Everyone is affected by credit card fraud, if they are aware of it or not. Every day there are a variety of ways that scams and fraudsters can get your card and personal information. Today so much business occurs over the Internet or via the phone where no card is present. What can start as a seemingly legitimate purchase can easily turn into fraudulent charges - or worse, sometimes a physical confrontation, when a criminal steals a credit card from a consumer who meets to pick up a product or receive a service. In Preventing Credit Card Fraud, Jen Grondahl Lee and Gini Graham Scott provide a helpful guide to protecting yourself against the threat of credit card fraud. While it may not be possible to protect yourself against all fraudsters, who have turned scamming Internet businesses into an art, these tips and techniques will help you avoid many frauds. As a growing concern in today's world, there is a need to be better informed of what you can do to keep your personal information secure and avoid becoming a victim of credit card fraud. Preventing Credit Card Fraud is an important resource for both merchants and consumers engaged in online purchases and sales to defend themselves against fraud.

In the mid-1970s, there were a series of gangland murders, committed by unknown killers, often wielding .22-caliber revolvers. At first these murders seemed unconnected, but law enforcement started noticing links to organized crime and by 1978, federal authorities were involved in the investigations. The FBI compiled a list of 25 gangland figures killed, from potential witnesses and low-level associates, to made men. All shot with a .22 between 1975 and 1978, all from the same batch of guns purchased in Florida, some even the same weapon. The main suspects were members of the East Harlem Purple Gang. Starting on the fringes they quickly became a violent offshoot syndicate of the Mafia, some even became high-ranking members of the Genovese, Bonanno, and Lucchese families. Often serving as freelance hitmen, kidnappers, and drug traffickers, their exploits quickly crossed into mythology. The Purple Gang became an almost obsession with the media. Accounts of the Gang's activities popped up in the newspapers across the country in the late 1970s. They were the shadow army of the underworld and every law enforcement agency's favorite suspect. They were accused of being behind all the major mob hits through the early 1980s and became the ultimate boogeyman in the era of mob upheaval and a flailing New York City mired in crime and financial woes. Digging through the mystery and mythos, Scott Deitche brings the gritty City of the late 1970s and early 1980s back to life in this in-depth account of the Purple Gang, the real members, their operations, and where some of the major players are today.

During the 1990's Boston was a world leader in arts, culture, higher education, and medicine. It was also a world leader in organized crime. In this exciting account, former FBI supervisory special agent David Nadolski tells the story of an unlikely alliance between two diametrically opposed people-the con and the FBI agent. While investigating a break-in at the Stone Library in Quincy, MA that houses the personal book collection of John Quincy Adams, the FBI gets a call from prison inmate, Anthony (Tony) Romano, requesting to meet with the case agent on the burglary. Romano provides a helpful tip that leads to the apprehension of the thief and the recovery of four priceless, historically significant books. Recognizing Tony's potential as an informant, Nadolski begins to cultivate a relationship in hopes of recruiting Romano as a criminal informant. Nadolski recruits Romano to play a very dangerous game-infiltrate the Merlino gang, controlled by Carmello Merlino, a career criminal who specialized in bank robberies, armored car robberies, and home invasions. The Merlino gang also became suspects in the largest art theft in history which took place at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum in Boston and remains unsolved to this day. Romano, a former armed robber, agrees. With sights set on the Loomis Fargo Armored Car Company money vault, located south of Boston, the Merlino gang gets to work. Little did they know, Romano, at great personal risk, was a wearing a wire and recording their planning sessions. After two years of being joined at the hip and learning to trust each other unconditionally, special agent Nadolski and Romano run a successful criminal investigation and undercover sting operation to catch four dangerous criminals poised to launch one of the biggest armed robberies of the twentieth century.

Environmental crime is arguably the most vital and destructive crime of the 21st century, especially in the light of climate change and shifts in social, economic and ecological circumstances that will accompany global warming. The author takes an excitingly broad and refreshing approach to environmental crime and investigates a variety of topics including illegal fishing, poaching, wildlife crimes, animal abuse, climate change and ecocide as well as crimes related to waste, energy and contamination.

