Sacto 9-1-1

A man previously accused of defrauding a Granite Bay woman of more than $7 million has been indicted in connection with a second scheme, this one involving a Pennsylvania financial manager.

A federal grand jury in Sacramento today returned a 20-count superseding indictment charging Troy Stratos, 47, formerly of Los Angeles, with three counts of mail fraud, 12 counts of wire fraud, four counts of money laundering and one count of obstruction of justice, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

In December 2011, Stratos was indicted for mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice in relation to a scheme to defraud a Granite Bay woman of more than $7 million. The superseding indictment includes all the charges in the original indictment and adds four counts of wire fraud and two counts of money laundering relating to a different scheme to defraud a financial manager of $11.25 million in client funds, officials said.

Bee reporters answer questions about area crime news, trends and other issues.

QUESTION: Was Daniel Chartraw sentenced May 2, and if so what was the sentence?
Submitted by: Chris, Los Angeles

ANSWER: According to U.S. District Court online records, Daniel Chartraw's sentencing has been continued to July 18.

A Las Vegas man is headed to prison after being sentenced in federal court in Sacramento for defrauding a South Lake Tahoe investor of $2.9 million.

U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. today sentenced Jed Baron, 55, to five years and three months in prison for wire fraud related to the investment scheme, according to a Department of Justice news release.

According to court documents, Baron made a series of false business proposals to a victim in the Lake Tahoe area, including investment in a venture to sell Irish seafood to restaurants in Las Vegas. Instead of using the victim's money for the intended purpose, Baron diverted the funds for personal use and to pay other investors from previous deals.

The Placer County Sheriff's Department is alerting residents to a telephone scam involving callers who identify themselves as law enforcement officials.

Some residents have reported receiving phone calls from an individual claiming to be a Placer County sheriff's official. They were told they were owed money and asked to wire money to release the funds, according to a Sheriff's Department news release. The caller then gave a phone number to call to verify that the caller was a member of law enforcement. Authorities stress that any number given should always be verified through other sources, rather than taking the caller's word for it.

Detectives urge people to never give money or information over the phone to anyone they don't know, adding that a law enforcement officer would never call and ask someone to wire money.

Anyone who questions the legitimacy of someone who claims to be a deputy or a detective is advised to call the Sheriff's Department's non-emergency line , (530) 886-5375, to verify that the individual works for the Placer County Sheriff's Department.

An Orangevale man has been indicted by a federal grand jury for his alleged role in a mortgage fraud scheme.

The five-count indictment unsealed Monday charges Valeri Kalyuzhnyy, 41, with false statements on a loan and credit application and money laundering, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

The indictment alleges that Kalyuzhnyy caused the preparation and submission of loan applications to federally insured lenders that falsely stated various home buyers' income, employment, assets and intent to occupy the homes as their primary residences. Kalyuzhnyy allegedly was responsible for origination of nearly $4 million in residential mortgage loans.

A Folsom developer who was soliciting investors for a new scheme while still on supervised release for a previous criminal conviction is headed to prison for investment fraud.

David Romo, 42, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. to 10 years and one month in prison for mail fraud related to a real estate investment scheme that defrauded investors of more than $6.9 million, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

According to court documents, Romo ran a sophisticated scheme involving numerous investments that obtained millions of dollars through a series of clever misrepresentations to homeowners and manipulations of the real estate purchase process. Using his companies Sycamore Ventures LLC, Smarie Investments LLC and Groupo Immobiliare LLC, Romo solicited individuals to fund various real estate developments. But instead of using the investor money for the intended purpose, Romo diverted funds to his personal use and to pay unrelated, prior business expenses.

Bee reporters answer questions about area crime news, trends and other issues.

QUESTION: I was wondering if you had any information about the Ponzi scheme case against Chris Jackson?
Submitted by: Conrad, Sacramento

ANSWER:The case of Christopher Jackson, one of five Sacramento-area residents charged in September 2011 in a $26 million real estate fraud scheme, remains in federal court in Sacramento.

El Dorado County authorities have arrested the owners of Poor Red's Bar-B-Q - a local institution in Diamond Springs - on suspicion of tax evasion and insurance fraud.

Michael and Brenda Adams are accused of evading almost $350,000 in taxes over the last six years, according to a news release from the El Dorado District Attorney's office.

Prosecutors have filed a complaint against the Adamses in El Dorado Superior Court alleging more than 30 counts of tax evasion and insurance fraud, the release states.

Search warrants were executed today at the couple's residence and business by El Dorado sheriff's deputies, District Attorney's investigators and agents from the Franchise Tax Board, Employment Development Department and the Board of Equalization.

The couple are being held in lieu of $350,000 bail in the El Dorado county jail in Placerville.

Poor Red's opened in 1948 and is best known for its signature drink, the Golden Cadillac, a frothy blend of Galliano, half-and-half, white cream de cacao and ice.

Two Sacramento-area brothers pleaded guilty in today to wire fraud related to a mortgage fraud scheme.

The pleas were entered in U.S. District Court in Sacramento by Andrey Andreyev, 37, of Sacramento and Vitaliy Andreyev, 30, of Antelope, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

According to court documents, the Andreyev brothers were recruited by Vera Kuzmenko, owner of VK Tax Services, a tax preparation business, to purchase properties they could not afford. Andrey Andreyev purchased a property for $850,000 and Vitaliy Andreyev bought a property for $1.2 million.

A former National Football League football player and a former West Sacramento claims adjuster are accused of participating in a $1.5 million scheme to defraud a Sacramento business that managed workers' compensation claims.

A federal grand jury in Sacramento has indicted Marcus Buckley, 42, of Weatherford,Texas, and Kimberly Jones, a former West Sacramento resident now living in Wichita, Kan., in the alleged scheme, according to a federal Department of Justice news release. Both were charged with five counts of wire fraud, and Buckley was charged with six counts of money laundering.

According to the indictment, Buckley was a professional football player with the National Football League between 1993 and 2000, playing seven seasons with the New York Giants. During that period, the Giants had workers' compensation coverage through Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association Insurance Group.

The Sacramento State Police Department warns the public to beware of an ongoing fraud involving fictitious checks that use identifying information of the University Foundation of Sacramento State.

The perpetrators of the scam have sent fictitious checks with a letter giving the false promise that the recipient has won an international lottery. They seek to persuade the recipient to deposit the fake check and then send payment to the "Intercontinental Lottery Management INC." to pay the taxes on the fake lottery winnings, according to a Police Department news release.

Days later, the victims learn from their bank that the check was fake and they are out the money they sent to the purported lottery firm.

Bee reporters answer questions about area crime news, trends and other issues.

QUESTION: What is the status of Michael Bolden, who was charged in a real estate fraud case?
Submitted by: Rocketman916, Sacramento

ANSWER: The trial for Michael Bolden and four other people indicted by a federal grand jury is set for May 14, according to federal court online records.

A Sacramento woman has been sentenced to three years and one month in prison for her role in a $1.3 million tax fraud scheme.

Nadiyah Muhammad Woods, 34, is the last of three defendants to be sentenced in the case, which involved a scheme to obtain tax refunds by filing false tax returns, according to a federal Department of Justice news release. She was sentenced in Sacramento by U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller and will be subject to three years of supervised release following her time in prison. Woods also was ordered to pay $902,617 in restitution.

According to court documents, Woods and two other defendants -- Nakia Renee Vaughn, 27, and Tomisha Lee McKinnie, 25, both of Sacramento -- filed false tax returns using TurboTax, an online tax preparation software. To operate the scheme, the defendants obtained Green Dot and other debit cards offered through the TurboTax software that were loaded with the tax refunds of taxpayer victims whose identities they used. They had the tax refunds mailed to various addresses under their control in Sacramento County.

Rocklin police are alerting residents to a telephone scam targeting senior citizens in the community.

It typically begins with a telephone call made by someone pretending to be the senior citizen's grandson or granddaughter. The caller says he or she has encountered some sort of trouble while traveling abroad and asks the grandparent to wire money. The trouble typically involves having a wallet stolen, being arrested, being seriously ill or being involved in a traffic accident.

Police said the caller usually sounds believable and, in many cases, uses the names of all the parties involved.

In at least one case, police said, a victim wired money. In another case, an alert bank teller prevented the customer from losing $3,000 when he told the teller why he was withdrawing the money and the teller realized it was a scam. The customer made a few calls, and verified that his grandson was not traveling and had not been arrested.

An Irvine man has been arrested in a mortgage fraud case involving properties in Rocklin and Roseville.

A federal grand jury in Sacramento returned a three-count indictment Thursday charging Alexander A. Romaniolis, 48, with mail fraud. The indictment was unsealed after his arrest today in Huntington Beach, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

The indictment alleges that Romaniolis recruited five straw buyers to purchase eight residential properties in Rocklin, Roseville and San Clemente. He allegedly assisted the straw buyers in providing false information to lenders about their employment, income, assets and intent to occupy properties as primary residences. In most cases, authorities said, the straw buyers claimed to be executives of companies created and controlled by Romaniolis.

A Citrus Heights resident and retired Prudential insurance agent is eager to alert fellow senior citizens to a likely medical card scam.

Kenneth Kenoyer said he has received five phone calls in the last two days from individuals telling him he is eligible for a medical card that could save him money on prescription and medical care costs. The various callers -- one was a woman and two were men -- knew his address but said they needed his bank account and routing numbers for identification purposes.

Kenoyer said he declined all offers, advising the callers that he had Medicare and other health-care coverage and couldn't see how such a medical card would benefit him. When he told the last caller that he was going to contact a newspaper about the offers, Kenoyer said, the caller hung up.

The Yolo County District Attorney's Office is warning residents to beware of door-to-door salespeople using high-pressure tactics.

Authorities said they have received several reports recently of salespeople who may be targeting senior communities in the area. They are ignoring clearly posted "no soliciting" signs and a using high-pressure tactics to make sales, according to a District Attorney's Office news release.

In a recent instance at a mobile home park, an 86-year-old woman who is hard of hearing opened her door to an official-looking young man in a yellow uniform who persuaded her to switch from the natural gas service provider she has had for more than 20 years to one based in Texas. Fortunately, authorities said, she checked with her son and was able to cancel the contract within the three-day time period allowed by law.

A federal grand jury in Sacramento today returned a 12-count indictment in a mortgage fraud scheme that reportedly used straw buyers to purchase properties in communities including Elk Grove and Sacramento.

The indictment charges Surjit Singh, 66, of the East Bay community of Dublin, his son, Rajeshwar Singh, 38, of Pleasanton and Anita Sharma, 51, of Gilroy, with mail fraud, bank fraud, and false statements on a loan and credit application, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

The indictment alleges that Surjit Singh recruited individuals with good credit to act as straw buyers for residential properties owned by his family members and associates. Rajeshwar Singh, a licensed real estate agent, allegedly assisted in the scheme by submitting loan applications for the straw buyers, who included Sharma.

An immigration consultant characterized by authorities as the mastermind of a marriage fraud scheme pleaded guilty today in federal court in Sacramento.

Sergey Potepalov, 57, of Citrus Heights admitted to his role in a scheme that involved sham marriages, according to a federal Department of Justice news release. He is to be sentenced Aug. 15 by U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr.

Potepalov, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Russian descent, was the leader of a scheme with 13 other defendants who were charged in July 2011 with conspiring to commit marriage fraud, to defraud the United States, to make false statements and to induce foreign nationals to enter and remain in the United States, according to court records.

Sacramento police report a motorist was pulled over by apparent jokesters pretending to be officers on patrol in the Robla area.

Shortly before 10 p.m. Monday, a motorist in the 4300 block of Pell Drive pulled to the side of the road. The motorist pulled over because behind him was a black and white Ford Crown Victoria with small red and blue lights shining.

The law enforcement version of the Crown Victoria has long been preferred by police departments before its discontinuance by Ford.

When the motorist was ordered out his vehicle, he realized the two people in the black and white car were not officers because they started laughing. He left the area and phoned the real police.

Officers later found a vehicle matching the description of the Crown Victoria used in the incident. However, the motorist duped by the pranksters could not be contacted to assist in identification of the Crown Vic driver, police said.

An investigation continues.

By Dan Hill
dhill@sacbee.com

The man who leased Purgatory Restaurant and Nightclub received an eight-year prison sentence after pleading guilty Wednesday to three counts of investor fraud in Sacramento Superior Court.

Donald Dunakin, 42, was booked Monday on 43 counts that included grand theft and false statements, according to court documents.

Dunakin's arrest warrant indicated he accepted investments to his companies - Dunakin Investments, Preferred Diversified Holdings and Platinum Performance Holdings - without a license. Dunakin lost his license in 2009 after allegations that he made poor recommendations, the Department of Justice said.

An investigation of Dunakin's accounts found he solicited more than $1.5 million from investors, many of whom were over the age of 65, according to Dunakin's arrest warrant. Investigators identified 28 people who invested with Dunakin, the document says.

"Everybody was just blind-sided," said Kathy Dotson, a Carmichael resident on Thursday. She said she was scammed by one of Dunakin's investment companies.

"It would have been better if we had a gun in our face and robbed us because that way you know your attacker," Dotson said.

Dotson, 57, said her money was invested in August 2011. She said her financial adviser alerted her to the scam about four months ago, a day before she received a phone call from DOJ investigators.

"We invested into what we thought was securities, assisted living and things like that," she said. "We really didn't know our money was going to a bar and a restaurant and a coffee shop."

A former El Dorado County man has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in connection with a multimillion-dollar investment fraud scheme.

Daniel Chartraw, 39, entered the plea today in U.S. District Court in Sacramento. He is to be sentenced May 2 by U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr.

Between Jan. 1, 2007, and Nov. 30, 2011, according to court documents, Chartraw defrauded numerous investors by falsely representing investments in mines, mining and refinery equipment, oil commodities, precious metals concentrate, and multimillion-dollar certificates of deposit.

SMUD is warning a phone scam continues to be perpetrated on its business customers.

Around the holiday season, some customers reported getting phone calls by someone pretending to represent the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. The caller threatened to shut off a home's or business's electric power unless the customer pays a past-due bill immediately at a payment facility.

The scam attempts were reported by several business customers, the utility said. SMUD said this week that those fraudulent calls continue to be made.

South Lake Tahoe Police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration are warning the public that criminals posing as DEA agents are trying to extort money from people who have purchased prescription drugs via the internet.

Police officials reported late Saturday that a resident of South Lake Tahoe resident called police after a man called him professing to be a DEA agent and warning that the resident would be arrested on criminal charges for buying an illegal prescription via the intent unless he wired $1,000 to the caller.

The resident did not pay and reported the call to police.

Bee reporters answer questions about area crime news, trends and other issues.

QUESTION: I was wondering if you have more information on Garry Bradford. He was arrested on approximately April 19, 2011.
Submitted by: Bill, Sacramento

ANSWER:Garry Bradford pleaded guilty in August 2011 to four counts of federal wire fraud in connection with a real estate Ponzi scheme.

The California Highway Patrol is alerting motorists to the services the state-funded Freeway Service Patrol program after an individual posing as a program employee in San Joaquin County solicited money from stranded motorists, but left them abandoned on the roadside.

The Freeway Service Patrol is a free service, with all operating costs covered by state and local public funding allocations.

CHP spokesman Officer Adrian Quintero said the patrol, which provides towing services, is designed to reduce traffic congestion on freeways by quickly removing disabled vehicles from the roadway. Patrol tow trucks are clearly marked with signage, and drivers wear Freeway Safety Patrol uniforms and patches.

Detectives arrested 10 people on various charges at a business in Lodi where police suspect illegal gambling was taking place.

A warrant was served at the Web Stop, 920 South Cherokee Lane in Lodi, on Tuesday. Police allege that gambling was conducted on 42 computers within the business.

Patrons would wager on electronic "slot machine style" computer programs, according to police. The computers and several printers were seized in the raid on Web Stop.

The Yolo County District Attorney's Office is warning computer users of phone calls from scam artists pretending to represent well-known companies like Microsoft, Dell or Norton.

In the past week, several Yolo County residents have reported receiving calls from people claiming to be with "tech support" and saying they need access to the individual's personal computer to remove a virus or maintain the warranty.

Last week, a scammer contacted a retired Yolo County employee telling her that her computer warranty was about to expire. The caller pressured her for more than 30 minutes to accept the service, according to a District Attorney's Office news release.

The El Dorado County Sheriff's office has added an investigator to focus on elder abuse.

Reports of elder abuse have increased nine percent since 2011 in the county. The county's population of residents over the age of 65 is 31.6 percent greater than the state's average.

