Get Business Alerts Huffington Post (blog) I have been trying to alert the public to the great Social Security scam ever since I first discovered it more than a decade ago. … and more

Niche-Market Madoff Duped Law Enforcement Agencies in Ponzi With a Twist Bloomberg Research has shown that males between the ages of 55 and 64 — the bulk of McLeod's client list — are the most typical investment – fraud victims, … and more

Thousands left penniless after collapse of Ponzi scheme Independent Many families had pooled their investments , meaning that up to a quarter of the nine-million strong population has been directly affected by the scam . …

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Thousands left penniless after collapse of Ponzi scheme – Independent

BBB: Mystery Shopper Check Scam On The Rise KERO-TV 23 “Well, I figured it was a scam anyway when I saw it. I thought 'Nobody's going to send me money and besides, they said they got my name from a recent job … and more

Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said that initial weekly jobless claims declined slightly to 472,000. Initial claims need to fall into the 300,000s for the unemployment rate to decline, economists say. That means many economists expect the unemployment rate for August, due to be released tomorrow, will increase beyond the current rate of 9.5 percent. The BLS also revised last week’s claims up from 473,000 to 478,000. Initial claims have remained sustained around 450,000 or 470,000 since January, the strongest evidence of the stall-out in the recovery. The four-week claims average, which smooths out weekly volatility, is at 485,500 — a bit lower after climbing for weeks.

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Weekly Job Claims Remain High

Guilty Plea in $535 Million Ponzi Scams Courthouse News Service SHERMAN, Texas (CN) – A Dallas man pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud investors of more than $535 million in oil and gas investment … and more

Nigeria: Property Scam – Nationals Lose N150 Billion in Dubai AllAfrica.com Abuja — Nigerians, especially politicians, may have lost over $1 billion (about N150 billion) in property investment projects initiated by Damac Properties …

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Nigeria: Property Scam – Nationals Lose N150 Billion in Dubai – AllAfrica.com

Contactmusic.com STARR'S WIFE CLAIMS SNIPES LINK Contactmusic.com Snipes is said to have been caught up in an alleged investment scam perpetrated by Starr, who is accused of embezzling a massive $30 million (£20 million) … and more

Bric stocks lag EM; losses similar to developed mkts; Bric stocks creeping into global portfolios; Brics more leveraged to world growth

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Brics – victims of success with global investors

Scam Alert: Sure, I use Facebook, but I still want some privacy IdahoStatesman.com Facebook users, I'm beginning to think you need to check your privacy settings at least once a week. New features and new options present new opportunities … and more

Metro restaurant workers indicted in credit card scam Minneapolis Star Tribune The simple alternative is to use cash, the website states. Customers should also check their monthly statements carefully for unauthorized purchases. and more

Rs 100-cr fraud in check dam work: Watchdog panel Indian Express As many as 550 check dams, constructed in Sonbhadra district at a cost of Rs 100 crore under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) … and more

Los Angeles Times Man accused of fraud may get life in prison under California's three-strikes law Los Angeles Times Instead, his Buena Park real estate investment company, called Trusperity, sought to help people in financial distress, McKesson said. …

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Man accused of fraud may get life in prison under California’s three-strikes law – Los Angeles Times

Scam letters being delivered in Carroll Daily Times Herald Heino said the scam letter is accompanied by a realistic-looking check made out to the target. The person is asked to cash or deposit the check and return a … and more

Ponzi scheme shakes West African nation of Benin The Associated Press Many lost months to years of savings in the scam . Electrician Lambert Saizonou, 40, planned to use his investment earnings to buy his first house. … and more

This morning, ADP, a payroll processing firm, put out its latest employment report . It isn’t good. Between July and August, private employers shed an estimated 10,000 workers; economists expected an increase of about 20,000 jobs. Moreover, ADP revised down July’s increase from 42,000 jobs to 37,000. Over the past six months, private employers have added 37,000 jobs per month, according to ADP’s estimates. To put that in context, the economy needs to add 100,000 to 150,000 jobs a month just to keep up with the country’s growing population, and there are currently 14.5 million unemployed persons looking for work. On top of all that, ADP notes that it expects the government’s official employment report, due on Friday, to be worse. “[T]oday’s [ADP] figure does not include the effects of federal hiring — and now firing — for the 2010 Census,” the company notes. “Hiring for the census peaked in May. For this reason, Friday’s figure for the change in nonfarm total employment reported by the [Bureau of Labor Statistics] might be weaker than today’s estimate for nonfarm private employment in the ADP National Employment Report.” That means that both private and public employment might decline — meaning, unless the labor force shrinks dramatically, the unemployment rate will rise.

