Here are the saddest ways people got scammed!
4 - Brits vs Aussies English Charm
An unknown Englishman, or perhaps, a team of Englishmen, scammed at least four families
and an accountant out of their hard-earned money.
He went by many names, including Ben Davis, David Jones, and Oliver James.
The leader of the team, who we'll refer to as Mr. English, called several victims after
they found his website and roped them into his scheme.
Clones Mr. English was believed to be working with
a group of up to 20 people who went to great lengths to make their website look legitimate.
His team used authentic-looking phone numbers, credentials, and even real company names.
This made it virtually impossible for their scheme to be uncovered.
Authorities estimate that their scams took a total of $1.58 million from their targets!
How can someone protect themselves from a completely fake website?
This is exactly why our sponsor for today’s video, Guardio, is so important.
Did you know that in the U.S. alone, you have a 1 in 10 chance of falling victim to online
scams or frauds?
And every month, there are about one and a half million phony sites popping up baiting
you for your personal information…meaning you have a target on your head.
Well today, we at Pablito’s Way have partnered up with Guardio to protect you from these
threats!
If you wanna have even the slightest chance of browsing safely while keeping your money
and identity safe, you need Guardio.
Their simple, easy-to-install browser extension quickly detects malicious extensions, harmful
sites, and information leaks.
Nowadays it’s hard to tell which sites are safe and where you should stay away from since
hackers do such a good job of disguising them all.
Fortunately, Guardio does a better job at revealing the truth!
Their top level security team has developed in-house features running behind-the-scenes
so you can keep safely watching Pablito’s Way videos, shopping on Amazon, or DMing your
friends.
You’ll even have the satisfaction of seeing–in real time–how many leaks and harmful sites
are being blocked!
Sign up today using the link below and you’ll not only get 20% off, but they’ll also hook
you up with a free browser scan to see what threats are already on your browser and where
your information has leaked!
Additionally, you’ll get the first seven days free!
So click on the link in the video description below to claim this offer!
Let’s get back to who could have used Guardio to protect themselves.
A man named Andy from Melbourne, Australia, felt confident when he saw his $150,000 investment
show up in his account on the fraudulent website.
A few weeks passed, and he wired another $550,000 to the website to purchase Swedish Treasury
bills.
He recommended the website to his sister, whose bank flagged it as a scam before she
could send any money.
Even then, Andy was still convinced the site was legitimate until his dividends took a
little too long to appear in his bank account.
When he called his bank, they said it was too late to do anything--his money was gone.
Corey and Jody Bridges, a married couple who worked hard for 15 years to build a nest egg
for their children, lost $500,000 to the scammers.
After doing their due diligence and checking the company's background, the pair were convinced
it was legit and made four payments of $250,000 -- two were returned, two weren't.
Ms. Bridges called the scam gut-wrenching, and she will never forgive herself for the
money she lost.
An accountant lost $160,000, claiming he asked the scammers technical questions and liked
their responses.
He also felt confident when the scammers informed him they would be closed on a federal holiday.
After losing his money, he said he was embarrassed, and the scam made him sick.
This wasn't Mr. English's first jog around the block.
In 2020, an elderly couple lost their $200,000 savings to a similar scam based around a fraudulent
Barclays bank website.
Their contact was none other than Mr. English.
Now they're penniless and have no choice but to live off of their pension money.
Warning Signs To prevent something like this from happening
to you, here are a few investment red flags to look out for:
A supposed financial advisor promises low risks and high returns.
Someone you don't know contacts you out of the blue to give you unsolicited investment
advice.
A person pressures you, calling you repeatedly and telling you you'll miss out if you don't
invest soon.
The person or website claims to be endorsed by celebrities -- this is usually false, as
most celebrities don't share their investments with the public.
You are asked to deposit funds into different accounts for each transaction.
They may say it's for security reasons or because they're an international company.
The truth is, they're probably scammers.
Australians have already lost $158 million to scams, just half way through 2022.
$80 million of that was lost to scams involving mobile apps.
If you suspect a possible scam, contact your bank immediately -- don't confront the scammers
or give any indication you're onto them.
3 - Desperately Lonely Sunita Brittain, a teaching assistant from
Doncaster, UK, was swindled out of 9,000 pounds, or roughly 11,000 US dollars, in a scheme
similar to the Tinder Swindler.'
Sunita lost her job and her entire life savings because of a man named 'Michael Anderson.'
Whether that's his real name or not remains a mystery.
Match Made A mother of two, Sunita was going through
a divorce when she met Michael, officially ending what she saw as a 'loveless marriage.'
She was desperate to feel wanted again and thought he could solve that.
The two met on Facebook Dating in January of 2022.
Michael claimed to be the owner of a multi-million-pound global engineering company and a cryptocurrency
analyst with many offshore accounts.
The two quickly left Facebook, opting to talk on Whatsapp instead.
In the beginning, Anderson sent Sunita several pictures of himself, all of which looked heavily
filtered.
Some didn't even look like him.
One of the biggest red flags, Sunita admitted, was the fact that Michael never agreed to
talk on FaceTime, claiming he was 'camera-shy.'
The one time Sunita made an attempt, she saw a blurry side profile of a man who looked
twice Michael's age.
Everything else about Michael seemed too good to be true.
