Posted on 11/29/2015 3:52:06 AM PST by Paul R.
Once and a while I get one of those "Nigerian" emails that Gmail sends straight to my junk mail folder, but as long as there are no imbedded links or attachments, I will read them for the pure entertainment value.
I can't believe the scammers still send those; they are so ridiculously worded and so obviously a scam and so much has been written and broadcast about them in the forms of warnings and PSA's over the years, who would ever fall for it? But evidently enough people still do. It doesn't cost the scammer much to send out millions of emails at a time so if even one person falls for it, even for only a few thousand dollars, it was well worth their while and a nice ROI.
The telephone scammers can be even worse as they pressure and sometimes intimidate and even threaten their callers.
There is the scam that's been around for a few years where the caller says they are from the IRS and that a big tax bill is owed that must be paid immediately via a CC or Western Union payment or the person will be arrested within hours, that there is already a warrant out for their arrest. Thousands of people fall for that one even though the IRS and consumer advocates have put out numerous PSA's and it's been covered on national and local news - if you owe taxes to the IRS, they will not, never will they call you or email or text you, the IRS will send letters and finally registered letters - Return Receipt letters and believe me as I have firsthand knowledge, having legitimately owed taxes to the IRS to know how they work. Most people don't fall for it as they know they don't owe taxes to the IRS or are smart enough to hang up and or call the IRS themselves, but yet enough people still do fall for it - often people who have criminal records or outstanding warrants for other crimes or may by coincidence owe some back taxes. Of the many thousands of people these scammers call, it only takes one out of many thousands of calls to make it profitable.
Also granted that overseas scammers are hard to go after, but, I say: Declare war on these bastards. At a minimum, HEAVY pressure on the gov'ts of countries the scammers operate from is in order.
The problem is it is often difficult or nearly impossible to track them down. Email addresses and telephone numbers can easily be spoofed and routed and re-routed again and again, making it appear to originate from one place or country but is actually being sent from another. And in truth while scammers can be anywhere in the world, increasingly from Russia and other Eastern European countries and from Asia - the Philippines that from what I understand is a hot bed right now along with countries long known for this like Nigeria or Jamaica or India, those governments have enough problems that scammers are not much of a priority.
Make services like Western Union at least ask questions about large transfers of funds out of the US, and delay processing as needed if anything looks amiss. Perhaps banks should talk to their elderly customers about large or repeated withdrawals.
And if our government does that, there will be a huge outcry from many, including many here over government intrusion into private transactions. There are already rules about withdrawing or transferring large sums of cash or into travelers checks from bank accounts, the bank having to report cash transaction of over 10k or in aggregate of that amount to the IRS and a lot of people are against this, but at the end of the day if someone wants to transfer funds to another party for whatever reason including for buying or investing in something stupid, donating money to a scam charity or getting ripped off, as long as it is not for the purposes of evading taxes, laundering money, drug money, transferring money to known terrorists, the IRS and US Government really doesn't care and nor should they except for prosecuting offenders when caught.
http://finance.zacks.com/federal-banking-rules-withdrawing-large-sums-cash-1696.html
But some are very much against any such reporting and I would think any type of delays in transactions (warning - a bit of a nut job site ahead and that doesn't get all the facts correct FWIW):
The station nearest us is pretty good about that, in fact, but the one our relative watches a lot is not. Neither has discussed this type of scam - I think I'll e-mail them to create a PSA that can run relatively often, since the scam or variations of it are so common....In our relative's case, she wanted so badly to have more to give to church, leave for the kids, give to a friend with health problems, and not have to scrimp so much herself... It's sort of like a well-intentioned greed that blinds decent and caring and trusting people. She (our relative) is actually very "sharp" for the most part (NO dementia there!) and yet...
I am sorry that your relative got ripped off, I really am, but IMO no amount of PSA's or increased government oversight and delays in banking transactions (which I do not think would be a good thing overall) is going to help prevent this sort of thing. And I really hate to be harsh here, but it is sort of like as the comedian Ron White says - "You Can't Fix Stupid".
While your relative might have had some very good and noble intentions for the windfall money she thought she was going to get - money for nothing as it were or something that must have sounded to any rational person, too good to be true, (especially after being asked to send the scammers the taxes owed up front) she was still "greedy" IMO - a promise of a large cash windfall, a lottery prize, etc., for money that she didn't earn....she was acting on greed even if not selfishly to the extent it blinded her to common sense and what you think is otherwise her normally good judgment.
As for local TV or radio stations running PSA's, FCC rules say that broadcasters have to give a certain amount of airtime for free for legitimate PSA's, but the broadcasters are not the ones who create and produce them, they are often produced by non-profit groups or government agencies like local police departments.
Here are some examples of PSA on fraud:
PSA: Senior Scam Stopper Campaign with Paula
Mesa Police Department PSA - Senior Fraud
What I am trying to say however is that no amount of PSA or increased government oversight is going to prevent fools from being separated from their money. When it comes to our vulnerable elderly relatives (and also FWIW, our young adult children who are also vulnerable to scammers) , the best we can do is try to educate them on the various scams and how not to be a victim and to call us first before making any investment or transferring money to unknown parties. You might also want to get with your church and hers to put warnings in the church bulletin or hold seminars - your local police departments might be willing to come and conduct such. Also contact your local TV station's consumer advocate - most have one. But doing such may require your relative to be interviewed and she may be too embarrassed or too frail to do so.
As I have insomnia, I'm often up very early and turn on the TV and have come across paid TV ads that seem to be "religious" but are nothing more than scams, no better and even worse than even the worst infomercials peddling diet pill and exercise plans, ....
Peter Popoff - Miracle Spring Water
Sadly Peter Popoff and his ilk make a lot of money under the guise of religion and scam a lot of well intentioned but very gullible and often poor and sickly and not well educated people out of their money. I wonder how many fall for it, but evidently enough do to enable him to continue to buy the air time.
Yes, I too would like to see harsh penalties for malware creators and distributors, and I’d like to see websites do a much better job of screening out malvertising.
Ultimately, the best way to stop fraud, offline and online, is to better educate people, to teach them skepticism and common sense. But I’ve tried, and given up, teaching some oldsters how to use the web, because, like kids, they want to click on every shiny thing they see.
I’m a natural skeptic, and never get viruses or malware infections myself, but I don’t know how to teach people how not to be gullible. I think it would help if everybody was encouraged to watch a few movies about con-men/high-pressure salesmen at work, especially “Glengarry Glen Ross,” “Tin Men,” “Wall Street,” and “The Wolf of Wall Street;” trouble is, many people who need to hear the message would be put off by the profane content of these excellent films.
Another thing that might help would be to require, and vastly improve, basic finance education in schools and colleges. Solid understanding of simple finance and economics goes a long way toward making a person realize when they are being scammed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.