When Maximilian Potter went to Burgundy to report for Vanity Fair on a crime that could have destroyed the Domaine de la Romanee Conti-the tiny, storied vineyard that produces the most expensive, exquisite wines in the world-he soon found a story that was much larger, and more thrilling, than he had originally imagined. In January 2010, Aubert de Villaine, the famed proprietor of the DRC, received an anonymous note threatening the destruction of his priceless vines by poison-a crime that in the world of high-end wine is akin to murder-unless he paid a one million euro ransom. Villaine believed it to be a sick joke, but that proved a fatal miscalculation; the crime was committed and shocked this fabled region of France. The sinister story that Potter uncovered would lead to a sting operation by top Paris detectives, the primary suspect's suicide, and a dramatic trial. This botanical crime threatened to destroy the fiercely traditional culture surrounding the world's greatest wine. Like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, SHADOW IN THE VINEYARD takes us deep into a captivating world full of fascinating characters, small town French politics, an unforgettable narrative, and a local culture defined by the twinned veins of excess and vitality and the deep reverent attention to the land that run through it.

When news of Sir Harry Oakes' murder in the Bahamas broke to the world on the morning of July 8,1943, one man was more concerned than most. He was the Duke of Windsor, then Governor of the British colony, whose job it was to ensure that the killer was caught and brought to justice. However, the Duke's actions in the aftermath of the 20th. century's greatest murder mystery raised more questions than answers, and cast doubt on his own intentions in calling in two Miami investigators of dubious worth. Was the Duke a conspirator in a gigantic cover-up? Did he try to excecute an innocent man in an attempt to protect himself and his friends? In this compelling tale, John Marquis presents an alternative view to the one generally accepted in the Bahamas, which is that the Duke was a bungler who mishandled the case. He believes the evidence strongly suggests that the Duke was a plotter with something to hide, and a cruel mission to condemn an innocent man. More than 60 years later, the story retains the power to mesmerise all those with a taste for intrigue in high places at a time when the western world faced its greatest peril. It is an electrifying tale of high society chicanery in a tropical paradise during wartime, with the hangman's noose providing a grusome backdrop. As a murder mystery, Blood and Fire has everything...

On the afternoon of August 19, 1997, John Harrigan-owner and publisher of the News and Sentinel newspaper in Colebrook, New Hampshire-arrived at his building to find the woman he loved lying dead in the parking lot. Lawyer Vickie Bunnell had been shot and killed by an itinerant carpenter wielding an assault rifle. By then, three more people were already dead or dying. More mayhem was to ensue in an afternoon of plot twists too improbable for a novel. The roots of the incident stretch back twenty-five years, with tendrils deep in the history of New England's North Country. These bloody events shocked America and made headlines across the world. Hundreds of local citizens became unwilling players in the drama-friends and colleagues of the dead, men and women who were themselves real or potential targets, along with their neighbors in law enforcement-but the town and its inhabitants were never passive victims. From the first shot fired that day, they remained courageously determined to survive. This is the story of that town, those people, and that day. In the Evil Day is a moving portrait of small-town life and familiar characters forever changed by sudden violence.

Over 13 months in 1976 -1977, four children were abducted in the Detroit suburbs, each of them held for days before their still-warm bodies were dumped in the snow near public roadsides. The Oakland County Child Murders spawned panic across southeast Michigan, triggering the most extensive manhunt in U.S. history. Yet after less than two years, the task force created to find the killer was shut down without naming a suspect. The case "went cold" for more than 30 years, until a chance discovery by one victim's family pointed to the son of a wealthy General Motors executive: Christopher Brian Busch, a four-time convicted pedophile, was freed weeks before the fourth child disappeared. Veteran Detroit News reporter Marney Rich Keenan takes the reader inside the investigation of the still-unsolved murders-seen through the eyes of the lead detective in the case and the family who cracked it open-revealing evidence of a decades-long coverup of misfeasance and obstruction that averted justice for the victims.

