Saturday, 12 November 2011
FraudWatch gets £1m Lottery Funding
Fraudwatch has been given £1million in Lottery funding to keep researching and expand its reach into the public with advise and up-to-date news.
A new website and dedicated reporting team will be launched soon!!
This is fantastic news and has been due to the efforts of responsible researchers and journalists who have opened new doors to fraud prevention and helped bring fraudsters to justice.
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
September Issue Fraud Watch Out soon
Following August's massive success with over 300,000 readers September issue is soon to be published online.
Fraud watch is delivered to subscribers all over the world online and in the U.K in paper form.
Saturday, 3 September 2011
Anti-fraud campaign
UK citizens lose around £2.4 billion every year as a result of scam mail.
Sent by professional fraudsters, scam letters are designed to con recipients into investing in bogus schemes such as fake lotteries, share frauds and inheritance scams. They depend on persuading victims to hand over money based on promises of valuable goods, services, or benefits that are never delivered.
After replying to a 'tempter' letter, victims' names can be put on a 'suckers list' which is then sold to other fraudsters. Chronic victims include some of the most vulnerable people in society, some of whom end up being hounded with terrible consequences.
Impact of scam mail
Detective Superintendent Mark Ponting, head of prevention and disruption for the Metropolitan Police Service's Economic and Specialist Crime Command, said: "The individuals behind this type of crime are cynical and pernicious, making their living by targeting and exploiting some of the most vulnerable and needy people in our society.
"For many of these victims, the bombardment of scam mail results in fear, severe financial difficulties and ultimately a decline in both physical and mental health.
"In some cases in the UK it has ended in suicide.
"We hope that Mass Marketing Fraud Awareness Week and the action that we will take in the future will raise awareness of this crime amongst all sectors of society and prevent more people from falling victim to it."
Think Jessica's Marilyn Baldwin, said: "My mother Jessica was in her late seventies and suffering from (undiagnosed) age-related declining mental health when she was hunted down by scam mail criminals.
"For five years I tried to convince my mum that she was being scammed, but criminals claiming to be clairvoyants, lottery officials & solicitors led her to believe the family were against her- she would not co-operate.
"I believe that the thousands of scam letters we removed from her home contributed to her death in 2007.
"I started the campaign www.thinkjessica.com (Opens in a new window) three years ago and during that time we have been alerted to thousands of elderly and vulnerable silent victims who are being tricked, "befriended" and threatened by criminals worldwide.
"The most effective way of stopping these criminals from succeeding is by refusing to engage with them - this is the message we hope to spread during this week of awareness."
SOCA fraud expert Colin Woodcock, said: "Mass marketing fraud is serious organised crime and every organisation involved in this campaign is committed to fighting it. But the single most powerful weapon we have in that fight is better public awareness. If you suspect that someone close to you is a victim, there is help and advice available. Don't let the criminals get away with it."
City of London Police's Detective Superintendent Tony Crampton, said: "As the lead force for investigating fraud in this country, we work year round to bring to justice those people behind these scams. Make no mistake, these are not casual fraudsters, but ruthless and calculated criminal gangs, with a business-like approach to conning vulnerable victims out of their money. But that professional approach does not prevent us from catching them, prosecuting them, and putting them behind bars. This campaign sends a clear message to the criminals who target the vulnerable: you are on our radar, and more and more people are becoming aware of the tricks of your trade."
Sent by professional fraudsters, scam letters are designed to con recipients into investing in bogus schemes such as fake lotteries, share frauds and inheritance scams. They depend on persuading victims to hand over money based on promises of valuable goods, services, or benefits that are never delivered.
After replying to a 'tempter' letter, victims' names can be put on a 'suckers list' which is then sold to other fraudsters. Chronic victims include some of the most vulnerable people in society, some of whom end up being hounded with terrible consequences.
Impact of scam mail
Detective Superintendent Mark Ponting, head of prevention and disruption for the Metropolitan Police Service's Economic and Specialist Crime Command, said: "The individuals behind this type of crime are cynical and pernicious, making their living by targeting and exploiting some of the most vulnerable and needy people in our society.
"For many of these victims, the bombardment of scam mail results in fear, severe financial difficulties and ultimately a decline in both physical and mental health.
"In some cases in the UK it has ended in suicide.
"We hope that Mass Marketing Fraud Awareness Week and the action that we will take in the future will raise awareness of this crime amongst all sectors of society and prevent more people from falling victim to it."
Think Jessica's Marilyn Baldwin, said: "My mother Jessica was in her late seventies and suffering from (undiagnosed) age-related declining mental health when she was hunted down by scam mail criminals.
"For five years I tried to convince my mum that she was being scammed, but criminals claiming to be clairvoyants, lottery officials & solicitors led her to believe the family were against her- she would not co-operate.
"I believe that the thousands of scam letters we removed from her home contributed to her death in 2007.
"I started the campaign www.thinkjessica.com (Opens in a new window) three years ago and during that time we have been alerted to thousands of elderly and vulnerable silent victims who are being tricked, "befriended" and threatened by criminals worldwide.
"The most effective way of stopping these criminals from succeeding is by refusing to engage with them - this is the message we hope to spread during this week of awareness."
SOCA fraud expert Colin Woodcock, said: "Mass marketing fraud is serious organised crime and every organisation involved in this campaign is committed to fighting it. But the single most powerful weapon we have in that fight is better public awareness. If you suspect that someone close to you is a victim, there is help and advice available. Don't let the criminals get away with it."
