Grants Scam Dupes Northern Illinois Residents

Several people throughout Northern Illinois are receiving checks worth nearly three thousand dollars. This is a part of a grant they allegedly have been awarded for fifty thousand dollars.

The Better Business Bureau of Chicago and Northern Illinois has issued a warning regarding the grant scam coming from a company calling itself Mutual Grants Inc.

The grants checks and notifications are being sent from a location in Canada through U.S. Mail not through email as usual. After the mail is received, the recipient is asked to sign and deposit the enclosed check and return the 2,970 dollars to cover fees. The letter also includes a phone number to a “processing agent”, James Bentley, who will provide instructions on returning the money using either Western Union or MoneyGram.

The victims scrub their heads when they become aware that the check they deposited is fake and their banks informs them that they are responsible for the funds they withdrew.

So, be careful of this grants scam.

Source: eNews Park Forest, Park Forest, IL, USA

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Japanese Businessman Accused in Murder Kills Self

Kazuyoshi Miura is a 61-year-old Japanese businessman who was recently returned to the U.S. on charges that he murdered his wife. He was found hanging in his jail cell Friday evening.

"Miura apparently hanged himself sometime Friday night, said an officer at Parker Center police headquarters, where Miura was taken after arriving in the country early Friday.

Miura was arrested in the U.S. commonwealth of Saipan on Feb. 21 and has been in custody ever since. He was to remain in a city jail cell until his arraignment next week.

His wife, Kazumi Miura, was shot in the head near downtown L.A. in 1981, then moved to Japan where she died the next year. She was 28 when she died.

On Thursday, prosecutors with the District Attorney's Office filed papers, asking that a murder charge be reinstated against Miura.

"We fully support that request," police Capt. Denis Cremins said. "Detectives who have been involved in this investigation have no doubt that Mr. Miura is responsible for his wife's death."

Miura had been tried on that charge in Japan and acquitted. Because he was not found guilty of conspiracy, prosecutors were allowed to refile charges in his wife's murder.

In a statement released in May 1988 after the murder and conspiracy charges were filed in Los Angeles, prosecutors alleged Miura collected about $750,000 from life insurance policies on his wife.

Prosecutors also allege Miura "solicited five different people to murder his wife," including the person who actually shot her."

Source: CBS 2, Los Angeles, CA, USA

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Winsted School Investigates Fake Gun Incident

Schools administrators continue the investigation of the fake gun incident in the Northwestern Regional High school where a student brought a fake gun to school.

The student has been suspended for ten days. Further disciplinary action against him will be taken at a Board of Education meeting.

"A replica of a gun can be as dangerous as a real gun," Superintendent Clint Montgomery said. "The student showed a tremendous breach of judgment."

The 15-year-old whose name was not released was issued a juvenile summons for breach of peace and was later released into the custody of his mother, police said. He is scheduled to appear in juvenile court Oct. 26.

Students were listening to presidential candidate Ralph Nader speak at the time when administrators found the fake gun and called the police.

Source: Torrington Register Citizen, Torrington, CT, USA

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Former 100-Meter World Record Holder Sentenced to 5 Years

Tim Montgomery, the former 100-meter world record holder was sentenced to five years in prison after he admitted to distributing heroin.

The 33-year-old American was earlier sentenced to a three-and-a-half-years in New York for his role in a check fraud conspiracy. He will now serve the mandatory five-year term on top of the old one.

US Drug Enforcement Administration agents said Montgomery sold 111 grams of heroin to an undercover informant for about 8,500 dollars, with four meetings between Montgomery and the informant videotaped by the federal authorities.

Montgomery set a world 100m record of 9.78 seconds in Paris in 2002. It was stricken down from the books in 2005 after he was found guilty in a doping scandal.

Source: AFP

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19-Year-Old Girl Kills Mother, Stabs 50 Times with a Knife

Rachel Mullenix of Huntington Beach is a 19-year-old girl. She was convicted on Friday for gruesomely stabbing her mother to death and dumping her body in the ocean. She was sentenced to 25 years for life in prison.

Barbara Mullenix, her mother, whose body was pulled from Newport with a butter knife protruding from an eye in September 2006 had been stabbed 50 times by her.

During the hearing she told the judge that she made some "bad choices" but did not kill her mother.

"My mom was my world. She was my life," Rachel Mullenix told the judge in Orange County Superior Court. "And somebody saying that I would stab her really affects me because I didn't.

"I'm not saying I'm completely innocent. But planning and killing my mom I did not do, and I will never, ever take responsibility for it."

Her lawyer, David Cohn, said he will appeal his client's July 17 conviction. He said she should be eligible for parole when she is about 40 years old.

Her ex-boyfriend, 23-year-old Ian Allen, was also convicted of first-degree murder in a separate trial. His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 14.

Source: Sfgate.com

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Man arrested for making 600 tonnes of fake protein powder

Police arrested a Zhang Yujun from the Hebei province who produced more than 600 tons of fake protein powder on Friday. This is another dangerous revelation after the fake milk case.

Zhang Yujun is a resident of Hebei's Quzhou county. He made the protein powder with the industrial chemical melamine and food additive maltodextrin. He started this activity from September last year in a village near Jinan, the capital of Shangdong.

Zhang's learning began in his dairy farm in Hebei. Here, he became a master of making fake protein powder. Using the name Zhang Haitao, he made the fake protein powder on an industrial scale in Shangdong.

