Your weekly ScamWatch

PENNIES CAN BE EXPENSIVE ? The Better Business Bureau is warning consumers to be cautious with so-called penny auction websites, which advertise electronic products such as Apple iPads at bargain prices. Many people have complained about being charged fees as high as $150 after signing up for what was promoted as a free trial, the BBB said in a recent bulletin. Other customers have alleged that the sites use computer-programmed bots to place fake bids that drive up prices. The customers who?ve complained to the BBB also said they?d been unable to obtain refunds, the bulletin said.

BLACKJACK WINNINGS ? Three people who allegedly used marked cards to cheat a Central California casino out of $24,000 in half an hour have been charged criminally, Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said in a news release. A casino floor supervisor allegedly gave the marked cards to a dealer July 12 at the Turlock Poker Room in Turlock, Brown said. Because the markings revealed the value of the cards before they were dealt, a player was able to make some extraordinary decisions ? such as hitting on 17 or standing on 11 ? the attorney general said. Employees became suspicious because of the unusual play and reported it to state officials. The three suspects each face a maximum sentence of three years, eight months in prison.

MORTGAGE LOSSES ? An Irvine attorney has been indicted in an alleged mortgage fraud scheme, accused of misleading banks into believing that he or others would be living in homes that had been purchased at inflated prices. Gerald L. Wolfe was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney?s office in Los Angeles. The scheme involved the purchase of 30 homes and cost banks more than $2 million, Mrozek said. Most of the homes went into foreclosure. Wolfe could not be reached for comment.

INSIDER TRADING ? A former hedge fund manager has been convicted of using inside information to make more than $7 million in profit from illegal trades. A federal jury in Manhattan convicted Joseph Contorinis of conspiracy and securities fraud for making trades based on non-public information, received from an investment banker, about mergers and acquisitions of public companies. Contorinis is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 4.

--?Stuart Pfeifer