Physical abuse takes in not only assaults, but inappropriate use of drugs, restraints and confinement. Financial exploitation involves the taking of an older person's money, either by a caregiver or a scam artist.

Bee reporters answer questions about area crime news, trends and other issues.

QUESTION: Has Christopher Jackson gone to trial? If not, what is causing the delay?
Submitted by: William423, Sacramento

ANSWER: Christopher Jackson was one of five Sacramentans charged in September 2011 in a $26 million real estate fraud scheme.

Two Sacramento residents have been arrested on suspicion of selling counterfeit IDs.

Laurel Velasquez, 30, and Pedro Izehuatl, 45, were arrested after a four-month investigation by the California Department of Justice. They are suspected of selling counterfeit driver's licenses, green cards and a social security card.

During the investigation, special agents conducted an undercover operation during which they purchased dozens of counterfeit federal green cards. Driver's licenses and a social security card were bought from Velasquez for $100 each.

Equipment used to make the counterfeit documents was seized, according to a DOJ press release.

By Ed Fletcher
efletcher@sacbee.com

Two events in Galt prompted police to offer a warning on identity theft.

Galt police officials say a suspected identity thief was arrested Monday after a high-speed chase.

The chase concluded around 2 a.m. Monday when a man, later identified as Joseph Polendey Langman, 35, fled in a stolen vehicle after leading police to Acampo, south of Galt, according to a Police Department news release.

Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully is advising residents to beware of a scam that promises prize money for a significant upfront fee.

Leyne Milstein, the city of Sacramento's finance director, said she alerted the DA's office, along with the FBI and other local law enforcement agencies this week after her father nearly became a scam victim.

Milstein said her father received a call informing him that he had won a lottery. All he needed to do to claim the prize was purchase two $500 Green Dot Moneypak cards and meet lottery representatives at a bank. Once he provided the representatives with the cards, they would deposit a multimillion-dollar check in his account.

By Denny Walsh

dwalsh@sacbee.com

A grand jury indictment unsealed Friday in Sacramento federal court charges three men with conspiring to rip off more than $18 million from the United Auburn Indian Community, which owns the lucrative Thunder Valley Casino Resort in Lincoln.

Bart Wayne Volen, Greg Scott Baker, and Darrell Patrick Hinz are accused of using their strategic positions to unlawfully inflate charges paid by the tribe in 2006 and 2007 for work on a four-building construction project on property owned by the tribe on Indian Hills Road in Auburn.

All three are charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering.

The grand jury returned the indictment Aug. 9, but it was sealed at the request of the government.

Volen, 53, of San Diego and Haiku, Hawaii, was arrested Friday at the San Francisco International Airport by Internal Revenue Service agents.

Shortly thereafter, the indictment was unsealed.

No-bail arrest warrants were issued for all three defendants the day the indictment was returned. It was not clear late Friday whether Baker, 45, of Newcastle, and Hinz, 47, of Cameron Park, have been arrested.

Bee reporters answer questions about area crime news, trends and other issues.

QUESTION: What ever happened to the couple Nicky and Ruby Marks from Sacramento who were suspected of scamming an elderly man in what police dubbed a "sweetheart scam"?
Submitted by: Mike, Sacramento

ANSWER: Ruby Miller, aka Ruby Marks, and her husband, bounty hunter Nicky Marks, were arrested in Reno in February 2008 in a case that Sacramento police described as the third in a series "sweetheart scams" perpetrated by a group that included Nicky Marks' sister and a niece.

According to a story in The Bee, the women lied to befriend and defraud elderly men. Three men suffered losses of $500,000 as a result of the scam.

According to Sacramento Superior Court online records, Miller and Marks each pleaded no contest to embezzlement by a caretaker, perjury and grand theft. Miller was sentenced to seven years in state prison and Marks to 5 years and 4 months in prison. Neither appears in an online roster of current state prison inmates.

Nicky Marks' sister, Linda Navarro, and Navarro's niece Monique Marks each pleaded no contest to embezzlement by a caretaker. Navarro was sentenced to two years in state prison and Monique Marks to five years probation.

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Bee reporters answer questions about area crime news, trends and other issues.

QUESTION: There was a person charged last year for running a Ponzi scheme and a real estate scam. His name is Michael Bolden. Can you give us an update on that case?
Submitted by: Tony, Rancho Cordova

ANSWER: The case involving Michael Bolden and others indicted by a federal grand jury last September has yet to go to trial and federal court online records do not list a trial date.

Bee reporters answer questions about area crime news, trends and other issues.

QUESTION: No too long ago, Thomas B. Hammond, a former president of the Fair Oaks Chamber of Commerce as well as being a financial a certified financial planner, was arrested for operating a Ponzi scheme. What was the outcome of the trial?
Submitted by: Christianright, Sacramento

ANSWER: Thomas Brown Hammond, a Fair Oaks investment adviser, was sentenced in June to four years and nine months in federal prison in connection with a Ponzi scheme that involved stealing money from clients' retirement accounts.

A Santa Barbara physician has been sentenced in federal court in Sacramento to six-and-a-half years in prison for her role in a Medicare fraud scam that involved Sacramento and Carmichael health-care clinics.

Lana Le Chabrier, 64, was found guilty by a jury July 8, 2011. She was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr.

Judge England found that La Chabrier abused her position of trust as a physician and was responsible for close to a million dollars in fraudulent billings submitted to Medicare and more than $400,000 in payments made on false claims.

By Denny Walsh

dwalsh@sacbee.com

Johnny E. "Jay" Grivette Jr., once a top lieutenant of Lawrence Leland "Lee" Loomis, alleged by the government to be a major fraudster who has yet to be charged, was sentenced Friday in Sacramento federal court to 4 1/2 months in prison and 4 1/2 months of home confinement on his guilty plea to a marijuana-growing conspiracy.

Grivette, 37, a Butte County resident, will remain free for at least the next three months while he continues his assistance in the government's investigation of Loomis, formerly of Granite Bay.

The Yolo County District Attorney's Office is alerting residents to a surge in scams targeting older adults in the county.

Reports from victims in West Sacramento, Davis and Woodland indicate that phony sweepstakes and the "Grandma, It's Me" telephone scams are continuing to be used to trick people into wiring money outside the country, according to a District Attorney's Office news release.

In one instance, more than $4,000 was lost in a phony sweepstakes scam after a con artist pretending to be from the Federal Trade Commission persuaded a local senior citizen to wire money to Costa Rica, officials said. In another recent case, an elderly woman was tricked into sending all the money she had in her savings account to someone claiming to be her grandson who was out of the country and in trouble. She believed him and sent the money in an effort to help.

The Placer County Sheriff's Department seeks to identify victims in a real estate scam allegedly run by a Meadow Vista man.

Detectives this week arrested William Frank Lordier (pictured), 54, with the assistance sheriff's authorities in Los Angeles County, where one of the victims lives.

Lordier, a former California real estate agent, was selling timeshares on Craigslist, according to a Sheriff's Department news release. Victims gave Lordier their bank account information, which he then allegedly used to take money from those accounts for his own personal gain.

Donald Atkinson, the former president of the El Dorado County Deputy Sheriff's Association and a retired sergeant, pleaded no contest on felony counts of embezzlement, fraud and perjury, according to Lynda Gledhill, a spokeswoman for the California Office of the Attorney General.

Prosecutors allege Atkinson stole money from the Deputy Sheriff's Association, filed perjured campaign finance reports and stole $100,000 from an elderly woman by securing a loan from her under false pretenses.

As part of a plea agreement, Atkinson will be sentenced to five years in state prison. He will pay $338,348.14 in restitution to the Deputy Sheriff's Association, and he will repay the $100,000 he is accused of stealing from the elderly woman, Gledhill said. In addition, she said, he will direct the California Public Employees' Retirement System to pay $1,000 per month from his retirement account to the victims while he is in prison and on parole.

Atkinson was arrested in March after an investigation by the California Attorney General's Office and the El Dorado District Attorney's Office. He will receive his sentence July 30, Gledhill said.

Editor's note: This story was changed to correct Atkinson's plea.

Fraud charges have been filed in Sacramento against a retired CHP officer who claimed he had bad back -- but according to officials was captured on surveillance video-tape lifting 30-pound objects and moving furniture.

Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully announced today that felony workers' compensation insurance fraud and attempted perjury charges were filed against ex-California Highway Patrol officer Brian Christopher Hansen.

Hansen, 30, allegedly made false statements to doctors, investigators and in deposition about the extent of his disabilities caused by an on-duty back injury. Hansen stated he was only able to drive for very short periods, could not sit for more than a half-hour, couldn't lift more than 10 pounds and was could not even do office work.

Daniel Chartraw, accused of multiple financial schemes that duped people of millions of dollars, entered a plea of not guilty in federal court today.

Chartraw, who had been a resident of El Dorado Hills, was indicted last week on 18 counts involving $2.4 million dollars in investments involving gold, dairies, movies and other allegedly bogus businesses.

Chartraw had been a fugitive until his arrest in Mexico in April.

He was scheduled to appear next before U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb.

Roseville police are warning of calls from phony "Microsoft support technicians" who are interested in credit card fraud - not solving computer problems.

At least two Roseville residents have received unsolicited calls from the men with East Indian accents who said they were from Microsoft and wanted to help resolve computer issues.

One resident was talked into using her credit card to buy phony anti-virus remote access software. She was directed to download and install software, which allowed the scammers to get into data on the victim's computer, according to a police activity log.

William E. Baker of Chico was sentenced to 18 months in prison today, in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme in 2007, the U.S. Attorney in Sacramento announced.

Baker inflated sales prices of five homes to secure large loans and then used the money as kickbacks to purchasers, according to a press release from the office of U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner.

Baker pleaded guilty and will have three years of supervised probation following his release.

Federal authorities have arrested fugitive Daniel Lee Chartraw, a one-time El Dorado Hills resident who is accused of perpetrating huge frauds.

Chartraw is being held without bail in Sacramento after appearing in federal court Wednesday.

The FBI has not yet issued a statement on Chartraw's arrest but documents filed to obtain an arrest warrant accuse him of fraudulently having obtained a $1 million investment for an Arizona mineral extraction company he did not represent.

By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

Five individuals from Sutter County were arrested Tuesday in connection with a false-employment scam that has drained millions of dollars out of government coffers via sham unemployment and disability claims.

The five, along with another Sutter County resident not yet arrested, are charged in a criminal complaint filed Monday in Sacramento federal court.

Arrested Tuesday were Mohammad Nawaz Khan, 56, and Iqila Begum Khan, 31, both of Live Oak; and Mohammad Shahbaz Khan, 56; Gurdev Kaur Johl, 67; and Kewal Singh, 74, all of Yuba City. Also charged in the complaint but not arrested is Mohammad Adnan Khan, 32, of Live Oak.

Roseville police are warning of a renter scam on Craigslist.

Police said that a person seeking to rent a home in Roseville responded to a Craigslist posting for a house only to find out that the poster was an imposter. Initially interested, the prospective renter became suspicious because of demands sought by the supposed landlord.

The person who said they were renting out the home wanted the rent and a security deposit sent to her via Western Union before she would show the house.

The renter investigated and learned from the actual agent renting the home that the Craigslist poster neither owned the house nor had authority to rent the home.

The Yolo County District Attorney's Office advises people to be alert to a scam involving phony text messages to cell phone users.

Officials cite two messages in particular. The first begins: "Dear Walmart Shopper, Congratulations you have just won a $1000 dollar Walmart Gift Card." The second begins: "Apple is looking for people to Text & Keep the New iPad 3!" Both messages ask the cell phone users to click or go to a website provided.

Authorities advise people to delete these messages.

By Denny Walsh

dwalsh@sacbee.com

Prominent Chico developer Anthony G. Symmes was sentenced today in federal court to a month less than three years in prison on his plea of guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering in connection with a multimillion-dollar mortgage fraud.

Symmes, 61, has already shelled out $4 million to the government that is available to victim-lenders who make a valid claim.

The 35-month sentence was dramatically reduced because of Symmes' extraordinary assistance to the government in its pursuit and prosecution of his fellow crooks.

By Carlos Alcalá

calcala@sacbee.com

Two men conned an elderly victim out of a large amount of cash in the Greenhaven area Friday, police reported.

The man told police he was contacted by two men who claimed they were lost and needed information on how banks operated in the United States.

One of the men was described as having a Nigerian accent.

Sacramento County sheriff's investigators would like to talk to anyone who was the victim of suspects arrested in a scam targeting seniors.

On Jan. 20, sheriff's deputies responded to a call regarding the robbery and kidnapping of a 70-year-old woman. While shopping at a wholesale warehouse in south Sacramento County, the victim was approached by two women in the parking lot. The women showed the victim a package of money that they claimed to have found, according to a Sheriff's Department news release.

The women persuaded the victim to accompany them to a bank where the money was supposedly authenticated by one of the suspects' family members, reportedly a bank employee. The suspects then persuaded the victim to pay them several thousand dollars in return for sharing a portion of the found money. The suspects drove the victim to various banks to withdraw the money to pay them.

An Antelope man has been sentenced to 10 years and 10 months in prison for defrauding trucking companies.

Kulwant Singh Gill, 53, was sentenced Tuesday in Sacramento by U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton for a scheme to defraud trucking firms out of payments for interstate freight deliveries. Gill was ordered to pay $443,388 in restitution to the victims. He also will be subject to three years of supervised release following his prison term.

Gill pleaded guilty Sept. 22, 2009, to charges involving the scheme in two separate indictments, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

By Denny Walsh and Sam Stanton
dwalsh@sacbee.com

Federal agents are moving to seize 32 properties stretching from Sacramento to Hawaii to San Diego in an alleged kickback and money laundering scheme that they say drained $18 million from the coffers of the tribe that runs the Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln.

Documents filed by the Internal Revenue Service in U.S. District Court in Sacramento late Tuesday allege that Sacramento developer Bart Volen and two others systematically siphoned off millions from the United Auburn Indian Community while they oversaw the construction of office buildings that now serve as the tribe's headquarters.

The IRS is seeking to seize the properties -- including condominiums in Hawaii, San Diego and South Lake Tahoe -- that the agency says were purchased with money taken from the tribe in an overbilling scheme.

A judge today ordered the former maintenance superintendent of the Sacramento Public Library Authority to pay the agency back $824,097 in the billing scandal for which he has been convicted and sentenced to prison.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Allen H. Sumner imposed the levy on the former library employee, Dennis Nilsson, who was convicted in the kickback scheme Dec. 9 and who was later sentenced to prison for 14 years.

Deputy District Attorney MIke Blazina asked for a $1.4 million restitution order, but Sumner said that contractors involved in the scandal had provided the district with some needed maintenance work and that it should not be subject to the effort to recover the library's losses.

Sumner also scheduled a hearing for May 11 on the DA's request to appoint a receiver to search out the assets of Nilsson and co-defendants James Mayle, the library's former security director, and his wife, Janie Rankins-Mayle, who set up an outside billing firm that processed the funds in the kickback scheme.

Mayle is the former chief of the now-defunct Grant school district. Rankins-Mayle is a former captain for the Port of Sacramento police agency. They both also were convicted and sentenced to prison -- six years for her, five years and four months for him.

Blazina said outside court that he is seeking a $781,000 restitution order on the Mayles.

A Woodland grandmother was recently bilked out of $14,000 when she fell for a well-known telephone scam.

Woodland police called attention to the swindle and released tips on how to avoid what is commonly called the "Grandparent Scam." In the most recent instance it went like this:

The woman received a call from a person claiming to be her grandson. He told her that he had been arrested in Canada following a traffic accident and needed money to fix the vehicle.

She wired $1,000.

Over the next few weeks, more phone calls were received from the phony grandson and his phony attorney. Money was needed to help defend a lawsuit stemming from the made-up car crash, the scammers said.

The Woodland grandmother kept making wire transfers and is now out $14,000, said police. Police were contacted March 7 by the woman who finally figured out she had been scammed.

Tips to avoid the scam:

- Verify the caller's identity by asking personal questions a stranger could not answer.

- Resist acting immediately

- Call someone you know to help verify the story.

- Avoid giving credit card or bank information to anyone you don't know personally.

A Sacramento jury today convicted a former state correctional officer and his wife of attempted perjury related to a workers comp case they sought in regards to his shooting at a San Francisco sex club.

The same panel could not reach verdicts on all the remaining fraud-related charges against John Alfonzo Smiley and Cynthia Ann Bias-Smiley.

Superivising Deputy District Attorney Kelly Mulcahy announced in court that her office would retry the two defendants on the remaining charges. Mulcahy said the retrial date has been set for May 7.