City of London Police's Detective Superintendent Tony Crampton, said: "As the lead force for investigating fraud in this country, we work year round to bring to justice those people behind these scams. Make no mistake, these are not casual fraudsters, but ruthless and calculated criminal gangs, with a business-like approach to conning vulnerable victims out of their money. But that professional approach does not prevent us from catching them, prosecuting them, and putting them behind bars. This campaign sends a clear message to the criminals who target the vulnerable: you are on our radar, and more and more people are becoming aware of the tricks of your trade."
Mitain Conrad - update
Files obtained under the freedom of information act have shown that Mitain Conrad made several interviews with undercover police investigators and assisted by prividing valuable information on several wanted individuals.
Having done so he was subsequently let loose with Police authorities denying any such event.
Lawyers acting for Mitain Conrad have indicated a High Court judgement will be sought to officially clairify the actual event.
Having done so he was subsequently let loose with Police authorities denying any such event.
Lawyers acting for Mitain Conrad have indicated a High Court judgement will be sought to officially clairify the actual event.
Pass the ID fraud test with a good password
Hard-to-crack passwords make it much more difficult for thieves to steal your identity. So how do you come up with passwords that are easy enough to remember but hard for fraudsters to work out – while avoiding the temptation of using the same password for lots of different accounts?
Your first name, surname, birthday, home town, wife’s name, child’s name, pet’s name and so on all make bad passwords as they are easy for fraudsters to guess (or find out on Facebook).
Fraudsters also use automatic “dictionary” attacks, using a computer to work their way through common words – so it’s not a good idea to use everyday words as passwords, either.
One way to foil the most common methods fraudsters use is to start using combinations of letters, numbers and symbols – but you need to do more than stick the number 1 at the end of your surname, for instance.
One method is to use the initials of an easily memorable phrase. So ‘David Brent’s bank account at Nat West’ could become “dbb1@nwest” – a phrase that even dictionary software would find tough as it contains no real words. Or something like ‘tottenham 61’ could become ‘tott61enham’.
It’s also an idea to keep separate email addresses when you register for online services, in addition to using separate passwords. It’s free to get webmail from several different providers. This means if criminals get hold of one of your account’s details or gain access to one email account, your other accounts will be safe.
And, as ever, if you are worried you’ve been a victim of ID fraud
Your first name, surname, birthday, home town, wife’s name, child’s name, pet’s name and so on all make bad passwords as they are easy for fraudsters to guess (or find out on Facebook).
Fraudsters also use automatic “dictionary” attacks, using a computer to work their way through common words – so it’s not a good idea to use everyday words as passwords, either.
One way to foil the most common methods fraudsters use is to start using combinations of letters, numbers and symbols – but you need to do more than stick the number 1 at the end of your surname, for instance.
One method is to use the initials of an easily memorable phrase. So ‘David Brent’s bank account at Nat West’ could become “dbb1@nwest” – a phrase that even dictionary software would find tough as it contains no real words. Or something like ‘tottenham 61’ could become ‘tott61enham’.
It’s also an idea to keep separate email addresses when you register for online services, in addition to using separate passwords. It’s free to get webmail from several different providers. This means if criminals get hold of one of your account’s details or gain access to one email account, your other accounts will be safe.
And, as ever, if you are worried you’ve been a victim of ID fraud
50,000 ID fraud victims so far this year
Fraud in the first half of 2011 is 10% higher than a year ago according to new figures from CIFAS, the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service – with more than 50,000 ID fraud victims.
Using someone else’s identity is fraudsters’ preferred method so far this year. CIFAS recorded 111,505 frauds from January to June and more than half related to impersonation and identity fraud (46%) or the takeover of a victim’s accounts (10%).
Using someone else’s identity is fraudsters’ preferred method so far this year. CIFAS recorded 111,505 frauds from January to June and more than half related to impersonation and identity fraud (46%) or the takeover of a victim’s accounts (10%).
Top Ten Fraudsters being caught 1 by 1
unknown ID fraudster who stole £650,000 from one victim. The 10 fraudsters are said to be responsible for £200 million worth of fraud in total.
Fraud cost the UK an estimated £38 billion last year – that’s £700 for everyone in the UK.
Lord Ashcroft, Chair of Crimestoppers, points out that fraud isn’t a victimless crime: “Every single one of us is paying higher taxes, bank charges and insurance fees because of fraud.”
Fraud against the public purse accounts for around £27 billion a year, he says. “This is equivalent to 30 per cent of the estimated national education budget for 2011/2012. Think of the many cuts and savings that would not have to occur if we did not suffer this level of fraud.”
■Name unknown: Wanted in connection with the misuse of a debit card and account details in the name of a legitimate customer. £650,000 was transferred out of the customer’s account.
■Nasser Ahmed: wanted for his role in a large scale VAT fraud in the region of £156 million in the Bristol area. He absconded during the trial and was sentenced to 6 years in his absence.
■Timur Mehmet: wanted for his role in a large scale VAT fraud of £25 million. He absconded prior to his trial and was sentenced in his absence to 8 years imprisonment.
■Misba Uddin: wanted for fraud by false representation after he submitted a number of fraudulent mortgage applications totaling £5.7 million pounds whilst working as a financial advisor. Once the mortgages were processed he transferred the funds in to his own accounts.
