Scams
La Jolla, because of its wealth, has always attracted scammers. So I wasn’t surprised. that another one cropped up. The company is called Ethos Asset Management. I never heard of it, but back in 2023 the artificial intelligence company Beyond Limits accused the CEO, Carlos Santos, of fraud. But it took awhile to catch him. […]
Do you know what pig butcherers are? These are people who befriend others on websites, gain their trust, and scam them out of their savings. In effect they fatten “pigs” by establishing relationships, and then butcher them by stealing everything they have. Often the butcherers pretend to be in love with their victims. Or they […]
It’s hard to believe how the most rational people can be pulled into a scam. An article in The New Yorker in 2006 shows that this is not true. John Worley was a decorated Vietnam veteran, an ordained minister, and a Christian psychotherapist. He had even developed a psychological profiling tool to help determine his […]
I Got Scammed Too – by Carl Vonderau. Scammers play with your doubts and use your best intentions. I learned that in a movie written by David Mamet called “House of Games.” In that film a psychiatrist helps a compulsive gambler, and is led into a world of scams. I was working with a Canadian […]
Scammers Want to Know if You are Paying People by Check – by Carl Vonderau. Are you paying with checks? I still do because I like the physical record. Or maybe you’re sending checks to your kids at Christmas. Watch out! Scammers steal the checks, alter them and deposit the checks with new amounts. Then […]
It’s hard to believe the number of swindlers that show up this time of year. I get at least one ad a week for a free gift card or for virus protection that I’ve supposedly signed up for. These are sponsored by fraudsters trying to glob onto the insides of my laptop, or to tease […]
When we were living in Montreal and my kids were young, we used to take them to the Jay Peak Ski Resort in Vermont. Little did I know that one of the owners was stealing millions of dollars that were supposed to be invested in the park. In the early 2000s Jay Peak was underdeveloped […]
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