A quick-change artist recently duped a clerk in Roseville with an old scam.

On March 1, a man gave the clerk at a Harding Boulevard business five $20 bills and requested a $100 bill in exchange.

The clerk handed him a $100 bill, but the man showed her a $10 bill, claiming that is what she mistakenly gave him, according to a Roseville police activity log.

He eventually talked her into taking back the ten and giving him another $100 bill. It's an old trick, police said.

By Rick Daysog
rdaysog@sacbee.com

An Elk Grove man was sentenced today to four years and nine months in prison for his role in an $8 million mortgage fraud scheme.

U.S. District Judge Edward Garcia also ordered Gabriel Viramontes, 49, to pay restitution after a jury found him guilty last March on bank and mail fraud charges.

According to the U.S. Attorney's office, Viramontes and his Sacramento-based partners -- 34-year-old James Roy Martin and 42-year-old Mario Fellini III -- recruited straw buyers who purchased 19 homes in the Sacramento area using phony documentation.

The sales generated illegal kickbacks and "substantial loan broker commissions," federal prosecutors said.

Martin and Fellini pleaded guilty previously and testified against Viramontes. Martin was sentenced to 20.5 months in prison and Fellini will get six months in prison plus five months of home detention.

A former Sacramento man pleaded guilty today to wire fraud for defrauding customers of his motorized wheelchair and scooter business.

Carlos B. Jerez, 35, who lived most recently in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., pleaded guilty in federal court in Sacramento to 16 counts of wire fraud, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

According to court documents, Jerez owned 1st Class Mobility Inc., a business that offered to sell motorized wheelchairs and scooters over the Internet. Between April 2008 and April 20009, Jerez and 1st Class Mobility received payment from consumers for motorized wheelchairs and scooters but had neither the ability nor intention to deliver the devices.

Three Sacramento women were arrested today, accused of stealing taxpayers' identities and their tax refunds.

According to federal court documents, Nadiyah Muhammad Woods, 33; Nakia Renee Vaughn, 26; and Tomisha Lee McKinnie, 24, are charged in a conspiracy to defraud the United States through the filing of false tax returns using TurboTax, an income tax preparation software and filing service.

The women are charged with executing a mail fraud scheme to obtain Green Dot debit cards, a service offered through the TurboTax software, loaded with the tax return money of taxpayer victims.

The Yolo County District Attorney's Office is warning residents, particularly older adults, to beware of phony collection agency calls.

Several people recently contacted the Yolo County District Attorney's Elder Protection Unit to report phone calls from people pretending to be from a collection agency. In one instance, the caller claimed to be an attorney and that more than $800 was owed for magazine subscriptions.

Officials warn that crooks can disguise the number they are calling from by using computers.

A judge hit with several late sentencing motions in the Sacramento library corruption scandal today postponed his imposition of the terms on the three defendants convicted in the case.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Allen H. Sumner rescheduled for next Friday the sentencing of the library's former facilities director Dennis Nilsson, former security chief James Mayle and Mayle's wife, Janie Rankins-Mayle.

The three were convicted in a kickback scheme on outsourced maintenance contracts that purportedly looted the library of $780,000 from 2004 to 2007.

Deputy District Attorney Mike Blazina is seeking terms of 18 years and four months on Nilsson and 11 years and four months on the Mayles.

Nilsson is seeking a reduced term from the D.A.'s proposal while the Mayles are asking for probation.

A Los Angeles physician who assumed the role as co-owner of a Sacramento medical clinic has been sentenced to federal prison for his participation in a Medicare fraud scam.

Alexander Popov, 47, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Morrison C.England Jr. to eight years and one month in prison for committing health care fraud and conspiring to commit health care fraud, according to a federal Department of Justice news release. He was found guilty by a jury in July.

In sentencing, Judge England found that Popov was responsible for more than a million dollars in fraudulent billings submitted to Medicare and more than $600,000 in payments made on false claims.

Magazine subscription sellers are going door-to-door with phony claims that they are raising money the Ronald McDonald House.

Ronald McDonald House Charities is not mounting a magazine sales drive to raise money. The sellers are fraudulently representing themselves as being part of the charity.

"It's appalling that certain individuals are attempting to deceive the community under the guise of raising money for seriously ill and injured children," said Stacey Hodge, director of community relations.

The charity has two major fundraisers a year: the Red Shoe Crawl and the RMHC Golf Classic.

The Sacramento Ronald McDonald House provides accommodations for family members when their child is hospitalized.

Roseville police are alerting residents to two scams recently aimed at citizens.

One of the scams involves telephone fraud and the other car repair extortion. In both instances, the citizens did not cooperate with the suspected rip-off artists, a police activity log noted.

In the telephone fraud, a resident on Dec. 26 received a call from somebody claiming to be from the City of Roseville. The caller said that the resident's electric bill was past due and immediate payment was needed.

The caller asked for credit card or bank account information over the telephone. The resident checked her current bill and verified it was not past due.

She refused to provide the scammer with any personal information, police said.

In the case of the car repair scam, a resident on Dec. 26 was leaving a business in the 300 block of North Sunrise Avenue when his vehicle was blocked by a gray 2008 Honda Civic. The occupants of the Honda offered to fix the citizen's car dent for $150.

He declined, but the men were very insistent, police said.

To get away, the citizen told the men he would agree to the repair but needed to withdraw money from his ATM. The resident instead drove away and called police.

The scammers followed and continued to pester him, leaving when officers arrived in the area. No arrests were made.

The woman accused of helping her friend fake a home-invasion robbery and a sexual assault has been arrested.

Nicole Snyder, 33, was booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail on Dec. 12 and released later that day on $5,000 bail. She was arraigned Monday on two counts of felony criminal conspiracy.

Snyder is accused of assisting Laurie Martinez, a supervising psychologist with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, stage a crime in Martinez's Norgard Court home in April so Martinez could convince her husband to move to another neighborhood, authorities allege.

A 45-year-old man was arrested in Los Angeles today after he allegedly defrauded a Granite Bay woman out of more than $7 million in divorce proceeds, authorities said.

Troy Stratos is charged with 11 counts of wire and mail fraud, two counts of money laundering and one count of obstruction of justice, a news release from the office of U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner states.

Wagner's office says Stratos convinced the woman to execute a revocable trust with him in Fair Oaks into which she placed cash from her divorce and houses. He promised to invest the money overseas and earn a high rate in return, but he diverted "substantial sums of money" for his own use, the news release states.

Folsom police are warning city residents to be watch out for what they say are phony invoices in the mail.

The alleged scam generated from Southern California involves an entity named UST Inc. or UST Development, police said. Officers say UST has sent bogus invoices to Folsom businesses.

By Denny Walsh

dwalsh@sacbee.com

A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced well-known Sacramento businessman Collins Max "Collie" Christensen Sr. to five years in prison for investment fraud - a term in excess of two years beyond what his plea bargain called for and more than a year and a half above the top of the sentencing guidelines.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell Carlberg and defense lawyer McGregor Scott told the judge they felt the three years and nine months they earlier had agreed on was fair and just punishment.

But U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez, whose opinion was the only one that counted in the end, said he didn't believe their negotiated time behind bars adequately reflected the immense damage done to the investors.

Sacramento State police said a report in which two men claimed to be officers in a conversation with a female student actually were members of law enforcement.

The student reported that at 1 p.m. Monday she was approached in the River Front Center near the Guy West Bridge by two men who claimed to be campus security officers. They told her they were conducting an investigation and asked her to accompany them to a nearby parking lot to assist in their investigation, according to a campus Police Department news release.

The student refused and contacted campus police.

The El Dorado County Sheriff's Office is warning the public of a credit card scam, after receiving reports from several victims.

Victims give this account of how the transaction occurs, according to a Sheriff's Office news release:

Your phone rings and if you have caller ID, a 1-888 number will appear. The caller offers a low fixed-rate interest rate on a credit card or credit card consolidation. The caller then asks for credit card numbers, expiration dates, Social Security numbers, mother's maiden name and other verification passwords.

Once the caller has obtained the information, the caller tells you they need to process the information and will call you back. In addition, there will be a one-time financial fee, which will vary in amount.

By Rick Daysog

rdaysog@sacbee.com

A federal grand jury has indicted six Sacramento area residents in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme that allegedly bilked $1.8 million from several banks.

Angela Shavlovsky, 52, of Sacramento; Vitaliy Tuzman, 31, of West Sacramento; 34-year-old Alexander Kokhanets of Roseville; 38-year-old Boris Murzak and 40-year-old Zinaida Murzak, both of Sacramento; and Valeri Mysin, 31, of Citrus Heights were charged Wednesday with conspiracy to commit mail fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

The Sacramento County district attorney announced today that a Sacramento-area woman was sentenced to two years in prison for grand theft against a statewide program that provides services to the blind, disabled and elderly.

Elizabeth Garcia, 28, pled no contest to having stolen $28,831 from the In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program, which provides services or funding to income-eligible people who cannot remain in their home without assistance. After qualifying for the program, recipients may elect a relative or a friend to perform the services they require.

Garcia enrolled her mother without her knowledge or necessity and forged her mother's signature on the time sheets to claim payment from IHSS for services she didn't provide.

By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com

Five Sacramentans have been accused of running a $26 million real estate investment fraud.

A federal grand jury indicted the five in connection with an investment scam orchestrated by a company called Diversified Management Consultants Inc., or DMC. That company was an "umbrella organization" for a group of investment clubs with names like Genesis Innovations and Equishare Capital, the indictment stated.

The indictment said 180 investors were victimized by the scam. They were promised big profits, but instead their money was diverted to pay off earlier investors and to fund the defendants' "luxury lifestyle expenditures," the U.S. attorney's office said.

By Rick Daysog
rdaysog@sacbee.com

A federal grand jury has indicted a Folsom man for a high-tech scheme that allegedly took more than $6.5 million from 300 investors.

According to a 23-count indictment, Matthew Sarad, 38, told investors that his company Telomolecular Corp. was in the process of completing clinical trials and obtaining government approval for nanoparticle technology that could be used to eradicate cancer and treat age-related illnesses.

But federal prosecutors said Telomolecular had no completed product and that the company was not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as required by law.

A mother and daughter have pleaded no contest in Sacramento County Superior Court to committing grand theft against the In Home Supportive Services program.

Judge Lawrence Brown sentenced Aquilla Parrish, 51, to two years in prison, and her daughter, Quilla Parrish, 31, to three years in prison. Both women were ordered to pay restitution to the IHSS program, as well as the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance. They also agreed to pay restitution on other counts which were dismissed as part of the negotiated disposition, according to a Sacramento County District Attorney's Office news release.

IHSS is a statewide program that provides services to income-eligible people who are blind, elderly or disabled, and who would be unable to remain in their homes without assistance. To qualify, recipients must be at risk for out-of-home placement due to functional disabilities. Authorized services include food shopping and preparation, cleaning, personal care needs and accompaniment to medical appointments.

A federal grand jury in Fresno has indicted a federal prison inmate for attempting to file false liens against 14 federal prison officials.

The grand jury Thursday returned a multiple-count indictment charging Denard Darnell Neal, 48, of Avondale, Ariz., with attempting to file false liens and encumbrances against federal prison officials in violation of the Court Security Act of 2007, according federal Department of Justice news release.

The indictment alleges that in April 2010, while Neal was incarcerated by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in Atwater, he attempted to execute a scheme to file false liens and encumbrances against the real and personal property of 14 federal prison officers. As part of the scheme, Neal allegedly prepared false Uniform Commercial Code financing statements and commercial lien security agreements, purporting to make certain officers his debtors. The amounts of the false liens ranged from $5,000 to $45 million.

By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

Two crooks in a mortgage scam pleaded guilty Tuesday in Sacramento federal court to mail fraud and making false statements on loan applications.

Nicole Dawson of Oakland and Ronald Burris Jr. of Elk Grove were charged in June 2010, along with eight others, in a conspiracy involving Liberty Real Estate and Investment Co. and Liberty Mortgage Co., both owned by co-defendant Hoda Samuel.

The companies were instrumental in purchases of at least 30 homes in the Sacramento area in 2006 and 2007. The dirty deals typically had 100 percent financing based on bogus information regarding the buyers' employment, income, and intent to live in the homes.

The former college student implicated in the 2001 murder of Larry McNabney, a flamboyant Sacramento attorney, has been released from prison, officials confirmed today.

Sarah Dutra, 31, was released this morning from the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla and is now on active parole in Solano County, said Luis Patino, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Dutra was sentenced to 11 years, and she served almost eight-and-a-half, Patino said. Violent offenders in the state of California typically serve 85 percent of their sentence, and Dutra got credit for time served prior to her conviction, Patino said. (Earlier today, the CDCR incorrectly reported that Dutra had served her full 11-year sentence).

The California Education Technology Professionals Association is warning residents about a fraud ring operating in Northern California that is using young people to go door to door asking for money to support the organization's Student Bridge to the Future Scholarship.

The association does not solicit individuals for donations to support the scholarship, according to a news release. The organization has received calls regarding the fraudulent solicitations from El Cerrito, San Ramon and Oakland.

In some cases, young people have been reported canvassing neighborhoods, allegedly selling magazine subscriptions. In other cases, they have offered services such as lawn care or house work in effort to obtain money.

By Rick Daysog
rdaysog@sacbee.com

A Sacramento man accused of operating a real estate ponzi scheme has pleaded guilty to four federal counts of wire fraud.

Garry Bradford, 62, was president of a local "investment club" which took in $2.2 million from local investors between 2004 and 2008 to purchase land and local commercial buildings, according to U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner.

The club, dubbed the Millenium Capital Group, promised returns of about 18 percent to investors who dipped into their retirement accounts or refinanced their homes to invest with Bradford, an April federal grand jury indictment said.

A Chico man today pleaded guilty in federal court in Sacramento to one count of mail fraud for his role in a multimillion-dollar "building bailout" mortgage fraud scheme.

During his plea hearing in district court, William E. Baker, 65, admitted that he and others conspired with Garret Griffith Gililland III, 30, formerly of Chico, to artificially inflate the sales prices of new homes sold to Gililland's buyers, according to a federal Department of Justice news release. After close of escrow, Baker & Baker Construction would rebate significant sums of money to a front company controlled by Gililland.

On one occasion, Baker misrepresented the purpose of the payments to Gililland's company as "improvements for three houses." In fact, officials said, Giilland's company made no improvements to homes sold by Baker to Gililland's buyers.

Seven Sacramento-area real estate professionals have been charged with committing mortgage fraud with losses totaling $4 million.

Moctezuma Tovar, 42, owned and operated Delta Homes and Lending, Inc., where Sacramento residents Manuel Herrera, 31, Ruben Rodriguez, 34, and Jaime Mayorga, 32, worked as licensed real estate agents.

A former loan officer, Sandra Hermosillo, 49, of Woodland, along with former loan processors and Jun Michael Dirian, 38, of Antelope and Christian Parada Renteria, 35, of Sacramento also worked for Tovar at Delta Homes.

A man is suspected of taking $50,000 from victims, possibly by placing a debit card reading device somewhere in the Sacramento region.

The Folsom Police Department is asking for the public's help in finding the man who they suspect has used a "skimming device." Skimming devices have in the past been placed at gas pumps.

When customers use debit or credit cards, the skimming device reads the vital information on the card. The account information is then used by thieves to make purchases or debit accounts.

Folsom police arrested Katheran Willis, 24, and James Armstrong, 41, yesterday on suspicion of stealing cash from fast-food restaurants with a simple scam.

According to the Folsom Police Department, Armstrong called the restaurants and pretended to be from their corporate headquarters. He told managers that the restaurants overcharged a customer by $80 and that she would be returning to collect a refund. Then, Willis would go the restaurant, and staff would hand her the cash.

They repeated this scheme at a Subway, a Togo's, a Straw Hat Pizza, and an It's a Grind, according to the department. When Armstrong called the Smash Burger on East Bidwell Street in Folsom, the manager recognized the scam from a police department press release circulated by the Folsom Chamber of Commerce.

A federal jury has found two Sacramento men guilty of wire fraud in connection with a fraudulent investment scheme.

According to court documents, Ronald Wesley Groves, 69, was the co-founder and president of Money Growth Solutions, which operated from approximately April 2005 to April 2006. Donald Charles Mann, 54, was the co-founder and secretary-treasurer.

During the firm's year of operation, Groves and Mann raised about $4.8 million from approximately 642 investors by promising extremely high rates of return on "international bank trades," according to a federal Department of Justice news release. The defendants told investors that the bank trades were a highly secretive investment vehicle known only to a few people around the world.

