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☆ Russians trying to help the Kremlin are being scammed into throwing Molotov cocktails at its offices and cars instead: reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

They were told by scammers to chuck Molotov cocktails, but most were unsuccessful, per local media. The people involved have tried to set fire to enlistment offices, bank ATMs, a car trunk, and a police department, though most have been unsuccessful, the outlet reported. Olga told authorities an unknown man had been calling her for a month, saying he was a bank employee. He'd taught Olga how to create the Molotov cocktails and instructed her to start a fire in the government building, according to Shot. We're standing on the street where they stopped me," Olga told the man on the phone.

☆ 13 hot spots for real-estate investors seeking solid rental income returns and cheaper property instead of high prices and taxes, according to an expert who's spent 2 decades investing around the glob
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

With the right locations, he believes investors could double their cash investment in the next five years based on property appreciation and rental income. you'll also need to pay taxes on rental income which varies by state. If you plan on generating short or long-term rental income, find a strong rental or property manager. If you're on a budget but want to invest in a good shorter-term rental property for Airbnb, look in high-traffic destinations, he said. Top picks for short-term rental income are internationalized destinations that have easy air access, great amenities, and a lack of hotel competition.

☆ Real-Estate Agents Face a Reckoning As Housing Market, Home Sales Slow
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( James Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Just as the housing market goes through booms and busts, so do the ranks of real-estate agents. This has left real-estate agents fighting over a dwindling pool of listings. That makes the job of a local real-estate agent trickier and more nuanced than it was a year ago. "What makes a good real-estate agent and what makes a successful real-estate agent have almost no crossover." She joined a women's support group for real-estate agents on Facebook, where she found many others were experiencing similar challenges.

☆ A New York woman lost all her belongings to a moving company scam. She got a $10,000 settlement, but is living with her parents and scraping together 5 part-time jobs to make ends meet.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The 45-year-old lactation consultant won about $10,000 by suing the moving company. There weren't a lot of options available when it came to moving companies, but she eventually found Gold Standard Relocation. Everything seemed normal on Wagner's moving day — until the movers didn't show up and the company wouldn't answer the phone. She'd already paid the moving company about $4,300 to transport and store more than 70 boxes of her things and many furniture pieces for six months. Fraudulent moving companies will often offer customers a low estimate and deposit price, and then demand additional exorbitant fees after taking their belongings hostage.

☆ A mother reportedly got a scam call saying her daughter had been kidnapped and she'd have to pay a ransom. The 'kidnapper' cloned the daughter's voice using AI.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A scammer reportedly used AI to clone a girl's voice in an attempt to get money from her mother. When she answered it, she could hear her 15-year-old daughter crying and saying things like, "mom, I messed up." DeStefano said that a man's voice then came on the line, telling her daughter to put her head back and lie down. "Listen here, I've got your daughter," the scammer reportedly said, according to DeStefano's account of the call. The voice "100%" belonged to her daughter, she told the local news site.

☆ Elon Musk says he's working on Twitter's customer service — but some Tesla and Starlink customers haven't been impressed when trying to receive support
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk said Twitter users must have good customer service, and that he was working on it. Customers of his other companies have said they're disappointed at the lack of customer service. "Of course, you need to have good customer service for money," Musk tweeted, adding he was "working on it." Some commented on how slow and unresponsive Tesla's customer service was, while others said it was quick and easy. Are you a Starlink user or Tesla owner who is disappointed with the company's customer service?

☆ This 26-year-old from Hong Kong is transforming a ‘dinosaur industry’ — one luxury watch at a time
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Goh Chiew Tong | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

As a young, avid collector of luxury watches, Austen Chu said he was scammed "many times" when he bought timepieces from the secondary watch market. Not only did his obsession with watches help him overcome those bad purchases, the experiences also propelled him to start his own consignment-based platform for luxury watches, Wristcheck. The luxury watch market is what calls a "dinosaur industry" that can be "intimidating" for the younger generation to get into, Chu said. WristcheckBy starting Wristcheck, Chu hoped to provide more transparency and accessibility to his peers. After all, Gen Z is projected to make up a third of the luxury market by 2030, due to a surge in wealth creation and the influence of social media.

☆ Romance Scams Are Booming — Especially on Facebook and Instagram
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Eve Upton-Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Americans lost $1.3 billion to romance scams last year — an 164% increase from 2019 — and $3.3 billion in total since the start of the pandemic. According to the FTC report, the most popular way scammers reached out to their victims last year was through Instagram (29%) and Facebook (28%). And as these schemes get more widespread and more complex, the number of people falling for romance scams keeps growing. Confluence of crypto and romanceIf loneliness was the reason "why" for the soaring number of romance scams, then crypto is the "how." 1 payment method for romance scams last year was cryptocurrency.