"A riveting account of what it was like to defend one of the most notorious serial killers in history"-Seattle Post Intelligencer "Sam, could you do me a favor?" Thus begins a story that has now become part of America's true crime hall of fame. It is a gory, grotesque tale befitting a Stephen King novel. It is also a David and Goliath saga-the story of a young lawyer fresh from the Public Defender's Office whose first client in private practice turns out to be the worst serial killer in our nation's history. Sam Amirante had just opened his first law practice when he got a phone call from his friend John Wayne Gacy, a well-known and well-liked community figure. Gacy was upset about what he called "police harassment" and asked Amirante for help. With the police following his every move in connection with the disappearance of a local teenager, Gacy eventually gave a drunken, dramatic, early morning confession-to his new lawyer. Gacy was eventually charged with murder and Amirante suddenly became the defense attorney for one of American's most disturbing serial killers. It was his first case. This new edition of John Wayne Gacy, which contains updated material about the case that has come to light since the book's original publication, recounts the gruesome killings and the famous trial that shocked a nation.

His name conjures images of the Wild West, of gunfights and gambling halls and a legendary friendship with the lawman Wyatt Earp, and he is probably most famous for his time in Tombstone. But Doc Holliday's story is a much richer than that one sentence summary allows. His was a life of travel across the west-from Georgia to Texas, from Dodge City to Las Vegas, across Arizona and from New Mexico to Colorado and Montana. Revealed from contemporary newspaper accounts and records of interviews with Doc himself and the people who knew him, The World of Doc Holliday offers a real first-hand accounting of his life of adventure.

Detectives and CSI crews may work for weeks, months, sometimes years searching and piecing together forensic evidence to find the vital clues in solving a crime. With the use of planetary positions, houses, fixed stars and Arabic parts, forensic astrology gives investigators a head-start in discovering valuable information that can hasten crime solving.

In "Forensics by the Stars," author B. D. Salerno, an astrologer for more than twenty years, provides insight into the fascinating world of solving crimes and understanding both natural and manmade disasters by applying astrological science to interpreting event charts and revealing the clues they contain.

Providing interesting insights, "Forensics by the Stars" analyzes the murder of Marilyn Monroe, the Lindbergh kidnapping, several missing persons cases, and a number of natural and manmade disasters. Salerno explains how to interpret the event horoscopes and astrologic charts to help understand the outcome of certain events. Like threads of carpeting, blood spatter, or fingerprints, forensic astrology can reveal an astonishing amount of detail about an event.

When Hissene Habre, the deposed dictator of Chad, was found guilty of crimes against humanity in 2016, it was described as 'a watershed for human rights justice in Africa and beyond'. For the first time, an African war criminal had been convicted on African soil. Having followed the trial from the very beginning and interviewed many of those involved, journalist Celeste Hicks tells the remarkable story of how Habre was brought to justice. His conviction followed a heroic 25 year campaign by activists and survivors of Habre's atrocities, which succeeded despite international indifference, opposition from Habre's allies, and several failed attempts to bring him to trial in Europe and elsewhere. In the face of such overwhelming odds, the conviction of a once untouchable tyrant represents a major turning point, with profound implications for African justice and the future of human rights activism globally.

After college, Martin Sommerville joined the Royal Marines; Great Britain's premier naval force. During the Falkland Islands War with Argentina, he was a lieutenant, assigned to naval intelligence. When the War was over he returned to England to start a career as a ship designer.

Some time later, at the urging of his mentor, he packed up and left for greener pastures. First he journeyed to the United States. While there he worked as a designer, and met his fi ancee, Betsy Kilmer. Sadly, Betsy was killed in an auto accident 3 weeks before their wedding. Grief stricken, he left the States for employment in the shipyards of China and Russia. Several years later he returned to England.

Once back in the U.K. he meets a new love, Dr. Cybil Simpson, M.D. She and her Father thrust him into an unexpected career as a university teacher, and an agent for the secretive MI 5.