Folsom police are warning local businesses of a scam used twice at local eateries in the last week.

On May 30, the Togo's on East Bidwell Street received a phone call from an individual claiming to be in the company's corporate office, who told employees that a customer had accidentally been overcharged by $80 for a food order a couple days earlier, according to a Folsom Police Department release.

The caller advised employees that the customer would be returning to the restaurant to collect the money that she had been overcharged.

The Sacramento Police Department is looking for a 33-year-old Bobby John (below), who is wanted in connection with a burglary in which he allegedly used a ruse to get the victim out of the targeted house.

From March through May, the Police Department investigated 12 burglaries in which suspects posing as plumbers or contractors approached elderly victims in their homes. The suspects used a ruse to get the victims to go into their backyard. While the resident was outside the house, accomplices went inside and burglarized the home.

On April 15, John allegedly contacted the victim at a home in the 6000 block of Tahoe Way posing as a contractor, according to a Police Department news release. The victim went with the suspect into the backyard to look at a water leak.

UC Davis is asking the public to be wary of an apparent fundraising scam in which people are going door-to-door soliciting donations for the university's marching band and students in two of its academic departments, according to a university news release.

A similar warning was issued by Sacramento State earlier this week.

Several people have called UC Davis reporting they were asked for money to support a trip to London for either the university's marching band or students in the departments of Music or Theatre and Dance, the UC Davis release states. Neither the band nor the two departments are raising funds to support a trip to London, and they do not solicit money door-to-door, according to the release.

Two young women posing as Sacramento State students are running a magazine-selling scam, university officials said.

The young women claim to be students from the university's Department of Theatre & Dance. They purport to be selling magazines to win a trip to London and they claim the department will use magazine sales proceeds to put on a production of "The Taming of the Shrew."

A press release from California State University, Sacramento also states that the two women falsely claim they are raising money for Shriner's Hospital.

Neither Shriners nor Sacramento State solicits funds in the manner being conducted by the two women, the university said. The Theatre & Dance Department is not sponsoring any trips to London.

At least three people reported being robbed in the 3000 block of Altos Avenue over the past week, after answering ads on Craigslist, two of them for televisions, Sacramento police reported.

One victim picked up the suspects in Roseville and drove them to Altos Avenue, where they robbed him at gunpoint.

In the other incidents, victims answering the advertisement were directed to the area, where they were robbed after meeting the purported sellers.

Two Reno men have been arrested after allegedly carrying out a scam to steal items from Auburn's Home Depot.

Scott K. Nelson, 46, (bottom left) and C. Nicholas Psarras, 47, (bottom right) were booked into Placer County Jail on Sunday afternoon after loss prevention employees reported observing Nelson place his homemade UPC stickers over the store's UPC stickers on boxes in his cart. After ringing up his own purchases at the self-service register, Nelson exited the store and was confronted by employees, according to a Placer County Sheriff's Department news release.

Officials said he fought with the employees before being handcuffed and taken back to the store. It was determined that Nelson had paid $97 for items valued at $810, according to the news release.

In another twist on an old scam, a New York woman was introduced to Placer County this week when she found herself the target of con artists.

Osnat Edrich immediately knew something was amiss Tuesday when she received a check for $2,980 purporting to be from the county of Placer and bearing the address 2980 Richardson Drive, in the county government center in Auburn.

Edrich said she had never heard of Placer County or Auburn and had no idea why she would receive such a payment, until she received an email announcing her "first official assignment" and directing her to "get it done ASAP."

By Loretta Kalb
lkalb@sacbee.com

Two men pleaded guilty in a sophisticated identity theft scheme and have been sentenced for their roles in stealing more than $90,000 from nearly 200 people in Northern California, including eight people in Sacramento County, the state Attorney General's office announced today.

David Karapetyan, 32, pleaded guilty to 37 felonies and received a seven-year prison sentence in Contra Costa Superior Court in Martinez, an AG spokesman reported. Zhirayr Zamanyan, 31, pleaded guilty to five felonies and received a five-year prison sentence.

Two other defendants are scheduled to appear in court Feb. 15 in connection with the spree, which occurred from November 2009 to February 2010.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is seeking the public's help in locating a husband and wife wanted in connection with an alleged Ponzi scheme.

FBI officials said recent information indicates that Perry and Rachelle Griggs may be in the Sacramento area.

The two were indicted by a federal grand jury in Honolulu last week on 13 counts of wire and mail fraud related to a Ponzi scheme they allegedly operated from 2005 through 2009, primarily targeting Hawaii residents.

According to the indictment, the Griggses operated Aloha Trading, a company purporting to be in the business of commodities trading on behalf of clients. The indictment alleges that the Aloha Trading investment program was a Ponzi scheme in which investors' returns were derived from their own principal investments and money from later investors.

At the time the alleged scheme was active, Rachelle Griggs lived in Las Vegas and Perry Griggs was incarcerated in prisons in Nevada, Texas and California. FBI officials said Griggs was serving time in federal prison for running a Ponzi scheme when he allegedly conducted the Ponzi scheme for which he is currently charged.

While in prison in Nevada, Perry Griggs was housed with a large number of inmates from Hawaii, according to an FBI news release. The indictment alleges that the Griggses marketed the Aloha Trading investment program to inmates and their families.

According to the indictment, investors obtained mortgage loans, or liquidated their retirement and personal savings to invest in the Aloha Trading program. Between September 2005 and June 2009, Aloha Trading allegedly received approximately $3 million from 12 separate investors, nine of whom lived in Hawaii.

In September 2008, Perry Griggs was released from federal prison and lived in Las Vegas with Rachelle Griggs until they both disappeared in January 2010.

FBI officials said they consider this to be a national fugitive manhunt with primary focus on the states of Nevada, Washington and California. The Griggses are from the Everett/Maryville, Wash., area and lived in Santa Ana through the 1990s, according to the FBI.

Perry Griggs, 49, is described as 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighing 180 ponds, with gray hair and blue eyes. He is known to have expensive tastes in sports cars, high-end clothing, cigars and golf, according to the news release.

Rachelle Louise Griggs, also known as Rachelle Rutledge, is 42, 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighing 150 pounds with blond hair and green eyes.

Anyone who recognizes the couple or has information about their current location is asked to call the Honolulu FBI at (808) 566-4300.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A Sacramento man has been sentenced to prison for stealing $17,000 from an elderly Davis woman.

Yolo County Superior Court Judge Kathleen White last week sentenced Willie Vains Jr., 42, to six years in prison.

Vains and a partner had charged an elderly woman in Davis more than $17,000 for supposed "handyman work." Most of the work was never done, and work that was completed was valued at little more than $1,000, according to a news release from the Yolo County District Attorney's Office.

Vains and his partner also physically intimidated the woman to get her to pay them the money.

Officials said Vains was involved in a similar scam in the 1990s, involving three elderly victims.

White denied a motion to dismiss a prior "strike" offense against Vains.

Vains' partner, Claude Gaither, was sentenced earlier this year to four year in prison for his role in the theft.

District Attorney Jeff Reisig credited vigilant friends and neighbors who discovered that the Davis woman was being scammed, and Davis Police Department detectives who spent months working on the case.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Queenie Wong
qwong@sacbee.com

Residents who receive calls from a person requesting monetary donations for the training of CAL FIRE firefighters should keep their wallets closed, according to fire officials.

The state agency says that the phone solicitation is part of a recent donation scam and that funding for CAL FIRE comes from the department's budget, not from solicitations.

The agency learned about the scam after a resident of Santa Clara County reported receiving such a call, according to the news release.

If you receive a call, the agency said to try to get as much information as possible and then report it to CAL FIRE Law Enforcement Officers at (408) 778-0930.

"We hope that by getting the word out early no one will give their money to these criminals and that if residents do get a call from a scammer, they will be prepared to gather pertinent information so we can put a stop to this," said Josh White, CAL FIRE deputy chief of law enforcement, in a statement.

Call The Bee's Queenie Wong, (916) 321-1008.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A former licensed contractor whose state license was taken away earlier this year has been arrested and faces several felony and misdemeanor charges involving contracting with a revoked license and failure to carry workers' compensation insurance.

Brian Gross, 55, of Valley Springs in Calaveras County was arrested Oct. 1 by investigators from the Contractors State License Board Statewide Investigation Fraud Team and the Amador County District Attorney's Office, according to license board news release.

Gross' general building contractor's license was revoked June 1 for failure to pay two separate administrative citations totaling more than $4,000, the release states. His license had expired Dec. 31, 2009.

Last week, building officials in Jackson tipped state fraud team investigators to Gross' attempt to obtain a local business license using his revoked contractor license number. Gross was arrested when he and three employees were found roofing a home in Jackson.

Gross faces a felony count of fraudulent use of a contractor license number and misdemeanor counts for contracting without a license, illegal advertising, displaying a revoked license, failure to carry workers' compensation insurance and soliciting an excessive down payment, officials said. He is to be arraigned Oct. 15 in Amador Superior Court.

Gross' past administrative citations, according to the news release, were for filing false exemptions to avoid paying for workers' compensation insurance, failure to secure building permits, charging excessive down payments, working outside of his license classification, illegal advertising and illegal contracts.

California law requires that any home improvement job valued at $500 or more for labor and materials be done by a licensed contractor.

Licensees must carry workers' compensation coverage for all employees so that homeowners are not financially liable if a worker is injured on their property.

Roofing contractors must purchase workers' compensation coverage for themselves as well as their employees.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

An elderly man looking for recyclable was approached by a scam artist and eventually robbed by another man Tuesday in Northgate, Sacramento police said.

The 77-year-old man was near Northgate Boulevard and San Juan Road about 4:30 p.m. when he was approached by a man who said he needed a lawyer in order to cash a $250,000 lottery ticket.

The victim agreed to give the man $1,800 in order to hire a lawyer to secure the $250,000 prize money.

Another man police consider a suspect then drove up in a car to take the victim to the bank for the withdrawal, a police report stated.

The victim also told police the second man had a gun.

Fearing for his safety, the elderly man got into the car. He was driven to the bank and turned money over to the suspects before they fled, according to police.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

The Sacramento Police Department is warning residents of a scam targeting utility customers that could compromise the customer's credit card and bank information.

Police said the Sacramento Municipal Utility District notified the department of the scam this week. It is accomplished by someone pretending to work for a utility company contacting the victim by phone. The person tells the victim that there is a billing issue involving a lack of payment and that their utilities will be turned off without immediate payment.

The victim, thinking their service will be turned off, provides the caller with credit card or bank information that can be used to compromise the victim's accounts.

Police remind people never to provide personal information -- including Social Security, credit card and bank account numbers -- over the telephone.

SMUD reports that its customer service representative will never call a customer and ask for financial information over the telephone.

Anyone who receives a suspicious call is advised to ask for the caller's name, then hang up and call the utility company's published phone number.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

The Roseville Police Department is advising consumers to carefully monitor their banking and credit card transactions, citing an unusual number of local cases in which thieves have collected credit card numbers and used them to fraudulently make purchases.

"We believe there have been at least 200 victims who have experienced fraudulent credit card activity, and that number is growing," said Dee Dee Gunther, police department spokeswoman.

The earliest of the cases under investigation appears to date back to March, she said. The pattern became apparent last week, when lending institutions contacted the department after noting that many of the credit card fraud victims at some time over the past several months used their credit cards at Roseville restaurants that use the same third-party credit processing service.

Because the investigation is ongoing, Gunther said, police are not releasing the names of the restaurants involved. She said detectives are busy returning calls to victims to find out where and when their credit cards were used, and whether they are connected to this case.

Authorities don't know whether local individuals were involved in the fraud, or whether cyber-criminals elsewhere found a way to hack into the electronic process.

Police said its appears that victims' credit card numbers were compromised electronically at some point between the point of sale and the data processing service that relays transactions between merchants and their customers' lending institutions. When criminals collect credit card information electronically, they typically sell the information to other criminals, who then use the credit card number to manufacture false credit cards or to purchase items online.

Because of the scope of the investigations, the Roseville Police Department is working with the U.S. Secret Service, which conducts initial investigations into financial crimes, Gunther said. Several financial institutions have alerted their customers that their credit cards were, or may have been, compromised and have taken steps to protect the card holders.

"Although we don't have all the answers yet, we want to notify the public, especially diners in our area, to be especially vigilant about monitoring their credit cards for signs of fraud," Gunther said.

Police advise consumers who notice unauthorized, or attempted unauthorized transactions to:

* Immediately notify the lending institution of the potential compromise.

* Ask the lending institution to block the old credit card and issue a new one with a new number.

* File a report with a local law enforcement agency.

* Continue to closely monitor credit card transactions, and if fraud has occurred, place a fraud alert with the three major credit reporting bureaus, Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. Lending institutions may already have a plan to provide that service for their customer.

Although criminals are able to use stolen credit card numbers temporarily, police said, financial institutions usually will be able to reimburse customers for their losses and block the account from future intrusions using the compromised credit card numbers.

To contact the three major credit reporting bureaus call: Equifax, (800) 685-1111; Experian (888) 397-3742; and TransUnion, (800) 916-8800.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

The Placer County District Attorney's office is warning the public to watch out for scam artists when hiring for work around the house.

The California State Licensing Board cautions citizens to only hire state-licensed contractors on projects of $500 or more.

Also, check the license online at www.cslb.ca.gov or by calling (800) 321-2752.

Other CSLB recommendations: get three bids, get references of contractors, review past work of contractors, get project expectations in writing and only sign a contract if understood.

Citizens should also confirm that the contractor has workers' compensation insurance.

Don't pay in cash and don't pay more than 10 percent down or $1,000, whichever is less. Don't make the final payment until satisfied with the job.

The hints on hiring comes in the wake of an 87-year-old Auburn woman who was bilked out of $13,500 for a tree removal job on her property.

The contractor, Leron Anthony Stephenson (photo left), 30, of Roseville, cashed six checks, including four blank checks given by the victim, according to a news release from the DA's Office.

Stephenson pleaded guilty in April to theft charges and contracting without a license, the release states. He was given a one-year jail sentence, placed on five years probation and given a suspended prison sentence of five years and four months.

He must pay the back the $13,500 to the family of his victim, the release states.

The elderly woman died before Stephenson changed his plea to guilty in April, according to the release.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A man accused of paving scams in several counties statewide has been extradited to California, where he faces multiple charges of fraud, theft and failure to appear in court.

Police in Duncan, Okla., arrested Richard John Williams, 65, June 28, when they were tipped to his whereabouts, according to a California Contractors State License Board news release. Williams was wanted on three outstanding Lake County warrants.

He pleaded not guilty July 30, and a preliminary hearing is set for Aug. 27 in Lake County Superior Court.

The $750,000 arrest warrant was issued for Williams in March 2009 for attempted elder abuse and petty theft. In April 2009, a no-bail warrant was issued because he failed to appear in court to answer charges of grand theft and contracting without a license, which stemmed from a contractors license board sting. A $10,000 warrant was issued in June 2009 when Williams failed to appear for sentencing on his January 2009 no-contest plea to grand theft.

Williams is suspected of conning consumers in Butte, Colusa, Mendocino, Napa, Sacramento, Sonoma and Yolo counties since 2005, according to the news release. In early 2009, officials say, Williams was operating throughout Lake County and surrounding regions under the business name "Seal Coat Contractor."

During that time, he is accused of attempting to scam for a second time an elderly man suffering from Alzheimer's disease. The man was among the victims in the cases to which Williams had previously pleaded no contest.

On March 19, 2009, the Contractors State License Board and Lake County District Attorney's investigators set up a sting operation and arrested Williams in Kelseyville for bidding $3,500 on a paving job. California law requires a state contractor's license to legally bid on home improvement work valued at $500 or more for combined materials and labor.

Williams fled the state soon after the sting, earning him a spot on the license board's "most wanted" list.

Anyone who thinks they have been scammed by Williams may contact the Contractors State License Board's Intake/Mediation Center at (916) 255-4777.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Chelsea Phua

cphua@sacbee.com

The man on the phone sounded like her 24-year-old grandson, Sacramento resident Doris McRoberts said.

He told her he and some friends had been involved in a car accident in Ontario, Canada, and needed $3,000 to pay for the cost of repairs.

She would have sent the money, but for a Wells Fargo bank employee who felt something was not quite right and made McRoberts promise that she would consult family members before sending the money.

It's a good thing McRoberts has never broken a promise.

She called her daughter. Her real grandson, as it turned out, was in Berkeley during the time of the alleged accident, and didn't call grandma for money.