Our experts answer readers' credit card questions and write unbiased product reviews (here's how we assess credit cards). However, some vendors make that cost explicit by tacking on a fixed fee or percentage of the transaction to credit card payments. To avoid getting scammedMany credit card scams involve cardholders being victimized after willfully handing over their card or account information. To buy cash equivalentsMany credit cards offer cash advances, which allow you to borrow cash against your credit limit. Her credit history was pristine, but she only had two credit cards with low credit limits that she nearly exhausted each month on business and personal expenses.

DoNotPay "is not actually a robot, a lawyer, nor a law firm," Chicago-based law firm Edelson said in a proposed class action in San Francisco state court dated March 3 and posted to the court's public website Thursday. Browder said Edelson founder Jay Edelson "inspired me to start DoNotPay," claiming Edelson and lawyers like him enrich themselves through class actions with little benefit to consumers. Browder founded DoNotPay in 2015 with a focus on tasks such as fighting parking tickets, and it has expanded to include some legal services, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit said DoNotPay violated California's unfair competition law by engaging in the unauthorized practice of law. The case is Faridian v. DoNotPay Inc, Superior Court of the State of California for the County of San Francisco, No.

☆ A couple in Canada were reportedly scammed out of $21,000 after getting a call from an AI-generated voice pretending to be their son
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A couple in Canada reportedly lost $21,000 from a scammer claiming to be a lawyer and their son. Benjamin Perkin told The Washington Post his parents thought the AI-generated voice was him. Perkin told the Post the voice was "close enough for my parents to truly believe they did speak with me." Scams involving AI technology predate the emergence of ChatGPT and other AI bots going viral right now. "AI tools that generate authentic-seeming videos, photos, audio, and text could supercharge this trend, allowing fraudsters greater reach and speed," she said.

☆ Grieving women warn of TikTok scam involving sending loved ones' ashes to a fake artist who uses the remains for extortion
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Three women allege they were victims of an online scam after sending ashes to a TikTok artist for memorial paintings, USA Today reported. In conversations about the project, the artist told Ide that he'd gotten a contract to work in Cambodia. "Cashapp me $1000 and get your ashes sent back to you," a message from the alleged scammer read. Portalupi, the real artist of the advertised paintings, told USA Today he was unaware of the impersonator until after the women had already been scammed. "I am mind blown by this," he said, per USA Today.

☆ Ohio woman gets prison time after 'romance scam' led her to swindle over $500,000 from family members, officials say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

An Ohio woman sent scammers thousands through the mail before inspectors discovered the money, officials say. After acknowledging she'd been scammed first, officials say the woman convinced family to send nearly $600,000. In April 2020, US Postal Inspectors found a total of $100,000 inside packages sent from Matson to the accused con artists from a P.O. "Matson also sent links to news articles and Facebook stories about a missing Ohio teenager to deceive the inspector into acting quickly," the release states. The pair reportedly used the same claim about military officers needing money to swindle women into mailing $844,070 to P.O.

☆ I started an Instagram fan page for luxury watches and turned it into an $8 million resale business — here's how
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Claire Turrell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

He launched the company in 2020 and opened a brick-and-mortar store in a mall in Hong Kong in 2021. When I was being interviewed by Hypebeast in Hong Kong, I met my future cofounder and ecommerce expert Sean Wong. By July 2020, Sean had left his job, and I'd moved to Hong Kong to launch the brand. The Wristcheck store in the Landmark Atrium mall in Hong Kong. By November 2022, we'd raised $8 million, with our lead investors being Gobi Partners, who manage the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Investment Fund.

☆ George Santos was accused of issuing $15,125 in bad checks for 'puppies,' but the theft charge was dropped after he said his checkbook was stolen, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Rep. George Santos was charged with theft in Pennsylvania in 2017, Politico reported. Santos's past charity work with animals has come under increasing scrutiny. Tiffany Bogosian, a New York attorney who attended junior high with Santos, told the outlet she helped him deal with the charge after they had reconnected. Santos made out $15,125 in checks to dog breeders in an Amish area of the state, Politico reported. The animal charity accusations are among the many controversies concerning Santos's past.

☆ FBI Investigating George Santos Over Alleged Fundraising Scheme
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( James Fanelli | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Rep. George Santos (R., N.Y.) is under state and federal investigations for false statements he made during his campaign. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into a U.S. Navy veteran’s accusations that New York Rep. George Santos scammed him out of $3,000 from an online fundraising campaign set up to help his dying dog years ago, the veteran said. Richard Osthoff, 47 years old, said last month that Mr. Santos ran a pet charity in 2016 that offered to help him raise donations to pay for a surgery to remove a tumor from his dog, Sapphire. After donations flowed in through a GoFundMe campaign, Mr. Osthoff said, Mr. Santos refused to provide the money for the dog’s care and stopped communicating with him.

