthew Baldwin, the sixth Baldwin brother. There are only five Baldwins (thank god).
A man received a big surprise when he learned the six Andy Warhol paintings he purchased for $100,000 were fake.
They also tried to sell the man a lithograph of a pink cat that was actually a picture cut out of the newspaper!
I’m never one to blame the victim. We’ve all done stupid things in our lives. But the pay over $25,000 deposit for an artist you obviously know nothing about seems extraordinary stupid. Lindsay Lohen stupid. Sara Palin stupid.
