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On March 27, 2011 Brian Neil Burkel, the notorious owner of AutographsAmerica.com was arrested for assault; his most recent court appearance was June 6, 2011.

Once we have obtained the documents detailing Mr. Burkels latest court adventure, we will of course post them. Burkel has a history of violence against women; see related doc below regarding a previous arrest for punching a pregnant woman in the stomach.

June 01, 2011

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has filed a complaint against an Alberta-based "online operation" that has allegedly bilked customers out of nearly half a billion dollars. In a statement issued earlier this week, the FTC said the complaint centres on 10 online marketing companies controlled by Jesse Willms, a 23-year-old Alberta man.

The FTC has accused those companies of defrauding customers in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand out of more than US$450 million. That allegation has not been proven in court, and Willms has not faced any charges.

According to the complaint, which was filed May 16, Willms' companies operate a scam in which customers are offered "free" or "risk-free" trials and are then charged for products or services they never agreed to buy.

The free trials, advertised through spam and pop-up ads, were for items such as acai berry weight-loss pills, teeth whiteners, health supplements, free credit reports, access to government grants and a work-at-home plan.

Once customers had signed on, the FTC alleges that they often incurred unauthorized monthly charges, typically for $79.95. The complaint also alleges that customers had problems cancelling the charges or securing a refund, despite a money-back guarantee. "The defendants used the lure of a ‘free' offer to open an illegal pipeline to consumers' credit card and bank accounts," said David C. Vladeck, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, in the statement.

"‘Free' must really mean ‘free' no matter where the offer is made." The complaint seeks to stop the alleged illegal scam and to force the companies to repay their customers for money earned through "deceptive tactics." Willms has at least half a dozen websites devoted to his activities. Most tout his philanthropic work.

One site describes him as "a true Canadian success story." It also includes a statement denying the FTC's allegations. "We believe our business practices are compliant with the law and are working to resolve this disagreement with the appropriate government agencies," Willms wrote. "Our companies give consumers the opportunity to buy a variety of products and services at significant savings."

Willms also wrote that he has hired James Kaminski, a Washington-based lawyer who used to work for the FTC "to try to resolve this matter quickly." A number of Canadian authorities including the RCMP, the Alberta Partnership Against Cross Border Fraud and the Competition Bureau of Canada have been assisting in the investigation, the FTC said.

The companies facing allegations include Circle Media Bids, Coastwest Holdings, Farend Services, JDW Media, Net Soft Media, Sphere Media and True Net. All are registered in Canada.

Click Here to View Court Docs

April 11, 2011

The Walton County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) today arrested Kristina Marie Walters, 25, of Houston, Texas, for Internet fraud.

The WCSO investigation began Dec. 2009 when investigators received information from a Walton County victim who wired $10,000 to the online seller of two vintage motorcycles that were never delivered. The seller, “Stephen Mitchell,” persuaded the victim to wire the funds to a bank account in Louisiana administered by Walters. She withdrew $9,500 the same day.

The investigation revealed that Walters conspired with Clifford Booty, 49, of Denham, La., who fictitiously created pseudo name “Stephen Mitchell” as the seller of the merchandise, to mislead the unknowing victim to wire funds to a legitimate bank account.

Walters was charged with one count of criminal conspiracy, a first-degree misdemeanor; one count of grand theft, a third-degree felony; and one count of advertising fraud, a first-degree misdemeanor. She was booked into the Walton County Jail.

Booty is being investigated for similar crimes in other states and Canada. The WCSO is presently seeking a warrant for his arrest.

The WCSO encourages citizens to become familiar with the following safety tips for avoiding non-delivery of merchandise and to prevent scammers from fraudulently obtaining personal or financial information:

• Obtain a physical address rather than simply a post office box and a telephone number, and call the seller to see if the telephone number is correct and working.

• Send an e-mail to the seller to make sure the e-mail address is active, and be wary of those that utilize free e-mail services where a credit card wasn’t required to open the account.

• Consider not purchasing from sellers who won’t provide you with this type of information.

• Be cautious when dealing with individuals/companies from outside your area.

• If possible, purchase items online using your credit card, because you can often dispute the charges if something goes wrong.

The Internet is a wonderful thing, but not all of our ancient human brains are equipped to handle it. In Naperville, Illinois, a 48-year-old man just discovered that his online girlfriend of 2.5 years isn’t real. Worse, he’s wired her more than $200,000 throughout the relationship.

That’s right. Pent up for love and obviously ignorant about the dangers of the Internet, the poor man wired tens of thousands of dollars to different bank accounts in Nigeria, Malaysia, England, and the U.S., thinking he was helping out his girlfriend. What stories “she” told him to get the money, we do not know. Fellas, if you see the word “Nigeria” and a money request in the same correspondence, it can never mean good things.

The relationship would have gone on even longer, but the man panicked when he found out his “girlfriend” had been kidnapped in London. He called the police for assistance and showed them a copy of the woman’s ID. The tech-savvy police did a Google search and figured out that the ID was a sample driver’s licence from Florida. In other words, it wasn’t real. The man “was in disbelief” when police informed him that his girlfriend wasn’t real.

February 2011

OREM — Police are warning about the potential dangers of online dating sites after a woman was swindled out of approximately $200,000. About a year ago, a 39-year-old Orem woman met a man on the online dating site, LDSLinkUp.com. The website advertises itself as "the world's largest LDS social network, where tens of thousands of church members from over 50 countries meet new people through networks of friends."