■Ajayi Seun: Charged with conspiracy to money launder and has failed to sign on at Sutton Police Station in breach of bail. He is believed to have conned mortgage lenders and banks out of more than £12 million.
■Peter Stead: Allegedly tricked several Derby landlords out of money in the summer of 2009. He offered to put on a comedy night to raise money for the Lewis Mighty Fund. He was given cash by landlords to secure the booking but failed to perform. The fund was launched to send four-year-old Lewis, a cancer patient, to America for treatment.
■Mohamad Khan: Responsible for using counterfeit credit cards in order to purchase high value items costing more than £100,000. He was arrested by Police and charged, however, subsequently failed to attend Crown Court. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
Fraud cost the UK an estimated £38 billion last year – that’s £700 for everyone in the UK.
Lord Ashcroft, Chair of Crimestoppers, points out that fraud isn’t a victimless crime: “Every single one of us is paying higher taxes, bank charges and insurance fees because of fraud.”
Fraud against the public purse accounts for around £27 billion a year, he says. “This is equivalent to 30 per cent of the estimated national education budget for 2011/2012. Think of the many cuts and savings that would not have to occur if we did not suffer this level of fraud.”
■Name unknown: Wanted in connection with the misuse of a debit card and account details in the name of a legitimate customer. £650,000 was transferred out of the customer’s account.
■Nasser Ahmed: wanted for his role in a large scale VAT fraud in the region of £156 million in the Bristol area. He absconded during the trial and was sentenced to 6 years in his absence.
■Timur Mehmet: wanted for his role in a large scale VAT fraud of £25 million. He absconded prior to his trial and was sentenced in his absence to 8 years imprisonment.
■Misba Uddin: wanted for fraud by false representation after he submitted a number of fraudulent mortgage applications totaling £5.7 million pounds whilst working as a financial advisor. Once the mortgages were processed he transferred the funds in to his own accounts.
■Ajayi Seun: Charged with conspiracy to money launder and has failed to sign on at Sutton Police Station in breach of bail. He is believed to have conned mortgage lenders and banks out of more than £12 million.
■Peter Stead: Allegedly tricked several Derby landlords out of money in the summer of 2009. He offered to put on a comedy night to raise money for the Lewis Mighty Fund. He was given cash by landlords to secure the booking but failed to perform. The fund was launched to send four-year-old Lewis, a cancer patient, to America for treatment.
■Mohamad Khan: Responsible for using counterfeit credit cards in order to purchase high value items costing more than £100,000. He was arrested by Police and charged, however, subsequently failed to attend Crown Court. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
Facebook Fraudster
An ID fraudster has gone to jail for 15 months after using his neighbours’ Facebook accounts to work out the answers to their banks’ security questions – and stealing more than £35,000 over two years.
Neighbours targeted
In a fraud the judge described as “well planned, complex and clever”, Iain Wood, 33, targeted people living in the same block of flats as him in Newcastle.
Wood intercepted the mail of other residents. He was caught with other people’s bills, paperwork and even a passport, which he’d taken from neighbours’ post boxes.
Facebook data used
Then he would go online and say he couldn’t remember his password – and when he was asked security questions about date of birth or mother’s maiden name, he would use information he had found on Facebook and Friends Reunited to answer the questions.
When he successfully accessed accounts, he would change the address details, intercept cards and withdraw cash. Most of the accounts he targeted were dormant but he was able to use the overdraft facility without the victim – who never received statements – finding out.
Neighbours targeted
In a fraud the judge described as “well planned, complex and clever”, Iain Wood, 33, targeted people living in the same block of flats as him in Newcastle.
Wood intercepted the mail of other residents. He was caught with other people’s bills, paperwork and even a passport, which he’d taken from neighbours’ post boxes.
Facebook data used
Then he would go online and say he couldn’t remember his password – and when he was asked security questions about date of birth or mother’s maiden name, he would use information he had found on Facebook and Friends Reunited to answer the questions.
When he successfully accessed accounts, he would change the address details, intercept cards and withdraw cash. Most of the accounts he targeted were dormant but he was able to use the overdraft facility without the victim – who never received statements – finding out.
Friday, 26 August 2011
Mitain Conrad - Article
2011 has been an extraordinary year. On one hand the world has seen sequential, ever deepening financial crises such as those in the Euro zone. On the other, across the Middle East, Africa and further afield, serial ‘Arab Springs’ have led to entrenched regimes being toppled by Face Book-fever and Twitter-mania.
Perhaps even more sinister and inexplicable is the way in which the socially corrosive virus of ‘Social Networks’ has been used to prepare, plan and execute mass civil disorder and violence exemplified by the riots in the UK and shape the public consciousness and opinion of private citizens
It doesn’t matter which side of the argument you are on, one thing must be patently obvious to all sides: The speed and efficacy of such activity would not be possible without Social Networks. Even hitherto reliable media outlets feeding the 25 hour news cycle, have opted to report (and believe) the latest postings from “eye witnesses” without ever challenging or researching the veracity of the testimony.
Doubtless the murky depths of Geopolitics and sociology don’t interest or even affect you.
However, the ‘big picture’ blinds us to how individual instances or cases get lost and dismissed in the noise.
