Yes, the bad guys want money, but there is more to it than that. They want to look legitimate, and once victims start paying, they want:
As much money as they can get, as fast as they can get it,
without getting caught, and no interference.
without getting caught, and no interference.
To Look Legitimate
Scam perpetrators use a variety of means to make themselves look legitimate, and the first is to claim that the victim has won big in a real, or real-sounding enterprise such as Publisher's Clearing House, or the fictitious Gold Rush sweepstakes.
To lend credence to their spurious claims, the scammers often employ one or more fakes to bamboozle prospects. For example:
- Fake letters
- Fake prize checks or copies of fake prize checks, bearing the victim’s name
- Fake phone numbers, a practice known as “spoofing”
- Domestic call-forwarding services that transfer calls to Jamaica without the victim’s knowledge
- Fake bank deposits, in phony accounts or the victim’s account
As Much Money As They Can Get
When it comes to picking victims' pockets, the con artists know just where to look and they will try to get their grubby hands on everything they can. Here is a list of funds that scammers try to tap:
- Bank Accounts (checking, savings, Certificates of Deposit)
- Investments (stocks, bonds, annuities, 401k plans, IRAs, mutual funds)
- Loans
- Collateralized (home equity, auto, life insurance policies, etc.)
- Personal loans from friends and relatives
- Cash advances on the victim's credit card account
- Cash advances on credit card accounts opened with the victim's stolen identity
- Social Security and pension payments
- Inheritances and Trust funds
- Death benefits from insurance policies
- Items of value that can be sold for cash or used to perpetrate more crimes, such as:
- Jewelry, antiques, etc.
- Personal electronics purchased by the victim for shipment to the scammers and their associates, such as smart phones without call plans, iPads and laptop computers
As Fast As They Can Get It
The criminals want victims' money as soon as possible, and the sooner the better. Thus they always try to create a sense of urgency when prodding marks to send them cash. They use a host of ploys to accomplish this, such as pretending to be held up at Customs at the local airport, or telling targets that they are on their way to deliver their prize winnings in person.
Besides closing the deal, such tactics are designed to give the victim as little time as possible to change their mind about paying the thieves' bogus fees. So, too, is the flim-flammers' demand that dupes send money by the fastest means possible, whether it be wire transfer or overnight mail by the Postal Service, Federal Express or UPS.
Without Getting Caught
Cash is king in Scam Land, and for good
reason: Unlike other forms of payment it cannot be cancelled, and leaves no electronic or paper trail back to the to swindlers.
Unfortunately
for scam victims and their advocates, it is incredibly easy to
send and receive cash anonymously, anywhere. Hence the bandits'
insistence that pigeons transmit funds by MoneyGram and Western Union,
or utilize prepaid debit cards from the likes of GreenDot.
To
further cover their tracks, the crooks occasionally use "money mules" -
some of them past victims who keep part of the proceeds - to receive
and relay funds.
With No Interference
Once the stream of money starts the crooks don't want interlopers interrupting its flow, particularly family members and conduits like the wire transfer services. As one of those interlopers, I have found that the crooks use two methods - sometimes in conjunction - to discourage meddling: Secrecy and false identifies.
Secrecy
- Victims are instructed not to tell anyone about the sweepstakes and their dealings with the con men. To ensure compliance, the person giving the instructions sometimes poses as an FBI agent or other authority figure.
- Business with the criminals is typically conducted in private, away from prying eyes and ears. As a consequence, many victims rack up huge cell phone bills.
- The scammers are notorious for using aliases featuring common English and Spanish surnames, like Johnson, Smith, Perez and Garcia.
- To evade intervention by money transfer services and the post office, victims are coached to also use aliases because they are seldom if ever asked to present identification at these locations.
Last but not least, the fraudsters want maximum bang for their buck, which is to say they try to use the money of current victims to lure fresh prey, a practice I call "baiting."
A classic example of baiting was the time my father wired money to a sixty-something nurse living in Virginia Beach. Because she claimed she could not afford the advance fee the crooks said, "no problem, we'll have a past winner (translation: loser) pay it for you." At their direction my dad subsequently sent her the funds, which she in turn relayed to Jamaica. It was a triple-win for the thieves, who besides getting cash from my dad, further covered their tracks while making themselves look credible to a new target, in the process.
As Sun Tzu wrote In The Art of War, "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." After reading this post it is my hope that you will know the enemy well enough not to fear the outcome of battles you must fight, to protect your loved one from his schemes.
