FBI: Jersey City Stockbroker Scams Investors Out Of $600,000 With Bogus Ticket-Reselling Biz FBI: Jersey City Stockbroker Scams Investors Out Of $600,000 With Bogus Ticket-Reselling Biz
FBI: Jersey City Stockbroker Scams Investors Out Of $600,000 With Bogus Ticket-Reselling Biz FBI agents busted a now-former stockbroker from Jersey City who they said ran a side hustle that scammed victims out of more than $600,000 through a fictional ticket-reselling business. Michael J. Clarke, 62, lost his job once it came to light that his promises of getting discounted tickets that he could later sell at premium rates for concerts and sporting events -- as well as seat licenses to the U.S. Open -- were lies, authorities said. Clarke, who was a licensed municipal securities trader, promised victims who fronted him the money for the purported ticket brokerage that they'd get a …
SCAM ALERT: ‘Gypsy’ Thieves Are Back, Con Elderly Glen Rock Couple Out Of $18,000 SCAM ALERT: ‘Gypsy’ Thieves Are Back, Con Elderly Glen Rock Couple Out Of $18,000
Scam ALERT: ‘Gypsy’ Thieves Are Back, Con Elderly Glen Rock Couple Out Of $18,000 SEEN IT? “Gypsy” scammers are out again, police warn, pointing to an elderly Glen Rock couple who came thisclose to losing $18,000. The con artists, also called “travelers,” move around the East Coast using scams and diversions to get into people’s pocketbooks. This time, a grifting group coincidentally came to the door of a couple who’d called a legitimate roofing company for help, Glen Rock Police Chief Dean Ackermann said. When the couple asked whether they were their contractors, they said they were. They then “proceeded to cover the entire roof with some sort of tar or rubberized as…
Ex-AC Mayor Who Spent $86,000 In Youth Sports Donations On Himself Gets 30 Days In Fed Pen Ex-AC Mayor Who Spent $86,000 In Youth Sports Donations On Himself Gets 30 Days In Fed Pen
Ex-AC Mayor Who Spent $86,000 In Youth Sports Donations On Himself Gets 30 Days In Fed Pen UPDATE: Former Atlantic City Mayor Frank Gilliam was sentenced Thursday to a plea-bargained 30 days in federal prison, 11 months of house arrest and 200 hours of community for scamming donors out of $86,000 that he told them was going to a youth basketball team. Frank Gilliam, 49, used the money on fancy clothes, expensive meals, and trips that were “completely unrelated to the operation of a youth basketball team,” Acting U.S. Attorney Rachel A. Honig said. “I stand before this court a fractured human being,” Gilliam told U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez via videoconference in Camde…
Police: Bergen Wingman Who Thought He Bought Plane Scammed Out Of $10,000 Police: Bergen Wingman Who Thought He Bought Plane Scammed Out Of $10,000
Police: Bergen Wingman Who Thought He Bought Plane Scammed Out Of $10,000 A Bergen County man who thought he’d put a down payment on a Cessna got taken for $10,000 by a scam artist who told him the aircraft had crashed, authorities said. The Glen Rock victim told borough police he thought he had an agreement to purchase a 2004 Cessna 182T for $200,000 through a website called planecheck.com, Police Chief Dean Ackermann said. As part of the deal, he told police, he sent the purported seller a $10,000 non-refundable deposit. The “seller” was to have flown the aircraft from Georgia and to Greenwood Lake Airport in West Milford for delivery, Ackermann said. Wh…
If Lt Mark Richardson Calls You About Missing Jury Duty, Hang Up If Lt Mark Richardson Calls You About Missing Jury Duty, Hang Up
If Lt Mark Richardson Calls You About Missing Jury Duty, Hang Up It’s the phone scam that won’t die: A caller who claims to be from the local sheriff’s office threatens to arrest you if you don’t pay fines for ducking jury duty. He says his name is Lt. Mark Richardson. Heading into what will be its fifth year, the scam is still fooling people throughout the U.S. Hoping the scare tactic works, the caller warns that you’re in big trouble because you failed to report for jury duty. Then he offers you a way out: Just buy Amazon or iTunes gift cards for such-and-such an amount, then give him the numbers on the back of the card. "Yeah, right," you say. …
Feds Praise Leonia PD After Ringleader Of International Call-Center Phone Scam Gets 20 Years Feds Praise Leonia PD After Ringleader Of International Call-Center Phone Scam Gets 20 Years
Feds Praise Leonia PD After Ringleader Of International Call-Center Phone Scam Gets 20 Years A worldwide investigation that produced a 20-year federal prison sentence for an Indian national who ran call centers that defrauded Americans across the U.S. out of millions of dollars got a huge boost from police in Leonia. Leonia Detective Michael Jennings, in particular, did legwork that helped federal authorities eventually identify Hitesh Madhubhai Patel, 44, as the ringleader of the transnational scheme. For that reason, police in the Bergen County borough near the George Washington Bridge got a shout-out from the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday. It began in 2015 when Jennings …