We’ve all seen it: A front page, headline news story where a shocking event or person is dissected in graphic detail for the amusement of the masses. A week, a month or even a year or years later, a tiny article appears on page 16 of your favourite newspaper retracting everything that has been said and pointing out the errors of their ways. Nobody notices and even if they do it is certainly not newsworthy and won’t get any coverage.
Meanwhile, lives have been decimated, reputations destroyed and in some cases, the damage done can never be repaired.
Mitain Conrad is not unique, neither is he believed to be a paragon of virtue or a criminal mastermind. He is, however, an example of one of those less newsworthy cases that should be publicised to show how the instant, electronic ‘cloud’ in which we live can confuse and pervert the very people and systems it was set up to benefit.
In Mr Conrad’s case, his identity was stolen. Once stolen it took on a very different life of its own in the hands of one Mr Al Zawari, a convicted, serial fraudster.
Although Mr Al Zawari is now serving a hefty prison term for his actions, Mr Conrad is still locked in the fight of his life to clear his name and convince Institutions and what can only be described as Those Who Live In The Cloud that he is in fact not the guy Mr Al Zawari created to perpetrate his fraud.
In Frederick Forsyth’s eponymous novel, The Day of the Jackal, the assassin went to a graveyard and started inspecting gravestones. He was searching for something. That something has increased in value, at a rate greater than any other commodity, at any time, in the history on mankind.
He eventually pauses and takes out a notebook. He has stopped at the headstone of a young child who died very young but was born in the same year as the assassin. Perfect.
He then goes and enquires for a copy of the child’s birth certificate. Armed with the document and two photographs of himself, taken recently and sporting memorable glasses, he applies for the passport that will prove to be the essential tool needed to perpetrate the masterful crime without leaving a trace. Once finished, the passport burned, the identity of the man with the memorable glasses is as dead as the child entombed in that grave and the true identity of the assassin can never be discovered.
The Day of the Jackal was written in 1971 and the same technique for acquiring false identities is still used successfully today.
Twenty seven years after the supposedly paradigm shifting 1984, H.G.Wells could, if he were still alive, well ponder the prescience of his fiction. Cameras are ubiquitous along with the organs and machines of state to guarantee the 24/7/365 presence of Big Brother.
Far from Utopia or even the dystopial society envisaged by Wells we have sleep-walked into a far more dangerous and unsafe world where the very identity of the individual has been decoupled from the personal identifiers to such a point where it is common place for many people to have several identities in order to anonymously conduct their online affairs.
Along with the ease of outsmarting systems, (devoid of any real-time human supervision in order to achieve these predominantly benign goals) comes the proliferation of identity theft in order to carry out crime on a hitherto unimaginable scale. There is little or no chance of the true identities of the responsible serial recidivists ever being revealed or the real criminals being brought to justice under their real names.
How many times have you felt like tearing the phone from the wall as yet another auto-dialler calls you – Silently – Frequently - Disturbingly like some stalker trying to find out if you are at home or if he can elicit a reaction from you to feed his obsession?
How many times have you checked your credit card statement meticulously searching for anomalies or minor unauthorised transactions?
How many times have you asked a credit reference agency to ask how many times there have been credit status enquiries about you? (You will be horrified if you do.) Your status is now routinely and automatically checked and assessed by everyone from your bank and mortgage company to your cell phone provider to see how much credit – if any - they should advance to you.
Did you know that if you move house, your score goes down as you can no longer say you have been at your current address for more than a year? Likewise if you move to a house where the previous owner had credit problems, you will be down-scored accordingly!
It gets even worse if you have a legitimate dispute with a bank or lending house or even your mobile phone supplier. They will all inform the credit reference agencies of the dispute and if you are in arrears they will record that too.
Have you ever sat down and systematically worked through the implications of somebody actively deciding that they want your identity so badly that they were prepared to break the law and risk long term imprisonment to take it.
Clearly one Mitain Conrad conducted no such exercise. He is now paying a shocking and disturbing price for doing nothing more than being as lazy as the rest of us when it comes to protecting and securing that which is fundamentally essential to our wellbeing, safety and wealth – our identity.
Wednesday dawned in London like any other. Ahead of him lay a visit to a client, a few calls and a cosy evening with his friends.
He had every reason to be content with life. Young, gifted, wealthy and ‘sorted’ He was in the property business and business was very good indeed. At the surprisingly young age of 32 he had already started to reap the rewards that hard work and perseverance could yield. He made no apology for the fact that he looked about 20 and was prepared to take a few risks to get the job done right.
As he poured a cranberry juice and turned up the volume on his expensive HiFi, thousands of miles away and pulling on his tenth cigarette of the day, Mr Al Zawari, a known prolific fraudster picked up the phone on the third ring, looked at the display, answered and said
“Hi. This is Mitain Conrad “.
The fraud was well underway and neither the real Mitain Conrad nor his banks or advisors knew the first thing about it.
This is the story of Mitain Conrad’s horrific experience which started with the wilful and premeditated theft of his identity. Now while reading this, bear in mind just how easy it is for a determined criminal to acquire your identity. A simple but effective trick used by identity thieves and private investigators, including those employed by all the national newspapers, is to remove your household refuse when you put it out for collection. There is a wealth of useful information there. Your name and address with postcode is enough for a basic fraud. If there are bank and credit card statements and other household bills then it is very easy to get credit in your name and so on. The more advanced culprits will refine their research to the point of targeting people who look like a particular individual or themselves, are the same age and ethnicity and who, for example, frequently travel abroad and are therefore less likely to check every item on their statements or even be able to contact their banks and mortgage companies easily.
