Results tagged “scam”

It’s been a big week for scam artists locally. A Shoreline couple who swindled a retired old lady out of $350,000--her life savings--was sentenced to 33 months in prison. Michael and Katie Lambard befriended Margaret Martin and adopted her as their "grandmother" before taking her entire estate.

We haven't had to rent anything lately by perusing Craigslist, but a friend of ours was telling us the other day about a con they ran across. The scammer found an actual rental property offered through a management firm, copied it, undercut the price several hundred dollars, and said they were the owners, offering a special direct-to-you rate. But when our friend responded, they got a long reply explaining the "owners" were on a Christian mission in Nigeria and had brought the keys with them--easiest thing to do was to send a rent check, they'd send the keys. Luckily, CL has a little banner that says: "Avoid scams and fraud by dealing locally! Beware any arrangement involving Western Union, Moneygram, wire transfer, or a landlord/owner who is out of the country or cannot meet you in person." And so it goes.

Bellevue man Robert Miracle was indicted in $65 million scam that is either a Ponzi or a pyramid scheme. We like the sound of Ponzi. More historical, less Amway.

• West Seattle Blog marveled over a pair of orcas playing off Alki Point yesterday.
• Both MyBallard and Fremont Universe are wondering if the streetcar will be coming to their neighborhoods.
• Capitol Hill Seattle warns that the most dangerous stretch of road for bicyclists on Capitol Hill is on E. Pine, between Summit and Melrose.

It really isn't surprising that scam and scum are only separated by a single vowel. The latest scam hitting Seattle, made us literally sick to our stomach. According to the West Seattle Blog, who was called by their friendly local police officer, some scam artists are targeting owners of missing pets. The scammers use the contact email address left on missing posters and send false ransom emails to the worried pet owners. So Seattlest readers, if you've recently lost a pet, not only do we send our condolences, we send you this warning in the hope that your pain and worries aren't doubled by some heartless scam artist.

Monroe Police are doubtful that a man who robbed an armored vehicle yesterday actually escaped via inner tube down the Skykomish. However, police believe the robber did post a Craigslist ad to help make an easier getaway. The ad asked for construction workers in need of work to show up in a specific outfit at a location across the street from the bank. Nearly a dozen men showed up in blue shirts and respirator masks, which is like what Monroe police say the robber was wearing. So no inner tube escape, but the latest details still make the suspect sound pretty ingenious.

Turns out getting your degree from an "academic institution" that advertises heavily during Jerry Springer and in between Maury Povich's multiple declarations of "You are not the father" is not so helpful in the real world. Bates Technical College in Tacoma, one such institution, is in the midst of settling a suit brought by former students in the school's civil engineering technician and surveying program. Bates has agreed to pay $500,000 to 16 students who claim their degrees left them "embarrassingly unprepared" for employment.

According to KOMO News, there's a new way for you to get screwed by scammers--the pretendant. The Seattle Police have come up with this clever name to describe people who poach parking lots, claiming parkers need to pay them and not the pay box for a variety of reasons. A couple weekends ago we went to a concert at Showbox SODO (Ray Davies--phenomenal) and we paid a somewhat shady dude rather than the pay box. Though we didn't get ticketed by the actual lot owners, we wondered then and definitely now if we were duped. Have any of you fine readers been scammed by pretendants?

Maybe the Magnolia housemates should have just gone to a strip club. On the other hand, federal agents and local police raided three different strip clubs in Seattle earlier today as part of an ongoing racketeering investigation. The strip clubs, including Rick's on LCW and Sugar's in Shoreline, are owned by Frank Colacurcio Sr., the man at the center of Seattle's own Strippergate. There's no word on whether or not the raided strip clubs are open for business today, but as our friends on Magnolia learned the hard way...that's not necessarily a good reason to arrange a stripper housecall.

We've all called in hooky and faked a cough or cold to get out of a day of work. Sometimes the daily grind just seems unbearable...we understand. But we sincerely hope that karmic justice comes fast and furious at Sandra Dee Martinez, a 40 year-old woman who faked brain cancer to get out of work.

Through April 21, tickets $12/$10 students/seniors

Yes, last night WAS a rerun, but last week wasn't. So we're re-running a post that never ran, cause we're has-beens OR because it features FREAKIN' SIAMESE TWINS!! Seriously, people. Seriously.

As fall settles in and another calendar page gets turned, thoughts turn from bbq's and vacations to holidays and the realization that '06 is coming to an end. With all that going on, with change in the air, we wonder what is it that made that makes the -ists ponder?

If it weren't for our life as an -ist, we're not sure we'd ever leave our apartment. Fortunately, to fully -ist, one must seek out the new, the fresh, and the unknown. Brand new, or just new to us, that's what we're all about this week.

In case you haven't quite had your fill of Death Cab for Cutie cameos (the O.C.) or interviews (we talked to British Sea Power yesterday) recently, guitarist Christopher Walla interviews writer and NPR great Sarah Vowell at Salon.com today. Vowell's book "The Partly Cloudy Patriot" apparently had quite an effect on Walla and led him to purchase multiple copies for friends and family and, eventually, brought about this interview.

It's our never-ending quest. It's our Holy Grail, our white whale. Once again, Seattlest pits local commuity business against local community business in a cheap and (some would say) tawdry display of fabricated drama.