Filed under: Ripoffs and Scams, Technology

The entertainment industry seems ready to admit defeat in its attempt to bludgeon the music and video-consuming public into giving up their file sharing habits. Despite thousands of lawsuits against students who download “free” content via sites such as Pirate Bay, the industry is still carping about lost revenue.

The alternative the industry proposes sounds draconian to me. According to the New York Times, NBC, Microsoft and others support putting the responsibility for screening for and stopping the sharing of copyrighted content on the back of world wide web networks. For example, this would require Time Warner Cable to peek into your internet traffic and block any content that falls within this category.

An analogy might be made to the postal process. In this analogy, the post office would be tasked with opening up each piece of your mail to make sure it doesn’t contain illegal materials.

The analogy is apt in other ways, I think. It adds a layer of complication, i.e. cost and time, to communications, and it forces us to pay to have ourselves policed for the benefit of the entertainment industry.

Why can’t they deal with this by the tried and true method? Since the NSA reads all of our mail, let them carry out the electronic strip searches. They many not be able to find Bin Laden with their billions of dollars of equipment, but I bet they could find an Arcade Fire download in a haystack.

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Filed under: Home, Ripoffs and Scams, Fraud

Foreclosures seem to be on the rise, but mortgage companies don’t always get a slam dunk when it comes to taking your home from you. In order to foreclose, they’ve got to have their paperwork in order, something that’s not always a given. With mortgages being sold over and over, sometimes companies don’t have adequate documentation to succeed with the foreclosure.

Countrywide Financial Corporation found a way to solve this problem, but it didn’t make a judge too happy. The company created false documentation in an effort to prove it had sent certain letters to a homeowner, when in fact Countrywide hadn’t sent her those letters.

After successfully completing a Chapter 13 bankruptcy period of 60 months, Countrywide accused the homeowner of having unpaid fees from that bankruptcy period. No dice. Countrywide didn’t bring it up during the bankruptcy, so it can’t now try to get extra money from her.

Countrywide’s solution was to create fake letters that made it look like it did bring up those fees during the bankruptcy period. It got caught, and company attorneys ended up admitting that the letters they produced to the court were “recreated.” In plain terms, they were phony.

And apparently this isn’t the only case that Countrywide is having trouble with. 300 bankruptcy cases in Pittsburgh involving Countrywide are currently being examined because of documentation the company lost or destroyed. I’ve no objection to mortgage companies foreclosing on those who don’t pay their mortgages. But the mortgage companies must play by the rules.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

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Filed under: Home, Ripoffs and Scams, Fraud

Foreclosures seem to be on the rise, but mortgage companies don’t always get a slam dunk when it comes to taking your home from you. In order to foreclose, they’ve got to have their paperwork in order, something that’s not always a given. With mortgages being sold over and over, sometimes companies don’t have adequate documentation to succeed with the foreclosure.

Countrywide Financial Corporation found a way to solve this problem, but it didn’t make a judge too happy. The company created false documentation in an effort to prove it had sent certain letters to a homeowner, when in fact Countrywide hadn’t sent her those letters.

After successfully completing a Chapter 13 bankruptcy period of 60 months, Countrywide accused the homeowner of having unpaid fees from that bankruptcy period. No dice. Countrywide didn’t bring it up during the bankruptcy, so it can’t now try to get extra money from her.

Countrywide’s solution was to create fake letters that made it look like it did bring up those fees during the bankruptcy period. It got caught, and company attorneys ended up admitting that the letters they produced to the court were “recreated.” In plain terms, they were phony.

And apparently this isn’t the only case that Countrywide is having trouble with. 300 bankruptcy cases in Pittsburgh involving Countrywide are currently being analyzed because of documentation the company lost or destroyed. I have no objection to mortgage companies foreclosing on those who don’t pay their mortgages. But the mortgage companies must play by the rules.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Bookkeeping, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

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Filed under: Ripoffs and Scams, Technology

If I told you that you that I could sell you a device that would allow you to get 100 miles per gallon or more in your vehicle, you’d write me off as a con man, right? I sure hope so.

Unfortunately, Newsweek magazine, once the primary source of news for millions of Americans, has demeaned itself by accepting advertising from a company making such a fraudulent claim.

The company running the ad, Energy Empire, claims its pre-ignition catalytic converter can increase mileage nine-fold through the hocus-pocus of “Using magnetic and electrical reaction to break down the fuel molecules into their elemental say.”

What the magazine ad doesn’t tell you, but is revealed on Energy Empire’s web site, is that this Philosopher’s Stone of a converter is still in development. In the meantime, the company wants to sell you the “Hydro-assist fuel cell,” a different device that they claim will also improve mileage by burning water along with gasoline.

The signs of a con are obvious: scientific buzz words such as fuel cell, claims couched in paragraphs of wiggle words, bait and switch advertising. Most damning, though, is that this company is at least in part owned and operated by infamous con man/con evangelist Dennis Lee, who previously served jail time for his notorious “free energy” scheme.

Repeat after me, people: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH. 100 mpg automobiles are in our future, but our over eagerness for them is a flim-flam man’s dream. Shame on Newsweek for allowing such an ad to run in its magazine.

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