Mitain Conrad ticked all the boxes as a target for Mr Al Zawari. Mr Al Zawari wasn’t just interested in a credit card or a simple mortgage. His objective was to profit illegally to the tune of over $100m – although even he did not foresee the whole ghastly picture that would unfold as a result of his actions.
Even more chilling is the fact that what happened to Mr Conrad was not the result of a bitter business feud or a personal vendetta. Mr Al Zawari did not even know Mr Conrad and Mr Conrad had never even heard of Mr Al Zawari which would be funny if it were not so tragic.
At one stage and in various articles written about Mr Conrad, he was actually accused of being a co-conspirator with Mr Al Zawari in the audacious, massive, series of frauds that were perpetrated by Mr Al Zawari and his associates and advisors. Mr Al Zawari had used so many aliases it is a wonder he could remember them all.
When your identity is stolen or your credit card is stolen or cloned, the bank normally protects you from the exposure. It is an insured and expected cost of ever more lax procedures employed by banks as they hurtle towards e-banking and internet ‘virtual’ existence in search of increased profits and the ongoing reduction of unreliable humans in the loop.
Thankfully there was no such insurance for Mr Al Zawari aka Martin Conrad or any way to indemnify him against the loss of his liberty, business and dubious character. (See press release)
Sadly for the real Mitain Conrad there were to be terrible consequences. Rather like Kafka’s The Trial, Mr Conrad was never charged with anything, although he willingly went to the police to discuss the whole affair. They viewed him with suspicion – although they could never give any good reason to doubt his good character – other than he shared a fairly common name with the aka of a known and convicted fraudster. (Can you imagine being named Ronald Biggs or Brad Pitt? “Yes, my name is Brad Pitt but not that Brad Pitt etc., etc.)
His life, however, has been decimated by Mr Al Zawari, Big Brother and the British Legal System which, through lack of resource and expertise, have presided over a protracted series of legal battles and disputes where Mr Conrad – the real Mitain Conrad - has sought to distance himself from the man who defrauded his way into his life and the bank accounts and properties of the unwitting
What follows is an abbreviated chronology of the events from the real case history that should act as a warning to us all and a wake up call to the various authorities who have still not got to grips with the prolific use of aliases, a.k.a. and multiple instances of the same name with very different people behind them.
Of course if your name is Smith or Singh or Chang or Archer, Lector or Bobbitt, you will already have an idea of the kind of problems that can happen all too frequently. However, unless your name is very unusual you are not immune to identity duplication, theft or computer error.
The chronology has been pieced together from available information and public records but sounds plausible:
On 5th January 2010 Mr Conrad voluntarily attended a police interview to assist with enquires and hoping to put, what appeared to be a, simple case of mistaken identity to bed.
Instead he was told that they could construe him to be implicated or complicit in Mr Al Zawari’s fraud with they had figured out. They reckoned that the amount involved exceeded $2m and continued to grow as new leads were investigated.
Naturally, Mr Conrad was stunned. There was not one signature, not one action on his part that supported their hypothesis but the wheels of the Orwellian machine were now grinding inexorably to a predefined conclusion: The Police always get their man, justice is served and yes, ok, there will be collateral damage but that’s a price worth paying. So the poor rich kid suffers a little discomfort – big deal.
Well it is a big deal. When the ‘greater good’ is only served at the cost of individual and personal basic rights a better solution must be found.
The problem is that technology now enables communication speeds measured in milliseconds. Advances in Crime Detection and reform in Criminal Justice are measured in years. The news media live in the now - Permanently. There is no analysis or real-time error correction in reporting and yet as soon as an allegation is made or a report published, the statement may as well be set in tablets of stone.
So why is there not public outcry at all this? Well the answer, I would offer, is simple. The people like Mr Conrad who are victims of these failures and injustices tend to be the same people who believe in freedom of speech and Civil Liberties (capitals intended) They know, although they would never openly admit it, that like some of us hardened political analysts have known all along – You can have pretty much anything you want so long as you are prepared to pay the price. Unbridled free speech is not a replacement for truth and informed debate.
Despite what claimed to be well informed reports to the contrary, Mr Conrad had no involvement at all in the properties purchased fraudulently by Mr Al Zawari.
The computers of the powers-that-be could not even discriminate between the real Mr Conrad and the fake alias used by Mr Al Zawari. In addition to the ignominy of a collapsing credit rating and finger pointing, the icing on the cake came in the form of being described as an associate of Mr Al Zawari! Why? Because the fraudster had stolen Mr Conrad’s identity and the computers now linked the names inextricably.
Even after several months of purgatory there were additional questions from the police about Mr Al Zawari, other associates and many transactions. If one was to look at all this now with hindsight and a cold case review one would certainly conclude that this frenzied and protracted investigation indicated a degree of frustration or even desperation on the part of the investigation team. I am assured, however, that was not how it felt at the time.
As someone who was connected to the fraudster Mr Al Zawari, Mr Conrad (and his associates) automatically became suspects or Subjects of Interest as they are known in the job.
As an advisor to a certain high profile client who was working with the fraudsters Mr Conrad was charged with an attempted fraud. As an advisor he provided only verbal advice. He signed no papers, accepted no money and held no Powers of Attorney. However, the police still sought to prosecute. They spent what must amount to millions dragging Mitain Conrad through two court trials and yet matters still remain unresolved.