"We've seen an increase in these type of scams," Sacramento police spokesman Officer Konrad von Schoech.

Known as the "Grandmother" scam, the con artist poses as a grandchild or a friend of the grandchild and tells grandma or grandpa that he or she is in jail, in trouble or is sick.

"It's usually a tragic situation which the scammer requests to be kept secret," von Schoech said.

If the victim can't share the information, the victim can't verify if it's true, von Schoech said.

"But the best thing to do is verify that the situation that someone is posing to you actually exists," von Schoech said.

And never give personal or financial information over the phone, or agree to meet someone you don't know.

McRoberts also has a few words of wisdom - gained from hindsight. She has two grandsons, but the scammer never specified which of the two he was, and she just assumed he was the older one.

"When they say they are your grandchild, ask, "Which one are you?'" McRoberts said.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

The El Dorado County Sheriff's Department has arrested a man accused of falsely representing himself in various roles to befriend and defraud people.

Sheriff's detectives in South Lake Tahoe were contacted Wednesday by detectives from the Arizona Department of Public Safety, who had information indicating that one of their fugitives was in South Lake Tahoe. John William Rodriguez, 31, was wanted by Arizona authorities on 12 counts of fraud and forgery, according to a sheriff's department news release.

Rodriguez is accused of fraudulently representing himself as a U.S. Marine, an Iraq war veteran, an FBI agent and a detective with the Department of Veteran's Affairs. Officials say he often wore a Marine uniform, gained access to military installations and attended functions such as the Marine Corps Ball.

On Thursday, El Dorado County Sheriff's detectives learned that Rodriguez was living at a residence on Eloise Avenue in South Lake Tahoe. After a daylong investigation and surveillance, Rodriguez was arrested without incident and booked into the South Lake Tahoe jail for a local misdemeanor warrant and a no-bail felony fugitive warrant from the state of Arizona.

Based on their investigation, El Dorado County detectives say they believe Rodriguez engaged in similar fraudulent activities while living in South Lake Tahoe. They said information indicated he befriended numerous people in the area and might have used his scam to defraud his new friends.

Anyone with information about Rodriguez is asked to call Detective Matt Harwood at (530) 573-3015.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

Bee staff:

Even retired priests can be potential phone scam targets.

The Rev. Bill Dohman called late Wednesday afternoon after he said he received an offer he could refuse -- after some inquiry.

Dohman said a woman called and said he was to be awarded $5,000 for being a "good citizen." Dohman said the woman had his name, phone number and birthdate. She then referred him to another phone number, where a man named "John" said that if Dohman would wire him $235, he could receive the $5,000.

"That's when I said, 'I think this is a scam,' " he said, before hanging up.

Dohman, who said he volunteers at Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento, said he called The Bee to warn other potential victims not to fall prey to this type of scam.

Click here for scam prevention tips, as provided by the Better Business Bureau, and articles about various scams.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A man characterized by the California's Contractors State License Board as a notorious traveling con artist and two members of his extended family have pleaded no contest in Butte County Superior Court to multiple felony and misdemeanor counts related to a paving scam.

George Joseph Stanley (photo left below) and his cousins George and Kevin Snow (photos centr and right below) entered pleas Tuesday following a yearlong investigation by the Contractors State License Board and the Butte County District Attorney's Office.

The three men were arrested June 24, 2009 at a Chico motel by investigators from the CSLB's State Investigative Fraud Team, along with officers from the California Highway Patrol, Butte County District Attorney's Office and the Chico Police Department. While based at the motel, they are believed to have scammed at least a dozen home and business owners in Butte, Tehama and Glenn counties, according to a CSLB news release.

Officials said the operation uses professional looking equipment as part of a roving scam. They often claim to have left-over material that they will use to fix pot holes, or pave driveway and parking lots for a "good deal." Then they either do more work than initially agreed to or claim they need more material to finish the job and the "bargain rate" ends up being a rip-off, officials said.

In many cases, victims are out thousands of dollars with nothing to show for it but asphalt that they can pick apart with their hands, officials said.

In the Butte County case, Stanley, 30, of Moosup, Conn., pleaded to five felony counts of grand theft by false pretenses and one misdemeanor count of contracting without a license.

George Charles Snow, 20, of Salisbury, Mass., pleaded to four felony counts of grand theft by false pretenses and one misdemeanor count of contracting without a license.

Kevin Patrick Snow Jr., 22, also of Salisbury, Mass., pleaded to two felony counts of grand theft by false pretenses and one misdemeanor count of contracting without a license.

As part of the plea agreement, the three must post a bond for $130,000 by July 8 to guarantee full payment of the $130,000 by their sentencing, scheduled for Oct. 20. Failure to do so will negate the plea agreement and a trial date will be set, according to the news release. They also must pay the storage fees for paving equipment and other vehicles that were impounded as evidence in the case.

Stanley previously pleaded guilty or no contest for his involvement in 2008 paving scams in Tulare, San Joaquin and Yuba counties. He faces deadlines this month to pay $160,500 in restitution including $23,400 by July 12 in Tulare County, $102,000 by July 15 in San Joaquin County and $35,000 by July 16 to Yuba County.

Officials say Stanley and his cousins are believed to have operated throughout the continental United States and Hawaii for the past two years. Victims have identified the men in Colorado, Idaho, Pennsylvania and Washington.

"While these three are big operators, they are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to paving scams," CSLB Registrar Steve Sands said in the news release. "Consumers should never rush into a construction job just because they think they're getting a good deal or a special that day."

In California, any paving job or other home improvement project that totals $500 or more in materials and labor must be done by someone with a state license.

To avoid being conned the CSLB recommends that consumers:

- Verify the contractor's license at www.cslb.ca.gov or www.CheckTheLicenseFirst.com or by calling (800) 321-2752.

- Ask to see the contractor's plastic pocket license card, and ask for photo identification to make sure it's the same person.

- Don't rush into repairs, no matter how badly they're needed or just because you'll et a "good deal" that day.

- Don't pay more than 10 percent or $1,000, whichever is less, as a down payment. Solicitation of a down payment greater than this amount is a violation of the California Business and Professions Code. There is an exception for about two dozen contractors that purchase special bonds for consumer protection, and these exceptions are noted on the CSLB website.

- Get at least three bids, check references and get a written contract.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

The Yolo County District Attorney's Office is cautioning residents to be wary of cell-phone text messages purporting to be from the Yolo Federal Credit Union.

In the past few days, residents have received a rash of fake messages, according to a news release from the DA's office.

The message states that there is a problem with "Your YOLO FCU CARD starting with 4661." The message continues, "Your card has been placed on hold and you should call the number provided."

The scam message can be sent to thousands of people by crooks pretending to be legitimate businesses, such as banks and credit card providers, the release states.

The goal is to lure people into providing personal information like bank or credit card numbers. The scammers try to appeal to the victims' emotions so that they will quickly call back and provide sensitive and private information that will be used for future identity theft crimes, according the release.

Numerous Yolo County residents have contacted the DA's office to report the text messages. Several realized the message was a scam just before providing their account numbers.

District Attorney Jeff Reisig advises people never to respond to unsolicited requests for personal information without independently verifying with the bank or credit card company that the requests are legitimate

Yolo Federal Credit Union officials expressed their concern and offered assistance.

"Our members can rest assured the Yolo FCU stands ready to assist its members and that no data or personal information has been compromised," Jenee Rawlings, the credit union's vice president, said in the news release.

To help citizens protect themselves from becoming the victims of scams, the Yolo County District Attorney's Office, along with several other agencies, will hold a Fraud Fair from 2 to 6 p.m. July 8 at West Sacramento City Hall, 1110 West Capitol Ave.

For more information or directions, call Dave Edwards at (530) 666-8416.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

Roseville police are reminding seniors to be alert to financial scams targeting older people.

Police say the most common type of elder abuse law enforcement and victim advocates encounter locally is financial abuse, often perpetrated by professional scam artists.

Common scams include:

* Home and roadside repair scams: A scam artist contacts a homeowner or motorist, points out a previously unnoticed, or invented, repair problem and offers to fix the problem at a discounted rate. Recently in Roseville, an older couple were flagged down by another driver who told them their vehicle was smoking, according to a Police Department news release. The man offered to fix their vehicle at a "discounted rate" of $1,250. He and his companions talked the couple out of $40, then gained access to their home, distracted them and stole jewelry.

In a similar version of the scam, phony home repair people contacted older residents on the pretext of fixing the roof or conducting other unsolicited home repairs, then talked themselves into the homes and stole money and other items.

* The grandparent scam: A scam artist calls a senior citizen, often late at night, posing as a grandchild in trouble in another state or a foreign country. The "grandchild" tells the senior that he or she is in jail or has auto repair problems, and asks the grandparent to wire money.

* Foreign lottery or fund transfer scams: People are told they have won a lottery, even though they may never have entered it. They are told that all they have to do to claim millions of dollars is to wire a few thousand dollars to pay the taxes. Or people may receive an e-mail from a someone claiming to be a former government official in Nigeria asking assistance transferring millions of dollars to the United States, and saying they will be well compensated. People are asked to provide their bank account information so the transfer can be made. Police say some Roseville residents not only fell for the scam but were hounded afterward by the same scammers urging them to send even more money.

Once someone has wired money, or given away cash, police say it is almost impossible to arrest the scam artist, who may be in a foreign country, or to recover the stolen money.

Police also note that older people are sometimes reluctant to talk about their financial affairs with their family, or are too embarrassed to tell anyone that they have been duped.

Laura Conrad, victim advocate for the Placer County District Attorney's Office, offers tips to avoid becoming a victim:

* Before having work done to your home, check a contractor's license number online at http://www.cslb.ca.gov/, or by calling (800) 321-2752. Always get multiple bids, get a written contract and never pay more than 10 percent down or $1,000, whichever is less, upfront.

* Never let strangers, unsolicited "inspectors" or solicitors into your home. Create a barrier between yourself and solicitors with a metal screen door or a security door. Before letting inspectors or repairmen in, verify their ID with their employer.

* Get in the habit of discussing transactions or purchases of more than $1,000 with a trusted family member.

* Don't be pressured into making an immediate decision.

* Register you home and cell phones with the "do not call" national registry at (888) 382-1222 or www.donotcall.gov.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

Three law enforcement agencies are looking for identity thieves after identical credit card skimming machines were discovered inside gasoline pumps in Placer County, Folsom and Sacramento.

The devices (photo left) were placed in gas pumps and were used to retrieve credit card numbers from victims, according to a Placer County Sheriff's Department news release.

The scanning devices have been found in pumps farthest from the clerk's location and nearest to the street to avoid detection. Law enforcement officials recommend that customers to pay inside the store using their credit cards or cash to avoid this type of fraud.

Detectives suspect more scanning devices are in use. They note that they devices been located at a variety of gas stations, not at one particular company's pumps.

People who think their credit card information may have been stolen at a gas station are advised to file a report with their local law enforcement agency.

The Placer County Sheriff's Department, in conjunction with the Folsom Police Department and the Sacramento County High-tech Crimes Task Force are seeking suspects.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

Roseville police have arrested a Sacramento man on suspicion of fraudulently asking for charitable donations.

Police called to a store parking lot in the 1400 block of Lead Hill Boulevard on Tuesday found a man carrying a clipboard with forms recording charitable donations, purportedly for the city-owned George Sim Community Center in Sacramento.

Officers called the Sim Center and found that center operators had not authorized the fundraising effort, nor had they received any funds from such an effort.

Officers believe that Rayshawn Donte Smith (photo left), 23, and others had been fraudulently asking for donations for some time and pocketing the money.

Smith was arrested on suspicion of petty theft with a prior conviction for petty theft and fraudulently soliciting charitable contributions.

Roseville police advise not giving money to solicitors, either by phone or in person. A website recommended by police to research charities is www.charitynavigator.org

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A West Sacramento man who used ill-gotten gains to purchase expensive cars and a vacation time share has been sentenced to prison for defrauding the state of California of more than $680,000 while serving as a manager with the California Power Authority.

U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. today sentenced Benjamin Bustamante, 32, to two and a half years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release for wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud the former California Power Authority Demand Reserves Partnership Program.

Bustamante was also ordered to pay $684,216.53 in restitution to the state of California, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

The California Power Authority was established in 2000 in part to assure reliable power at reasonable rates and encourage energy conservation.

It established the Demand Reserves Partnership Program in which commercial and industrial customers, known as "end users", contracted to conserve energy during periods of peak energy use in exchange for payment.

"Aggregators" contracted with the Demand Reserves Partnership to coordinate the conservation contracts with end users, according to the news release.

The aggregators entered into subcontracts with end users, received payment from the Demand Reserves Partnership Program administrator for the end users and remitted payment to the end users.

According to Bustamante's plea agreement, he became the aggregator billing and settlements coordinator for the Demand Reserves Partnership in 2004.

He admitted that in 2006 he created a fictional company, Advanced Energy Response, listing himself as the sole owner. He obtained an IRS Employment Identification Number and opened a bank account for the company.

He then created a fictional state of California contract for the California Power Authority and Advanced Energy Response to serve as an aggregator with the Demand Reserves Partnership.

The news release says Bustamante admitted that he then submitted four fictional invoices, between August and December 2006, to the California Power Authority, requesting a total of $684,216.53 as payment for "energy capacity" supposedly reserved for conservation or actually conserved by end users. Bustamante, however, had not contracted with any end users to provide such capacity, and no end user had provided the capacity.

Bustamante received payment from the state for the fictional service and used approximately $173,000 to purchase two 2006 Porches, a Harley Davidson motorcycle and a Hilton Grand Vacations time share, according to the news release.

The case against Bustamante resulted from an investigation by Internal Revenue Service criminal investigation agents. Assistant U.S. Attorney S. Robert Tice-Raskin prosecuted the case.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Gamaliel Ortiz
gortiz@sacbee.com

Karen Leardini listed a 12-week-old Chihuahua for $300 on the Sacramento Bee classified pages Thursday. By today, she had the attention of two callers, but they weren't the buyers she wanted.

The first caller, who identified herself as a grandmother from Texas, phoned Leardini using TDD or Telecommunications Device for the Deaf. The woman, who said the puppy was for her granddaughter, was willing to pay an additional $100 for doing business and also offered to pay transportation costs.

After the initial call, the unnamed caller insisted on e-mail correspondence, in which she urged Leardini to take the deal and "cash the check right away."

Leardini's alarm bells went off after that request. She figured that the call and e-mails were part of a scam. If so, the Sacramento resident would have been out the check's amount, the money for transportation, potential bank fees and, of course, her puppy "Tilly Mouse" (photo left).

Katie Robison, media specialist with the Better Business Bureau (Northeast California), identified these red flags that point to the potential scam: the buyer was from out of state and she was willing to pay extra.

"A lot of times, it's better to deal locally," she said. "With these ads you want to say cash only. We've seen it before: People call in and they get a check, cash it and 14 days later they hear that the check is fake."

The TDD system makes locating a potential scammer difficult, Robison said.

In addition, scammers using TDD try to get sellers "to think with their heart strings and not use common sense." That apparently was the case with Leardini who, while sympathetic for the "deaf grandmother," immediately stopped e-mailing the Texan after she insisted on cashing the check quickly.

After reading her last e-mail, Leardini got another call, this time from a "grandfather" using TDD.

Robison's advice: "See if they want to pay cash only. That's not going to bounce."

For more information about concerns about scams, contact the BBB at www.bbb.org or call the office, (916) 443-6843.

Call The Bee's Gamaliel Ortiz, (916) 321-1022.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

Sacramento police have arrested a man for allegedly using a common scam in which the victim is told they are big winners, according to a Police Department news release.

Joe Zachary (photo left), 55, of Sacramento was arrested on suspicion of theft from an elderly person and obtaining money under false pretenses, police said.

The release gave this chain of events:

In January a woman received a call from a man telling her she had won money. However, the caller said, she would have to send money for taxes and fees before she could collect her winnings.

The victim complied more than once to the stranger's demands for money to be wired to an account.

Thousands of dollars and a few months later the woman still did not have her winnings. The Police Department was notified.

Zachary was arrested, even though caution it is typically difficult to find suspects in this type of scam, the release states.

The victim was able to provide enough information about the suspect in this case for police to make an arrest, the release states.

Every effort should be made by a citizen to validate information from a caller, police said. And, they caution, if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is a scam.

Police ask anyone with information about the scam to call Crime Alert at (916) 443-4357.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

Sacramento police are warning that scam artists are peddling fake bars of gold.

Similar crooked deals have surfaced through the years.

