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Executives at McGraw Hill were curious to find out why their accountant was on television racing a Mclaren F1 GTR, chartering Concorde trips and showing up to work in a Ferrari. Turns out he had been embezzling £2.8 million from them the past 5 years since he was recruited.
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While you’re focusing on remembering to write “2020” instead of “2019” for the rest of the year, don’t forget to write out all four digits of the year instead of abbreviating it.
Reports warn that if you abbreviate “2020” to “20,” scammers could easily modify it to become any other year by adding two more numbers onto the end.
The East Millinocket Police Department in Maine warned folks about the potential for fraud on their Facebook page.
“When signing and dating legal documents, do not use 20 as the year 2020. March 3rd, 2020 being written as 3/3/20 could be modified to 3/3/2017 or 3/3/2018. Protect yourself. Do not abbreviate 2020,” their post says.
This is sound advice and should be considered when signing any legal or professional document. It could potentially save you some trouble down the road.Meme credited to George E. Moore Law Office, LLC.
Posted by East Millinocket Police Department on Wednesday, January 1, 2020
The post went viral, with many people thanking the police department for a simple bit of cautionary advice. It only takes a couple extra seconds to write the full year, after all!
Others were more critical of the post, pointing out that there are many other ways to alter the dates on documents. Some also pointed out that artificially post-dating a check wouldn’t help a scammer very much.
The police department followed up on their post to respond to the critics.
“There seems to be a lot of criticism here for a simple cautionary post. Please understand that we handle scam and fraud calls on a regular basis so we try to provide our small community with tips to avoid potential problems. Of course we understand that all dates can be altered, however I believe that most here would agree that if a document of any kind, either legal or professional, is brought to our attention as being forged or fraudulent, it would likely raise far more red flags, depending on the circumstances, if it had a date of 1999 as opposed to 2019 or 2021.”
Photo Credit: iStock
They added: “Again, we shared this meme with a simple cautionary post, giving the citizens of our small community information to consider. Criminals are always looking for ways to take advantage of people.”
Very true.
The post A Police Department Warned Against Abbreviating ‘2020’ When Signing Important Documents appeared first on UberFacts.
Be very careful, because IRS scammers have some new tricks up their sleeves!
Scammers have long impersonated the IRS to try to trick people into handing over their personal information or paying money. They often do this by calling people on the phone and asking about an overdue “tax bill.” The IRS very rarely calls people on the phone to ask for payment, which means many taxpayers are catching on to this scam.
But now, Forbes reports, some scammers are disguising themselves a bit more skillfully by sending letters instead. Unlike a phone call, it can be difficult for taxpayers to tell whether a letter is really from the IRS or not.
Photo Credit: iStock
One scam involves a letter about taxes that are owed to the “Bureau of Tax Enforcement.” The letter threatens an IRS lien or levy, which may make it sound legit. But there is no such thing as the Bureau of Tax Enforcement, and these letters are 100% a scam.
Other fake IRS letters include different warnings, like a notice that a warrant for arrest has been issued for a taxpayer because of unpaid taxes.
Sometimes these letters are made even more confusing and scary by the fact that they reference actual tax debts. This information is available to the public in some cases, though, so just because a letter includes factual info doesn’t mean it’s not a scam.
So, how can you tell that a letter really is from the IRS?
Photo Credit: iStock
First, it will usually arrive in a government envelope with the IRS seal. It will also include a notice or letter number, your truncated tax ID number, the tax year(s) in question, and IRS contact information. It will also include information about your rights as a taxpayer. The IRS will never threaten to arrest or deport you.
If in doubt, call the IRS directly at 1-800-829-1040.
The post Beware! Scammers Are Sending out Fake Letters from the IRS appeared first on UberFacts.
A man created a fake restaurant that became the #1 restaurant in London. On opening night he served microwaved food. Eventually, he got sick of being interviewed about it. So he sent people that looked like him to the interviews, and told them what to say.
A lot of us have had bad dates, be it on Tinder or elsewhere, but few of those terrible dates probably compare to the experience Cecilie Fjellhoy had recently. The 29-year-old London resident went on a date with a guy who seemed absolutely dreamy… until he swindled $200,000 from her and vanished.
It all started when Cecilie matched with Simon Leviev. Simon told Cecilie that he was an Israeli millionaire and diamond dealer; he claimed that his nickname was the “Prince of Diamonds.”
Sure, that might sound like a scam immediately. But Simon took Cecilie on a private plane ride to Bulgaria as part of their first date, so his story kind of held water. He swept Cecilie off of her feet.
Photo Credit: iStock
“This was the first time where I felt like, ‘Oh my god I really like him. And it seems that he really likes me back as well,’” Cecilie told ABC News . “He’s texting and he’s calling and he seems to really want to get to know me, and I think I fell a bit for that.”
Eventually, Simon started claiming that he was in danger because of his line of work. He asked Cecilie to extend her line of credit to him so that nothing would be in his name and there wouldn’t be a paper trail. He even went so far as to send Cecilie videos of him and his “bodyguard” in the hospital after an “attack.”
Unfortunately, it was all a ruse.
Woman says a man she met on Tinder swindled her out of $200,000. "He didn’t just dump you, he never existed." https://t.co/HHQ8FnpOqo pic.twitter.com/EnTRRA7jFx
— ABC News (@ABC) May 7, 2019
Simon turned out to be Shimon Hyuat, a 28-year-old convicted Israeli con-man. He has a long history of defrauding women to fund his lifestyle, including the private plane that he used to woo Cecilie.
In the end, he took Cecilie’s money and disappeared. She was so heartbroken that she had to get psychiatric help. Meanwhile, Shimon is living it up in Panama, where he is denying allegations of defrauding Cecilie.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
So, is Cecilie still on Tinder? It’s unclear, but she is continuing to meet new people — with a lot more skepticism.
“[I’m] much, much less naive,” she said.
The post This Woman Went on a Tinder Dream Date, and Ended Up Getting Scammed out of $200,000 appeared first on UberFacts.
John C. Beale pretended to be a CIA secret agent, flew around the world on first-class flights, stayed in high-end hotels and cost the taxpayers almost US$900,000.
In 1840’s New York, a man would walk up to strangers, acting as an old acquaintance. Gaining their trust, he asked, “Have you the confidence to trust me with your watch until tomorrow?” He would never return. When arrested, he was dubbed the “Confidence Man”, the origin of the term “Con Man”.
Charles Ponzi, the creator of the Ponzi scheme, received Christmas cards from some of his investors and requests to invest money while he was in prison.
William James Clark, a two-time felon, was able to take command of the I-40 Bridge Disaster scene for two days by impersonating a US Army Captain. After a briefcase belonging to an actual Army captain was recovered from the river, William took possession of it and contacted the officer’s widow on multiple occasions. On May […]
John C. Beale, a man who pretended he was a CIA secret agent, flew around the world on first-class flights, stayed in high-end hotels and cost the taxpayers almost $900,000.