All posts tagged: Scamming

Carl Rinsch sentenced to prison after scamming Netflix out of millions

Carl Rinsch sentenced to prison after scamming Netflix out of millions

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Carl Rinsch has been sentenced to more than two years in prison for scamming Netflix out of $11m (£8.2m) despite Keanu Reeves writing a letter asking a judge for leniency. Rinsch, 48, was found guilty of wire fraud and money laundering in December 2025 after appearing to squander millions of dollars given to him by Netflix in 2018 to make a 12-episode series titled White Horse, later renamed Conquest. Matrix actor Reeves, who worked with Rinsch on fantasy flop 47 Ronin (2013), wrote a letter to the judge last month saying that, while he “did not know the details” of the case, he hoped that his sentence “might be tempered with measures of leniency and mercy as well as justice”. Carl Rinsch was sentenced to two and a hald years in jail for defrauding Netflix (AP) However, on Monday (29 June), …

How ‘cruel’ friendship fraudsters are scamming older people | UK News

How ‘cruel’ friendship fraudsters are scamming older people | UK News

Published by skeptic

Older and vulnerable people are being targeted by “cruel” friendship fraudsters online, one of the UK’s biggest banks has warned. TSB said criminals are preying on people’s loneliness and desire to make a connection. People often make just one payment in such scams, but in one case, 60 payments had been made over four years, the bank said. In this case, a customer in their late 60s was contacted on a message board, where the scammer posed as a young person looking to flee an abusive family and needing financial help. The relationship spanned four years before it was reported. Image: Criminals are preying on lonely older people. File image: iStock In another case, a customer in their late 70s lost more than £4,000 after being targeted on social media. After forming a friendship, the individual said they were unwell and urgently required help with medical bills. As a result, the customer sent a series of payments and gift cards, before contact fizzled out and they realised it was fraud. In a third case, a …

Meta Ramps Up Efforts to Disrupt Industrialized Scamming

Meta Ramps Up Efforts to Disrupt Industrialized Scamming

Published by skeptic

With organized, industrial-scale scamming causing a multibillion-dollar crisis around the world, Meta announced new account protections on Wednesday aimed at flagging potentially suspicious activity to users as early in a scam interaction as possible. The company also shared details about a recent Thai law enforcement collaboration that resulted in 21 arrests and Meta disabling over 150,000 user accounts associated with Southeast Asian scam compounds. The disruptive action—a joint effort of the Royal Thai Police, the FBI, the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency, the Australian Federal Police, and other law enforcement agencies—focused on alleged scammers targeting victims in numerous countries, including the US and UK as well as multiple Asian and Pacific region countries. The account protections Meta debuted on Wednesday include expanding its Messenger scam detection features for more users around the world, introducing warnings about potentially suspicious activity when a user is initiating a new WhatsApp device link, and testing new Facebook alerts to flag potentially suspicious friend requests. “Transnational scam syndicates continue to exploit digital platforms and operate across multiple jurisdictions,” Gregory Kang, …