They had no evidence. There was none to find. They expressed and presented opinions – some of which came from disbarred lawyers and other disreputable characters.
Despite performances worthy of Oscar nominations no facts emerged and no conclusions acquired.
The inference was that as an advisor Mr Conrad must have been complicit in a fraud. It would suggest, uncomfortably but not for the first time, that any solicitor or accountant acting for a client and keeping client confidentiality is guilty as well.
After about a year and a half the original charges have been dropped as it was clear he had nothing to do with them and no evidence existed to suggest otherwise. Other charges remain open. These are for what is described as conspiring with others to commit fraud or straight forward (sic) attempted fraud. Who knows where it will end or if indeed it will ever be resolved to the satisfaction of Mr Conrad.
Here’s a question for the lawyers out there:
If the likes of Trafigura (Toxic Waste dumping in Africa) and innumerable B to Z list celebrities can protect themselves with Super-injunctions, can people like Mr Conrad seek clarity or direction from the High Court or any other to determine ownership and rights over something which disparate and conflicting definition – His identity and his name?
Although the case of Mr Conrad is extreme, there are others that the writer has encountered while writing and researching this analysis.
Check these out. Well on hindsight I think it better I don’t list them, who knows, maybe I might become a target of identify fraudsters!
Perhaps even more sinister and inexplicable is the way in which the socially corrosive virus of ‘Social Networks’ has been used to prepare, plan and execute mass civil disorder and violence exemplified by the riots in the UK and shape the public consciousness and opinion of private citizens
It doesn’t matter which side of the argument you are on, one thing must be patently obvious to all sides: The speed and efficacy of such activity would not be possible without Social Networks. Even hitherto reliable media outlets feeding the 25 hour news cycle, have opted to report (and believe) the latest postings from “eye witnesses” without ever challenging or researching the veracity of the testimony.
Doubtless the murky depths of Geopolitics and sociology don’t interest or even affect you.
However, the ‘big picture’ blinds us to how individual instances or cases get lost and dismissed in the noise.
We’ve all seen it: A front page, headline news story where a shocking event or person is dissected in graphic detail for the amusement of the masses. A week, a month or even a year or years later, a tiny article appears on page 16 of your favourite newspaper retracting everything that has been said and pointing out the errors of their ways. Nobody notices and even if they do it is certainly not newsworthy and won’t get any coverage.
Meanwhile, lives have been decimated, reputations destroyed and in some cases, the damage done can never be repaired.
Mitain Conrad is not unique, neither is he believed to be a paragon of virtue or a criminal mastermind. He is, however, an example of one of those less newsworthy cases that should be publicised to show how the instant, electronic ‘cloud’ in which we live can confuse and pervert the very people and systems it was set up to benefit.
In Mr Conrad’s case, his identity was stolen. Once stolen it took on a very different life of its own in the hands of one Mr Al Zawari, a convicted, serial fraudster.
Although Mr Al Zawari is now serving a hefty prison term for his actions, Mr Conrad is still locked in the fight of his life to clear his name and convince Institutions and what can only be described as Those Who Live In The Cloud that he is in fact not the guy Mr Al Zawari created to perpetrate his fraud.
In Frederick Forsyth’s eponymous novel, The Day of the Jackal, the assassin went to a graveyard and started inspecting gravestones. He was searching for something. That something has increased in value, at a rate greater than any other commodity, at any time, in the history on mankind.
He eventually pauses and takes out a notebook. He has stopped at the headstone of a young child who died very young but was born in the same year as the assassin. Perfect.
He then goes and enquires for a copy of the child’s birth certificate. Armed with the document and two photographs of himself, taken recently and sporting memorable glasses, he applies for the passport that will prove to be the essential tool needed to perpetrate the masterful crime without leaving a trace. Once finished, the passport burned, the identity of the man with the memorable glasses is as dead as the child entombed in that grave and the true identity of the assassin can never be discovered.
The Day of the Jackal was written in 1971 and the same technique for acquiring false identities is still used successfully today.
Twenty seven years after the supposedly paradigm shifting 1984, H.G.Wells could, if he were still alive, well ponder the prescience of his fiction. Cameras are ubiquitous along with the organs and machines of state to guarantee the 24/7/365 presence of Big Brother.
Far from Utopia or even the dystopial society envisaged by Wells we have sleep-walked into a far more dangerous and unsafe world where the very identity of the individual has been decoupled from the personal identifiers to such a point where it is common place for many people to have several identities in order to anonymously conduct their online affairs.
Along with the ease of outsmarting systems, (devoid of any real-time human supervision in order to achieve these predominantly benign goals) comes the proliferation of identity theft in order to carry out crime on a hitherto unimaginable scale. There is little or no chance of the true identities of the responsible serial recidivists ever being revealed or the real criminals being brought to justice under their real names.
How many times have you felt like tearing the phone from the wall as yet another auto-dialler calls you – Silently – Frequently - Disturbingly like some stalker trying to find out if you are at home or if he can elicit a reaction from you to feed his obsession?
How many times have you checked your credit card statement meticulously searching for anomalies or minor unauthorised transactions?
How many times have you asked a credit reference agency to ask how many times there have been credit status enquiries about you? (You will be horrified if you do.) Your status is now routinely and automatically checked and assessed by everyone from your bank and mortgage company to your cell phone provider to see how much credit – if any - they should advance to you.
