Free Republic

Tax season may be over, but that has not stopped scammers from continuing to pose as IRS officials and making calls threatening jail, deportation and loss of property. Thousands of calls have been made to individuals across the country, including the Chicago and northern Illinois area, with total losses around $1 million. Callers to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) serving Chicago and Northern Illinois say they have been left voicemail messages stating they need to contact the IRS immediately, or they would face legal consequences. Other messages threatened arrest by U.S. Marshals for failure to pay the correct amount of...

The seeming standoff comes as CNN has been under more scrutiny in the past year. While CNN remains a go-to venue when big breaking news takes place, the network has found keeping viewers riveted to its screen a tougher task as competing news outlets have staked out new turf. Fox News Channel regularly wins more viewers than CNN. MSNBC provides competition as well. In the past year, new entrants have tested the waters. Al Jazeera America, while not generating big viewership, has bountiful cash reserves and a hard-news focus. Fusion, a new network backed by ABC and Univision, is experimenting...

We have gotten two recorded messages from Wash. D.C. (Fri. Sat.). They say they are the IRS, not to ignore their message and call this number-----------. The phone number they called from was (202)241-2158. We're afraid to call the number because it might be some kind of scam. We've always paid our taxes in a timely manner with an accountant. Seems like if we were to be audited we would get a letter from our local Seattle IRS office. Has anyone else received such phone calls?

WASHINGTON >> The devastating wildfires scorching Southern California offer a glimpse of a warmer and more fiery future, according to scientists and federal and international reports. In the past three months, at least three different studies and reports have warned that wildfires are getting bigger, that man-made climate change is to blame, and it’s only going to get worse with more fires starting earlier in the year. While scientists are reluctant to blame global warming for any specific fire, they have been warning for years about how it will lead to more fires and earlier fire seasons.

LUGANSK, May 12. /ITAR-TASS/. Luhansk People’s Republic, whose residents supported the act on state sovereignty at the May 11 referendum, has declared its independence from Ukraine. 96.2% vote for independence of Luhansk region in May 11 referendum ‘Popular governor’ Valery Bolotov stated this at a rally on Monday. “We have chosen our path of independence from arbitrariness and bloody dictate of the Kiev clique, fascism and nationalism, the path of freedom, the path of rule of law,” Bolotov said. “From the moment of declaring its independence, a new life free from dictate of Kiev authorities will start for the Luhansk...

Smith Electric was the future of the UK. Then it was the future of America. Now maybe it can be the future of Zimbabwe or Syria. Or some other sucker country.The Obama economy would look a lot like the Soviet economy if instead of building non-working third rate versions of Western technologies, the USSR had spent all its time trying to make a car that runs on dreams and pixie dust.Say what you will about the Lada, but at least they managed to make more than 500 of them.Smith had a long strange and troubled history and essentially we...

I received the following email from Bank of America this afternoon: Dear valued customer, During our usual security enhancement protocol, we observed multiple login attempt error while login in to your online banking account. We have believed that someone other than you is trying to access your account for security reasons, we have temporarily suspend your account and your access to online banking and will be restricted if you fail to update. Click here to start the confirmation process Please Note: Always look for your Security Image and Phrase® before entering your Password. Remember, Bank of America is committed to...

Early in the morning, while most are still sleeping, groups of elderly Chinese women spread out across city streets. They tear open trash bags, pick through the litter and sort out bottles and cans that come with a deposit. And then they bring them to the local supermarket to a machine that scans and evaluates each can, accepting and rejecting them one by one, and finally printing out a receipt. The interaction between the elderly immigrant who speaks broken English or the homeless man who is barely holding it together... and the machine is a stark contrast between what the...

... Miller’s account of Hubbard’s life was so devastating that Scientology tried to have his book banned. “Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard,” finished the year after Hubbard’s 1986 death, was successfully printed everywhere but in the US, where, after two years of litigation, Miller’s American publisher threw in the towel.... Scientology’s early books made much of the fact that Hubbard had become one of the nation’s earliest nuclear physicists and was a medical doctor. Miller demonstrated that neither was true. Hubbard’s college records showed that he’d failed the only class he took in nuclear physics and...

The Israeli - Palestinian "peace process" scam is finally producing results.There's little worthy of serious note vis a vis the Kerry - Obama  "peace process" for Israel and the Palestinians, beyond its likely failure because key Palestinian leaders are far more dedicated to eliminating Israel than to having peace with her. Nevertheless, and however low it may be in newsworthiness rankings, the principal (if not only) Palestinian "peace process partner," the Palestinian Authority, has inadvertently helped to augment the volume of my spam e-mail. Here's a sad plea for help I received today (Warning: as with any spam e-mail, it's best not to click on the links this one contains): Sallam  Aleikum. I am Mrs....

