Scam Watch: ‘Penny auctions’ often no bargain

Expensive pennies

The Better Business Bureau is warning consumers to be wary of so-called penny auction websites, which advertise electronic products such as Apple Inc. iPads at bargain prices. Many people have complained about being charged fees as high as $150 after signing up for what was promoted as a free trial, the bureau said in a recent bulletin. Other customers have alleged that the sites use computer-programmed bots to place fake bids that drive up prices. The customers who have complained to the bureau also said they had been unable to obtain refunds, the bulletin said.

Blackjack suspects

Three people who allegedly used marked cards to cheat a Central California casino out of $24,000 in half an hour have been charged criminally, Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said in a news release. A casino floor supervisor allegedly gave the marked cards to a dealer July 12 at the Turlock Poker Room in Turlock, Brown said. Because the markings revealed the value of the cards before they were dealt, a player was able to make some extraordinary decisions — such as hitting on 17 or standing on 11 — the attorney general said. Employees became suspicious of the unusual play and reported it to state officials. The three people arrested in the scheme each face a possible maximum sentence of three years and eight months in prison.

O.C. attorney indicted

An Irvine attorney has been indicted in a mortgage fraud scheme for allegedly misleading banks into believing that he or others would be living in homes that had been purchased at inflated prices. Gerald L. Wolfe was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. The scheme involved the purchase of 30 homes and cost banks more than $2 million, Mrozek said. Most of the homes went into foreclosure. Wolfe could not be reached for comment.

Insider trading

A former hedge fund manager has been convicted of using inside information to make more than $7 million in profit from illegal trades. A federal jury in Manhattan convicted Joseph Contorinis of conspiracy and securities fraud for making trades based on nonpublic information, received from an investment banker, about mergers and acquisitions of public companies. Contorinis is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 4.

stuart.pfeifer@latimes.com