Paul Davis On Crime: con artists

Showing posts with label con artists. Show all posts

Saturday, January 18, 2014

FBI: Beware Of Prepaid Funeral Scam

The FBI web site offers a piece on the prepaid funeral scam.

Scamming nuns. Taking advantage of the mentally disabled. Stealing from the elderly. Just when you think con men couldn’t sink any lower, they do: This time, a group of fraudsters took money from individuals who prepaid their own funerals to ease the financial and emotional burdens on their families.

Recently, a Missouri man and five others were sentenced to federal prison for their role in a Ponzi-like prepaid funeral scheme that victimized some 97,000 customers in more than 16 states. The scheme caused more than $450 million in losses, smaller or non-existent death benefits for families at their most vulnerable, and huge profits that lined the pockets of the defendants.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/january/prepaid-funeral-scam/prepaid-funeral-scam?utm_campaign=email-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=fbi-top-stories&utm_content=290194

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

My On Crime & Security Column: Yellow-Pages Scam Artists Snag Small Businesses

The national small business web site AllBusiness.com published my latest On Crime & Security Column yesterday.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) reported last week that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took action against a scheme that the BBB warned businesses about last year.

At the request of the FTC, a federal judge has temporarily halted a European-based operation that allegedly bilked small businesses and nonprofit organizations out of millions of dollars by deceiving them into ordering and then paying for unwanted listings in online business directories. The FTC is seeking to stop the illegal practices permanently and to require that the defendants reimburse their victims.

You can read the rest of my my piece via the below link:

http://www.allbusiness.com/operations/16645348-1.html

Saturday, May 21, 2011

My On Crime & Security Column: Charity Fraud Scams Follow In The Wake Of Natural Disasters

The business web site AllBusiness.com published my On Crime & Security column today.

You can read the column via the below link:

http://www.allbusiness.com/north-america/united-states/15604659-1.html

Paul Davis

Paul Davis is a writer who covers crime. He has written extensively about organized crime, cybercrime, street crime, white collar crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, the military, espionage and terrorism. He is a contributor to the Washington Examiner, and his work has also appeared in the Washington Times, the Philadelphia Daily News, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Weekly and other publications. His 'Crime Beat' column, which covers crime news, crime issues and crime prevention in South Philadelphia, appears weekly in the South Philly Review, and his 'On Crime' column, which covers crime in the Greater Philadelphia region, appears weekly at Philly Daily and Broad and Liberty. He is also a longtime contributor to Counterterrorism magazine and writes their online 'Threatcon' column, which covers crime, espionage and terrorism. Paul Davis' crime fiction appears in American Crime Magazine. As a writer, he has attended police academy training, gone out on patrol with police officers, accompanied detectives as they worked cases, accompanied narcotics officers on drug raids, observed criminal court proceedings, visited jails and prisons, and covered street riots, mob wars and murder investigations. He has interviewed police commissioners and chiefs, FBI, DEA, HSI and other federal special agents, prosecutors, judges, public officials, WWII UDT frogmen, Navy SEALs, Army Delta operators, Israeli commandos, military intelligence officers, Scotland Yard detectives, CIA officers, former KGB officers, film and TV actors, film writers, directors and producers, journalists, novelists and true crime authors, gamblers, outlaw bikers, and Cosa Nostra organized crime bosses. Paul Davis has been a student of crime since he was a 12-year-old aspiring writer growing up in South Philadelphia. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy when he was 17 in 1970. He served aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Kitty Hawk during the Vietnam War and he later served two years aboard the Navy harbor tugboat U.S.S. Saugus at the U.S. floating nuclear submarine base at Holy Loch, Scotland. He went on to become the civilian administrative officer of a Defense Department command in Philadelphia, where he oversaw security, safety and other programs for the command's military and civilian employees, and served as an investigating officer, while working part-time as a newspaper crime reporter and columnist. He retired in 2007 after more than 37 Navy/DOD years of service and became a full-time writer. From 1991 to 2005 he was a producer and on-air host of "Inside Government," a public affairs interview radio program that aired on Sunday mornings on WPEN AM and WMGK FM in the Philadelphia area. You can read Paul Davis' crime columns, crime fiction, book reviews and news and feature articles on this website. You can read his full bio by clicking on the above photo (by Brittany Davis-Pearson). And you can contact Paul Davis at pauldavisoncrime@aol.com.

Paul Davis On Crime