Audri Lanford, PhD
ScamBusters.org

Con artists are constantly coming up with creative new ways to scam unsuspecting people out of their money. Last year, Bottom Line/Personal ran the stories of real-life victims of scams (May 1, 2006). Since then, new scams and sophisticated twists on old scams have claimed new victims.

Here are more true stories of scam victims and the lessons we can learn from them…
GIFT CARD FRAUD
Lisa, a senior citizen in the Midwest, purchased Wal-Mart gift cards for her eight grandchildren last Christmas. When her grandkids tried to use them, they were told that the cards had little or no balance remaining. Lisa returned to the store and demanded that the mistake be corrected, but she was told there was no mistake — the money on the gift cards had already been spent. Only after an hour of arguing with Wal-Mart managers was her money refunded.
Lisa learned later that in the weeks before the holidays, criminals snuck handheld gadgets known as “skimmers” into stores and used them to scan the unique ID codes from gift cards’ magnetic strips. The thieves then called the gift card toll-free number to find out which cards had been purchased — and thus activated. They also could have checked the balances of the cards and then used the stolen codes to shop on-line. They even could have purchased other gift cards for $5 each and then used simple technology to reprogram them with the stolen unique ID numbers and spent the balances.
Lesson: In any store, don’t buy the gift cards displayed on store racks. Ask at the customer service desk whether there are any cards kept behind the counter, out of customers’ — and criminals’ — reach. Make sure any packaging has not been tampered with. Keep your receipt, and tell the recipients of your gift cards that they should let you know if there’s a problem using the cards.
LATEST LOTTERY CON
Roger, an educated man in his 40s, knew all about the “lottery scam,” an old con in which victims are told that they’ve won a foreign lottery, but to receive their money, they first must pay taxes or fees. (Victims who pay these fees find that their “winnings” never arrive.) So Roger was skeptical when he received an E-mail telling him that he had won the equivalent of thousands of dollars in the British lottery.
He also was intrigued. This wasn’t the usual sloppily written spam mail. It seemed very professional and included the names and phone numbers of lottery representatives he could contact. When Roger called, he was assured that this was not a scam. The lottery representative promised Roger that he would not have to pay any taxes or fees out of his own pocket. Instead, Roger could pay the fees and taxes out of the first installment of his winnings after he received them.
A British cashier’s check for $7,600 soon arrived in Roger’s mail. Roger deposited the check in his bank account… waited a week for his bank to make the funds available… then mailed a check for $5,500 to cover taxes and fees, as directed. Roger was sure it couldn’t be a scam of any kind — after all, he was $2,100 ahead, even if the rest of the money never arrived.
But the check never cleared, and several weeks later, Roger’s bank informed him that the $7,600 cashier’s check had bounced. Now he was out $5,500 of his own money.
Lesson: Be suspicious whenever you’re asked for money, even if you have already been paid a larger amount in the form of a check. It can take many weeks for a bank to determine whether a foreign or cashier’s check is valid. The check could bounce even after your bank has made the funds available to you, leaving you on the hook to return the entire amount to the bank.
Winning a lottery you did not enter is always too good to be true, even if the con artist does spin a plausible tale about how you came to win and his/her country’s unique lottery rules.
Also, according to the Federal Trade Commission, it is illegal for US citizens to play in a foreign lottery.
ON-LINE DATING
Chad, a single man in his mid 50s, started an on-line relationship with a woman in her 20s named Eileen through a popular dating Web site. Chad and Eileen E-mailed back and forth over a period of many months and exchanged photos via E-mail. Chad was flattered that this attractive, younger woman was interested in him. When Eileen needed $1,500 for a plane ticket to visit a dying relative, Chad was more than happy to comply.
Eileen’s hard-luck stories and cash requests continued. Eventually, Chad gave Eileen money for a plane ticket so she could visit him. She claimed to live hundreds of miles away. That was the last he heard from her. He had been scammed out of more than $4,000.
Lesson: A con artist might spend months building rapport on-line before asking for a dime. Even if you think you know this person well, consider that you really don’t know anyone from your communications over the Internet — you just know the way he/she chooses to present himself in E-mail.
HIT MAN CON
Steve, a financially successful Massachusetts man in his 30s, received an E-mail that sent him into a panic. The writer claimed to be a hit man hired to kill Steve. The hit man offered to call off the job if Steve gave him $75,000 — $15,000 more than he said he had been paid for the hit.
This hit man seemed to have done some research on Steve. He knew Steve worked in the financial services industry and that he could afford the $75,000 price.
Steve was given a phone number to call… four days to raise the money… and a warning not to contact the police. But Steve did go to the police, who had seen similar E-mails and explained to him that this was only a scam and that his life was not in danger. The con artist had probably found Steve’s E-mail address in a work-related database, which told him Steve’s profession. The lucrative nature of that profession suggested that Steve could afford the $75,000 price.
Lesson: Con men know that making victims fear for their lives is a great way to encourage them to hand over their money. Good con artists learn a few details about their intended victims to make their threats more credible. When you’re told not to go to the authorities, that’s when you should be sure to go to the police.

