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fraud

And, we're back. Once more, the authorities in the USA are reminding people that fraudsters use natural disasters as the hook for their activities.

A doctor prescribed meds his patients didn't need, claimed payment and spent the proceeds. Now he's serving a 12 year jail sentence for, amongst other things, laundering the proceeds of his own offence.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has issued warnings relating to fake websites and/or phishing attacks on customers of three banks: China Citic, OCBC Wing Hang and Bank of China.

FCRO Subsection: 

While there is global fascination with the case against Malaysia's former prime minister Najib Razak, who has been charged with offences that, at present, do not include money laundering, the world is seeing an unprecedented range of cases brought against politicians and those close to them. Has the tide turned and are politicians, previously considered largely untouchable, now legitimate targets?

The news that judges, in London, have been charged with fraud is just part of a much larger problem. Alongside them are solicitors. The Metropolitan Police have been investigating what they describe as a "complex fraud team investigation." The case started after a court clerk reported suspicions of suspicious claims for state-funded payments under the Legal Aid Scheme. However, legal aid fraud has been a long-running problem in the legal system in England and Wales with criminal and immigration practitioners being most commonly reported.

Legal professional privilege used to be simple: if a document or thing came to the attention of a lawyer in the course of, or in during preparation for, litigation it was privileged. That was it. Simple, clear and everyone knew where they stood. Then some twit decided to invent "legal advice privilege" which tends to the view that anything said between a lawyer and his client is privileged. Then no one knew where they stood because, in England and Wales and therefore in other jurisdictions following that, behind all of this lay two fundamental principles: a solicitor is an officer of the Court and must not mislead the Court and legal professional privilege breaks when a client attempts to involve the solicitor in the commission of a crime. Advocates of legal advice privilege were not supportive of that.

CoNet Section: 

When Australia took action against an internet scammer for sending out notices relating to domains (see here) the effect on those committing similar frauds was... zero.

CoNet Section: 

A scam-spam has been received from the fake internet domain WESTEMUNION.COM

(see update, below)

BIScom Subsection: 

It's a stupid name: TSB is an acronym for Trustees Savings Bank and then some idiot, years ago, decided to add "Bank" to the acronym, in a move that rivals the equally stupid "ATM machine." But that's not the reason this heavy-duty spam-scam mailout is an obvious fraud. Warning: the content is highly plausible and the mail constructed to avoid even aggressive anti-spam filters.

BIScom Subsection: 

Lessons in taking screenshots. After I wrote about Skype's pricing scheme, I logged onto Skype to see a message saying that my transaction remained outstanding. I clicked on it and was surprised: it had been adjusted to show that I should pay GBP10, not GBP12. OK, I thought, click to buy. How I wish I'd been realistic (some may say sceptical) and taken a screen shot. Previous story: Credit card companies should beware of payments to Skype.

FCRO Subsection: 

Ben Jayaweera, of Upper Mt Gravatt, has today appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates' Court charged with six counts of fraud involving approximately AUD5.9 million.

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IP address: 37.46.124.111
@companieshouse-gov.uk (fake domain.
(free content)

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This is more than a little bit scary. A criminal, exactly what kind isn't clear, has been reading the major Australian employment website Seek.com.au - and then he (it's almost always a "he") is sending invitations to become involved in money laundering or, possibly, to be a victim of a long-established scheme to defraud his victims. The scam letter is a collection of so many currently trendy phrases that it might be convincing - especially to someone who is in awe of cryptocurrencies, blockchain (as they call it) and so many other trigger words. Oh, and there's an interesting twist to the old version of this crime.

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