Scams

Scams

by Mike Masnick




Teen Scammer Caught Again

from the looking-for-easy-money dept

Two years ago, the SEC charged a teenager with defrauding people out of over $1 million by convincing them (somehow) that by giving him their money, he would get them a guaranteed 2,500% return (yes, you read that number right). The SEC made him give back most (though, apparently not all) of the money, and went easy on him after he apologized and promised not to break the law again. However, going after easy money is apparently too big of a draw for this kid. He's still a teen, but now he's been accused of trying to defraud a bank out of nearly half a million, using a similar scam. He wanted a bank employee to give him the money, which he promised he would use to gamble online for huge profits, and then he would return the missing money to the account and everyone would profit. The bank employee, not being a sucker, turned the kid in. The kid's response on being caught is that he didn't do anything wrong, and the whole situation was set up by federal authorities to get him. Meanwhile, the SEC, who let him off so easy two years ago, is now asking a judge to reopen the case and impose fines of millions of dollars on him. Apparently, the slap on the wrist wasn't very effective.

3 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

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  1. Jan 30th, 2004 @ 5:38am

    No Subject Given

    by Matt

    I want the list of people he scammed, since they may be able to help out a Nigerian friend of mine...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. Jan 30th, 2004 @ 7:45am

    Scorched?

    by Oliver Wendell Jones

    Sounds to me like he saw the movie Scorched (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286947/) and wondered if he could get away with the same thing.

    At worst he's guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud, it doesn't sound like he'd actually got around to committing any fraud - yet.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Feb 1st, 2004 @ 2:58am

    Give Me a Royal Break..Not a Royal Flush!

    Give Me a Royal Break..Not a Royal Flush!

    This "kid" has done nothing out of the Inet Norm.

    Out of the thousands of HYIPs (High Yeild Investment Programs)
    on the internet these days
    offering 2.5% or more on your money;
    How many are scams?


    And if a bank is stupified enough to let

    this kid borrow money to gamble, (probably on HYIPs)
    More power to him.

    Should he be prosecuted for it??

    If so, then you better do the same to me
    and the other 100s of thousands of Money Randomizors

    and high risk investment programs on the internet.


    Dxhtml.com

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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