In his newly found occupation he is assigned to a terrorism investigative unit, and given the code name 'The Sparrow.' In this capacity, he and his new paramour, 'The Wren, ' fi t well together, always seeming to know what the other is thinking. Using this unusual gift, they soon become an indispensable force within MI 5.

From an author praised by the Wall Street Journal for his "eye for a good story" comes an account of the Herbert Fuller tragedy of 1896, a tragedy that occurred on the high seas and involved the senseless slaughter of three of the twelve souls on board. Stunned by this act of random violence, and in sure knowledge that one or more of their own was the murderer, the living turn the vessel to shore, 750 miles distant. In the nightmarish days and nights of suspense that follow, first one and then another of the remaining nine is seized by others as the culprit. Upon reaching port, however, all are under suspicion--until the man most likely to have committed the act is, for reasons having to do with race, exonerated and the man most likely to be innocent, prosecuted. At the center of this gripping and gruesome story is the first mate, Thomas Bram, whose subsequent murder trials became as widely followed by the press and public as was the famous trial of Lizzie Borden just a few years before. Unlike the Borden case, remembered today in books, movies, and children's rhymes, the Bram case was almost lost to the collective memory. Fortunately, C. Michael Hiam, in the manner of Erik Larson, now brings it to life.

Small time heists. Failed robberies. Runs of bad luck. Payback. Love gone wrong. Drink, drugs and late-night assignations. Cops doing their job well. And badly. Plausible lies, unlikely truths. Murder and misadventure. In Suburban Noir, Peter Doyle - author of City of Shadows and Crooks Like Us - explores the everyday crime and catastrophe that went on in the fibro and brick veneers, the backyards, bedrooms, vacant lots and pokie palaces of 1950s and 1960s suburbia. Extensive research into forensic archives, public records and the private papers of the late Brian Doyle (1960s detective, later assistant commissioner of police, and Peter Doyle's uncle) also reveals important new information about two of the most famous crimes in Australian history - the Kingsgrove Slasher case and the Graeme Thorne kidnap-murder.

Generally naive about their world, children are thought to be nearly incapable of serious wrongdoing and are rarely suspects in violent crimes. Yet, from the 1960s to the mid-90s, the U.S. saw several waves of juvenile murders that caused widespread public concern. The phenomenon created longstanding debates about the sources or causes of a child killer's mindset. Some blame external triggers like video games, rock music or pornography, while others argue the causes are deeper issues, such as an underdeveloped brain experiencing abuse and neglect. The quest to uncover the causes of these crimes is ongoing, and how the American justice system should handle these young killers remains a controversy. This book assesses ten murder cases in modern American criminal history, examining the minds of the children who perpetrated them. Chapters compile decades of research on the psychology of child murderers in hopes of creating a more coherent understanding of why kids kill.

Although much has been written about Al Capone, there has not been--until now--a complete history of organized crime in Chicago during Prohibition. This exhaustively researched book covers the entire period from 1920 to 1933. Author John J. Binder, a recognized authority on the history of organized crime in Chicago, discusses all the important bootlegging gangs in the city and the suburbs and also examines the other major rackets, such as prostitution, gambling, labor and business racketeering, and narcotics. A major focus is how the Capone gang -- one of twelve major bootlegging mobs in Chicago at the start of Prohibition--gained a virtual monopoly over organized crime in northern Illinois and beyond. Binder also describes the fight by federal and local authorities, as well as citizens' groups, against organized crime. In the process, he refutes numerous myths and misconceptions related to the Capone gang, other criminal groups, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and gangland killings. What emerges is a big picture of how Chicago's underworld evolved during this period. This broad perspective goes well beyond Capone and specific acts of violence and brings to light what was happening elsewhere in Chicagoland and after Capone went to jail. Based on 25 years of research and using many previously unexplored sources, this fascinating account of a bloody and colorful era in Chicago history will become the definitive work on the subject.