Scam

washington -- Mitt Romney twice emphasized his unique business background when he and eight other Republican presidential candidates faced off in a debate last week in Iowa. "I've spent the last, as I've told you, 25 years in the private sector," former Massachusetts Gov. Romney declared at one point. "I understand why jobs come and why jobs go. I've done business in 20 countries."

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Amazon.com email - Online shoppers should be careful if they receive emails that appear to be from amazon.com, but actually are attempts to steal victims' financial information, the Better Business Bureau said in a recent alert. The scam emails include the subject line, "Your Cancellation," the BBB said. Anyone who receives a suspicious email that appears to be from Amazon should visit the Amazon website directly by typing www.amazon.com into their browser, then sign into "your account" to see whether the email was valid, the BBB said.

A self-described credit union that advertised personal loans nationwide was not registered as a lending institution and gave a phony address, according to Pennsylvania and Michigan banking regulators. First Star Credit Union, which advertised in the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers this month, referred consumers to a toll-free phone number and a website for information on getting a loan. The company operating the website, which listed a York, Pa.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Memorial Day — Memorial Day has become an opportunity for criminals to target veterans as well as active-duty military personnel and their families, the Better Business Bureau said in a recent bulletin. Older veterans are often targeted by scams this time of year, the BBB said. "The unique lifestyle of our service members makes them prime targets for scammers," said Brenda Linnington, director of the BBB's military division.

If you get a suspicious email that appears to be from American Airlines, it could be part of a scam to pilfer personal information. The airline suspects that hackers have sent out, as recently as November, what are known as "phishing" emails intended to mislead people into giving up information such as their passwords to the airline's reward program. To warn customers, American Airlines has posted several examples of the phony emails on its website. One such email says the recipient has paid $278 for a flight to New York and should download the ticket.

The e-mail said it came from CareerBuilder and offered a job opportunity as a "trading assistant," which it described as an easy part-time job with "considerable" compensation. There's just one hitch: It was not an e-mail from CareerBuilder.com, the No. 1 online job website partly owned by Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times, and it was not a job. It was part of a cynical scam that's becoming widespread in the waning days of the recession. This scam is just part of an evolving cacophony of employment frauds that prey on the millions of Americans who are out of work.

Being a cop wasn't enough for Darcey Greenfield. The 17-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department moonlighted in the tumultuous world of real estate. Her "dibbling and dabbling," as she put it, began with her buying a small apartment building during her rookie year and grew into a full-fledged side-profession. She got a real estate license and office space where, on days off from wearing the badge, she researched investments and met with clients. Many of those clients came from the LAPD.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Credit cards - At the request of the Federal Trade Commission, a federal judge has halted a telemarketing campaign that allegedly sold bogus credit cards and drained money from victims' bank accounts. Operating as Platinum Trust Card and Express Platinum Card, the businesses offered credit cards with a limit of up to $9,500 for an advance fee of $99 and a monthly charge of $19. The company said the cards could be used at any business that accepted Visa or MasterCard, but they actually could only be used at an online store the business promoted.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Beauty queen - Prosecutors in Santa Clara County have accused the former Mrs. Pakistan World of using her good looks to entice desperate homeowners into paying her tens of thousands of dollars in a loan-modification scam. The Santa Clara County district attorney's office charged Saman Hasnain and her husband, Jawad, with 17 counts of grand theft for allegedly bilking 17 homeowners, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Mormons targeted - The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused several Utah residents of operating a Ponzi scheme that victimized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In a Dec. 29 lawsuit filed in federal court in Utah, the SEC alleged that Joseph Nelson and his associates targeted investors at church functions, telling them they could double their money if they invested with Nelson's companies.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Memorial Day - Memorial Day has become an opportunity for criminals to target veterans as well as active duty military and their families, the Better Business Bureau said in a recent bulletin. Older veterans are often targeted by scammers this time of year, the BBB said. "The unique lifestyle of our service members makes them prime targets for scammers," noted Brenda Linnington, director of the BBB's military division.  "It's imperative that we educate our service members and ensure that the support we give to them equals the effort they make every day on behalf of us. " Some scams target service personnel and their families directly, while others go after people attempting to contribute to military charities.