The man, who claimed his name was Richard Smart Frisch Jr. and was a businessman from the United Kingdom, started having conversations back and forth with the woman, said Orem Police Sgt. Craig Martinez. After awhile, he got comfortable enough with her to start asking for money. He would have her wire money of various amounts overseas, to several locations, Martinez said.

The amounts ranged from $5,000 to $10,000 at a time, he said. And the reasons varied from business ventures to medical bills. "He said one time he had been kidnapped and needed ransom money," Martinez said.

On Monday, after about a year of having contact with the man, the woman went to police."It's highly unlikely we'll get any of that money back," Martinez said, noting that his detectives would be trying their hardest to recover as much as they could.

Martinez said he has seen other cases of people being scammed through online dating sites. In one case, a male victim was convinced he was engaged to a woman and was going to marry her.

This is the first time Martinez has heard of a victim in Orem being swindled on that particular social network, he said, adding that he doesn't believe it was just LDS people that the scammers targeted.

"I think they're targeting people who are looking for online love," he said. "I think it's everywhere." The case should serve as a reminder to people to make sure they really know the identity of the person on the other end of the computer before sending money, police said.

A Nigerian man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for sending out fraudulent e-mails offering victims big bucks in exchange for moving cash to the United States.

Okpako Mike Diamreyan, 31, was sentenced to 151 months of prison Wednesday by United States District Judge Janet Hall in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Diamreyan made more than US$1.3 million in a scam that suckered 67 victims between 2004 to 2009, prosecutors said. This type of fraud, called an advance-fee scam, was the number-one type of Internet fraud in 2009, according to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Last year, advance-fee fraud accounted for nearly 17 percent of the Internet fraud logged by the FBI.

Diamreyan pretended to be different people -- Prince Nana Kamokai of Sierra Leone or an airport director from Ghana, for example. He said he needed to move between $11.5 million and $23.4 million out of the country and offered victims 20 percent of the funds, if they would help him out.

After using fake documentation to convince his victims that he was legitimate, Diamreyan would get them to wire him different types of fees such as "PIN code fees" or courier services charges with the understanding that they would then get the money. These fees would pile up, but the promised money never arrived.

The scam left "many individuals and their families in financial ruin," the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.  Diamreyan immigrated to the United States in 2008 and allegedly told an acquaintance that he wanted to make $1 million or so before going home to Nigeria: "I want to forget america and come back home... once I take like 1m or half m," prosecutors quote him as saying. He was arrested in August 2009 and found guilty by a jury in February.

25 June 2010


Scammers are phishing in the Coachella Valley and local banks are warning residents not to take the bait.

Phishing is a type of Internet scam used to obtain confidential information via e-mail, it is a type of identity theft that is an industry-wide, financial experts say.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's name was even fraudulently used in a phishing scheme, according to the FDIC website.

While not a new issue, the problem is “rampant” enough that Indian Wells Councilman Bill Powers, who recently retired as president and CEO of Pacific Western Bank, addressed the issue during the city's June 17 council meeting; “There's an awful lot of phishing going on,” Powers said. “So be careful.”

The Anti-Phishing Working Group estimates that more than 2,600 active phishing sites exist on the Internet, all aimed at conning people into divulging sensitive financial information. Powers was prompted to make the public warning after a few friends contacted him about e-mails they received from Pacific Western Bank.

Bank of America and Wells Fargo patrons also reported receiving similar e-mails, officials say.

“Phishing e-mails are randomly sent and generally, fraudsters don't know if people they send them to are Wells Fargo or Wachovia customers. They simply hope that a percentage of their messages will be received by our customers,” said Amy Savicky, spokeswoman for Wells Fargo.

Customers are encouraged to report such scams to their banks. “Bank of America e-mail will never ask customers to reply with any personal information or data,” said Colleen Haggerty, spokeswoman for Bank of America. “When in doubt, do not click on any links provided"

See our menu bar for phishing scam emails!

27 January 2010

KANSAS CITY, Mo. Real Wealth Inc. runs real scams, one of which is training customers how to run their own scams, the Federal Trade Commission claims in Federal Court. The FTC also sued Lance Murkin and eight other companies he runs out of Lee's Summit, Mo. Since 2003, the FTC says, "Defendants have brought in millions of dollars from marketing their schemes to at least 100,000 consumers nationwide."      

Real Wealth runs two different types of schemes - work at home and cash grant. For its work-at-home scheme, victims are charged an upfront fee of $9.99 to $99.99 and promised enormous financial returns from sending out mailers, the FTC says. But the customers get nothing for their money except, sometimes, a booklet instructing them how to run their own deceptive schemes, according to the complaint.

     "In the course of marketing, promoting, offering for sale and selling their work-at home schemes, Defendants represent, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that purchasers of Defendants' work-at-home schemes will be paid for simply mailing items," the FTC says. "In truth and in fact, purchasers of Defendants' work-at-home schemes are not paid for simply mailing items." 

In the cash grant scheme, customers also send in a fee, for which they get a booklet that lists contact information for government agencies or foundations that purportedly have given money to customers, or a booklet that claims to list contact information for millionaires and celebrities who are giving money away, the FTC says. Some of the rich people, however, are dead.

Michael W. Creel
Editor

AllScams.us
a division of
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Read about how this came about, how she got into the game, the lies she was told, and her sincere desire to change her life and leave the 419 game behind.