A Saturday auction of some of the belongings of Bernard and Ruth Madoff pulled in about double what auctioneers had hoped, and far more than the estimated value of the goods, auctioneers said. The total was about $1 million.

There are many who, without health insurance, cannot afford to pay for their own breast cancer treatments. 24-year-old Trista Joy Lathern was such a person, she said. Too bad that the whole thing was just a scam.

Jeffry Picower, a millionaire philanthropist and Bernie Madoff friend, who made millions from the Madoff investment scheme, has been found at the bottom of his swimming pool in Palm Beach. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital. Picower was 67.

Brainetics scam is rising to the top of the search engines and Google trends today. Last year, Mike Byster created the popular Brainetics educational system that teaches math and memory skills. It was
quickly awarded a 2008 Parents' Choice Gold Award but now the rumor on several blogs and social networks is that Brainetics is a scam.

The more popular something is, the more people want to use it as a way to scam people. An example would be the recent swine flu related spam attacks, and these are phishing scams that sends Facebook users to fake login sites (today fbstarter.com, yesterday fbaction.net).

It was revealed Tuesday that Bernie Madoff, who perpetrated one of the largest frauds in history, will plead guilty on Thursday to securities fraud, perjury and other crimes. He could face, though unfortunately no serve, up to 150 years in prison.

The U.S. Attorney's office suggested in a brief court filing on Friday that Bernie Madoff is ready to waive a formal grand jury review (an indictment). Usually that sort of language is used when a plea deal is close.

A retired British Army major has killed himself after losing his life savings to the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme.

Many have seen their retirement savings dry up as the stock market has dropped precipitously in the recession. But there are also those who were victims of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme who lost everything. And one such California resident has had to return to work, at age 90.

Marcus Schrenker, was, or is, an Indiana businessman whose financial management companies, Heritage Wealth Management Inc., Heritage Insurance Services Inc. and Icon Wealth Management, were under investigation. Now it appears he apparently bailed out of his small plane and let it crash in what may have been an attempt to fake his own death.

Six weeks after public health authorities on the Caribbean island of Curaçao (Netherlands Antilles) impounded the Scientology cult's 440-foot luxury liner "Freewinds," the ship remains locked down. Experts advise that decontaminating the ship would cost millions of dollars and may not even be possible. Meanwhile, the cult continues to solicit funds for cruises that will not happen.

Court documents reveal that Royal Dutch Shell premium brand motor oil, Pennzoil-Quaker State, is mired in another false advertising scandal.