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Medicare scams preying on COVID-19 fears lead to federal charges
The Justice Department announced criminal charges Wednesday against more than a dozen people in a series of Medicare scams that exploited coronavirus fears to bill tens of millions of dollars in bogus claims.
Man behind Navy kickback scam seeks reduced sentence
The leader of an $18 million kickback scheme targeting the Navy wants a federal appeals court to throw out his 10-year prison sentence, arguing prosecutors failed to honor promises they made when he signed a plea deal.
Attorney disbarred for bankruptcy scam
An attorney has been disbarred for running a bankruptcy fraud scheme with his wife.
Scam involving AG’s office a (phone) numbers game
A recent press release from the attorney general's office was unusual because the agency is an unwitting pawn in a "caller ID spoofing" scheme.
FTC: $1M settlement in debt collection scam
WASHINGTON — A debt collection operation that involved text messages and collectors allegedly posing as attorneys has led to a $1 million settlement with the federal government. The Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday that a debt collector in Glendale, Calif., agreed to pay the civil penalty in order to settle FTC charges. The commission alleged […]
N.Y. attorney general sues HSBC over foreclosures
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s attorney general is suing HSBC Bank USA and HSBC Mortgage Corp., claiming they’re failing to set timely foreclosure settlement conferences required by state law. The law says mortgage lenders who sue to foreclose on residential homeowners will request court-supervised intervention and attend a settlement conference on possible loan modifications within [&hel[...]
BGE warning customers of new utility scam
Baltimore Gas and Electric is warning customers about a new telephone scam. Nearly two dozen customers have notified the utility about the scam over the past two weeks. Spokeswoman Rachael Lighty says most of the complaints have come from the Baltimore area. Officials say the way the scam works is a person will call pretending […]
Gansler warns of text message scam
Attorney General Doug Gansler is warning residents about a text message scam that falsely suggests recipients have won a gift card to a store. The text messages tell recipients that they have won a gift card at a well-known store worth several hundred dollars. They recipients are instructed to go to a website and provide […]
Md. man sentenced in ID-theft scheme
UPPER MARLBORO — A Maryland man has been sentenced to six years in prison as part of an identity theft-scam involving 50 victims. The Washington Post reports that 45-year-old Lawrence I. Green of Brentwood and others from the Maryland and the District of Columbia have pleaded guilty to stealing information to access bank accounts and […]
Malware deadline passes, very few knocked offline
WASHINGTON — If you’re reading this online, you’re fine. The day that was supposed to see thousands of people knocked off the Internet has arrived, but only a few people were affected. Thousands of Internet users across the U.S. and beyond waited too long or simply didn’t believe warnings that they would lose access to […]
Lessons learned from a phone scam
Last week, my cell phone started ringing incessantly. By “incessantly,” I mean every two seconds. The numbers that came through were not 10-digit numbers, but sometimes 15-to-20 digits. When I answered, the call disconnected. I called Verizon and was told there was nothing they could do about it, that a machine was likely dialing my number […]
From phishing to smishing
Call me behind the times (actually, please don’t), but I hadn’t heard of smishing until 6:24 this morning, when I received a text message from “Wal-Mart,” directing me to a website and offering me a $1,000 gift card. A little Googling later, I learned Wal Mart issued a statement on March 9, warning about a […]
