Damn!
I read that hoping Blunkett had finally been put away.
An identity thief who fraudulently claimed more than £1.3m in tax credits under false names has been imprisoned for eight-and-a-half years. Olaide (John) Taiwo, 35, a security guard from Camberwell, South East London, who was earlier found guilty of conspiracy to commit tax credit fraud and acquiring criminal property, was …
Dear trusted friend,
We are being experiencing legal troubles in sending your $4,000,000 remunerations to your banking address.
Please send fraud lawyers as urgency to expedite your swift payments
Trust in God we shall prevail
Your trusted friends
Olaide Taiwo and Olajumoke Ademuyiwa
Honest people have so much difficulty even opening bank accounts (especially if they've been hit by financial downturn and had some cashflow hiccups) yet all these criminals seem to be able to get as many accounts as they want at a drop of a hat?
It's quite clear that being suitable for a bank account goes no further than 'can we make some money out of this', whether legitimate or not they don't care. No better than those doing the thieving really.
"... to anyone considering committing this type of fraud"
Does *anyone* really believe this sort of bollocks?
People commit this sort of fraud because they think they can get away with it, if they didn't, they wouldn't do it. They don't give a toss about any potential sentence they may get.
But, as usual, the people who *actually* get away scot free are the ones who had such lax security measures in place that the fraud could happen in the first place!
I presume the scam was in finding those entitled and applying for that money without those entitled ever knowing.
If innocent people don't claim what they are entitled to then (although not my view) it's tough-titty; they'd lost their money no matter who ended up with it, treasury or criminal.
The bigger crime is the government's failure to ensure that people entitled do get what they are entitled to automatically. They know exactly what everyone honest earns but keep schtum when there's money they could claim; a different story when it's people who owe them tax etc.
But who expects the government to actually serve the people rather than itself?