Did you know that if you move house, your score goes down as you can no longer say you have been at your current address for more than a year? Likewise if you move to a house where the previous owner had credit problems, you will be down-scored accordingly!
It gets even worse if you have a legitimate dispute with a bank or lending house or even your mobile phone supplier. They will all inform the credit reference agencies of the dispute and if you are in arrears they will record that too.
Have you ever sat down and systematically worked through the implications of somebody actively deciding that they want your identity so badly that they were prepared to break the law and risk long term imprisonment to take it.
Clearly one Mitain Conrad conducted no such exercise. He is now paying a shocking and disturbing price for doing nothing more than being as lazy as the rest of us when it comes to protecting and securing that which is fundamentally essential to our wellbeing, safety and wealth – our identity.
Wednesday dawned in London like any other. Ahead of him lay a visit to a client, a few calls and a cosy evening with his friends.
He had every reason to be content with life. Young, gifted, wealthy and ‘sorted’ He was in the property business and business was very good indeed. At the surprisingly young age of 32 he had already started to reap the rewards that hard work and perseverance could yield. He made no apology for the fact that he looked about 20 and was prepared to take a few risks to get the job done right.
As he poured a cranberry juice and turned up the volume on his expensive HiFi, thousands of miles away and pulling on his tenth cigarette of the day, Mr Al Zawari, a known prolific fraudster picked up the phone on the third ring, looked at the display, answered and said
“Hi. This is Mitain Conrad “.
The fraud was well underway and neither the real Mitain Conrad nor his banks or advisors knew the first thing about it.
This is the story of Mitain Conrad’s horrific experience which started with the wilful and premeditated theft of his identity. Now while reading this, bear in mind just how easy it is for a determined criminal to acquire your identity. A simple but effective trick used by identity thieves and private investigators, including those employed by all the national newspapers, is to remove your household refuse when you put it out for collection. There is a wealth of useful information there. Your name and address with postcode is enough for a basic fraud. If there are bank and credit card statements and other household bills then it is very easy to get credit in your name and so on. The more advanced culprits will refine their research to the point of targeting people who look like a particular individual or themselves, are the same age and ethnicity and who, for example, frequently travel abroad and are therefore less likely to check every item on their statements or even be able to contact their banks and mortgage companies easily.
Mitain Conrad ticked all the boxes as a target for Mr Al Zawari. Mr Al Zawari wasn’t just interested in a credit card or a simple mortgage. His objective was to profit illegally to the tune of over $100m – although even he did not foresee the whole ghastly picture that would unfold as a result of his actions.
Even more chilling is the fact that what happened to Mr Conrad was not the result of a bitter business feud or a personal vendetta. Mr Al Zawari did not even know Mr Conrad and Mr Conrad had never even heard of Mr Al Zawari which would be funny if it were not so tragic.
At one stage and in various articles written about Mr Conrad, he was actually accused of being a co-conspirator with Mr Al Zawari in the audacious, massive, series of frauds that were perpetrated by Mr Al Zawari and his associates and advisors. Mr Al Zawari had used so many aliases it is a wonder he could remember them all.
When your identity is stolen or your credit card is stolen or cloned, the bank normally protects you from the exposure. It is an insured and expected cost of ever more lax procedures employed by banks as they hurtle towards e-banking and internet ‘virtual’ existence in search of increased profits and the ongoing reduction of unreliable humans in the loop.
Thankfully there was no such insurance for Mr Al Zawari aka Martin Conrad or any way to indemnify him against the loss of his liberty, business and dubious character. (See press release)
Sadly for the real Mitain Conrad there were to be terrible consequences. Rather like Kafka’s The Trial, Mr Conrad was never charged with anything, although he willingly went to the police to discuss the whole affair. They viewed him with suspicion – although they could never give any good reason to doubt his good character – other than he shared a fairly common name with the aka of a known and convicted fraudster. (Can you imagine being named Ronald Biggs or Brad Pitt? “Yes, my name is Brad Pitt but not that Brad Pitt etc., etc.)
His life, however, has been decimated by Mr Al Zawari, Big Brother and the British Legal System which, through lack of resource and expertise, have presided over a protracted series of legal battles and disputes where Mr Conrad – the real Mitain Conrad - has sought to distance himself from the man who defrauded his way into his life and the bank accounts and properties of the unwitting
What follows is an abbreviated chronology of the events from the real case history that should act as a warning to us all and a wake up call to the various authorities who have still not got to grips with the prolific use of aliases, a.k.a. and multiple instances of the same name with very different people behind them.
Of course if your name is Smith or Singh or Chang or Archer, Lector or Bobbitt, you will already have an idea of the kind of problems that can happen all too frequently. However, unless your name is very unusual you are not immune to identity duplication, theft or computer error.
The chronology has been pieced together from available information and public records but sounds plausible:
On 5th January 2010 Mr Conrad voluntarily attended a police interview to assist with enquires and hoping to put, what appeared to be a, simple case of mistaken identity to bed.
Instead he was told that they could construe him to be implicated or complicit in Mr Al Zawari’s fraud with they had figured out. They reckoned that the amount involved exceeded $2m and continued to grow as new leads were investigated.
