| Schapelle book money 'hidden'
THE Federal Government has little chance of getting its hands on almost $270,000 in profits from convicted drug-runner Schapelle Corby's tell-all book, a family spokesman says. The boast comes after the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions successfully applied to freeze $267,750 in proceeds from the best-selling book, My Story. The issue has sparked fiery debate amongst our readers - with some saying the family deserves the cash and others disagreeing. What do you think? Tell us via the feedback form below. The DPP alleged Corby was seeking to cash in on her notoriety after being convicted of smuggling 4.1kg of marijuana into Indonesia in 2004. But the Corby family spokesman said the money had been wired by publisher Pan Macmillan to Indonesian bank accounts operated by Mercedes and her husband Wayan Widyartha.
Online scam artist takes local man for $8700
A Clinton Township businessman who thought he bought a 2004 Ford pickup truck via the world's largest online auction system got taken to the tune of $8,700, police said Friday. Craig Whitaker, who paints houses and stripes parking lots for companies, wired a money order to the Bank of America in Houston, Texas, as payment for the truck he believed he purchased through eBay. But he never got the truck and now the bank refuses to cooperate with police in trying to find the scam artists. The thieves got into Whitaker's eBay account and told him to send the money to a fictitious account in Houston. Against the advice of his banker, Whitaker, a U.S. Marine veteran, sent the money. "He did, and he was taken for a considerable amount of money," said Clinton Township police Detective Capt.
Save money on DIY: don't bodge it - dodge it
The weather forecast is terrific: it's going to be a warm and sunny Easter. Yet about three million people are preparing to leave the country. This is not as paradoxical as it may seem. Good Friday is traditionally the start of our DIY season, a time when the Great British Bodger dusts down his tool box and gets cracking on those irksome jobs that have built up over winter. Wickes, a DIY chain, estimates that we will spend about £1.5 billion on home-improvement supplies this weekend. B&Q alone will sell more than one million litres of paint - an emulsional experience. Intentions are good, but for many over-enthusiastic handymen (and women), DIY activity is spectacularly counter-productive, converting homes from havens of tranquillity into danger zones. Those heading for airports and ferries aren't just off for a short break; they are, in effect, escaping life-threatening encounters with power drills, carpet cutters and Stanley knives.
Regional & Crime Briefs
A man who had been in an confrontation in an strip club was killed minutes later in a high-speed collision on Reynolds Park Road early yesterday morning, Winston-Salem police said. Anthony Dejuan Hickman, 31, of 4378 Wakeman Drive, was pronounced dead in the 2600 block of Reynolds Park Road, police said in a statement. Hickman was driving a 1990 Lexus that was eastbound on Reynolds Park Road about 2 a.m. when he crossed the centerline and collided with an oncoming Ford Escort driven by Alex Ryan Ibergs, 22, of 1912 Marble St. Police said that Hickman's car then went off the road, hit a utility pole and came back onto the road and hit a Suzuki sport utility vehicle driven by Yuridia Mendoza Pistillo, 29, of 2445 Old Greensboro Road. Ibergs was not injured and Pistillo was taken to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center with injuries that police described as not life-threatening.
New 3-D films promise big thrills for moviegoers
By the end of the decade, Darth Vader could be rattling sabres with his enemies above the heads of moviegoers, and Buzz Lightyear could be flying off the screen on his way to infinity and beyond. For real - or at least the cinematic version of real: 3D. A growing number of blockbuster, live-action films and animated movies are expected to be offered in in-your-face 3-D in the next few years, as thousands of theatres are outfitted with the special projectors and screens needed to show the films. Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of DreamWorks Animation SKG, is so gung-ho about 3-D that he has said his studio might start exclusively releasing movies in the format as early as 2009 with its "Monsters vs. Aliens." "For Memorial Day weekend 2009, I would like to see 3,800 locations and 6,000 screens that we can put our movie on.
If your bank's on the line, hang up
We're not smart: On the one hand we're ready to let technology make our lives easier. On the other we don't stop to think about how it might be used against us. Take a recent scam from Hong Kong. This is how it works: The fraudsters swipe a wallet or handbag from under chairs and tables at a weekend sporting event. They remove any ATM card and a business card of the owner and replace everything else. They then research the individual online. They wait a day and then call up the intended victim, identifying themselves as an employee from the victim's bank. They ask for some personal details and then ask if the victim has lost their ATM card. Now this may be the first time the mark has realized the card is lost. Employing a professional and comforting tone, and weaving in any personal details he has been able to unearth online, the bad guy further lures the victim into a false sense of security.
Couple plead not guilty in inheritance scam Pair allegedly told ...
A San Jose couple pleaded not guilty Thursday in federal court to charges that they solicited $600,000 from two victims after falsely telling them that the couple needed the money to pay tax on an impounded multimillion-dollar inheritance from China. Shiu Chau "Alex" Wang, 52, and his wife, Stella "Sue" Wang Chu, 52, were each indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday on four counts of wire fraud and one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, engaging in illegal monetary transactions and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The couple claimed that they needed money to pay the tax liability on a $10 million to $30 million inheritance coming from Wang's grandfather in China, FBI Agent David Brown wrote in an affidavit. The couple said the inheritance was being held by the U.S.
|
