An advance-fee scam is a form of fraud and is one of the most common types of confidence tricks. The scam typically involves promising the victim a significant share of a large sum of money, in return for a small up-front payment, which the fraudster claims will be used to obtain the large sum. If a victim makes the payment, the fraudster either invents a series of further fees for the victim to pay or simply disappears.
Ashley Mote was a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England from 2004 to 2009. Elected representing the UK Independence Party, he became a non-inscrit one month into his term after UKIP withdrew the whip from him due to investigation into his expenses.
Sarah Evelyn Isobel Payne, was the victim of a high-profile abduction and murder in West Sussex, England in July 2000.
Robert Hendy-Freegard is a British convicted conman and impostor who masqueraded as an MI5 agent while working as a barman and car salesman. He is also known as David Hendy and David Clifton.
Peter Clifford "Weaselboy" Francis-Macrae is an English spammer found guilty of two counts of fraudulent trading, one of concealing criminal property, two of making threats to kill, one charge of threatening to destroy or damage property and one count of blackmail. He was running his own internet business from his father's home in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, most recent accounts filed at Companies House showed his business had a turnover of £49,000.
Peter Clarence Foster is an Australian career criminal who has been imprisoned in Australia, Britain, the United States, and Vanuatu for a variety of offences related to weight loss and other scams as well as absconding from justice. His convictions range from fraud and money laundering to contempt of court and resisting arrest.
Robert Allen Stanford is an American financial fraudster, former financier, and sponsor of professional sports. He is serving a 110-year federal prison sentence, having been convicted in 2012 of fraud, on charges that his investment company was the vehicle for a massive Ponzi scheme.
Matthew Bevan "Matt" Cox is an American former mortgage broker and admitted mortgage fraudster. Cox, also a true crime author, wrote an unpublished manuscript entitled The Associates in which the main character traveled the country to perpetrate a mortgage fraud scheme similar to the one Cox ran.
The John Darwin disappearance case involved the faked death of the British former teacher and prison officer John Darwin. Darwin turned up alive in December 2007, five and a half years after he was believed to have died in a canoeing accident.
Bernard Lawrence Madoff was an American fraudster and financier who was the mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme in history, worth about $64.8 billion. He was at one time chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange. He advanced the proliferation of electronic trading platforms and the concept of payment for order flow, which has been described as a "legal kickback". Madoff's firm had two basic units: a stock brokerage and an asset management business; the Ponzi scheme was centered in the asset management business.
John Edward Palmer was an English gangster, former market trader and gold dealer, involved in various criminal activities including mortgage and timeshare fraud.
Abraham Lee Shakespeare was a casual laborer from the US who won a $30 million lottery jackpot in Florida, receiving $17 million in 2006. In 2009, his family declared him missing, and in January 2010 his body was found buried under a concrete slab in the backyard of an acquaintance. Dorice "Dee Dee" Moore was convicted of his murder and is now serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Kevin Foster is an English investment fraudster, convicted of 14 counts of deception and theft in relation to his operation of a £34m Ponzi scheme, which ran from 2002 to 2004.
Lottery fraud is any act committed to defraud a lottery game. A perpetrator attempts to win a jackpot prize through fraudulent means. The aim is to defraud the organisation running the lottery of money, or in the case of a stolen lottery ticket, to defraud an individual of their legitimately won prize.
The Hot Lotto fraud scandal was a lottery-rigging scandal in the United States. It came to light in 2017, after Eddie Raymond Tipton, the former information security director of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), confessed to rigging a random number generator that he and two others used in multiple cases of fraud against state lotteries. Tipton was first convicted in October 2015 of rigging a $14.3 million drawing of MUSL's lottery game Hot Lotto. Eddie Tipton ultimately confessed to rigging lottery drawings in Iowa, Colorado, Wisconsin, Kansas and Oklahoma. Also involved in the scheme were his brother and former Texas justice of the peace Tommy Tipton and Texas businessman Robert Rhodes. Eddie Tipton was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Mark Richard George Acklom is an English conman and fraudster who was on Britain's National Crime Agency's list of 10 most-wanted fugitives. His criminal career began at the age of 16 and he has been imprisoned five times in Spain since 1999. He was wanted by Avon & Somerset Police on suspicion of fraud by false representation.