An Orange County man who swindled elderly people out of their homes after promising to help them avoid foreclosure was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison under California's tough three-strikes law. Defense lawyers and prosecutors across the state could not recall any other case in which a white-collar offender received such a lengthy sentence under a statute typically applied in violent crime cases. The sentencing of Timothy Barnett was unusual because his entire criminal record involved fraud.

LAGOS, Nigeria - The chaotic color of the megalopolis cascades past the window of his silver Mercedes SUV. A police escort with a flashing blue light clears the road ahead. Restless and irritated, the billionaire is in his bubble. With a slim, elegant finger, he prods his cellphone screen to redial after the call drops. He grills a squirming subordinate about a production problem that has persisted all week. The call drops again. A small sigh. He redials. "The day before yesterday you gave me a different excuse.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. 'Free' gas - A federal judge has ordered a company to stop a marketing scheme in which consumers were promised "free gas for life" if they purchased a book online, the Federal Trade Commission said. Consumers who attempted to buy the book ended up being charged a monthly fee for an online magazine and did not receive the promised free gasoline, the FTC said. Under the court order, the Green Millionaire website can no longer offer "free" products and must clearly disclose how much consumers will be charged for its products.

Would you invest with a stock-picking robot that promises to double your money? If so, you'd be among the 75,000 people, most of them in the U.S., who got scammed by a pair of precocious 16-year-olds who masterminded a far-fetched but elaborate penny-stock scam that netted them more than $3 million. The scheme, which is alleged to have begun in 2007 when the youths were 16, lasted for four years before the pair got nabbed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the SEC is reporting.  The British youths, Alexander John Hunter and Thomas Edward Hunter, created dual websites, Daytradingrobot.com and Doublingstocks.com, in which they claimed that a computer programmer at an investment bank had created a robot that could identify stocks that were about to shoot up. In reality, the youths, who are twin brothers, had created a third website, Equitypromoter.com, in which they offered to tout stocks for a fee. “One email to this list of people rockets a stock price,” the brothers promised.

It sounded far-fetched — a "stock-picking robot" that could identify penny stocks poised to double in price. Turns out, it was. Federal regulators filed a civil complaint Friday against 20-year-old twin brothers in Britain, claiming that they duped 75,000 people — mostly Americans — into paying $47 each to get stock tips from a robot dubbed Marl. They told investors that Marl ran on a computer code written partly by a onetime Goldman Sachs programmer who didn't exist, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Counterfeit luxury items - Bargain hunters should take extreme care when shopping for discounted brand-name merchandise on the Internet, the Better Business Bureau said in a recent bulletin. Websites such as Craigslist and EBay have been used to sell counterfeit items, the BBB said. But some firms have also set up their own websites to market knockoff luxury goods, which are often of poor quality and likely to disappoint the consumer, the group said.

Oprah Winfrey has been generous with her studio audiences, including the famed day when she pointed to everyone there and proclaimed, "You're getting a car!" But she's not giving away $1 million, despite a spam e-mail making the rounds. The FBI has issued a warning that the "Oprah Millionaire Contest Show" e-mail is a scam. The message says the recipient has been nominated to be on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," during which a winner of the cash will be named.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Online shopping discounts — Two men have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms after they were convicted of several crimes related to an online shopping club. James A. Sweeney II and Patrick M. Ryan were convicted of numerous charges of grand theft and securities fraud involving a Riverside company called Big Co-Op Inc., which claimed to offer rebates and discounts to online shoppers. Prosecutors had accused the pair of selling worthless private stock in the company, which they claimed was turning huge profits and about to make an initial public offering.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Online shopping discounts - Two men have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms after they were convicted of several crimes related to an online shopping club. James A. Sweeney II and Patrick M. Ryan were convicted of numerous charges of grand theft and securities fraud involving a Riverside company called Big Co-Op Inc., which claimed to offer rebates and discounts to online shoppers. Prosecutors had accused the pair of selling worthless private stock in the company, which they claimed was turning huge profits and about to make an initial public offering.