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An Ominous Private Jobs Report

KIDK BBB warns of scam targeting unemployed Bizjournals.com Red Flag: The employer requires a credit report check . After posting resumes online or responding to online job listings, many job hunters received what … Scammers Target Job Hunters in Weak Economy Better Business Bureau all 17 news articles

Today, Christina Romer leaves her post as the head of the Council of Economic Advisers to return to the West Coast. The economist was among the most liberal in the White House, routinely pushing for more stimulus and government aid to help the ailing economy. In her last remarks as an administration official, to be given at 1 p.m., Romer plans to argue that intervention prevented the country from falling into another depression, but also to call for more spending to gin up the recovery. “Given our long-run fiscal challenges, any additional support should be done in a responsible way,” she will say, according to short excerpts released. “But concern about the deficit cannot be an excuse for leaving unemployed workers to suffer. “We have tools that would bring unemployment down without worsening our long-run fiscal outlook, if we can only find the will and the wisdom to use them.”

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Romer’s Farewell Speech

Classic Cons: 10 Financial Scams Fair-Minded Investors Should Avoid Money Morning Indeed, over the past 40 years, only one new entry has been added to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) roster of “Top 10″ investment scams – the … Combating the Cons: Where Should Victims of Financial Scams Turn? Money Morning all 3 news articles

Attorney pleads guilty to theft in investment scam Patriot-News … filed last year by the state attorney general's office, involve an investment scam Smith and Jerome A. Kindrachuk, 65, of Allentown, are accused of … and more

Town Hall Dallas man guilty in oil & gas scam UPI.com 31 (UPI) — A Dallas man pleaded guilty Tuesday to his role in an oil-and-gas investment pyramid scam that ripped off 7700 people for nearly a half billion … Dallas man pleads guilty in Provident Royalties' oil, gas scam case Dallas Morning News all 94 news articles

Plain Dealer (blog) Lakewood con artist Joanne Schneider resentenced to 10 years in prison Plain Dealer (blog) Convicted swindler Joanne Schneider had seven years added to her sentence for fraud and securities violations in a $60 million investment scheme that … and more

Daily Mail Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon head to London to celebrate after she finally … Daily Mail Sedgwick and Bacon must be pleased to be doing so well. They were both victims of the Bernard Madoff investment scam . and more

AARP warns of 'doughnut hole' check scams UPI.com “If someone says they can help you get your check more quickly if you pay them a fee, immediately report this scam or any similar fraud to the police or to … and more

Economists often describe unemployment as “cyclical” or “structural.” Cyclical unemployment results from broad economic slowdowns: As the economy turns, businesses lay off workers, meaning other businesses suffer, meaning more layoffs. Structural unemployment results from broad economic changes: An economy with a strong apple trade might be becoming an economy with a strong orange trade, and as that transformation happens, a lot of apple workers might be out of a job. Economic commentators such as Mohamed El-Erian, the head of PIMCO, have described the United States’ problem as mostly structural. The housing boom created millions of jobs in construction, development and realty, and those jobs are gone. Over at Project Syndicate , economist Brad DeLong makes the argument for cyclical unemployment: In [the case of structural unemployment] we would expect to see construction depressed: firms closed, capital goods idle, and workers unemployed. But we would also expect to see manufacturing plants running at double shifts – the money not spent on construction has to go somewhere, and, remember, the problem is not a lack of aggregate demand. We would expect to see manufacturers holding job fairs, and when not enough workers showed up, we would expect to see manufacturers offering higher wages to attract workers into their plants, and then raising prices to cover their higher costs. That is what “mismatch” structural unemployment looks like – and it is not what we have today, at least not in Europe and North America. In the past three years, employment in construction has shrunk, but so has employment in manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, information distribution and communications, professional and business services, educational services, leisure and hospitality, and in the public sector. Employment is up in health care, Internet-related businesses, and perhaps in logging and mining. DeLong does not say that structural unemployment does not exist in the U.S. economy, just that the problem is primarily cyclical. In a few years, with unemployment still projected to be above 8 percent, the problem will primarily be a structural one, he notes. Though the problem seems to me to be both: The unemployment is cyclical and structural. Most sectors have suffered from the turndown, but job losses are concentrated in some industries: In residential construction, they are down 38 percent since 2006. (Between Aug. 2007 and Dec. 2009, unemployment in construction quintupled from about 5 percent to about 25 percent.) In health care and education, however, jobs are up. Here is a chart I made from Bureau of Labor Statistics data that shows the phenomenon. (The chart shows total jobs in major sectors since 2005.) Most sectors — retail trade, business services, wholesale trade, finance — have had moderate job losses one could reasonably chalk up to an economy-wide lack of demand. Let’s think of those as sectors characterized mostly by cyclical job loss. Then, there is manufacturing and construction. Jobs there have taken a nose dive, and the problem seems to be structural. Moreover, the job gains in education and health might thought to be structural as well. (Mining and logging isn’t an industry I know a lot about, so I’m not sure what’s going on there.) That said, the big problem at the root of all of the employment woes remains sluggish demand. One can also think about the unemployment geographically. Joblessness has tracked up in all states, due to lack of demand. But states with big manufacturing and construction industries — Michigan, Nevada, California and Florida — are suffering from massive structural unemployment, made worse by the foreclosure crisis. (Four years ago, you might have been working in construction in Nevada and overpaid for your house. Today, you’re likely out of a job and, worse, can’t move to a state like North Dakota because you can’t sell the property.)

