Foreclosures Open Door to Fraud

At The Barber's Chair, in the small, quiet community of Accokeek at the far end of Prince George's County, Md., the talk often turns to the foreclosure crisis -- for good reason. Here, in the nation's most affluent majority black jurisdiction, a remarkable example of the growing wealth of the new black middle class, foreclosures are growing at one of the fastest rates in the country, and foreclosure fraud is increasing right along with it.

With locals constantly in and out, Leo Harrington, the owner, hears it all. How people who bought homes once valued at $800,000 down the the road at upscale subdivisions like The Preserves or at the one- and two-acre homesites of St. James have friends and relatives living in their basements to help pay the mortgage.

How lenders pushed deceptive and high-cost loans on first-generation homeowners, without disclosing the consequences, assuring them that home values only go up. How people bought expensive cars, timeshare vacations and boats -- and put their homes at risk. How lenders continue to target the community and push loans. And how homeowners, with years of mistrust in mainstream lenders, wait too long to get help when they fall behind on their loans, wary of trying for a short sale or a loan workout, and so fall prey to foreclosure scams.

Man charged with insurance fraud

A Rochester man was arrested Monday for allegedly defrauding a local insurance company after claiming new damage to his vehicle that proved to be old, say police.As a result, Brian Vespa, 39, of Western Avenue has been charged with a Class A misdemeanor for insurance fraud, alleging that he defrauded his insurance agency out of $345.79.
Following his arrest, Vespa was released on $1,000 personal recognizance bail and is scheduled to be arraigned in Portsmouth District Court on Sept. 29.

CREDIT CARD FRAUD

Two Buellton residents are charged with fraudulent use of a credit card, among other things, after a sheriff’s department investigation. Karen Peterson, 47, and Debra Mangino, 49 were arrested August 6.

Deputies began the investigation in early July when a Buellton resident reported that someone had used a credit card that belonged to him. Deputies learned that the person who opened accounts in Buellton and Lompoc had the victim’s social security number for verification, the sheriff’s department said in a press release.

Use of the credit card led deputies to view surveillance video of a Buellton gas station which showed the suspects using the fraudulently obtained credit card, officials said. At some point the women were neighbors of the victim, stealing his mail to get the personal information that was used in the fraud, according to deputies.

Mangino was released on a $20,000 bond after her arrest; however Peterson was unable to post her bail and remained in custody. The two appeared before Judge James Rigali in Santa Maria on Aug. 8. At that time the judge said he intended to raise the bail amount for Mangino because she had pending charges from an arrest in May for forgery and grand theft.

Mangino asked Judge Rigali for permission to make a call to a bondsman after she heard that her bail was to be raised. Rigali said she could leave the courtroom but had to stay on the courthouse grounds for her phone call. Five minutes later, when her public defender went outside to find Mangino, she had fled.

Detective Chris Dallenbach of the Solvang sheriff’s substation said that deputies had Mangino’s house under surveillance and when she showed up midday Sunday, Aug. 10, she was spotted by deputies, pursued through backyards in the west Buellton neighborhood, and caught one block from her house.

Counterfeit Scam Leaves Erwin Couple $10,000 Poorer

The Dunn Police Department is investigating two cases of counterfeit check scams, one of which has left an Erwin couple more than $10,000 in the hole.

When Kimberly Spell saw a classified ad in The Daily Record for a clerical job, she thought it was right up her alley, so she called.

The voice at the other end of the line told Mrs. Spell she had the opportunity to participate in a mystery shopper program, evaluating the customer service and efficiency of Wal-Mart's wire transfer service.

Mrs. Spell was sent a money order for $2,775, along with a checklist of criteria on which to evaluate the Wal-Mart employee. She was told to cash the money order at her own bank, keep $300 for payment and use the rest to evaluate the wire transfer service, sending it back to a fictitious relative named Tracy Spell.

When Mrs. Spell went to her bank, State Employees Credit Union in Dunn, the money order raised eyebrows only because of the unusually high amount. The branch manager was called over to inspect the check. He verified it as authentic and Mrs. Spell was given the cash.

She successfully sent the $2,475 to Laura Spell in Ontario, Canada, all the while paying careful attention to her checklist criteria and the attitude of the Wal-Mart employees.

Following the transaction, Mrs. Spell called the mystery shopper company to confirm the job was complete.