Some friends were talking about the ‘Politics: telling it like it is’ series better known as the ‘sweet pea’ monologues last week…they tune in when they can I guess, but they totally got and respected your rant, since I didn’t realize they were readers it caught me off guard for a moment, but I was secretly proud and pleased.

Re: your commentary, well, babe – it all makes perfect political conspiracy theory sense, much as I don’t like what I’ve read. Thanks for the ‘lesson’ : )

Oh and tell your mercenary pals that if they hurt a hair on your head, They’ll be receiving a Zen ass-kicking ; )

Nadia, thanks for your comments – I just posted http://www.lilliandevin.com/ ‘Azir, a Yugoslav Muslim man would like to give more of his views…but, but it’s Hump Day, people : )’ and already posted your comment there and alerted him to read it all. He’s going to be bummed, he’s Yugoslav and I’m sure they’re a bit different than ME Muslim men, no? But I did not edit his words and I will not edit yours, that’s gender equality, and I’m all for that : ) and though it’s still Tuesday, in a few hours it’ll be my favorite weekday.

Oh and Hi Mischa, hahaha : )

Ciao, Zen Lill

…I think…well, at least I know that I have recognized a lot of it and I can now rest assured that I am not insane. Although, this does nothing for my other realization that it is all true and it actually is the sick world that we live in that I was secretly hoping did not exist, but know it to be so anyway…?

Anonz

Sweetness:

Its been interesting reading my sexy babe doing her thing on her blog. I’m definitely feeling special being your “sweet pea.”

Just thought I’d tell you this dividing up the spoils is just the bush billionaires making sure they get theirs before he leaves office. They are not sure that the republican party can steal another Presidency so they are carving up the lead financial institutions so that they can pressure any new administration into accepting their demands.

Lehman had to go because most of the billionaires that were part of it had ties to the democratic party. The bush boys decided to throw them to the wolves to force Merile Lynch to capitulate to a buyout by Bank of America.

Bank of America is really owned by the NationsBank Corporation. It is a neonazi organization that was organized to conquer the world using money rather than tanks. They were behind getting the republicans to deregulate banks so that they could own branches outside the state. It was one of many deregulations designed to control the world’s finances.

We targeted several huge banks for eventual acquisition. This was a strategy set up via five year bench marks. With the eventual goal being the total control of the major monetary investment companies in the US, Europe, South America, Asia and the rest of the world.

Our philosophy being that if you control the money, you are three quarters towards controlling the world. Add religion and sex and the rest is meaningless.

The only way to gain control of the major investment institutions in the US would be to allow one company to acquire the competition. That was illegal at the time because of regulations that prevented banks from competing across state lines and the complications presented by US laws against having a simultaneous vertical and horizontal of an industry or business.