Naturally, Mr Conrad was stunned. There was not one signature, not one action on his part that supported their hypothesis but the wheels of the Orwellian machine were now grinding inexorably to a predefined conclusion: The Police always get their man, justice is served and yes, ok, there will be collateral damage but that’s a price worth paying. So the poor rich kid suffers a little discomfort – big deal.
Well it is a big deal. When the ‘greater good’ is only served at the cost of individual and personal basic rights a better solution must be found.
The problem is that technology now enables communication speeds measured in milliseconds. Advances in Crime Detection and reform in Criminal Justice are measured in years. The news media live in the now - Permanently. There is no analysis or real-time error correction in reporting and yet as soon as an allegation is made or a report published, the statement may as well be set in tablets of stone.
So why is there not public outcry at all this? Well the answer, I would offer, is simple. The people like Mr Conrad who are victims of these failures and injustices tend to be the same people who believe in freedom of speech and Civil Liberties (capitals intended) They know, although they would never openly admit it, that like some of us hardened political analysts have known all along – You can have pretty much anything you want so long as you are prepared to pay the price. Unbridled free speech is not a replacement for truth and informed debate.
Despite what claimed to be well informed reports to the contrary, Mr Conrad had no involvement at all in the properties purchased fraudulently by Mr Al Zawari.
The computers of the powers-that-be could not even discriminate between the real Mr Conrad and the fake alias used by Mr Al Zawari. In addition to the ignominy of a collapsing credit rating and finger pointing, the icing on the cake came in the form of being described as an associate of Mr Al Zawari! Why? Because the fraudster had stolen Mr Conrad’s identity and the computers now linked the names inextricably.
Even after several months of purgatory there were additional questions from the police about Mr Al Zawari, other associates and many transactions. If one was to look at all this now with hindsight and a cold case review one would certainly conclude that this frenzied and protracted investigation indicated a degree of frustration or even desperation on the part of the investigation team. I am assured, however, that was not how it felt at the time.
As someone who was connected to the fraudster Mr Al Zawari, Mr Conrad (and his associates) automatically became suspects or Subjects of Interest as they are known in the job.
As an advisor to a certain high profile client who was working with the fraudsters Mr Conrad was charged with an attempted fraud. As an advisor he provided only verbal advice. He signed no papers, accepted no money and held no Powers of Attorney. However, the police still sought to prosecute. They spent what must amount to millions dragging Mitain Conrad through two court trials and yet matters still remain unresolved.
They had no evidence. There was none to find. They expressed and presented opinions – some of which came from disbarred lawyers and other disreputable characters.
Despite performances worthy of Oscar nominations no facts emerged and no conclusions acquired.
The inference was that as an advisor Mr Conrad must have been complicit in a fraud. It would suggest, uncomfortably but not for the first time, that any solicitor or accountant acting for a client and keeping client confidentiality is guilty as well.
After about a year and a half the original charges have been dropped as it was clear he had nothing to do with them and no evidence existed to suggest otherwise. Other charges remain open. These are for what is described as conspiring with others to commit fraud or straight forward (sic) attempted fraud. Who knows where it will end or if indeed it will ever be resolved to the satisfaction of Mr Conrad.
Here’s a question for the lawyers out there:
If the likes of Trafigura (Toxic Waste dumping in Africa) and innumerable B to Z list celebrities can protect themselves with Super-injunctions, can people like Mr Conrad seek clarity or direction from the High Court or any other to determine ownership and rights over something which disparate and conflicting definition – His identity and his name?
Although the case of Mr Conrad is extreme, there are others that the writer has encountered while writing and researching this analysis.
Check these out. Well on hindsight I think it better I don’t list them, who knows, maybe I might become a target of identify fraudsters!
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Monday, 22 August 2011
Ali Al Zarawi - Facing trial for $100million world-wide fraud
Al Zarawi, a man with so many aliases no one truly knows if his current incarnation is how he was born. Whatever name he chooses touse it will be the last time for posibly the next 25 years as he pleads guilty to a plethra of frauds.
With a team of recruits and innocent individuals targeted for their wealth, skills or contacts Al Zarawi manipulated financial systems and orgainsations the world over. Targets in United Kingdom, Australia, Hong Kong, Dubai, Cayman Islands, Switzerland, Mauritius and France to name but a few. Many more unknown or un reported frauds may yet remain forever unknown as victims suffer in silence, most angry and upset others humiliated and ruined.
High profile victims have included Swiss bankers, Cayman Islands top law firm and business men such as Ronald Walden ( Fund Manager) , Adane Bergen ( Industrialist Packaging) and Mitain Conrad ( Advisor and Investor) who was orginally named as part of a £90million U.K fraud attempt.
Al Zawari was engratiating himself in his native homeland of Kuwait with the rich and famous when an egal eyed personal assistant of a well known author spotted a subtle likness to Mitain Conrad. Curious as to the similarities in the stories being given out by Al Zawari a firm of private investigators were hired to verify the claims being made of hotels and banks by Al Zawari. This ultimatly led to his arrest and imprisonment while he await sentancing.
The arrest and prompted speculation that assets running into millions will now be seized and made available to the victims via compensation schemes. Even so the many people queueing up already and filing legal claims of title may have years of waiting ahead on top of the years many have waited to find this man. The compensation rules and processes are highly complex and the network and web created by Al Zawari means that most of the stolen money whilst tracable will be very difficult to obtain.
What is clear is that investigators have only just tapped the tip of the pyramid and a few interesting and revealing months lay ahead for all with an interest in this man.
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