Check Fraud

If you look for pictures of Marion Jones, you will find one in track garb from the cover of Time magazine, another in a slinky gown from the cover of Vogue and another with the milk mustache A-list celebrities wear in the "Got milk" advertising campaign. Among those in the milk ads have been magician David Copperfield, action film hero Jackie Chan, "Sex and the City" star Kim Cattrall, talk show host Conan O'Brien, singer Beyonce, supermodel Tyra Banks and baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken.

The long arm of the law reaches only so far, according to a federal appeals court. In a win for consumers, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that a San Clemente debt collection company could be sued for alleged overly aggressive tactics, even when the company is working on behalf of prosecutors. The appeals court ruled in a lawsuit against American Corrective Counseling Services Inc.

At first, Los Angeles resident Wanita Holmes thought it was her lucky day. "You are hereby selected to participate in a paid Consumer Research Program in your area of residence as a 'Mystery Shopper,' " the letter began, adding that the assignment could turn into a full-time gig "for a selected few who are able to distinguish themselves in the course of this program."

When it comes to protecting myself against identify theft, I like to think that I'm pretty savvy. I pay most of my bills online, and every day or two I check the transactions in my bank and credit card accounts. Once a year, I request personal reports from all three credit bureaus. And I always shred credit card solicitations, ATM withdrawal slips and receipts bearing my signature.

TALK about money laundering. An ordinary check made out to person A is bathed in a chemical available at any hardware store. In just a few minutes it's blank again and made out to person B -- who is a thief. This process, which has been around for decades, is known as "check washing" among con men, and in an era of high-tech crimes, it seems almost quaint. Except that it's back. Along with other check crimes.

The e-mails arrive out of the blue, from Nigeria or other countries. They tell of inheritances, political problems, other reasons someone needs to get money out of the country. If you help, they promise to let you share the money. Thousands of people fall for the scam, losing an average of $3,000 to $4,000 each. This year, an average of more than 800 people a month have filed complaints about such scams. Hoping to stem the losses, the U.S.

I've never set foot in a PetSmart and haven't owned a critter since my family's beloved boxer, Archie, slobbered off this mortal coil sometime during the Nixon years. So that $38.28 payment to the pet store jumped off the screen as I did my online banking a few Saturdays ago. There, taunting me from the signature line of Check No. 3512's electronic image, was a big, flowery, cursive rendition of "Kim Christensen."

It was Fred Tracomm's lucky day. Two checks came in the mail to a Chicago office -- one for $4,000 and the other for $4,000.50. Both were made out to Fred. But Tracomm wasn't expecting any checks. In fact, he doesn't exist. The checks were part of a fake-check scheme, a rapidly growing scam that federal authorities believe mostly originates in ground zero for so much of the fraud plaguing the Internet: Nigeria. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service announced this month that it had seized $2.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- Olympic gold medalist Tim Montgomery's once-celebrated life continued its long downward spiral Friday when a federal judge sentenced the former "world's fastest man" to nearly four years in prison for dealing in bad checks. The judge also warned Montgomery, 33, that the evidence against him "does not appear to be flimsy" in an ongoing case in Virginia, where he is accused of selling heroin. A conviction there would carry a minimum five-year sentence. Montgomery, wearing a white T-shirt and baggy pants, lamented the turns his life has taken as he asked Judge Kenneth Karas for leniency just before the 46-month sentence was imposed.

A former Georgia point guard who sparked an investigation into academic fraud at the school two years ago was arrested again. Tony Cole is charged with violating his probation on a bad-check charge. He was arrested Sunday after he was pulled over for a traffic violation. The arrest is at least Cole's seventh in four years. Cole will remain in jail until a hearing is set. His brief career at Georgia ended in 2002 after he and two other university athletes were charged with rape.