The answer was deregulation. So the republican party was ordered to start a propaganda spiel that government was the reason that the people were having problems. Whatever the problem the republican party was ordered to fine a reason to blame government. Hence, the republican “less government” is better mantra was formed.

Actually what we really meant was more government, only in our favor. We wanted to use government to enact policies that would allow us to take over every major investment institution in the US. To do that we had to control all means of financial enrichment that the average person in American had to make money.

We started out with his retirement. We created IRAs, and other forms of retirement investments for the average American. First we had to undermine the company investment vehicles that were in existence. We did this by getting our republican and democratic partners to pass legislation that weaken or removed safeguards against company manipulation of their retirement funds.

Without police the crooks will do what crooks do, commit crimes. Hence the deregulation(removal or police) of the retirement funds by companies produced the needed crisis for us to have our legislators propose alternative retirement options for the average person to use. All of which would be controlled by us.

Now we needed to deregulate the banking industry to allow across state lines banking and to remove safeguards against who could actually own a bank. Regean was the bought and paid for vehicle for this.

With this deregulation(removal of the police) crooks did what crooks will do. But I get ahead of my self. To arrange this we had to deregulate the oil industry, the mortgage industry(a trial balloon was floated in this area in Texas under the first Bush – no one went to jail so we went national under the second Bush), and the insurance industry. All of these are huge books unto them selves.

World domination via control of the chief financial institutions of the world was a carefully planned 20 year goal. It had 5 year bench marks that were met on time except for the 8 year stench by Clinton. That’s why we went after him so hard. Many of his democratic party were bought and paid for. However most were recruited because they were committed bigots like me. People who genuinely believe that we were better than other people because we were white, gods chosen people. Basically we were nazis with Jesus rather than Hitler as our leader. The Mormon church was initially chosen as the religious vehicle to carry us through our religious justification of the subjugation of the OTWs. But we met with such resistance by the racists factions of the south because their own religious roots had provided such comfort for their own bigotry that we had to relent.

That too is another long story. After taking control of Bank of America through a series of skillful manipulations of its CEOs and its investment policies, it was used as the vehicle to control the western half of the US financial acquisitions.The largest being Seafirst of Seattle, then Security Pacific National Bank at the time the largest bank acquisition in history.

Deregulation of the oil industry allowed more banks to fail and we had choices as to which ones we wanted to take control of. The largest being Continental Illinois Bank and Trust of Chicago. The government had control of it for about 10 years. We used the government to control it until we had Bank of America in place for the acquisition. The tax payers funded it until it was financially healthy enough for us to take control of it

In 2000 we set about the acquisition of other financial institutions that would complete our control of all major investment capital in the US. Acquisitions such as Louisville, Kentucky based National Processing Company, Boston Massachusetts based FleetBoston Financial. Now we had moved into the northeastern markets of the US.

We also went after Acquisitions in Europe and South America and consolidated our US control with the acquisition of The United States Trust Company and ABN AMRO North America, LaSalle Bank Corporation. Thus securing firm control of the financing in the Netherlands.

Deregulating(removing the police) the mortgage industry allowed crooks to do what crooks will do without the presence of police and this allowed B of A to take control of Countrywide Financial.

Deregulating( removing the police) the investment industry allowed crooks to do what crooks will do without the presence of police and this allowed B of A to take control of Merrill Lynch & Co, Inc. It acquired the entire company with spending a single penny of real cash. It was an all-stock deal worth about $50 Billion.

Ahhh, isn’t Less Government beautiful. Imagine McCain may still pull off the white house using it. If the a city mayor said that he was going to remove the police from his city’s streets because he believed the people could work better together without government interference, he would be removed as a crazy fool.

But when their republican politicians say they are going to remove the police from wall street for the same reasons, the same people reward them with reelection. so ladies when you man starts bragging that he knows more than you and he starts quoting Our mantra that “less government is better,” you tell him, “yeah like less police on the streets is better.

Without government protection the rich and powerful will run rampant and trample the rights, wishes, and dreams of the less financially fortunate.

But that’s just this billionaire’s opinion

Anonz