A lot of times when someone gets a hold of someone’s credit or debit card info and decides to use it for illicit purposes, the ID thief makes as many charges as possible in a short period of time. But some scammers choose to chisel away at victims’ accounts in the hopes that the crime will go unnoticed.

It can be bought on the Internet in flavors like chocolate and bubble gum—and just a teaspoon could kill a child: The New York Times takes a look at liquid nicotine, the e-liquid used in e-cigarettes, which it describes as a "powerful neurotoxin ... far more dangerous than tobacco." And with good reason: Reports of accidental liquid nicotine poisonings rose 300% from 2012 to 1,351 cases last year, with 2014's figure expected to be double that. The victims, many children under the age of four, can experience vomiting and seizures after being exposed to even a modest amount orally or...

The Internal Revenue Service’s watchdog warned taxpayers Thursday about a sophisticated nationwide phone scheme that it said is “the largest scam of its kind” it has seen. The scheme involves callers claiming to represent the IRS and demanding immediate payments with a prepaid debit card or wire transfer, the watchdog said. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration Russell George said that “thousands of victims” have paid more than $1 million to fraudsters and that his agency has received more than 20,000 reports of contact.

I received this email today and immediately called American Express. They said that my account was in good standing and that they did not see any problem. They did not say whether they sent the email, but the woman said that she didn't see any problem with the account. This is the email: Dear American Express Member Because of unusual number of invalid login attempts on you account, we had to believe that, there might be some security problems on you account. So we have decided to put an extra verification process to ensure your identity and your account security....

Former HUD-OIG Special Agent In Charge Indicted on Mortgage Fraud Charges Herschell Harvell, Jr., 53, Conyers, Georgia, made his initial appearance in federal court on charges of making false statements to a bank to obtain a mortgage loan and conspiring to obstruct an investigation into his real estate transactions by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General (HUD-OIG). Until he was terminated in 2013, Harvell was the Special Agent in Charge of HUD-OIG’s Atlanta office, which encompasses several southeastern states. Harvell’s co-defendant and nephew, Tavus A. Wright, 32, Milledgeville, Georgia, also made his initial appearance...

March 3, 2014 3:45PM As we predicted/requested on Friday, The Tulving Company has gone out of business, as of Monday morning. They are no longer answering their phones, and we have reliable information confirming that they are ceasing operations. This page will be updated as more information comes in. There is a lot of information on our old page about The Tulving Company. We hope to update this page with information about what will happen next. At this point, our best guess is that The Tulving Company will file for bankruptcy. Unfortunately, we believe that there will be little in...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the first time on Friday used its authority under a 2009 law to remove cigarettes from stores.The FDA is forcing Jash International to stop selling and distributing its line of Sutra Bidi tobacco products in the U.S., and is giving retailers 30 days to pull the products from shelves. ADVERTISEMENT “Existing inventory may be subject to enforcement action, including seizure, without further notice,” the FDA said in a release. “Companies that continue to sell and distribute these products in the United States may be subject to enforcement actions by the FDA.”The FDA said...

Question: If Obamacare officials cannot prevent accused embezzlers from infiltrating their offices, how can they protect enrollees from grifters, con artists and thieves in the federal health insurance exchange system? Here in my home state, a director of Connect for Health Colorado -- the state-sponsored Obamacare health insurance exchange -- was just put on administrative leave. No, Christa Ann McClure did not go on leave over the chronic problems plaguing the cursed Connect for Health website. She's on leave because she has been indicted for filching funds from her last employer in Montana. No, the guardians of Obamacare didn't smoke...

A group of Democrats are urging Walmart to follow CVS Caremark and discontinue selling tobacco products. The seven Democrats said Walmart, the nation’s biggest retailer, is also the nation’s biggest seller of cigarettes. “We recognize the legality of selling and profiting from tobacco products; however, Walmart’s position as the nation’s largest retailer of any kind puts your company in a unique position to contribute to the health and well-being of all Americans<” the Democrats said in a letter to the company. The letter’s signatories included Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the number two Democrat in the Senate. The letter stats that...

John Podesta, the former Clinton Administration chief of staff who is spearheading President Barack Obama’s aggressive strategy of government-by-regulation, has also been helping United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with an even more ambitious job: setting the stage to radically transform the world’s economic, environmental and social agenda.