I’m being interviewed by the Magic Newswire this week, a highly popular podcast for magicians.
I’ll be talking about stories from the road, the Real Hustle and the use of magic methods in scams and scams in magic.
Check out this recent interview with Bryan Brushwood talking about his video series Scam School.
Fresh off the press from the SCAMwatch program here in Australia…
SCAMwatch warns Australians switching to digital television to be wary of door-to-door salespeople offering to sell you conversion equipment and falsely claiming to represent the government.
Between 2010 and 2013, analogue free-to-air TV signals are being replaced with digital signals. You will need a television that is capable of receiving digital signals to keep receiving free-to-air TV after the digital switchover takes place in your area. This means that you can either buy a digital set-top box for your existing television or upgrade to a television with an in-built digital tuner.
Scammers selling digital conversion equipment are targeting communities with the promise of a government reimbursement for any goods purchased. The government has advised that there are no reimbursements for digital television goods or services bought from any retailers (including door-to-door salespeople).
For further information about the switch to digital and/or to make a complaint about door-to-door sales of digital television products, contact the Digital Switchover Taskforce on 1800 20 10 13.
If you think that a door-to-door trader has misled you in some way, you should also contact the ACCC Infocentre on 1300 302 502.
Protect yourself
Report
Contact the Digital Switchover Taskforce on 1800 20 10 13.
You can also report the matter to the ACCC’s Infocentre on 1300 302 502 or visit the report a scam page on SCAMwatch.
This email in from my friend Ester in Scotland.
Looking at some of the fandom drama out there I remembered about a person called Victoria Bitter/Amy Player. She was involved in a fandom convention called tentmoot and defrauded some fans.
I thought if you have a chance to read through it might be useful for the encylopedia of scams. It’s certainly a bit of a bizzare story…
And it is.
Amy Player, a Lord of the Rings fan from Virginia created an online fan club in homage to actor Sean Astin and his LOTR character.
She teamed up with fellow fan and started a ‘Bit of Earth’ - a charity based around gardening and literacy.
The signed up Astin to assist them and, with the actor supporting, created a small army of nerds around the word willing to help out.
They created a LOTR convention in New Zealand which fell apart at the last minute, resulting in several very pissed off actors who had jetted around the world to attend the event.
The failed event revealed the Bit of Earth charity to be a fraud and that Player had being lying to celebrities and businesses to get support for her fake fundraisers.
It also turns out she had multiple characters (both in real life and in the fictional LOTR world.)
She was reported missing by her parents and ended up on the side of a milk carton.
She changed her name to Jordan Wood , Elijah Wood’s male cousin who was on the run from IRA.
And then things got weird…
The whole fiasco can be found in When A Fan Hits The Shit by Jeanine Renne.
The great (great?) grandson of the famous Old West con man Soapy Smith has a great blog over at Soapy Smith’s Soap Box.
Jeff’s blog is packed full of great historical anecdotes such as this greats story about Charles Baggs and the fake safe:
A new spate of gift card scams has surfaced with a growing number of employees committing gift card fraud. The New York Times reported that:
When shoppers show up after Christmas looking to redeem their new gift cards, clerks will turn their backs on the customer and pocket the card. Then the employee turns around and hands an identical but empty card back to the unsuspecting customer, apologizing for the fact that the card doesn’t seem to be working.
The customer will rarely kick up a fuss because the card was a gift and they are unlikely to call shenanigans when they don’t know the history of the card.
However, there must be a limited number of times a retailer can try on the scam before their boss gets wise.
It turns out that gambling addiction is a medical condition. It fits into the category of Obsessive Compulsive Spectrum disorders which also includes Aspergers, Tourettes and Trichotillimania (unstoppable hair eating).
Recent research has concluded that the same drugs used for substance abuse.
Pathological Gambling May Be Successfully Treated with Medications for Substance Addiction. Pathological gambling can be successfully treated with medications that decrease urges and increase inhibitions. Researchers found positive outcomes in gamblers treated with medications often used for substance addictions when treatment were individualized based on unique subtype (urge driven; lack inhibition).
Number Two: Advance Fee Fraud
In 1997 - David Mamet released The Spanish Prisoner, a taught pyschological thriller about a scientist who gives up an item of great value when promised an even greater treasure. (Sorry to sound vague but I don’t want to ruin the plot).
13 years later and the storyline is now everyday. Each day, everyone else is bombarded with emails with promises of millions from long lost inheritences, won lotteries and foreign fortunes.
All we need to do is send them a small fee, a little bribe and perhaps a few thousand dollars for expenses and the money is ours.
The Spanish Prisoner, or Advance Fee Fraud, is now one of the biggest scams in the world, netting it’s mostly Spanish and Nigerian perpertrators billions each year.
It’s so common place that the most recent victims are mocked as idiots for not already being aware of the scam.
Which means less and less victims are going public with their experiences meaning more and more people will fall foul in the future.
Tomorrow: Bernie Madoff