He told Sunita he was adopted as a child, just like her, and they shared the same birthday!
Michael was always the one to initiate what Sunita called 'heavy conversations,' telling
her everything she wanted to hear and constructing a personal fairytale.
But this fairytale didn't have a happy ending.
Love Swindling On January 17th, 2022, Michael put his plan
into action.
He told Sunita that he had to leave immediately for Cyprus, an island off the coast of Syria,
to give 160,000 pounds to a family in need following what he called a 'terrible accident.'
As soon as he arrived, things took a turn for the worse.
Michael told Sunita he had been detained by the Cyprus police and that he needed her to
make transfers from his bank account to his lawyer for him.
All three of these payments were declined, and Sunita received an email from Michael's
so-called bank informing her that Michael's account had been put on hold for 'security
reasons.
That's when Michael got desperate.
He pleaded with Sunita to bail him out, staying on the phone with her so long that she ended
up losing her teaching job due to excessive phone use during work hours.
Transferred Eventually, Sunita was convinced, so she transferred
her 9000-pound life savings to an account held by David Gana -- Michael's supposed lawyer.
Once the transfer was complete, it seemed all was well.
Michael sent Sunita screenshots of his plane tickets back to Doncaster, where the two would
meet and take a plane together to Los Angeles.
There, they would unfreeze his bank account and have some quality time together at last.
Unfortunately, Sunita received a call from Michael's lawyer telling her that Michael
had once again been detained by police on his way back home, this time for tax evasion.
Frustrated, Sunita called her friend and explained the situation.
Immediately, her friend knew it was a scam and told her so.
When Sunita realized her friend was right, she called her bank and told them to freeze
her account.
That should have been the end of it.
But Michael began calling her from different telephone numbers, yelling at her to unfreeze
her bank account, and threatening to find out where she lived.
On February 1st, 2022, Sunita saw a suspicious-looking van outside her house and called the police.
Sunita still resides in her home, hoping her tale of losing her job and life savings and
possibly putting her kids in danger prevents the same thing from happening to anyone else.
2 - The Royal Scam Van Zuylen
Baroness Jaqueline van Zuylen, a member of the UK's upper class, lost her 2-million-pound
fortune when she trusted the wrong investment broker.
The broker, Rodney Whiston-Dew, refused to return the Baroness's money, claiming he "invested
it properly" and that whatever's left of her fortune was safe in a Caribbean trust fund.
He claims he was obligated to use her investment money to pay for her ever-increasing expenses,
including travel, clothing, food, vehicle, and furniture costs.
He also claims the Baroness had a mountain of credit card debt which he was left to deal
with, as she gave him power of attorney over her money.
The Baroness inherited her money from her marriage with Baron Thierry van Zuylen, who
died in 2011.
The two split up before his death, and the Baroness received a hefty two-million-pound
divorce settlement.
The Baroness never worked a day in her life, making the loss of her fortune more difficult.
Now she's stressed out, unable to pay her rent or keep up her lavish lifestyle.
She's had to 'beg, steal, and borrow' just to stay alive.
The Scammer Meanwhile, Dew went to jail for 10 years in
2017 for a 108-million-pound tax scam involving five other accomplices.
The men promised tax breaks to 730 wealthy people, promising to invest their money in
environmental causes in Brazil and China.
As it turned out, they were peddling money between their own offshore accounts and businesses
to secure their own tax breaks.
While Whiston-Dew wasn't the leader of this group, he played a vital role in setting up
the offshore business and roping clients into the scam.
Bankruptcy Whiston-Dew declined to attend his trial in
person, citing depression and anxiety as reasons.
While sitting in his cell, he tried declaring bankruptcy to avoid the case.
When that didn't work, he attempted to get the case thrown out, saying that UK courts
have no jurisdiction over the island of Nevis, where he invested the Baroness's money.
He claims returning the trust fund money to the Baroness would be a 'breach of trust'
and violate Nevis's laws.
The judge threw out this line of reasoning, saying that he violated the UK's Financial
Conduct Authority rules and, therefore, the case could be heard on British soil—a major
win for the Baroness.
We'll have to see how the future unravels and if the Baroness ever gets her money back.
We all know she's not going back to work.
1 - The Mom Scam A son kidnapped by mysterious men, a 10,000-pound
ransom, and a threat to take off one finger every 15 minutes until they got the money.
His worried mother called the cops to tell them what happened, but everything wasn't
as it seemed.
Help!
Raynor Earnshaw sent his mom several frantic texts from 4:55 to 10:55 A.M.
one Tuesday morning.
He sent his mom pictures of himself with two knife wounds on his chest.
Every few minutes, he texted her, saying he would die if she didn't send the ransom money.
Then, he'd criticize her for not sending it, saying his blood was on her hands.
When his mom called the police, she was in for a big surprise.
After hours of searching, they were finally able to track down Raynor.
Except he didn't have wounds and wasn't missing any fingers.
He was sitting in a cafe, calmly sipping a cup of tea.
Caught It turns out Raynor made the whole thing up
as a way to con his mother out of 10,000 pounds.
The police arrested Raynor and three others who they believed aided his conspiracy.
He was charged with giving false information resulting in a police investigation, using
a carriage service to menace, and stalking.
While his friends were let free, he was denied bail.
Click to watch one of these next videos!