Word: scams
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...idle and silent mode and set to answer calls automatically can be "accidentally" left behind in an office?when a spook excuses himself from a meeting to use the bathroom, for example?and activated remotely from another handset, allowing the user to listen in without the occupants' knowledge. The scam is more cunning than it sounds: So-called "bug sweepers" that reveal the presence of electronic listening devices ignore the radio frequencies used by cell phones because they are always jammed with traffic, and mobile handsets are so ubiquitous and innocuous that people tend to overlook them. But now there...
...interested in an "honest family oriented home-based business." Who wouldn't be? "These things are described as turnkey operations," says Grant. "All you need to do is watch the profits roll in." In some cases, a come-on like this might be followed by a sophisticated scam. For instance, you're told you will be doing medical billing for doctors. "You're enticed to pay for equipment and training," Grant explains, "all on the premise that there are doctors who want you to do this--which is not true...
...claims to be a Nigerian official with $25 million that he needs to smuggle out of the country. If you try to help, he will hit you for processing fees and "advance loans," and you will never see a dime. In the past few months, this well-worn scam has been evolving, so watch out for new variants involving Afghan war booty or a secret trove of cash lost in the attack on the World Trade Center...
Ever in search of needy, complaisant women, Will even answers phones for an Amnesty International telethon as a way of chatting up female callers. Eventually Will observes that single moms may be the most desperate demographic of all. So he devises a new scam. Pretending to be a single dad (which, naturally, entails having a pretend child), he joins S.P.A.T. (Single Parents, Alone Together) and gets less and more than he bargained for. There's only one attractive woman to hit on, but she introduces him, via a picnic, to her best pal's son Marcus (a marvelously uncute Nicholas...
...husband smelled a scam, but Otsuka invested her family's savings of $125,000 after learning of G.O. Group's miraculous new product, Uniba-G Tea. Made of banaba leaf from the Philippines, Ogami touted the tea as a revolutionary cure for obesity and diabetes. He spared no expense to exploit its marketing potential, hiring Jean-Claude Van Damme to appear in the Uniba-G TV commercial, in which the action star chugs the tea and kickboxes punks. Though the ad aired only a handful of times, the endorsement of Ogami's "close personal friend" received prominent play...