Melamine, is a dangerous substance which can lead to urinary tract problems such as kidney stones. It was only a few days ago that melamine was found in a baby formula produced by Sanlu group based in Hebei.

Police had arrested a total of 36 persons related to the fake protein powder case. Further details are awaited.

Source: China Daily, China

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10 Tips to Avoid Identity Theft

Identity theft is a serious problem today. Identity theft can make it difficult to improve your credit score. It can also lead to legal troubles. If your credit history is affected, you may have trouble getting a new job, housing, or insurance.

Here are 10 tips that can help you from becoming a victim of identity theft:

• Memorize your social security number and your PIN numbers.

• Don’t use easy to guess passwords, like your birthday or your mother’s maiden name.

• Secure your computer by using firewall software and always update your computer security to safeguard your computer from spyware.

• Confirm if the website URL that is requesting your personal information is authentic or legitimate.

• Beware of emails, especially with attachments, belonging to someone you don’t know. Emails like these contain viruses or spyware that can easily be installed in your computer and can send your personal information stored in your computer to thieves.

• Websites that ask for personal information should be secure. A secured website usually has URL that starts with “https://” with the “s” meaning secured.

• Beware of telephone inquiries asking you to give your personal information, unless you contacted them.

• If you lost your credit card, report it immediately to concerned authorities. It could have been stolen by identity thieves.

• Get your mail as soon as it is delivered.

• Do not discard bank, credit card or any other transaction receipts in public areas. Someone might obtain these information by dumpster diving.

Source: CreditScoreAide.com

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Tommy Peacock Pays You $187000 E-mail Scam

Tommy Peacock might be a treasure hunter or some sort of magician. He sends e-mail to people promising the recipients $187,000 which can be picked at any Western Union outlet.

The email also states that if the recipient wants to receive his or her money they need to get a Western Union Promo Card. In order to get one, certain information must be sent through e-mail.

He asks for name, money transfer control number, telephone number and address. Peacock also provides an e-mail address of a Western Union agent to whom people should send their information.

The e-mail also mentions that Peacock is on his way to Chile to complete a bridge project, so he won't be around to reply to e-mails.

So be aware and don't let this Mr. Peacock fool you!

Source: Canada.com, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada

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Federal Regulators Sue Democrat Fundraiser for $60 Million Scam

On Monday, federal regulators sued political fundraiser Norman Hsu for allegedly operating a $60 million investment scam and using some proceeds to contribute to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and other prominent Democrats.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. It accuses Hsu of using a company called Next Components to solicit investments that promised high rates of return by providing short-term loans to other companies.The lawsuit also states that Hsu used the investments to pay off early investors in a classic Ponzi scheme while using the rest to make political contributions and support a lavish lifestyle.

The SEC is seeking to recoup the investors' money and financial penalties.

In May, a federal judge in Los Angeles ordered Hsu to pay $28.8 million to aggrieved investors who sued him. Hsu wasn't represented by a lawyer in that case and never responded to the lawsuit.

Source: The Associated Press

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Botanist Heslop-Harrison’s Rare Plants Discovery is a Fake

Professor John Heslop-Harrison who claimed to have discovered rare plants was labelled as fake by his fellow peers.

Professor John Heslop-Harrison, formerly of Newcastle University, led scientific expeditions to the Isle of Rum in Scotland in the 1940s. He claimed to have found unusual Arctic alpine plants. A finding which led some to wonder if the Ice Age ever reached Scotland.

But the so-called unusual plants were actually grown in Prof Heslop- Harrison’s Gateshead greenhouse, before he replanted them in Scotland.

The scientific scandal was first uncovered by writer Karl Sabbagh in 1999 — in his book A Rum Affair: A True Story of Botanical Fraud — in which he claimed some colleagues doubted the Newcastle professor’s work and suspected foul play.

Source: Sunday Sun, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, UK

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Israeli Hacker in Multimillion-dollar Online Fraud

The United States is seeking the extradition of an Israeli hacker known as "The Analyzer" from Canada. He is believed to be the mastermind of a multimillion-dollar worldwide online fraud.

Ehud Tenenbaum is aged 29.He was arrested in late August over charges relating to a $1.8-million theft from a Calgary financial institution. While he was granted bail last week, he was arrested again on a provisional warrant under the Extradition Act before he could post the required $30,000 bail.

Canwest News Service reported on Friday that Court of Queen's Bench Justice Bryan Mahoney denied Tenenbaum bail on the U.S. charges. The court heard on Friday that the allegations against Tenenbaum involved potentially hundreds of financial institutions in Russia, Turkey, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Germany and other countries.

"Mr. Tenenbaum is alleged by the government of the U.S. to be one of the principal hackers, if not the mastermind, of their entire global operation," Canwest quoted federal Crown prosecutor David Gates as arguing.

"Mr. Tenenbaum and others did the actual hacking into financial institutions to obtain [debit and credit] card PIN numbers, and then sold them to others in their operation."

The U.S. government now has 60 days to submit an extradition order to have him taken back to face the charges, according to Canwest. Canada's justice minister then has 30 days to decide whether or not an extradition hearing can take place.

Mr.Tenenbaum is quite a renowned man and not any 'roadside-chap' as you would think. He was earlier sentenced to 15 months in jail in Israel in 1998 for hacking into the Pentagon computer system in the U.S.

Source: Ha'aretz, Tel Aviv, Israel

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