Graceland Scammer May Be “Dancin’ to the Jailhouse Rock”

A Missouri woman faces federal charges for trying to steal the ownership of Graceland, the ancestral home of Elvis Presley, and defraud the late rock star’s family out of millions of dollars. Lisa Jeanine Findley, 53, was arrested in August for mail fraud and aggravated identity theft in a scheme that could bring penalties of more than 20 years in prison.

According to the criminal complaint filed in the Western District of Tennessee, Findley tried to conduct a fraudulent sale of Graceland, which she did not own, claiming untruthfully that Presley’s daughter (Lisa Marie Presley) had put up the property as collateral for a loan provided by the defendant. Lisa Marie Presley died last year. Her daughter Riley Keough – Elvis’s granddaughter – is the surviving owner of the iconic property.

Graceland, a 23-room mansion with Corinthian white columns and a limestone exterior on 14 sprawling acres in Memphis, became a major tourist attraction following Elvis’s death in 1977.

“As a Memphian, I know that Graceland is a national treasure,” said US Attorney Kevin G. Ritz for the Western District of Tennessee. “This defendant allegedly used a brazen scheme to try to defraud the Presley family of their interest in this singularly important landmark. Of course, all homeowners deserve to have their property protected from fraud, and the Department of Justice will vigorously prosecute anyone who commits financial crimes or identity theft.”

FBI Announces “Take a Beat” Campaign to Fight Scams

As cyberfraud and data breaches continue to make headlines, the FBI has launched a major initiative to raise public awareness about the danger of scams. The bureau’s “Take a Beat” campaign, announced on August 19, seeks to educate Americans about various types of frauds, how to spot them, and to encourage individuals to contact law enforcement if they know of problems.

A basic message of the campaign is that if your gut tells you something about a transaction might be improper, you should “take a beat” and pause to assess matters, while resisting pressure to finish the deal.

“Fraud remains one of the most devastating violations the FBI works due to number of victims and the number of losses,” said Michael D. Nordwall, Executive Assistant Director of the FBI’s Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch. ”In addition to the immediate financial harm, victims can experience other harm to include emotional and sometimes physical.”

Increasingly, criminals go online to perpetrate frauds such as identity theft. In the first five months of 2024, victims lost $1.6 billion to a variety of online and internet-related frauds – $300 million more than was lost in the same time period in 2023, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.

The “Take a Beat campaign” encourages individuals to step forward and talk to loved ones if they have been victimized or suspect something improper is taking place. In addition, consistent with FBI recommendations:

• Safeguard financial accounts. If you believe you have been targeted by a scammer, contact the affected financial institutions to let them know and, if possible, ask for extra protection on that account.
• Monitor for suspicious activity.  EverSafe members can monitor for suspicious activity occurring in one particular financial account as well as activity that occurs across more than one account (i.e. checking, savings, investment, credit cards).
• Know who you are dealing with. Confirm a source’s identity by searching online for their contact information – including name, phone number, and email – if someone contacts you with an unsolicited offer.
• When in doubt, avoid action. Never provide your personal data or make payments to individuals (including cash, checks, gift cards, or wire transfers) if you are not certain a request or transaction is legitimate.
• Be wary of unexpected requests. Warning signs of a scam include unsolicited phone calls or mailings, and door-to-door visits in which a stranger seeks personal data or upfront payment for a service you have not sought.

For more information about scams and the latest trends, including online frauds, you can click on fbi.gov/scams.

Hey Swifties: Those Facebook Concert Tickets Aren’t Real

Your daughter has been desperate to go to a Taylor Swift concert. You haven’t paid much attention – until you read a post from a “friend” on Facebook.

“Hey There, Swifties! My Cousin Has 4 Taylor Swift Tickets For Sale At Face Value. We’re Trying To Avoid Selling To Scalpers and Help Out A Fellow Swiftie,” it says.

You decide in a split second to buy the tickets with a payment app. Unfortunately, it isn’t really your friend who is selling them. Her account has been hacked by a scammer. And you have lost hundreds of dollars.

One Chicago woman whose account was hacked was shocked to find a stranger at her doorstep earlier this year, demanding her concert tickets, according to NBC Chicago. A New York woman thought she talking to her aunt on Facebook until she asked for the ticket money though an app. That’s when she called her aunt and realized her accounts had been hacked.

A woman in Florida dished out $800 for Eras Tour tickets before taking the time to investigate whether the account she was dealing with was real. “I was so afraid the tickets would be gone that I didn’t take better steps,” she wrote on Facebook.

The Facebook concert ticket scam has been reported worldwide. The British Broadcasting Company reported that more than $1 million had been lost on fraudulent Taylor Swift concert tickets, with 90 percent of them originating on Facebook.

New Jersey police warn that “once you electronically pay for the tickets via Venmo or another mobile payment service, the scammers take the money and disappear by deleting their accounts.” It is safer to pay for tickets by credit card, where there is usually more protection for your purchase.

In any case, never buy concert tickets that you hear about on Facebook without independently confirming that it is a legitimate offer. If an account appears to be from a friend, reach out to them by phone or at a reliable email address outside of Facebook to make sure you will get what you are paying for.