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The Cyclical, Structural Unemployment Problem

Patriot-News Brooklyn residents charged in scam targeting Target stores, Silver Spring … Patriot-News Two New York residents arrested last week for a travelers check scam at the Target store in Silver Spring Township, Cumberland County, may have cost the … abc27 News2 charged, 1 sought in theft at Target store abc27 all 2 news articles

Via TPMDC, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is up with a new advertisement showing his Republican challenger Sharron Angle bashing the unemployed, calling them “spoiled,” for instance. An unemployed Nevadan then criticizes Angle for the remarks. Angle has previously suggested that the government cut unemployment insurance benefits to get people back to work. And this week, a tape of Angle stating that she would have voted against the Hurricane Katrina relief bill, passed just after the hurricane devastated New Orleans, emerged . Reid and Angle remain close in some polls, but in others, the incumbent is pulling ahead.

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Reid Ad Shows Angle Bashing the Unemployed

One of the major complaints against immigration — both legal and illegal — is that non-Americans take jobs that could be occupied by citizens during a time of high unemployment. But immigrants actually boost incomes and productivity over time, according to a paper released Monday by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. The study’s author found immigration has no “significant” effect on the number of jobs available to U.S.-born workers. The main reason, economist Giovanni Peri argues, is that U.S. and immigrant workers tend to take different jobs, particularly because immigrants often face language barriers that make them less likely to take higher paying jobs requiring strong communication skills. This allows U.S.-born workers to shift toward these jobs, Peri writes. Interestingly, this means lower language skills among immigrants actually help American workers, writes Kevin Drum at Mother Jones : What’s really striking about this is that the very mechanism that provides the productivity boost — the fact that immigrants don’t speak English well and therefore push native workers out of manual labor and into higher-paying jobs — is precisely the thing that most provokes the immigrant skeptics. They all want immigrants to assimilate faster and speak English better, but if they did then they’d just start competing for the higher paying jobs that natives now monopolize. Many other economists have come to the same conclusion as Peri: Immigrants help the economy to grow and therefore create jobs and increase average wages for American-born workers. The trend is true overall, but not necessarily for every worker: Economists say some workers, particularly in low-skilled jobs, could see lower wages due to an influx of immigrants. Some argue the exploitation of undocumented workers drives down wages for everyone in certain sectors — which they say is why comprehensive immigration reform is vital.

