A Seattle welfare recipient and her husband had their home raided recently by federal officials after it was discovered that the unnamed female was receiving federal welfare checks and housing assistance. The raid occurred after officials realized that the couple were living in a $1 million lakefront home on Lake Washington.

First reported by KING 5 the couple’s names have not been reported because charges have not yet been issued.

What is known is that search warrant documents show the female receiving just over $1,200 per month in public housing vouchers, monthly cash and a disability paycheck from the government along with food stamps. According to records the welfare benefits have been received since the couple moved into their large home in 2003.

According to property records the home is valued at $1.2 million and features 2,500 square feet, large gardens and a boat dock.

An unnamed source for the federal welfare program says a “flaw” in the program doesn’t allow the agency to analyze where people are living, therefore a ritzy address in an affluent area goes unchecked despite the welfare recipient listing a posh address for their checks.

Court documents show that the couple used the money to travel to far off exotic locations including Tel Aviv, top-notch resorts in Mexico and Turkey. The couple also gave money to charity on a yearly basis.

Here’s a video of the incident:

Do you think the couple should be forced to pay back all money received plus interest?I personally would like to see this type of fraud met with an extended period behind bars, I would personally rather have money being taken out of my pocket to house a prisoner rather than having money taken out of my taxpaying pocket so someone can take trips around the world.

Seattle Welfare Recipient Found Living In $1 Million Lakefront Home is a post from: The Inquisitr

Foreclosures can be a hard enough thing to deal with at the best of times but when you think that you have been playing by the rules and doing everything the right way the idea that you don’t own that home you thought you did, well that can be devastating.

The whole foreclosure fraud business is just another sickening example of the lengths that people will go to in order to make money and nowhere is this more apparent than in Las Vegas where improper foreclosure practices are widespread.

In fact one experienced and well respected investigative reporter, George Knapp, found out the hard way just how widespread it was when he discovered that the home he thought he had bought and paid for out of foreclosure wasn’t his.

As he found out via the Attorney General’s office Knapp didn’t own his home due to bogus signatures and improper filings something that Las Vegas foreclosure attorney Tisha Black says happens in nine out of ten cases these days.

Indeed, Knapp isn’t alone when it comes to faulty title transfers causing lost homes. In addition, to the “tens of thousands” cited by KLAS in Las Vegas, one couple and their 18-month-old daughter faced foreclosure in Houston, Texas even though they had stayed current on payments since 2008,because their title wasn’t transferred properly.

via Huffington Post

Las Vegas journalist gets trapped by same foreclosure scam he reported on [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Twenty students were arrested this week after officials determined that the students were taking part in an SAT test-taking scam that spanned across five Long Island high schools.

According to officials those arrested were believed to have accepted payments from students in order to take their SAT and ACT tests. The scam was spread over a three year period and was only discovered after officials noticed an unusually high number of SAT and ACT scores that outperformed each students actual grades.

A principal for one of the high schools told the New York Times:

 “I think it’s widespread across the country.”

In one of the first arrests it was determined that a student had taken the SAT for at least six different students, each student paid $3,500 to ace the test. Despite being a male the test taker even managed to take the SAT for a female on one occasion.

While cheating on a test might not seem like a major offense the test takers are facing felony counts for scheming to defraud along with misdemeanors for falsifying business records and criminal impersonation.

An attorney for one of the students says he would like to see the situation handled by school officials and not the courts. According to the lawyer:

“While no one condones cheating, we have a school system that is separate and apart from the criminal justice system, and we have that for good reason.”

Going against that attorney’s wishes Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice noted:

“This is a crime. Make no mistake, as the system stands now, hard-working students are taking a back seat to the cheaters.”

Do you believe that criminal charges are necessary to stop the free flow of cheating SAT and ACT test takers?

[Image via ShutterStock.com]

20 Test Takers Arrested In New York SAT Cheating Scandal is a post from: The Inquisitr

Jenny Durkan, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, hosted a press conference yesterday at a federal courthouse in Seattle to discuss skimming – the crime of copying bank account information using debit card readers and video surveillance to record users entering PINs.

However, it’s not just a political cause for Durkan, but also a personal one: the attorney herself was a victim of skimming last month, when crooks stole her debit card information andPIN and snatched $1,000 from her checking account.

At her conference yesterday, Durkan, a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys, was joined by the Secret Service Seattle Electronic Crimes Task Force. Together, they warned the public about recent examples of skimming in and around the Puget Sound area of Washington.

Vigilance, explained Durkan, was the key to foiling the perpetrators. Recently-made ATMs will now display a picture of what the slot and keypad are supposed to look like as a background, allowing consumers to easily identify any foreign devices that are attached.

Main Justice points out that Durkan is not the only high profile government official to become a victim of electronic criminals. Two years ago, a phishing scam almost got the better of FBI Director Robert Mueller. Ever since he almost handed over sensitive information about his bank account, Mueller says he has completely avoided using online banking.

Has anyone here been a victim of skimming? Feel free to share your story with us in the comments!

US Attorney Jenny Durkan Was a Victim of Skimming is a post from: The Inquisitr

Feds Go After ’1 Tip for a Tiny Belly’ Ads is a post from: The Inquisitr

Ever wondered just how all those fraudulent credit cards are created and used? Well Detective Bob Watts of the Newport Beach Police Department will take you on a guided tour through the process. This is the operation that was run by Chris Aragon who was an associate of uber hacker Max Bulter who was profiled in this month’s Wired.

[hat tip to Threat Level]

Credit card fraud factory on video is a post from: The Inquisitr