The next day, promptly at 10 a.m., a second package arrived via overnight delivery and the same routine took place again. On the third day, two checks were enclosed in the overnight envelope. On the fourth day, the company in Canada sent Mrs. Spell four checks, bringing the grand total to $23,055.

When Mrs. Spell went to her bank to start the day's work with these four checks, she was told they, along with the first four she had cashed, were all fakes. All of the checks bounced, and Mrs. Spell and her husband, Howard Spell, will be held responsible for the more than $10,000 they wired away to an unknown person in Canada.

The advertisement is no longer running in The Daily Record.

Louisiana Man Found Guilty on 8 Counts of Insurance Fraud

Arthur Copes of Baton Rouge has been found guilty on eight counts of insurance fraud, according to the Louisiana Attorney General's Office. Judge Anthony Marabella rendered the verdict following testimony from former patients who flew in from all over the country to testify against him.

Copes runs a clinic in Baton Rouge which provides braces for Scoliosis patients. David Caldwell, co-prosecutor, along with Butch Wilson, presented evidence showing Copes fraudulently billed Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana of more than $88,000. The AG's office said Copes billed the insurance company for services he was not licensed to render and he expected upfront payments from clients who thought they were seeing a licensed medical doctor, which Copes was not.

800 Suspect Auto Claims in Sacramento County, CA

More drivers on the road during summer months means more car crashes, but not all of them may be for real.

More than 800 insurance claims in Sacramento County in the fiscal year ended June 30 are suspect and may have involved staged collisions, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced Thursday. The 802 suspected fraudulent claims in 2007-08 is down from 856 a year earlier, but up from 788 in 2005-06, the state insurance regulator announced.

This translates to potential losses of $5.6 million in the last fiscal year alone.

Statewide, 14,623 out of 23,734 — 61 percent — of the insurance fraud referrals received by the state agency in the last fiscal year were suspected automobile insurance fraud.

People who create pre-planned accidents are known as “stagers.” They look for high-value targets such as commercial vehicles, expensive luxury cars or vehicles owned by cities or counties. They are considered high value because of the virtual guarantee of insurance coverage.

Canoe Man and Wife Jailed For Six Years

John and Anne Darwin were each jailed for more than six years today for carrying out a £250,000 insurance con by faking his death in a canoeing accident.

John Darwin was jailed for six years and three months. His wife Anne was sentenced to six years and six months after she was found guilty of her role in the fraud.

The couple tricked the police, insurance companies and even their two sons Mark, 32, and Anthony, 29, into believing he drowned in the North Sea in 2002 - only for Mr Darwin to turn up at a London police station last year.

They were undone by a photograph of the grinning couple taken in Panama four years after he disappeared.

Plastic Surgeon's Perfect Life Marred

His plastic-surgery training in hand, Lawrence Saks left the Canadian winters he hated in the early 1980s and headed for what may be the world's most welcoming market for such medical specialists: esthetically obsessed southern California.

It was a profitable move. The product of a hardscrabble Quebec City upbringing, Dr. Saks built a fortune in the millions of dollars and forged a reputation as a generous philanthropist.

But that enviable life is suddenly on the brink of collapse. The 56-year-old doctor has been charged with US$4-million in insurance fraud and other crimes, allegedly for claiming handsome disability benefits for himself while continuing to do tummy tucks, facelifts and other surgery. As it turns out, the fraud case is only the latest and most damning in a string of brushes with the law and medical regulators.

Why Is Car Insurance Fraud On The Increase?

If ever there was a self fulfilling prophecy then the car insurance market may well be it!

A recent report by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) claims that car insurance fraud in the UK has increased by 70% over the last 3 years. As the cost of running a car continues to spiral upwards many drivers are being left with very few ways of paying off their debts. The fact that one such car insurance fraudster was found to have literally pushed his car off a cliff may be a little over the top (literally!), but there are also many other examples of drivers becoming desperate.

Woman Pleads Guilty In Fraud

A Paulsboro woman pleaded guilty Friday for stealing more than $190,000 from an insurance company, Attorney General Anne Milgram said.

Julia Daniels Anderson, 41, pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge Robert Becker to a criminal accusation which charged her with theft by deception.

Daniels Anderson admitted that between Aug. 3, 2004, and March 8, 2007, she stole $190,802 from Cigna Insurance Co. by submitting false health care claims.

Cash-Strapped Citizens Fake Break-ins

Many South Africans are reporting false hijackings, housebreakings and other theft claims in order to get rid of their monthly repayments and be paid out by insurance companies.

