Duty Free Incarceration Scam

This brings "buyer beware" to a new level.

Reports are coming in from consulates around the world of a scam perpetrated by international airport duty free shops and local cops. Here's how it works:

While awaiting your international flight at the gates of an international airport, you go shop in a duty-free store. These are common and popular because they do not charge sales taxes to those immediately leaving the country with the goods.

You buy an expensive perfume, a box of chocolates and a carton of cigarettes. In a duty free shop, the clerk has to take your name and ticket information, as well as your passport number so that you do not have to pay the taxes. In a few airports, they event put your duty free goods in sealed bags on the ramp, so that nothing can be added to the bags before boarding. The problem is in the majority of airports, where they let you walk out carrying your goods.

The scam begins, as is so often the case, with the cashier. She either (a) adds something to your bag, such as an additional bottle of perfume, or a second carton of cigarettes. These items can easily be mistaken for promotional, as duty free stores often engage in this kind of marketing.

Next, after you have left the store and are walking around the gate area or to your flight, the sales clerk calls her accomplice, the local cops. The clerk provides your complete information and says you stole the extra bottle of perfume. The cops have an easy job of finding you at the international terminal, especially when you need your passport to get on the plane.

The finale is when they stop you, and you happily show the receipt for your goods. They then point out that you have a stolen bottle of perfume, and you are held - incarcerated.

 

Document Your Purchases

Next comes the jail hustle, whereby, depending on the location, you are charged for air conditioning, water, a bed, visitors, phone calls, etc. You can easily spend a few thousand dollars before you get free, and even then it may be only by admitting guilt and branding yourself a thief.

This tactic has been reported in parts of east and central Asia, and Central America, but it could happen anywhere a cop can take a bribe.  Because it is so clean, easy, predictable, safe for the conspirators and profitable, I expect it could spread like wildfire.

How to stop this from happening to you:

Don't leave the duty free store unless your receipt matches exactly the items in your bag. If there are legitimate gifts, they must also be identified as such on the receipt.

Nevada Registered Agent Scam

A registered agent is simply a company or individual who acts as the resident representative of a corporation or similar entity, in the jurisdiction of incorporation. Until now.

For example, if you reside in California but you are incorporated in Nevada (as is often the case for tax and other reasons), your corporation has a resident agent. It might be your attorney, or it might be any of the many corporate services firms in the registered agency business. Typically, they will charge a fee ranging from $100 to $300 per year to act as Registered Agent.

Legally, there isn't much they have to do. The Registered Agent is just the person or company of record to which anyone can serve papers or formal notices meant for the corporation represented. Being available for such service and passing on such communications, are basically all the R.A. has to do by statute. Most charge the fee and barely provide any service at all. Recently, some have become less than useless. They've begun running a scam.

There are approximately 322,000 corporations resident in the State of Nevada, each paying fees to the various service providers.  Apparently, some R.A. firms have decided they needed a bigger slice of that pie - whether they are actually asked to do it, or not. Their methods are bold and simple.


1. The Clawback

Usually when you incorporate in Nevada, you might use a service which does little else. They tend to charge much less than attorneys, and their focus on the single activity of incorporation often makes them better and more efficient at the task than is a typical law firm. Incorporation firms also act as resident agent for the companies they start, which is the real source of profits and ongoing income. Because a company has to pay a state fee to change its registered agent, the R.A. firm can count on continued business once they have it.

The claw back comes when you have replaced the R.A. firm with your own R.A, as is often the case with people who live in Nevada. Some firms are using the credit card on file for the original incorporation, and charging a registered agent fee and registered agent change fee. They are even filing the forms without any further consent of the corporation. They usually point to their original agreement to act as R.A, typically for the first year or six months, as cover for the scam.

By keeping the credit cards on file, they 'claw back' the R.A. position by billing you later without your consent. Try to cancel, and your bank will likely not believe you, as they see that the firm is in fact the R.A. for the corporation after the billing.  


2. The Renewal Hustle

Some firms are enjoying a tremendous business by calling on corporate officers when their company is close to, or past its due date for filing of the annual list of officers required by the state. These R.A. firms take advantage of the situation by knowing that most of the corporations are small, closely held companies and LLC's controlled by one or two people. They call from a boiler room and use official-sounding names, often with the name of the State or County in the name of their private firm. They tell you that you are "in default" or "in violation" and that you will be fined an additional fee by the state of Nevada unless you renew right away. They quote you a price which includes the renewal (list of officers filing fee) and their own fee. You provide your credit card information, and they have you.

Once they have attain the position of R.A, you can't get away from them without paying another fee to the State of Nevada. This helps keep them in the game. Unless you have someone to perform the service in Nevada for less, why would you change once they've already grabbed your cash? They bank on the confusion, misdirection, state fee structure and inept credit card administration companies.

Please comment with your own experiences regarding registered agent scams, whether in Nevada or any other state or country.  We want to hear about it.

Overpayment-Refund Check Scam

Also known as the Cashier's Check Scam, the latest iteration is slightly more sophisticated than predecessors.

Here's how it happens:

1. You advertise something for sale. It could be an item or a service. You advertise it on the internet, usually somewhere with no ID checking capacity, such as craigslist.
2. A potential buyer contacts you and expresses interest in your offer.
3. The buyer explains that they will provide a cashiers check or corporate check to pay in full.
4. To put you at ease, the buyer gives you all of the details of the cashiers check, or of the corporation and its corporate check on the way.
5. If you call the issuing bank to confirm the validity of the check, it may be validated. This only means that the check bears a real account number, routing number, and matching issuer name.
6. The buyer then tells you they have sent, or are sending an amount greater than the price of your offering. The overpayment, and that they need you to send the difference back to them, or pay it to a person affiliated with them, such as a son or daughter in your local area.
7. The check arrives as promised, for a larger amount than required.
8. You deposit the check as expected.
9. You wait for the check to clear. It does.
10. You refund the overpayment to the buyer.
11. The check later is returned by your bank, leaving your without the funds you sent to the buyer as overypayment.
12. The buyer is nowhere to be found.

What happened?

1. The "buyer" is a scammer, who had obtained the information on the check provided by copying it from an actual check, viewed by the scammer at sompoint.
2. The scammer then goes fishing for anyone who will accept the check of an overpayment.
3. With a "mark" in his sites, the scammer then forges the check or cashier's check. This is easily done with standard desktop publishing.
4. When you deposit the check, it clears the account of the unsuspecting owner of the account.
5. The company on who's bank account the check was drawn (the "maker") reports the fraudulend check to their bank.
6. The maker's bank retracts the payment, charging your bank for the amount cashed. Your bank then charges you.