Bernard Madoff guilty, gets 150-year prison term
June 30, 2009
Just less than an hour ago, a US federal judge gave the 71-year-old former NASDAQ chair Bernard Madoff the maximum sentence of 150 years in prison for an “extraordinary evil” fraud that demolished the life savings of individuals and investments of charities and pension funds.
In the court decision, District Judge Denny Chin described the unprecedented nature of the multibillion-dollar fraud as “extraordinarily evil and that this kind of irresponsible manipulation of the system is not merely a bloodless financial crime that takes place just on paper, but it is instead … one that takes a staggering human toll.”
How to find and go after scammers
June 30, 2009
You entrusted your money to a person you believed was trustworthy but, in the end, you were deceived and now that person is gone.
You have been scammed.
If you know where they are, you can report scammers to the authorities in the Philippines.
But if they cannot anymore be found, you can resort to creative means of finding them. Just like having a paid advertisement on newspapers.
12DailyPro update: Refunds to start soon
April 4, 2009
Remember 12DailyPro (12DP)?
That high-yield autosurf investment program that offered 12% return on your investment after 12 days? If you were a former investor and you filed for a refund claim, you might get your money back if you are eligible for a refund.
Beware of these eBay scammers
February 24, 2009
In the past, we’ve featured stories of scams and victims’ tales of being scammed. Here’s an addition to those tales. Following are posts of some members of the PMT Forum about their experiences being victimized by scammers on eBay.
The modus operandi is almost always the same. A product is advertised at an unbelievably low price. The victim bids for the product and, upon winning the auction, sends money via bank deposit, GCash or some other method of payment. A few days later, the product is still not delivered to the buyer. The seller, however, cannot be contacted anymore.
PIPC was a Ponzi scheme, says Ferrier Hodgson
October 30, 2008
In the September 2008 update made to investors of scam investment program Performance Investment Products Corporation (PIPC), fraud investigation firm Ferrier Hodgson disclosed that the results of preliminary analysis support its belief that PIPC operated as a Ponzi scheme.
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that involves promising or paying abnormally high returns to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from revenues generated by a real business.
PIPC was a multimillion-dollar scam investment program that was exposed in 2007 after the owner of the company, Singaporean Michael H.K. Liew, fled the Philippines and disappeared, supposedly taking with him between US$140 million and US$250 million of investors’ funds.
New scam: ‘Your money is fake, Sir!’
September 4, 2008
Have you ever experienced paying in, say, a shop or restaurant and the cashier told you your money is fake?
PMT member denshow10 had the exact same experience when he dined in a Pizza Hut branch last week. When he paid, the cashier told him the bill he was using did not have the names of the Philippine President and the Bangko Sentral Governor on it and, therefore, it was fake.
In the Fake Php 1,000 bill discussion thread, another PMT member mokoy222 mentioned that this may just be the modus operandi of a swindling gang. He knows this because he himself was also a victim.
His story:
Scammed by Ervin Abellanosa?
August 29, 2008
You are not the only one. Several members of the PMT Forum unfortunately became victims too to the scamming prowess of a certain Ervin Abellanosa.
His modus operandi normally involve ecurrency exchanges. For example, an unwitting party sends money to Abellanosa’s bank account as payment for egold or Paypal funds. After the payment is sent, Abellanosa would reply that his Paypal account got limited and that the other party must wait until he solves the problem. Several days later, the buyer won’t hear from Abellanosa anymore.
Another one of those 419 or Nigerian scams
July 31, 2008
Most of us are probably already aware of the so-called Nigerian or 419 scams but I’m sure there are still a few who would believe the outrageous propositions and eventually become a victim.
For the uninitiated, a Nigerian scam is a scam trick in which the target is persuaded to advance a sum of money in exchange for a supposedly larger gain. That is why this modus operandi is also called advance fee fraud.
‘N Sync creator ordered to repay scam victims $300 million
July 17, 2008
It looks like the victims of scammer and boy band creator Lou Pearlman won’t have to sing Bye, Bye, Bye to their money.
This week, a US court ordered Lou Pearlman, creator of the popular boy bands ‘N Sync and Backstreet Boys, to repay as much as $300 million to the more than 1,000 people he swindled in his Ponzi scam and fraudulent investment programs.
Royal Manchester Five update: 8 officers charged with estafa
May 25, 2008
The latest development on the Royal Manchester Five (RMF) scam: the National Bureau of Investigation filed charges last week against eight officers and incorporators of the RMF Ponzi scam.
Charged with estafa at the Department of Justice (DOJ) were:
- Cyrus Hao, RMF board chair and president;
- Edwin Rosas, senior vice president;
- Rowena Uy, treasurer-chief finance officer;
- Joseph Bualoy, chief operations officer;
- Joesedev Colina, executive vice president;
- Cyril Alexander Digo, sales agent;
- Estrella Digo, sales agent; and
- Clarence Lao, sales agent
The charges were based on the complaints filed by 27 investors victimized by the Ponzi scam.