Insurance investigators report that there has been an increase in the number of people staging housebreakings to make money from insurance policies or claiming their vehicles were hijacked or stolen because they could no longer afford them.

Marius Heystek, a senior partner at AM Heystek and Associates, which specialises in insurance fraud, said the problem of false insurance claims had "always been there", but had now increased. "It is very clear when a house has not been broken into as the owner claims," he said.

New Consortium Plans Strategies to Combat Medical Fraud

The newly formed Consortium to Combat Medical Fraud, a joint project of the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association and the National Insurance Crime Bureau, along with participation from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice, announced on June 24 its national agenda to pursue the perpetrators of medical fraud.

The Consortium is designed to create a more open and collaborative environment between different segments of the insurance industry to heighten the detection and prevention of health care fraud.

North Plainfield Man Charged With Insurance Fraud

A North Plainfield man who works as a guidance counselor at a middle school in Newark was indicted Wednesday on charges he torched his own car two years ago to collect insurance.

Kenyatta O'Bryant, 36, was indicted on charges of aggravated arson, attempted theft by deception and insurance fraud.

If convicted of the charges, O'Bryant faces up to 10 years in prison.

Private Investigators Examine House Explosion

A team of private investigators converged Monday at the site of a home destroyed in an apparent natural gas explosion.

Last Thursday’s blast at 410 Wellingford Street, near West Sugar Creek Road and North Tryon, killed 4-month-old Synora Coleman and injured her parents.

California Report Details How to Reduce Fraudulent Insurance Claims

Following a meeting with his Advisory Task Force on Insurance Fraud, Blue Ribbon Review Committee, California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced that he will implement five actions to help reduce fraudulent claims, including creating a fusion center for insurance fraud investigations so law enforcement can share information more efficiently and quickly to identify emerging trends and crime patterns.

"Insurance fraud is not a victimless crime," said Commissioner Poizner. "The costs are passed onto consumers to the tune of $500 a year for every man, woman and child and that's why I have made fighting insurance fraud one of my highest priorities."

Jury To Continue Deliberating In Wilcox Case

Jury deliberations will continue Wednesday for the man accused in the fiery crash on Avon Mountain three years ago that killed four people.

The jury has been deliberating since Friday and has not reached a verdict in the case of David Wilcox, who is the owner of the truck that barreled down Avon Mountain 2005.

The issue in the trial is if Wilcox, 72, did know that the liability insurance on his truck was suspended or if he tried to reinstate it right after the crash.

Fayetteville Reels in Bogus Movies, CDs

A DeKalb County man, who was found with over 300 counterfeit movies and 800 counterfeit music CD’s in his car, now faces felony charges in Fayetteville

According to Capt. Steve Crawshaw of the Fayetteville Police Department, Kenneth McCrory, 50, was arrested Wednesday and charged with unauthorized distribution and sale of recorded material.

According to Crawshaw, the arrest came after Fayetteville Police were contacted by a private investigator working for the Motion Picture Association of America.

The investigator told police he had purchased movies from a man selling them out of his SUV, Crawshaw said.

New Bureau Ready to Tackle Insurance Crime

With insurance crime costing short-term insurance companies more than R2 billion a year and increasing, the industry was launching an Insurance Crime Bureau (ICB) to tackle fraud, Viviene Pearson, the stakeholder relations manager at the SA Insurance Association, said yesterday.

Pearson said that the bureau would curb escalating insurance fraud. "Among other things, we have noticed that when interest rates spike, insurance fraud also increases.

Law Calls Halt to Cruisy Lifestyle

An international manhunt involving a $100,000 yacht, a Mediterranean holiday and a Mercedes-Benz has ended with an Englishman facing criminal charges in New Zealand.

Mark Norfolk has been charged with four counts of money laundering, totaling $60,000, and was denied bail in the Auckland District Court last month because he was considered a flight risk.

Britons Underestimate Seriousness of Insurance Fraud

Exaggerating or lying on an insurance claim may seem like a sneaky but harmless way of making some extra cash, but the reality is that consumers are now more likely to get caught than before, and with increasingly serious consequences.

Insurer RSA’s latest fraud survey assessed how likely people are to lie when making a claim, together with general attitudes towards insurance fraud.

The survey revealed that 1.2million Britons did not view this type of fraud as a serious offense.