Beware of counterfeit luxury items online, BBB warns
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. Plus, some firms have set up their own websites to market knockoff luxury goods, which often are of poor quality and likely to disappoint buyers, the group said.
“In a tight economy, consumers are always looking to save a buck or two,” said Katherine Hutt, a spokeswoman for the Council of Better Business Bureaus. “Too often, what looks to be a great deal is really a shoddy knockoff in disguise.”
To avoid buying counterfeit merchandise, consumers should deal with reputable, known vendors, avoid deals that sound too good to be true and beware of ads that use phrases such as “genuine” or “authentic,” because those words are often a sign of trouble, the BBB said.
Bogus checks
A Culver City man has been sentenced to more than five years in federal prison for his role in a sophisticated scheme that stole more than $1.6 million from Wells Fargo & Co. checking accounts.
Sean Bazille, 45, was convicted of charges that included conspiracy and bank fraud. He is one of 17 people convicted in the scam.
The scheme’s organizers paid Wells Fargo employees to provide account holder information, then used it to produce and cash bogus checks, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a news release. They also had bank employees change customers’ telephone numbers so if the bank called to inquire about suspicious activity, people involved in the scam would receive the calls, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Wells Fargo has since modified its fraud prevention security procedures so this tactic won’t work anymore, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. More than 100 customer accounts were compromised during the fraud, which ran from 2002 to 2006. Wells Fargo replaced the stolen money to customer accounts, incurring a loss of $1.66 million, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
This case is an example of why it’s important for bank account holders to carefully check monthly statements for mistakes or fraud.
Ponzi scheme
A federal jury in New York has convicted the founder of a real estate consulting firm of charges related to a Ponzi scheme that caused victims to lose more than $14 million, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn.
Joseph Mazella of Great Atlantic Group Inc. was accused of telling investors that he would use their money on real estate projects, but instead spending it on personal expenses and to pay returns to early investors.
“The evidence at trial showed that the defendant callously and systematically defrauded his victims of their lives’ savings,” said Loretta E. Lynch, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “Mazella’s victims, many of whom are senior citizens on a fixed income, turned to him to ensure their security in their golden years. Instead, their security was raided to fund his fraud. They will feel the impact of Mazella’s crimes for the rest of their lives.”
More to Read