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Fed Study: Immigrants Don’t Steal American Jobs

Do You Really Want LA to Become NY?–The Choice is Ours City Watch Too much investment capital has already been sucked up by the uber-wealthy in investment scams . We lack the luxury of turning over a few trillion more …

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Do You Really Want LA to Become NY?–The Choice is Ours – City Watch

Teenager catches sweepstakes mail scam 6abc.com “And I got home and my mom told me I got a check for $3000.” The check was actually for $3850.64. The check , made out in her name, claimed to be from the … and more

Prudential, Roger Clemens, Barclays, Skilled Healthcare, CVS in Court News Bloomberg More than 100 insurance carriers earn investment income on $28 billion owed to life insurance beneficiaries, Bloomberg Markets magazine reported last month. … and more

News briefs: Raiders QB Campbell returns to practice CBSSports.com New Orleans Saints defensive line coach Travis Jones has been suspended 30 days without pay for his admitted role in a real estate scam involving 40 people … and more

MiamiHerald.com Restitution ordered in Scott Rothstein case, but pot `limited' MiamiHerald.com … major investors with Rothstein, received payments from him totaling $87 million before his investment scam unraveled last October. … Non-Investor Law Firm Clients to Recoup Bulk of Funds Stolen by Rothstein The National Law Journal all 51 news articles

Facebook scam claims to need testers for iPhone 4, iPad CNET (blog) Check all your Page likes and be sure only Applications you have allowed to access your account are doing so. You might also want to run a virus scan on … and more

Sportsnet.ca Companies settle suits involving Cowboys Tampabay.com SAINTS: Assistant defensive line coach Travis Jones was suspended 30 days without pay for his role in a real estate scam involving at least 40 people in … Cowboys owner Jerry Jones settled with employees who were injured in a 2009 … Kansas City Star all 292 news articles

NewswireToday (newswire) – 08/31/2010 London, United Kingdom – Specialist restructuring, recovery and insolvency firm, FRP Advisory LLP, discusses HMRC’s Business Payment Support Service, or TTP scheme

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FRP Advisory Reviews HMRC’s Time to Pay Scheme

WMDT Check Washing Scam WMDT by – WMDT Staff DORCHESTER COUNTY, Md. – The Dorchester County Sheriff's Office is currently investigating several cases of theft involving ” Check washing”. …

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Check Washing Scam – WMDT

Scam Hits Eastern Kentucky WYMT The man allegedly running the scam had convinced Graham's uncle to write a check for more than eight thousand dollars for the job that they had originally … and more

Sellers spot Craigslist check scam Wink News Later, Williamson got what looked like a 2 thousand dollar cashiers check and received an e-mail from the buyer giving instructions on what to do after …

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Sellers spot Craigslist check scam – Wink News

Man warns of scam letter WALB-TV Hall took the check to the Worth County Sheriff's Office, and Investigators told him it was a scam . He warns others not to cash them. … and more

Judge approves restitution for Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein's victims MiamiHerald.com The repayment formula will be based on how much investors put in and then took out of Rothstein's investments over a four-year period before his scam … and more

The FutureNow List 2010 Bank Technology News Some of the instances almost seem like parody: SecureWorks reported a check counterfeiting scam dubbed the “Big Boss” ring that created fake checks from …

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The FutureNow List 2010 – Bank Technology News

Condo Residents Victims Of Identity Theft WDIV Detroit Residents living at a local apartment complex find themselves the victims of a nationwide identity theft scam . Many of the victims lost thousands of dollars … and more

Police warn over tax phone scam BBC News Ceredigion council said people should ring its finance department on 01970 617911 to check the accuracy of any calls claiming to be from the department. … and more

New victims of old scams that target elderly The Courier News Beware of investment or money-making offers that seem too good to be true or use high-pressure sales tactics to get you to sign up immediately. … and more

Check frauds raise frustration Topeka Capital Journal The scams make up a small amount of check fraud cases the department investigates. “It looks like a check to me, but it's worthless,” McGinley said, …

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Check frauds raise frustration – Topeka Capital Journal

Queensland is Australia's ' fraud capital' Herald Sun “You've got a lot of people retiring up there and probably a fair bit of money, making them more susceptible to becoming targets of these investment scams ,” … and more

Alleged Craigslist scam relieves potential renters of $300 each The Province After they looked at the place at around 3 pm, the man said he would check out the boyfriend's references and get back to them. They paid him a $300 deposit … and more

Illegal scams investors may be penalised The Sun Daily Investment scams , which forms a high percentage of while collar crimes, is on an upward rise in Malaysia over the last 10 years. Examples of investment … and more

More scam artists targeting the elderly Eagle Tribune The Better Business Bureau also warns about Medicare scams and fake investment and work from home opportunities. For more information on how to stay safe …

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More scam artists targeting the elderly – Eagle Tribune