☆ FBI Looking Into George Santos Over Fundraising Accusations
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( James Fanelli | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ The FBI is investigating if George Santos scammed a military veteran by taking funds that were raised for his dying dog: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Military veteran Rich Osthoff told Politico he was contacted by two FBI agents on Wednesday. Osthoff in January accused Santos of taking over $3,000 from a fundraiser meant for a dying dog. "I'm glad to get the ball rolling with the big-wigs," Osthoff told Politico. Osthoff told Patch Sapphire died in January 2017 after he could not afford to pay for her surgery. Santos told Steakin he has "no clue" about the DBI investigation, and has "never met" Osthoff.

☆ Property documents for a London apartment suggest wanted 'crypto-queen' is alive after allegedly vanishing in 2017 with $4 billion from investors
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Wanted fugitive Ruja Ignatova hasn't been seen since October 2017. A recent property listing hints that Ignatova is alive and still on the run, reports say. Bulgarian-born Ignatova, 42, is wanted by the FBI for allegedly scamming investors out of $4 billion between 2014 and 2016 in a Ponzi scheme using her now-defunct company OneCoin. In October 2017, she vanished until documents related to a penthouse apartment in London seemingly pointed to her whereabouts, the New York Post reported. "It suggests she is still alive, and there are documents out there somewhere which contain vital clues as to her recent whereabouts," Bartlett said.

☆ Florida woman accused of swindling $2.8M from Holocaust survivor in romance scam
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Phil-Helsel-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Phil Helsel | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

A 36-year-old Florida woman used a romance scam to defraud a Holocaust survivor of his $2.8 million life savings, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. She also faked emails pretending to be from TD Bank and faked invoices to give to the victim’s bank to explain the large transfers, the indictment says. It stopped in October 2021 when the man told his son he'd given his life savings to the woman but was promised he'd be repaid and the son said he'd been scammed, according to the indictment. Stergo spent the money on a home, a condo, a boat, trips, cars and Rolex watches, prosecutors said. People lost more than $1 billion in romance scams across the U.S. in 2021, the FBI said in February.

☆ Trump claims lawsuits are a conspiracy to 'keep him busy' ahead of 2024. He's the one making lawsuits political, judges say.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Judges have repeatedly slammed Trump for using lawsuits "to advance a political narrative." "Keep Trump busy, because this is the way you defeat him, to keep him busy with litigation," Trump testified in the deposition, speaking in the third person. US District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks said that Trump has a "pattern of misusing the courts to serve political purposes." Trump's lawyers have to deal with his 2024 runIn the Trump lawsuits that haven't been dismissed, those trials may need to be scheduled around his 2024 campaign events. A trial for Carroll's claims is set for April of this year, and James' lawsuit against Trump is on track for October.

☆ A Nike exec says a phisher stole his NFTs. Here are 3 things everyone should do to protect a digital wallet
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Matthew Kish | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In a tweet, Gopalani said the phishers stole his Clonex NFTs and some other digital collectibles, including some "Cryptokicks." Decrypt, a publication that covers web3, estimated the stolen NFTs were worth $173,000. Don't keep your digital assets in one place. Hardware wallets store keys to digital assets offline, making them inaccessible to cyber thieves. There's a growing suite of tools for digital assets, too.

NBC News has repeatedly contacted Santos’ team with requests for comment about his lies and other allegations against him. Here is a timeline mapping out the controversy:Nov. 3, 2020: Santos loses his first bid for Congress to Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi. Sept. 6, 2022: Santos files his personal financial disclosure report, claiming his assets are as much as $11 million. The New York Times later reported that none of the 49 victims appear to have worked at the various firms named in his biography. In another Dec. 26 interview with the New York Post, Santos acknowledges some of the specific fabrications in his résumé.

☆ How 'Real Housewife' Jen Shah's fabulous life came crashing down
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Stephanie Clifford | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +43 min

The woman wrote to the judge overseeing Shah's case that she'd had to remortgage her house, almost divorced, and "thought about ending my own life." The couple decided that he should get his degree while Jen Shah dropped out of college to work. (Shah told a judge at her 2022 plea hearing that she had been treated for "alcohol and depression" two years prior. Koa Johnson, Jen Shah's former fashion designerWhen Sharrieff Shah did participate in filming, he quickly became a fan favorite, calm and sensible. Once the show aired and Jen Shah developed a fan base, her behavior became more dramatic, Johnson said.

☆ I fell for a Facebook Marketplace scam and lost $300. Here are the red flags I wish I'd caught right off the bat.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Sam Silverman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

That's right: I, an editor at a business publication that often warns our readers about the dangers of online scams, fell victim to an online scam. Screenshot courtesy of Sam SilvermanI turned to Facebook Marketplace, something I've done numerous times before. Data provider BeenVerified analyzed 165,000 scam complaints over the past three years and found that Facebook Marketplace scams grew 184.8% in the past year. In one instance, a Michigan woman lost her $15,000 life savings in a Facebook Marketplace car scam. Additionally, Zelle scams were listed as the second fastest-growing scams by BeenVerified, with Zelle scams up 86% this year, many of which were tied to Facebook Marketplace listings.

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