February23
Sex for Security Scam
While doing a little research, I found this great article from The Onion.
Enjoy.
‘News’ Category
February21
A quick comment on comments
Over the past couple of months, the amount of spam comments on the blog has skyrocketed.
In trying to fix the problem, I’ve lost quite a few bone fide comments.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
January8
Who watches the SCAMwatch?
The ACCC (Australian government consumer watchdog for internal readers) has a popular site called SCAMwatch designed to warn people about the latest swindles.
Last night, they sent through the following warning. It seems people are using the SCAMwatch name to scam people.
SCAMwatch, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) and Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) are warning consumers to be alert following reports that fake emails are being sent claiming to be from SCAMwatch and CAV representatives.
Email correspondence from official Government agencies can be identified by the inclusion of “.gov.au” in the address, e.g. officer@accc.gov.au or officer@justice.vic.gov.au. SCAMwatch, the ACCC and CAV will not use a public email provider to contact you. We will only contact you via email to respond to an enquiry you have lodged with us or to provide you with information you have requested to receive through an ongoing subscription service.
Some of the fake emails have reportedly requested payments. SCAMwatch, the ACCC and CAV are free Government services and along with other consumer protection agencies will never ask you for your personal bank account details or request payments from you when you did not initiate the contact.
December26
The answer to a question no one asked.
Every time a new piece of technology comes on the market, you can be sure that the con artists will be not far behind.
The big change in credit card tech this year has been the rising popularity of radio frequency indentification cards.
These are ‘tap and go’ systems that allow you to make payments for items by just tapping your card in the shop. No swiping, no signing, no PIN.
The idea is that the 30 seconds you save at the checkout will be used to enrich your life in some way. Its a fairly pointless product.
Of course, this has lead to RFID theft. The con artist stands next to you and taps your wallet in your pocket with a receiver. He can then copy information from your card.
Luckily, you can now buy a RFID blocking wallet that will protect you from the con artists.
To sum up…
1) A product is invented to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. (RFID cards)
2) The new product causes a problem. (RFID theft)
3) Another new product solves the new problem. (RFID wallet.)
4) Rinse and Repeat.
Soon we will probably learn that the RFID wallets cause cancer and we’ll need a new solution to that.
December18
ATM Audio Skimmers
Thanks to Daniel Patton for sending me this article on hacking ATM machines (that’s right - Automatic Teller Machine Machines) using audio equipment.
The basic concept is that the magnetic strip on the back of your credit card is not unlike a cassette tape.
Therefore, it is possible to construct a skimmer from cheap audio equipment making card skimming easier and cheaper.
Check out the link above for the whole story.
December11
QI - Cheating
As I’ve mentioned before on the blog, QI is one of my favourite shows on television.
For the uninitiated, QI is a panel game show in which erudite Stephen Fry asks the comedian contestants almost impossible questions. Points are gained by being funny and interesting.
ABC in Australia show the 2005 episode ‘Cheating’ this Wednesday night.
Here is taste for you.
December8
Cash For Gold
There are companys and individuals out there who are not necessarily con artists in the legal sense of the word but still keep alive the spirit of the swindler. I like to think of them as pseudo-scammers.
You know the people I mean. Charity collectors who are actually legally pocketing a portion of your donation, angle shooters at the poker player, the bank etc.
One of my favourite ’scammy’ companies is ‘Cash 4 Gold.’ You can read the long list of complaints against them here.
And now read one man’s attempt to scam and the pseudo scammers.
Click to enlarge.
December8
The Rocks In The Box
An age old scam, The Rocks In The Box has been resurrected by a con man in the UK.
The swindler offered to sell two men two laptops and three iphones for £1,000. The men checked out the gear and agreed to buy the merchandise.
It was only when they were far away did they realize he had swapped the bag of electronics for a bag of rocks.
Legend tells use the scam goes back to medieval times when swindlers would swap a bag of pig for a bag of cat. Hence the saying, the let the cat out of the bag. However, there is no real evidence that this is anything but a bit of fairy tale etymology.
Not to be confused with fairy tale entymology
If you want to see how a professional does, watch the video below.
November24
5 Fictional Con Men You Don’t Know
If we’re brutally honest, most of us are more interested in the romantic, fictional world of the con artist rather than the real thing. We want to hear about Moses Pray and Johnny Hooker not Bernie Madoff and Christopher Rocancourt.
Even the most beloved real life swindlers, men like Frank Abagnale and Victor Lustig seem more like characters from novels than real people. We love the romance and drama of the scam and the narrative form a good swindle takes with a beginning, a middle and an end.
1. WHITE FOLKS in TRICK BABY
With a plot revolving around a young black con man who teams up with an more experience master, this book by ex-pimp Iceburg Slim and the subsequent film are often referred to as ‘The Black Sting’. However, the novel was written in 1967 and the film came out in 1972, a full 12 months before George Roy Hill’s classic.
White Folks identifies himself as an African American, even though his skin is light enough to pass for white. He teams up with old time swindler Blue Howard and the pair pull off a series of compex, classic scams.
Unlike The Sting, Trick Baby creates morally and racially complex characters leaving the read unsure whether to root for the heroes or not.
The Black Sting or “Bling”
2. MORDECAI JONES in FLIM FLAM MAN
Largely forgotten now, The Flim Flam Man was a big deal back in the 1960s. It spawned a short lived TV series and cemented George C. Scott as an acting legend.
Set in the 1960’s in Kentucky, the film follows a young army deserter who teams up with rural con man Mordecai Jones. The screenplay was written by the same man who wrote It’s A Mad Mad Mad World and so the scams are all punctuated with car chases and slapstick comedy.
But at its core, the film does it’s best to accurately bring to life scams like Punchboards and Three Card Monte.
3. SHORT SHEET in GOD BLESS THE MARK
To be fair, Matt “Short Sheet” Gray isn’t the hero of this Donald Westlake comedy from the 1960s - in fact, he turns up dead in the first chapter. Instead, this a rare book where the mark is the hero. Fred Fitch is the world’s most gullible man. He’s not stupid or ill-educated, he just can’t believe that people would ever lie to him.
So when his Uncle Matt turns up dead and he inherits half a million dollars, every two bit con artist, grifter and flim flam man decends on him to get his cut of the dough.
This is a neat twist on the con man genre from one of the best crime writers in modern history, the man who created the Parker series and wrote the screenplay for The Grifters.
4. CHRISTOPHER in CON MAN
With the fantastic subtitle of “This Might Sting A Little” Richard Asplin’s 2009 novel is a modern take on the con artist genre. Neil Martin’s comic store business is going down the toilet so when Christopher, the smooth talking dandy of a con man offers him an easy way to make some easy money, he jumps at the chance.
You might find the twist two thirds a bit predictable but stick with it, the final sting in the tail is a rip snorter!
5. VIRGIL RAY in SPANISH FLY
Re-released under the much slicker title of Hustle, Spanish Fly has very little in they way of story. Virgil Ray and his girlfriend Miss Rose enlist the help of a young man, Jack McGreary to pull their scams.
And they do, for 400 pages jump packed with scams, swindles and cons.
Set against in southwest American dust bowl in the 1930s this book is Of Mice and Men with grifters or a fictional version of David Maurer’s Big Con.
November6
Dog Plays Three Card Monte
Storm - a border collie from England is shown here in this video playing Three Card Monte, the classic scam.
Apparently the border collie is also brilliant at playing Yahtzee.
I wonder whether he is smart enough to see through the sleight of hand that the crooked grifters use on the streets.