The most recent incarnation of the scam occurred Thursday in Natomas when a woman shopping in the 3600 block of Truxel was approached by another woman who spoke to her in Spanish.

The woman told the victim that she was from Mexico and that a sick relative needed help to pay hospital bills. A man then approached and asked the victim if she would like to help by buying a bar of gold at a sale price.

The victim agreed, thinking she would be helping a family in need with bills while also making some money for herself. She withdrew the money from the bank and paid for the phony gilded bar.

Later, after a trip to a jewelry store, she found out the gold bar was a fake.

The suspects have been targeting Hispanic women with the same scam, police said.

The male suspect was described as Hispanic, about 60 years old, 5 feet, 5 inches tall, 130 pounds, wearing a grey-and-beige knitted cap, beige T-shirt and beige jeans. The female suspect was described as Hispanic, 45 years old, 5 feet tall, 165 pounds with shoulder-length brown hair.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Alert at (916) 443-4357.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

The soon-to-be owner of a Sacramento house in escrow arrived with a moving van Friday evening to find a family living in the house.

Sacramento police officers were called to the house in the 1800 block of 68th Avenue about 7 p.m. after the person purchasing the property found two adults and two children living there, according to the Police Department's daily activity log.

The occupants told officers that they rented the house several weeks earlier and had given the "landlord" money for rent and a deposit. Officers reported that a representative for the property being sold was on scene and provided documents and a deed of ownership. They said it could not be confirmed whether the renters were victims or participants in a fraudulent scheme.

The occupants left the house voluntarily, police reported.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 773-6866.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

Rocklin police have confirmed that at least 57 people were scammed when their debit card information was stolen by sophisticated devices hidden in two gas pumps.

Victims have come forward since the devices were discovered Dec. 21 in the pumps at the AM/PM gas station at Sunset Boulevard and Park Drive, said Rocklin police Lt. Lon Milka.

In the past, thieves used devices on the outside of gas pumps to extract PINs and other information from cards. They installed tiny cameras and card skimmers to steal the information and then dip into a victim's account.

This time, devices were installed in gas pumps. Police say they believe the devices intercept information and send the PIN and other debit card information to someone with a laptop.

The criminals then create a card that allows them to withdraw money from the victim's account at ATMs.

Similar scams have been reported in Southern California, San Mateo, Martinez, Vacaville, Citrus Heights and Sacramento, Milka said.

Rocklin police determined that $43,000 was taken from ATM accounts by cards created by the scam. That amount could climb because only two of 16 financial institutions that provided the debit cards to customers who were scammed have reported losses to police.

Rocklin police have obtained photographs of eight people using ATMs with the stolen PINs and homemade cards.

The Orange County District Attorney's office is leading an investigation of thefts similar to the Rocklin incidents. Some of the people captured on camera using the stolen PINs from the Rocklin station appear to match suspects in Southern California, Milka said.

The Rocklin devices came to light after a customer noticed unauthorized withdrawals with his debit card. He went back to the AM/PM and the proprietor of the station found devices inside two pumps.

The proprietor then called Rocklin police. It is unclear how long the devices had been inside the pumps.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Bee Staff

Sacramento police officers broke up a scam to get money for the return of a missing dog, according to a crime summary released today.

Here's how the attempted scam unfolded, according to police:

A woman's French bulldog escaped from her residence in the 2100 block of Bidwell Way around midnight on Tuesday. The dog wore a collar with ID tag and contact information.

On Wednesday, the victim received a phone call from a female who said she had purchased the dog via a Craigslist ad.

The victim then received a call from a male who claimed to be the original caller's husband. He said he would not return the dog unless the victim refunded the purchase money to him.

The victim arranged to meet with the female at a fast-food restaurant on Freeport Boulevard, but the victim also contacted the police.

A woman arrived at the restaurant with her two children and the dog only to be greeted by officers.

The woman told officers that her boyfriend had fabricated the story about buying the dog through a Craigslist ad so he could get money from the victim.

The woman was not arrested. Officers are looking for the boyfriend.

By Kim Minugh
kminugh@sacbee.com

Responding to an influx of reports from residents concerned about suspicious solicitors, law enforcement officials are warning people to be skeptical of just about anyone at the door.

Except when it comes to U.S. Census workers and maybe cookie-peddling Girl Scouts, legitimate neighborhood salesmen are pretty much a thing of the past, said Sherrie Carhart, a crime prevention specialist for the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department.

"It's past the time. People shouldn't be going door-to-door soliciting," she said. "It's not something that's accepted these days."

Instead, Carhart said, many of the modern-day "solicitors" likely are prospective burglars, looking for empty homes.

Carhart's warning comes after she's received a number of calls from residents asking about aggressive solicitors pushing everything from cleaning supplies to electronics to assistance for veterans.

Some have been so aggressive that the solicitors have walked into homes uninvited, residents report.

Roger Berkenpas, a community activist in Fair Oaks, said some of his neighbors have talked about a "very smooth, pushy" vacuum salesman who promises Wal-Mart gift cards to anyone who will listen to his sales pitch.

The couple of takers have been disappointed to find the gift cards were worthless, Berkanpas said.

Carhart said sales people are required to carry a copy of the county permit they must obtain for door-to-door solicitation, as well as a copy of their business license.

(A small group of folks are exempt from the required county permit, Carhart said, including non-profits, churches and federal government workers, including those carrying out the U.S. Census.)

But before asking for that paperwork, residents should be wary of even opening the door, Carhart said. She suggests making your presence known by talking through the door or a window.

If you notice the person skipping homes on your street, trying doorknobs, looking through windows or going to back fences, call your local law enforcement agency's non-emergency line, Carhart said.

If it looks like someone is in the act of breaking into a home, call 911, she said.

Authorities have tried in recent months to alert residents about tactics sometimes used by prospective burglars, such as knocking on the door and asking for someone who doesn't live there.

An elderly woman in Meadowview opened her front door Monday night to a young man saying his dog was in her backyard - and then was ordered to the ground at gunpoint. Her house was ransacked and three men fled with cash and jewelry.

Carhart said Sacramento's communities are full of people of "good-natured, helpful people" - and, unfortunately, many that want to take advantage of those good Samaritans.

"People are interested in scamming other people," she said. "There are a lot of bad people out there."

From Bill Lindelof

Rocklin police said Thursday that the number of people reporting that their debit card information was stolen by a sophisticated device hidden in two Rocklin gas pumps continues to grow.

"It's getting more and more scary," Rocklin Police Lt. Lon Milka. "We are getting more and more victims. They are coming out of the woodwork."

At least two dozens victims have come forward since the devices were discovered in the pumps at the AM/PM gas station at Sunset Boulevard and Park Drive on Dec. 21. One victim had $1,416 taken out of his bank account in three days and another had almost $1,000 stolen.

In years past, devices on the outside of a gas pump were used to get pin numbers and information from cards. Tiny cameras and card skimmers were used to steal the information and then dip into a victim's account.

But in this case, somebody has gotten into the gas pump and placed a device inside. Police believe the device intercepts information and sends the pin number and other debit card information to somebody with a laptop.

The criminal then creates a card that allows them to go to an ATM and withdraw money from the victim's account.

"They are able to get into the actual gas pump," said Milka. "So, obviously, those pumps are not very secure. Whoever manufactures them has to come up with something better."

Milka said other police agencies are battling the same crime. He advises gas station operators to look inside gas pumps for foreign devices.

That is what happened in the Rocklin case: a customer noticed unauthorized withdrawals with his or her debit card. He went back to the AM/PM and the proprietor of the station found the device inside two pumps.

The proprietor then called Rocklin police. It is unclear how long the devices had been inside the pumps, Milka said.

The most fool-proof way to avoid such as scam is to use cash. Or, Milka said, a customer could go inside the station office and have the clerk swipe a debit card, Milka said.

The scam at the AM/PM exclusively involved debit cards, not credit cards, said Milka.

From Bill Lindelof:

The Yolo County District Attorney is warning that there is a rise in cell phone "vishing," attempts to extract personal information and then use that for financial gain.

In vishing, a scam artist tries to get the victim to call a phone number to provide personal information to solve a fictional problem at a bank or with a credit or debit card. The scammer tries to get the possible victim to verify or reactivate an account.

Recently, an 80-year-old Knights Landing resident said she received four vishing text messages on her cell phone in one day. The messages asked her to call her bank and provided a phone number she should call.

However, the savvy woman was not tricked. She recognized the text as a possible scam and called her bank using a number she knew was correct.

The bank confirmed there was no problem.

District Attorney Jeff Reisig said in a press release that consumers should "never release your personal identifying information like bank and credit card numbers, Social Security numbers or secret passwords in response to an unsolicited request of any kind."

From Kim Minugh

Sacramento police are considering the arrest of an 18-year-old man who appears to have been fraudulently soliciting donations for a McClatchy High School scholarship fund.

Officers contacted the man, who has not been identified because he has not been arrested, after a skeptical Land Park resident began questioning the man, said police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong.

The man said he was selling subscriptions to the San Francisco Chronicle to benefit a McClatchy High scholarship fund, Leong said. Residents could either buy the subscriptions or he would take their donation directly, he told neighbors.

But when the curious resident asked for proof of his connection to McClatchy High, he couldn't produce any, Leong said. The resident then called police, who questioned the man.

He couldn't provide proof or school identification, Leong said. Paperwork in his possession showed he had been running the scam for several days and had collected as much as $150, Leong said.

Officers contacted victims, but they declined to pursue prosecution - that is, until officers released the man and he apparently continued the scam, Leong said. The investigation continues, and the man faces potential charges of theft or fraud, Leong said. Officers also confiscated the paperwork and the $60 in cash the man had on him.

Such solicitations are not unusual, Leong said, and police generally discourage residents from giving any cash or checks to people who go door-to-door.

Residents can ask for identification or proof of a connection to an organization; however, Leong said, "there's no good way to know for sure."

"Best bet is to not give money to people you don't know," he said.

Anyone who sees a man claiming to be working on behalf of the McClatchy High fund - or any other solicitor who appears suspicious - is asked to call police at the department's non-emergency line, (916) 264-5471.

From Kim Minugh:

Sacramento County sheriff's detectives are warning the public about a new variation of the classic "pigeon drop" scam that recently cost a 72-year-old woman $10,000 and a lot of grief.

The victim was shopping at a Wal-Mart store in Rancho Cordova in September when she was approached by a woman who said she had found an envelope full of diamonds while working at a local hotel, sheriff's Sgt. Tim Curran said. The woman said she needed to sell the diamonds to pay for her mother's cancer treatment.

The scammer stopped another man walking by -- who was part of the caper -- and asked him for help, Curran said. The man suggested that he take the diamonds inside the Wal-Mart and ask a jeweler there to appraise the diamonds, Curran said.

The man went into the store and then returned to the women, saying the diamonds were worth $20,000 to $30,000, Curran said. The victim then purchased two of the supposed diamonds for $10,000. When she took them to a jeweler, she found out they were crystals, Curran said.

The sheriff's department described the female suspect as Hispanic, in her 40s, 5-foot, 3-inches tall and weighing 125 pounds. She was wearing pink pants, a short-sleeve shirt with multi-colored "drops" on it, a fisherman-type hat and sunglasses with shiny white frames. She had dark hair and carried a long black handbag with multiple gold accents.

The male suspect is described as a white or possibly Hispanic man and in his 20s. He is roughly 5-foot-4, weighs 160 pounds, has a tan complexion and black hair. He was wearing a tan polo shirt and blue jeans.

Curran outlined the standard formula of a pigeon-drop scheme:

* A stranger, or strangers, gain the victim's confidence with a believable story.

* The stranger asks for the victim's help or promises the victim money or goods.

* Then that person asks the victim to show "good faith" by producing cash in advance for the promised money or goods.

Curran encouraged people victimized by such scams, or who have been approached by people who seem to be carrying out such a scam, to report it to law enforcement. He wrote in a news release: "Don't feel foolish or stupid. Reporting is vital. Very few frauds are reported, which leaves the con artists free to rob other people of their money and trust."

Anyone with information about the Wal-Mart incident is asked to call sheriff's elder abuse detectives at (916) 874-5070 or Crime Alert at (916) 443-4357 or text in a tip to 274637. Enter the word "SACTIP" followed by the tip information. Callers can remain anonymous and might be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.

Bee Staff

An old con game called "bait and switch" has resurfaced in Sacramento, the Sacramento Police Department warns, claiming at least four victims in the past weeks.

The victims lost "thousands of dollars" to the scam operators, according to a Police Department news release.

Here is how the Police Department outlined the typical operation of this scam:

Usually, a victim is approached in the parking lot of a shopping center, post office or financial institution by a black male who says he is from Africa and claims to be lost.

The suspect will give the victim a telephone number to call where a supposed attorney will ask the victim to give "his client" a ride and provides directions.

Once the victim agrees, the suspect relays a story that he has a large amount of money from an inheritance or something similar, and that he cannot take the money back to his country because the government will take it or kill him.

The suspect then indicates he would rather donate the money to a church or charity. When the victim buys into the story, he will take the suspect to a pre-designated location where they will encounter a "stranger" who engages them in conversation.

The stranger is part of the scam and a conspirator to the crime. The suspect will tell his story again and the "stranger" offers to help. The suspect asks the "stranger" if he could donate the money for him and that as a reward, he can keep some of it for himself.

The suspect will ask the "stranger" if he is trustworthy and that he would have to prove that he doesn't intend to keep all of the money for himself. To prove it, the suspect asks the "stranger" to go to his bank and withdraw money from his account (to show that he has his own money and that he would not be tempted to keep all of the money for himself).

The suspect then gets the victim to drive both he and the "stranger" to the bank so that he can withdraw money. The "stranger" supposedly goes into the bank and withdraws a large sum of money, comes back to the car and shows it to the suspect.

The suspect makes the same proposition to the victim. The victim usually agrees to withdraw money from his own account as a symbol of trust.

The suspect will take the victim's money and the "stranger's" money and cover it with a "prayer cloth." The suspect will pray and bless the money at which time he also switches the victim's money with the "stranger's" money.

The suspect will keep the money covered with the "prayer cloth" and usually says that the "stranger" agreed to drive him the rest of the way. Once the suspects leave, the victim discovers that his money was switched with the "stranger's" money (usually pieces of newspaper cut to the size of bills).

The Sacramento Police Department asks anyone with information pertaining to this crime to contact Crime Alert at (916) 443-HELP or text in a tip to 274637 (CRIMES). Enter SACTIP followed by the tip information.

Callers can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.

Margie Allen, 91, of Sacramento called The Bee this afternoon wanting to warn other seniors about a scam attempt that unnerved her Friday morning.

Allen said a phone caller claiming to be her grandson said he was arrested on drunken driving charges in Canada and needed $2,500 immediately. Allen said she didn't wire the money, but called her son to ask about the whereabouts of her grandchildren.

Allen was upset about the ordeal, and wanted to spread the word about the attempted scam.

Sacto 911 has posted several "Grandma" scam attempt stories the past two years, including a report of a spate of attempts in January in the Redding area. As reported then, Redding police said there are several variations of the scam, but the most common one involves a late-night phone call from someone who starts the conversation by saying something similar to "Hi Grandma. Guess who this is?"

When the victim uses the name of one of their grandchildren, the caller pretends to be that person and asks for money.

In several cases, the scammer says they have been arrested and need bail money. The caller is always out of the area and needs money right away.

Victims are asked to send money through Western Union or MoneyGram. If they caller says they need money for bail, they say they have a friend who will pick up the money.

Sometimes the caller will put another person on the phone who claims to be a law enforcement officer or jailer.

The money is sent out of the country in the majority of the cases.

Redding police offer the following suggestions to avoid becoming a victim:

• If you get a call from someone saying "Guess who this is," respond with "I don't know. Who is it?"

• If the caller knows your name and the name of the person they are claiming to be, confirm their identity by asking personal questions like their birth date, mother's name and the name of the street where they lived as a child.

• If they say they are in jail or at a police station, ask which one and the phone number so you can call back. Use directory assistance or the Internet to confirm the phone number and call back if needed.

• Call the parents of the person they are claiming to be and confirm the caller's whereabouts.

Police also suggest using extreme caution when sending money by Western Union or MoneyGram.

From Chelsea Phua:

A 26-year-old Red Hawk Casino dealer has been arrested for allegedly accepting counterfeit money knowing that the bills were fraudulent, authorities said.

Officials from the California Attorney General's office said Chi Yang (photo) of Carmichael and several accomplices defrauded the casino of about $3,000.