LI Moving Company Owner, North Jersey Employee Admit $540,000 Low-Ball Extortion Scheme LI Moving Company Owner, North Jersey Employee Admit $540,000 Low-Ball Extortion Scheme
LI Moving Company Owner, North Jersey Employee Admit $540,000 Low-Ball Extortion Scheme A Nassau County moving company owner and a Passaic County woman who worked for him admitted in federal court that they extorted customers out of nearly $550,000 with the old “low-ball” scam. Lior Atiyas, 42, of Hewlett, Long Island began regularly low-balling estimates to move household goods, then jacking up the price by two to three times once the items were on the trucks, in early 2016, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said Friday. He then refused to deliver the goods until the customers paid up, Carpenito said. Atiyas recruited Lola Larios, 37, of Haledon into the scheme when she joined t…
Englewood Swindler Admits Conning Families Out Of $1.5M In Cosmetics Company Scheme Englewood Swindler Admits Conning Families Out Of $1.5M In Cosmetics Company Scheme
Englewood Swindler Admits Conning Families Out Of $1.5M In Cosmetics Company Scheme A former Englewood resident admitted in federal court that he scammed three investors out of $1.5 million with a bogus cosmetics company. Matthew Benjamin, 53, used the money instead for car and house rental payments, food, international travel, legal fees, technology equipment and summer camp tuition for family members, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said. Benjamin, currently of New York, told the victims that his purported company, Clear Solutions Group, had lucrative contracts to purchase closeout or excess cosmetic inventory from one company that he planned to sell to another, Carpenito…
Rochelle Park PD Rescues NY Con Man Kidnapped By Pair Who Lost $20,000 In ‘Black Money’ Scam Rochelle Park PD Rescues NY Con Man Kidnapped By Pair Who Lost $20,000 In ‘Black Money’ Scam
Rochelle Park PD Rescues NY Con Man Kidnapped By Pair Who Lost $20,000 In ‘Black Money’ Scam A Rochelle Park police officer rescued a man who was kidnapped from a local motel by two Passaic County men after an accomplice fled with their money in a scam gone wrong, authorities said. Amady Kourouma, 31, of New York and a partner convinced the two Passaic County men that they could earn $60,000 by purchasing “dirty” money from them that had been dyed to avoid detection by authorities, Detective Lt. James DePreta said. “Black money washing” is a popular scam. Victims are less likely to report it given their participation in an apparent crime, authorities say. In this case, Jairo Mende…
Police: Bogus Contractors Solicit 'Way Too Much Money' From NJ Homeowners In New Scam Police: Bogus Contractors Solicit 'Way Too Much Money' From NJ Homeowners In New Scam
Police: Bogus Contractors Solicit 'Way Too Much Money' From NJ Homeowners In New Scam A group of people posing as contractors approached a North Jersey home and tried scamming the owners out of money, prompting local police to issue a warning. The group stopped at a Florham Park home Wednesday, Aug. 26 and offered to do driveway and masonry work for the owners, local police said on Facebook. Since the incident, the group has tried to scam the homeowners out of “too much money to even mention,” police said. “These solicitors were not authorized and are part of a criminal element whose mere presence often delegitimizes our honest, legal contractors." Anyone with informa…
Bronx Foursome Foiled By Central Jersey Woman, 77, In 'Grandparent Scam' Bronx Foursome Foiled By Central Jersey Woman, 77, In 'Grandparent Scam'
Bronx Foursome Foiled By Central Jersey Woman, 77, In 'Grandparent Scam' Three men and a woman from the Bronx were arrested after calling a 77-year-old woman from Monmouth County to say her grandson needed bail money, authorities said. After the caller told the elderly woman that people would come pick up the money at her house -- and that she shouldn’t tell anyone -- the unidentified senior citizen called her grandson to confirm he had not been arrested, Marlboro Police Capt. Stephen J. Levy said in a statement Wednesday. The grandmother then went to police headquarters to report the attempted scam and Marlboro officers arrested the foursome when they came to g…
ALERT: 'Grandson In Trouble' Phone Scams Cost Franklin Lakes Women $70,000 ALERT: 'Grandson In Trouble' Phone Scams Cost Franklin Lakes Women $70,000
ALERT: 'Grandson In Trouble' Phone Scams Cost Franklin Lakes Women $70,000 Heartless thieves took advantage of coronavirus isolation by stealing nearly $70,000 combined from two Franklin Lakes grandmothers in separate “grandson in trouble” scams, authorities said. Each victim – one 79, the other 75 – got a call saying that police had arrested her grandson following a traffic accident, Capt. John Bakelaar said. “In both cases, they had someone get on the phone posing as the grandson and laid static over the line to muffle the voice,” Bakelaar said. “They also informed the victims that an attorney would call them with details,. “A person did call them back posing a…