Yang was arrested shortly after midnight Friday and booked into the El Dorado County jail in Placerville on 10 counts of burglary, 10 counts of forgery, 10 counts of embezzlement and a conspiracy charge, authorities said.

Marty Horan, one of two assistant chiefs at the AG's Bureau of Gambling Control, said investigators plan to seek three more arrest warrants.

The investigation began in mid-June when the executive director of Red Hawk's tribal gaming agency reported the alleged fraud, Horan said.

Casino officials became suspicious when they discovered on a few occasions that a drop box from the Black Jack table where Chi Yang worked contained counterfeit $100 bills.

After reviewing the casino's reports and surveillance video footage, the bureau dispatched undercover agents to observe Chi Yang and his accomplices.

Agents noticed Chi Yang would receive two to five counterfeit bills at a time, hoping to avoid detection, Horan said.

The three-week long investigation also involved FBI agents.

If convicted of the counts, Horan said Yang could face at least five years in state prison.

From Kim Minugh:

Elk Grove police are warning firework stand operators to be on the lookout for counterfeit bills.

Police are aware of two cases in which people used counterfeit $50 bills to buy fireworks at two local stands, according to a department news release.

The crime is compounded by the target. Firework stands often are operated by non-profit groups trying to raise money for youth-based organizations, the release states.

Police offer these tips for preventing the passage of counterfeit bills:

- Be suspicious: Take time to look at and feel the money you receive.

- Check for obvious things like duplicate serial numbers.

- Be especially suspicious of older bills (those bearing pre-1996 designs) - or simply refuse them - and bills of larger denominations. Nearly all legitimate pre-1996 bills have been taken out of circulation and destroyed.

- Look at the bills in the light. The color-shift ink is very hard to fake. The security stripe and watermark are impossible to duplicate with an inkjet printer.

- Borders and markings should have clean, crisp lines and come to sharp points.

- If you believe you are receiving a counterfeit bill, call the police.

For more information about detecting counterfeit money, visit the U.S. Secret Service Web site at www.secretservice.gov/money_detect.shtml.

Anyone with information regarding the passage of counterfeit bills is asked to call Elk Grove police at (916) 714-5115 or Crime Alert at (916) 443-HELP. Callers to Crime Alert can remain anonymous and might be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.

From Bill Lindelof:

Auburn police are warning residents that two scam artists have gone door-to-door falsely collecting money for the Sacramento State marching band.

The scam occurred last week when two men knocked on doors and said they were collecting money to finance a band trip to London.

At least two people donated, giving $35 and $110 for the phony trip, said Auburn police Capt. John Ruffcorn.

The suspects, one white and one Hispanic, are in their 20s, police said.

Ruffcorn said California State University, Sacramento, has no current fundraising for its marching band.

Auburn police say residents should ask solicitors for valid identification and, while the solicitor waits, call and verify that the fundraising is legitimate.

Relative to the marching band scam, Ruffcorn asks residents to call (530) 823-4237 if they are approached by solicitors.

Bee Staff:

Sacramento Sheriff's deputies shut down what they said was a bogus operation to collect funds for a Shriners hospital.

Two suspects were arrested May 6 after deputies said they found them soliciting funds for the hospital even though they had no connection to the Shriners facility. The pair had set up a table with a jug for cash contributions in front of a business in the 4400 block of Florin Road, according to a crime report released this week.

Deputies were called to the scene by someone who became suspicious after they were asked for a donation, the report states.

Traci Rivera, 47, and Daryl Armstrong, 51, were booked into jail on suspicion of conspiracy to solicit money under false pretenses and probation violations, the crime report states.

Grandma phone scam, property tax 'fee' back again

Bee Staff

Two familiar scams - the property tax service 'fee' and the emergency phone call to a grandparent - have resurfaced in the Sacramento area recently, according to callers to The Bee.

In the former, property owners in El Dorado County are reporting a new wave of letters that say the letter recipient will be hit with a "late fee" if he or she doesn't respond to an offer to file documents asking that their property be reassessed. The property owner also must pay for filing the documents. The property owner is directed to send money to a Los Angeles post office box.

The property owner can request a reassessment directly from the county tax assessor and it doesn't cost a dime, assessors in the Sacramento area report. The offer in the letter may be legal but assessors say it is misleading at the very least.

In the phone scam, a grandparent receives a frantic late-night phone call from a grandchild who says he or she is in danger of being thrown in jail if they don't immediately get bail money.

The scammer directs the grandparent to wire money to an out-of-town address.

Below are two stories The Bee published this year on the scams:

Published Feb. 22, 2009

BOGUS BILL VOWS TO CUT TAX VALUES

By Stan Oklobdzija

stano@sacbee.com

These days, even fake bills come with late fees.

County assessors all over the Sacramento region are warning homeowners about a company trying to bill homeowners for something they already get for nothing.

And in some cases, the company is telling property owners they will be hit by a $30 fee if they are late to respond.

The deceptive offer makes the rounds whenever property values decline around the state, said Kathleen Kelleher, Sacramento County's assistant assessor.

"It's certainly misleading," Kelleher said. "The service they're providing for a fee can be done for free at the assessor's office."

Earlier this month, Vic De Stefani of Folsom received one such letter in the mail, saying that because of the recent housing slump, his home's value was now overassessed by about $150,000. Getting a reassessment on his home would save him about $2,000 in property taxes annually, the letter said.

All he'd need to do was mail $179 to a post office box in Los Angeles, the letter said.

But if he didn't send the letter in by Feb. 27, the service would cost another $30, it said.

"It's the second one I've got," said De Stefani, who bought his home in November. "The original one said that for $95 they could lower my taxes by $750 (annually)."

De Stefani said he was immediately skeptical, but decided to check out the company with county officials.

"I showed them the letter and they just laughed," he said.

Kelleher said her office won't begin considering new property values until June.

"We're in a period of time where it's too late for last year and too early for next year," she said. "We kind of question why there's any urgency to file."

Statements from assessor offices in Yolo, Placer and El Dorado counties warn of similar mailers making the rounds in their communities. Like Sacramento County, they offer their reassessment services for free and won't begin the reviews until this summer.

"The best thing property owners can do ... is to hold onto their $179," Placer County Assessor Kristen Spears advises on her office's Web site.

Yolo County Assessor Joel Butler calls the offer a scam on his office's Web site.

The company that mailed De Stefani the letter -- "Property Tax Reassessment" -- has been cited by numerous county assessor offices across the state as using deliberately deceptive mailers, according to news reports.

A person answering the phone at the toll-free number listed on one of their solicitations referred all questions to a company e-mail address. An e-mail for comment on this story was not returned.

Far from unusual, Property Tax Reassessment is one of 13 companies on a watch list compiled by the Sacramento County Office of the Assessor.

Kelleher said her office has seen this type of ruse whenever property values take a plunge.

"In the 90s ... we saw these crop up," she said. "They fell off when the market improved."

These companies have even attracted the attention of California Attorney General Jerry Brown, who referred to mailers such as these as a "blatant and costly scam," in a recent press release.

The attorney general's office advises anyone victimized by this type of operation to contact it.

De Stefani said he could see how people would get fleeced by the letters, but at 80 years old, he said he's learned some things.

"If anyone wants your money ahead of time, watch out!" he said.

January 28, 2009

'Grandma' phone scam targeting Redding area

From Niesha Lofing:

Over the past few months, several residents in the Redding area have received calls from scammers claiming to be a relative in trouble. The con artist asks the victim to send money to help, according to a Redding police news release.

There are several variations of the scam, but the most common one involves a late-night phone call from someone who starts the conversation by saying something similar to "Hi Grandma. Guess who this is?" the release states.

When the victim uses the name of one of their grandchildren, the caller pretends to be that person and asks for money.

In several cases, the scammer says they have been arrested and need bail money. The caller is always out of the area and needs money right away, the release states.

Victims are asked to send money through Western Union or MoneyGram. If they caller says they need money for bail, they say they have a friend who will pick up the money.

Sometimes the caller will put another person on the phone who claims to be a law enforcement officer or jailer.

The money is sent out of the country in the majority of the cases, the release states.

Redding police offer the following suggestions to avoid becoming a victim:

• If you get a call from someone saying "Guess who this is," respond with "I don't know. Who is it?"

• If the caller knows your name and the name of the person they are claiming to be, confirm their identity by asking personal questions like their birth date, mother's name and the name of the street where they lived as a child.

• If they say they are in jail or at a police station, ask which one and the phone number so you can call back. Use directory assistance or the Internet to confirm the phone number and call back if needed.

• Call the parents of the person they are claiming to be and confirm the caller's whereabouts.

Police also suggest using extreme caution when sending money by Western Union or MoneyGram.

From Andy Furillo:

California prison officials say they are finding a skyrocketing number of inmates who have cell phones, including some who use them to plan escapes and plot violent crimes and drug deals, and a state legislator has introduced a bill to make their possession a crime.

State Sen. John Benoit told reporters at a press conference Tuesday he was "stunned" to learn it wasn't already illegal for inmates to have the devices, or for anybody to smuggle them inside. Benoit added that he was "amazed" to find out investigators confiscated 1,400 of the devices in 2007 and "flabbergasted" when they said that number had doubled to 2,800 in 2008.

Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate said officials turned up another 1,400 illegal cell phones in the prisons in the first three months of this year, which projects to another doubling in 2009 to 5,600.

Benoit's Senate Bill 434 would make inmate possession and civilian smuggling of cell phones into prison a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in custody. For inmates, it would mean a lessening of good-time credits off their terms.

"Cell phones in the hands of inmates is a dangerous threat to public safety, especially in the hands of gang members," Cate said. "We know they can orchestrate criminal activity, plan escapes, menace victims in the general public, or worse."

The prison agency's associate director of adult institutions, Rich Subia, said corrections investigators know of inmates calling from their cell phones "to put together escapes from our minimum facilities and some of our camp areas." He said they also know "that prison gangs use every avenue available to them in order to communicate outside the prisons," including cell phones.

Officials said that both sworn and civilian correctional employees are suspected of smuggling in more than half of the cell phones that make their way into prison. Cate said that with some inmates willing to pay up to $1,000 per phone, and with one employee admitting to making $100,000 in one year smuggling the devices inside prisons, "there is quite an incentive" for outsiders to bring them inside.

Benoit's bill first sought felony penalties for violators. He said agreed to knock it down to a misdemeanor to get the support of Senate public safety committee chair Mark Leno, D-San Francisco. Leno is now listed as a co-author of the bill.

From Stan Oklobdzija:

State officials are on the lookout for an alleged con man who scammed Lake County residents out of about $30,000 over four months, the Contractors State License Board said.

Richard John Williams (left photo) had a warrant for his arrest issued March 26 by the Lake County District Attorney's Office on charges of grand theft, elder abuse and contracting without a license, according to Contractors State License Board officials.

Williams had been living in an area motel and operating under the business name "Seal Coat Contractor," according to a news release. Williams allegedly would offer driveway paving services to his victims and then either not finish the job or do it extremely poorly, officials said.

As part of his spree, Williams allegedly twice scammed a man with Alzheimer's disease, said Melanie Bedwell, Contractors State License Board spokeswoman, defrauding him for one substandard job before coming back a few weeks later and offering the same services again after he'd forgotten.

Contractors State License Board investigators believe that Williams has already left the Lake County area. He's believed to be driving a white 2008 Chevy Silverado with Arizona license plates ABN8561, Bedwell said. He may also be towing a trailer with California license plates 4KB5826, she said.

Anyone with information about Williams' whereabouts is asked to call the Contractors State License Board at (916) 802-5418.

From Niesha Lofing:

Roseville police are warning residents to be on the lookout for phony repairman who recently scammed an elderly woman and stole her safe.

Two men claiming to be repairmen came to the 89-year-old woman's home in the Sierra Gardens neighborhood between 4:45 and 5 p.m. Sunday, police spokeswoman Dee Dee Gunther said.

"They just told her that they were there to look for cracks in the ceiling," she said.

One of the men went inside the home while the other man talked with the woman inside the garage.

After the men left, the woman discovered that her safe was missing from a bedroom.

Inside the safe were some personal paperwork and other collectable items, Gunther said.

The woman is OK.

A neighbor noticed the truck and told officers that there may have been third suspect who waited outside in a new-looking red Chevy pickup truck with custom chrome rims. There also may have been flames painted on the side of the truck.

The suspects were described as Hispanic and in their 20s or 30s. The pickup driver had a shaved head, stocky build and smoked a cigar, Gunther said. The other two suspects had medium builds and one wore a tan shirt, while the other wore a light-colored baseball cap.

The victim was not able to provide a detailed description of the men to police because of her age, Gunther said.

Roseville police investigated a similar scam a couple of months ago.

In that case, bogus repairmen targeted a 75-year-old man, telling him his roof might be leaking and his ceilings needed to be checked and stole cash from the man's wallet, which was on a table.

Typically, however, the scam artists "don't hit a whole lot of places because they move on to other cities," in an effort to avoid capture, Gunther said.

Gunther said residents should be wary of people who come to homes and claim to be repair workers, especially when they haven't been called.

"A repairman should have ID, a contractor's license number and a reputable worker will not pressure you to have the work done immediately or pay with cash," she said. "They'll give you time to check their credentials."

Utility workers should always have ID from their company and residents should be able to call the utility company to verify that the worker is legitimate, she said.

Police also caution against letting strangers in your home and hiring "drive-by" repair workers.

Scam artists also have targeted the elderly in Sacramento in the past, but police haven't had any cases recently, Sacramento Police Department spokesman Officer Konrad Von Schoech said.

In June, two men claiming to work for the "water department" went to an apartment in the Lemon Hill neighborhood and asked residents for a glass of water so they could inspect it. The men asked the residents to go outside and turn on the garden hose and while the residents were busy, the men ransacked the apartments, stealing cash.

Schoech said the elderly seem to be targeted more because they tend to question things less.

"The elderly seem to be a little more trusting," he said. "Especially when someone comes to their door in uniform or with official looking clothing."

From Denny Walsh:

A former employee of one of the nation's largest growers and processors of tomato products admitted Wednesday in Sacramento federal court she engaged in the years-long distribution and mislabeling of tomato paste that contained unlawful levels of mold and was "unfit for food."

Jennifer Lou Dahlman, who was dismissed this week as a reports and business analyst at California-based SK Foods, L.P., pleaded guilty to one count of the "introduction of adulterated and misbranded food into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud and mislead."

She admitted that for more than three years - from Nov. 23, 2004 to Jan. 21, 2008 - she caused the shipment of tomato paste with legally excessive mold content from SK Foods to customers in Wisconsin, Utah, Pennsylvania, New York, Kentucky, Maryland and Ohio.

She also admitted attaching false labels to the paste showing mold counts far below the actual levels and percentages of "natural tomato soluble solids" materially higher than the actual percentages.

Dahlman, 48, admitted these practices were carried out "at the direction of senior leaders and directors of SK Foods.

Her plea introduces a new element in the government's ongoing investigation of SK Foods. Before Wednesday, there were no public charges pertaining to adulterated food.

The plea belies a primary plank in the company's previous public statements: that the investigation has nothing to do with the quality of its products.

SK immediately issued a prepared statement through its attorney, Malcolm Segal.

"There was no problem with the commercial products Dahlman reviewed and no need for any recalls," the company insisted. "The ultimate products were all appropriately labeled and of excellent quality.

"The guilty plea ... is disappointing news. She was previously suspended and now has been terminated."

Segal, who was in the courtroom Wednesday observing the plea hearings, said, "Tomatoes come from Mother Nature, not from Barbie dolls. They are not all perfect. Commercial labeling is often the subject administrative disputes with the government, but it is important to appreciate that the government itself has said there were no health hazards with these products."

A prepared statement issued by Dahlman attorney Robert Wilkinson, says his client "apologizes to her family and the public for here involvement in the wrongs set forth in the plea and cooperation agreement."

"She is saddened that the leadership of SK Foods set a course for the company that was unlawful and that she was compliant in that course," Wilkinson's statement says.

SK Foods is headquartered in Monterey and has plants in Williams, 50 miles north of Sacramento, and Lemoore, south of Fresno. It is one target in an ongoing nationwide federal investigation of bribery and price-fixing that could be jacking up the cost of groceries.

In the matter just before Dahlman's on U. S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton's Wednesday calendar, a former Frito-Lay Inc. employee pleaded guilty and admitted taking bribes from a former SK Foods broker to rig bidding and hike prices in connection with SK Foods' sales to Frito-Lay.

James Richard Wahl Jr. admitted receiving $160,000 "on behalf of SK Foods" from former SK broker and director Randall Lee Rahal between 1998 and April of last year.

In return, Wahl admitted, he ensured that Frito-Lay purchased SK's products and he provided SK with information that allowed it to sell certain products to Frito-Lay at inflated prices.

Wahl, 58, is the second senior purchasing manager for a national company who has admitted receiving bribes to steer contracts to SK Foods and to buy its processed tomato and other food products at inflated prices.

Robert L. Watson, 59, of White Plains, N. Y., once a senior purchasing manger at Kraft Foods, pleaded guilty last month to receiving $158,000 in bribes from Rahal.

Kraft and Frito-Lay were unaware of the scheme.

Rahal, 59, of Ramsey, N. J., pleaded guilty in December to racketeering, price fixing, bid rigging and contract allocation conspiracies, all allegedly on behalf of SK.

Anthony Ray Manuel, 57, of Turlock also pleaded guilty last month to embezzling $975,000 from Morning Star Packing Co., where he was a sales representative and packaging manager before going to work for SK Foods in 2005. He was terminated at SK the day before his guilty plea.

Morning Star is a manufacturer and marketer of bulk tomato products with facilities in Williams and Los Banos, in western Merced County. The company is one of SK's competitors.

Rahal, Dahlman, Wahl, Watson and Manuel have all agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and agents in the ever-widening probe.

From Sandy Louey:

Folsom police are warning motorists about a scam in which a man tried to stage a car accident three times in the same day.

Police believe the same man was behind the incidents on Tuesday.

Around 11:30 a.m., a man was seen lying behind a parked car in a parking lot at 370 Plaza Drive. He got up and ran away when a customer saw him, according to a press release.

About two hours, he was laying down on the street in the area of Wales Drive and Riley Street as a motorist pulled out of the parking lot.

Police said the third incident was at 5:40 p.m. at the Folsom Premium Outlets.

The man positioned himself under the driver's side tires of a parked car and accused the motorist of hitting him. When he pounded on her window, she sounded her horn and called police. The man ran into the stores area, police said.

Police believe the incidents were an attempt to stage an automobile-pedestrian collision in order to collect money from the motorist in lieu of filing an insurance claim. The man didn't try to grab any motorists and didn't threaten them, Lt. Sheldon Sterling said in the release.

The suspect is described is a white man between his 20s and 30s. He was 6-feet-1 to 6-feet-2 inches tall and weighed between 220 and 250 pounds. He was balding and was dressed in all black clothes, police said.

Police encourage people to be aware of their surroundings. They should have their keys in hand and check the area around their cars.

They should call 911 if they see anyone or anything around their vehicles.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call police at (916) 930-1098.

From Kim Minugh:

Sacramento police are investigating a woman's discovery of a family living in her supposedly empty, for-sale Meadowview home.

When contacted by police Tuesday, the occupants produced a rental agreement they entered into with a man who posted an ad for the Highbridge Way home on Craigslist, said police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong.

They reported paying more than $1,000 a rent per month to the man, Leong said.

The homeowner agreed to give them until Feb. 15 to pack up their things and leave, but called police to have the incident documented.

Leong said officers have no information indicating that the family knowingly participated in any wrongdoing.

"It appears at this point that the occupants were victims of this scam," Leong said.

Unsuspecting renters, beware. Such schemes, in which fraudsters rent out vacant homes that do not belong to them, are "nothing new," Leong said. They might be prevalent these days, however, with the abundance of foreclosed homes on the market, he said.

Before entering into a rental agreement, police advise that the potential renter do some homework.

"The best thing is to do research on the place," Leong said.

Keys are not a sign of legitimacy, as a scam artist could have had the locks changed.

Instead, potential renters can go online to the county recorder's office to see who owns the house. They also can ask the alleged landlord for a property deed.

And if the landlord keeps his or her distance - refusing to offer a phone number, for example, or giving a P.O. Box - "that should be a red flag, too," Leong said.

Then there's the West Natomas case.

The rental scam model took on a new twist earlier this month when police began investigating the apparently illegitimate rental of an upscale West Natomas home.

Police recently issued arrest warrants for Phillis Powers, a 54-year-old real estate agent who police say rented the home without the legal ability to do so, and her illegal tenants: Carver Barney, 57, and Sandra Barney, 54. An arrest warrant also was issued for 49-year-old Dennis Eugene, who is a sibling of Powers and Sandra Barney.

They all face misdemeanor criminal trespass charges, according to police.

From Bee Staff:

The return of rain to the area also has brought back a familiar scam - bogus roof repairmen who use a homeowner's concern for their property to rob.

Recently two suspects posing as repairmen talked their way into a home and stole money from a 75-year-old Roseville resident, said Dee Dee Gunther, Roseville Police Department spokeswoman.

Such "home repair" scam artists steal from senior citizens at least once or twice a year in Roseville, Gunther said. Bee archives show this home repair scams reported almost annually across the region.

In one case in 1999, a "handyman" rode up on a bicycle and talked a Sacramento homeowner into allowing him to do home repairs. Over the next year and a half, he stole more than $200,000 from the 80-year-old victim before he was caught.

Gunther gave this account of the roof repair scam:

At about 4 p.m. on Jan. 30, two men knocked on the door of a 75-year-old man on Cedar Street, and told him they needed to check the condition of his roof. The resident had not noticed any problems with his roof, and had not called anyone to make repairs, but he let the two men into his home anyway.

The men walked around the house, purportedly looking at the ceiling for spots where the roof might have leaked. The two "repairmen" went into different areas of the house and yard, so that the resident could not watch them both at the same time.

The suspects then told the resident they needed to go to their truck to get a warranty form, and would be right back. They then got into their pickup and left. The resident then noticed his wallet was lying open on a coffee table, and the cash inside his wallet was gone.

The suspects were both described as olive-complexioned males in their 20s, 6'1" tall, with black hair. One weighed approximately 150 pounds and wore a dark shirt; the other weighed approximately 200 pounds and wore a light colored sweatshirt.

They drove a white extended-cab pickup with a short bed. The pickup did not have any business name or logo on it.

Roseville Police Chief Mike Blair said: "This is an unfortunate reminder not to let strangers into your home. You should be suspicious of anyone claiming to be a repairman or utility worker, especially if you haven't requested services. If you feel uneasy about someone, tell them to leave your home, and then call police."

The National Crime Prevention Council advises residents not to accept offers from "drive up" workers who "just happen" to be in the neighborhood. If they're reliable, they'll come back after you check them out. Always ask for identification and a contractor's license number, and never pay with cash.

Bee archives show that sealing driveways or foundations rank with roof repair as the top bogus offers. Sometimes the con men take money for repairs that are not done or sometimes, as in the recent Roseville case, use the repair offer a ruse to gain entry for a robbery or sometimes they do both.

Sometimes "contractors" claim to have just completed a job in the victim's neighborhood, say they have leftover materials and offer a cut-rate price to do a similar job. However, the con artists either leave the victim's "down payment" or try to extort a much higher price after doing the work, which is often substandard.

A similar scam has the con artist show up in a fake utility worker's uniform and talk the victim into standing in the backyard while the con artist stays inside, free to rob.

From Robert Lewis:

Homeowners beware: If you receive something in the mail promising to lower your property tax bill, chances are it's a scam, says Ken Stieger, Sacramento County assessor.

Companies have been blanketing the area with official-looking forms promising property tax savings in return for $95. These companies are not connected to the county, Stieger said.

The mailings urge homeowners to act fast, claiming there is a Feb. 11 deadline to request the service. Not so, says Stieger.

It's too late to appeal the 2008-2009 tax bills and the assessor won't begin accepting applications for review of the 2009-2010 assessment until June. At that time, property owners who request a review from the assessor can receive one for free, Stieger said.

For more information on how to appeal an assessment, including important dates, visit the assessor's Web site , call the office at (916) 875-0700 or drop by the office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at at 3701 Power Inn Road, Suite 3000.

From Niesha Lofing:

Over the past few months, several residents in the Redding area have received calls from scammers claiming to be a relative in trouble. The con artist asks the victim to send money to help, according to a Redding police news release.

There are several variations of the scam, but the most common one involves a late-night phone call from someone who starts the conversation by saying something similar to "Hi Grandma. Guess who this is?" the release states.

When the victim uses the name of one of their grandchildren, the caller pretends to be that person and asks for money.

In several cases, the scammer says they have been arrested and need bail money. The caller is always out of the area and needs money right away, the release states.

Victims are asked to send money through Western Union or MoneyGram. If they caller says they need money for bail, they say they have a friend who will pick up the money.

Sometimes the caller will put another person on the phone who claims to be a law enforcement officer or jailer.

The money is sent out of the country in the majority of the cases, the release states.

Redding police offer the following suggestions to avoid becoming a victim:

• If you get a call from someone saying "Guess who this is," respond with "I don't know. Who is it?"

• If the caller knows your name and the name of the person they are claiming to be, confirm their identity by asking personal questions like their birth date, mother's name and the name of the street where they lived as a child.

• If they say they are in jail or at a police station, ask which one and the phone number so you can call back. Use directory assistance or the Internet to confirm the phone number and call back if needed.

• Call the parents of the person they are claiming to be and confirm the caller's whereabouts.

Police also suggest using extreme caution when sending money by Western Union or MoneyGram.

For more information, call the police department's crime prevention unit at (530) 225-4209.

From Niesha Lofing:

Investigators say they believe a Roseville man's alleged Craigslist scam is linked to frauds in four states.

Anthony Vincenzo Iacolino (photo left), 27, allegedly placed an ad on the Internet classified advertising Web site's Seattle listings in October, offering an Apple MacBook for sale, Roseville police spokeswoman Dee Dee Gunther said.

A Seattle couple contacted Iacolino about buying the laptop, and he promised to ship it as soon as he received payment, Gunther said.

The victims paid Iacolino using an electronic fund transfer, and Iacolino allegedly e-mailed them a phony tracking number for their shipment. They never received the laptop, Gunther said.

The couple reported the incident to Roseville police.

Detectives arrested Iacolino on suspicion of grand theft on Jan. 13 at his home.

He was booked into the Roseville Police Department Jail and released on a $5,000 bail bond, she said.

Police continue to investigate, saying they believe additional victims are in Washington, Texas, Colorado and southern California and are continuing to investigate the case.

Gunther said people who think they are victims of fraud in cases of Internet purchases can contact local police or the police in the jurisdiction where the crime is alleged to have occurred.

Gunther said a good tip for protecting oneself is to deal with local sellers and buyers and exchange money and goods in a public place instead of at a private home.

"Buyer beware -- the Internet's the Wild West," she said.

Craigslist also offers several tips on avoiding scams, including the following:

• Never give out financial information, such as your bank account or PayPal information.

• Fake cashier's checks and money orders are common.

• Be aware that Craigslist does not guarantee transactions.

From Sandy Louey:

Sacramento police are searching for two men who allegedly scammed a man out of $7,300 in a so-called "pigeon drop" scheme.

Police said the crime unfolded like this:

At 1:30 p.m. Jan. 15, a man went to the Washington Mutual Bank at 1331 Florin Road. While there, a man approached him and introduced himself as "Andrew."

Andrew told the victim he had $200,000 that he wanted to donate to a charity. Andrew asked for directions to a nearby church, but appeared confused when the man provided them.

The man offered to drive Andrew there. When they arrived at a church on Amherst Way near Meadowview Road, Andrew left items in the car and got out to use the restroom inside the church.

Andrew came out with a man who identified himself as "Paul." Both Paul and Andrew asked the victim to help them donate the $200,000. They asked the man to show that he had money before trusting him with the $200,000.

Police said the man took Paul and Andrew back to the bank and withdrew $7,300 out of his account. The two men had the victim put the money into a bag they said contained $200,000.

They gave the man the bag and asked him to put the money in a safety deposit box. The man discovered the bag was full of paper and his money was gone when he went into the bank to put the money in the box.

"If it's too good to be true then it probably is," said Detective Claressa Wilson of the police's financial crimes unit.

Andrew was described as an African American adult, 5 feet 5 inches tall with dark skin. He wore a black jacket and a gold ring with a jade stone on one of his fingers.

Paul was described as an African American adult, 6 feet tall with dark skin. He wore a dark suit and carried a black briefcase, police said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Alert at (916) 443-HELP. Callers can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.

Bee Staff

Sacramento police arrested Friday a woman accused of embezzling $225,000 from a local charity.

Donna Joe Goodenough, 46, who worked as an office manager for Options in Supported Living, a local community service organization, was arrested at 8:40 a.m. at a relative's residence in Elk Grove, said Sgt. Norm Leong, Sacramento Police Department spokesman.

Options in Supported Living provides help for people with disabilities so they can live in their own homes.

Goodenough, who had full control of the organization's finances, allegedly forged and passed about 100 fraudulent checks against the organization from January 2007 to May 2008, he said.

She was writing checks to herself in varying amounts, which was discovered during an audit, a police spokesman said Thursday.

Goodenough also allegedly made several unauthorized purchases using one of the organization's credit cards, the spokesman said.

She was taken into custody without incident, Leong said.

From Sandy Louey:

Sacramento police officers are investigating two former nonprofit employees for allegedly stealing money from the organization and have arrested one of them.

Olivia Armstead and another person were employees with SAR, or Service Advocacy Respect for persons with mental disabilities/developmental disabilities until their firings last year, said Jacob Richey, board president for SAR.

Armstead, who was the office manager, was arrested Wednesday on a warrant for embezzlement, police said. She allegedly created fictitious payroll checks to herself, said Officer Konrad Von Schoech, Sacramento Police Department spokesman.

Von Schoech sad police are investigating the second former employee for embezzlement, but no charges have been filed.

That person, who The Bee is not naming because he has not been arrested, allegedly set up another buyer for the donated items. Those items were sold and he allegedly pocketed about $100,000 in cash for them, Richey said.

From Sandy Louey:

Sacramento police are looking for three people who are allegedly altering travelers checks and using them to buy items that are returned for cash.

On Dec. 28, a woman bought a jacket at the Nordstrom at Arden Fair using a $500 MoneyGram travelers check from SaveMart, said Officer Konrad Von Schoech, a Police Department spokesman.

Afterward, she went to the first floor of the store and met up with a man and woman (see photos from security cameras at bottom). The trio went to another part of the store and tried to make another purchase using a travelers check, police said.

They left after the cashier indicated that she would need to get approval for the check, Von Schoech said.

The three are buying travelers checks for $1 and altering them so it the denomination reads $500. The checks are used to buy high-end items at department stores. The items are then returned for cash, Von Schoech said.

He said police believe the group is using this tactic at department stores in the Sacramento region and encouraged retailers to be vigilant.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at (916) 264-5471.

A warning from the Redding Police Department that is applicable for any resident who receives winner's checks from sweepstakes or lotteries:

Almost every day the Redding Police Department receives multiple phone calls and letters from people who have received mail containing counterfeit checks and letters. The letters advise the potential victims that they have won a sweepstakes or lottery and that they should cash or deposit the checks in their bank account. The counterfeit checks are for only a small percentage of the total winnings and, according to the letter, have been sent to cover some type of taxes or fees. The "winners" are given instructions, either in the letter or by a contact listed in the letter, to send money to cover the fees so they can collect their full winnings. Almost always, the money for the fees is to be sent via Western Union or MoneyGram. That way the victim has no way to know for sure who ended up with their money.

In 2007, investigators led by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service arrested 77 people as part of a global fraud crackdown that intercepted more than $2.1 billion in counterfeit checks bound for the United States.

The eight-month investigation involved schemes in Nigeria, the Netherlands, England and Canada, and has stopped more than half a million fake checks from being mailed to American victims.

If you receive a letter or email advising that you have won a lottery or sweepstakes, remember the following:

1. U.S. citizens cannot enter foreign lotteries without traveling to that country to purchase the ticket. You cannot enter foreign lotteries by phone, by mail or via the Internet if you are a U.S. citizen.

2. It is illegal for sweepstakes or lotteries to make a winner pay any fees in advance of receiving the prize. This includes prizes of money, vehicles, or any other property. If the prize is money, the amount of any fees you must pay will be deducted from the prize check before it is given to you. Never pay the fees in exchange for a check in the full amount of the prize.

3. Never wire or send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to anyone you do not know personally and very well.

4. You are financially liable for any checks you endorse and cash or deposit. Just waiting until the funds have been made available in your account by your bank does not mean that the check is good. It can sometimes take months for a check to be detected as counterfeit.

If someone believes they have been defrauded by a scam, the Postal Inspection Service wants to hear from them. These crimes can be reported by calling 1-800-372-8347.