New version of old scam involves death threats to seniors

[Amelia]

New version of old scam involves death threats to seniors

Friday, November 14, 2008

By WAYNE HAVRELLY, kgw.com

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Con artists are now making death threats, hoping to intimidate senior citizens into sending them money.

It’s an old-school version of the Nigerian scam. Instead of luring victims through e-mails, the con artists are making phone calls. Sometimes those calls include death threats.

Susan High from Washougal has been getting the calls. It all started more than a month ago when she got a call from someone claiming she’d won $450,000 in a sweepstakes.

Susan is battling cancer and blindness. She lives on $600 a month, so the grand prize sounded incredible.

She was suspicious and asked when they were sending the money.

“They told me the checks would be here by Monday,” she said.

A local Safeway store called and said $5,700 in checks had been wired to Susan.

But it was the classic Nigerian scheme. Susan was instructed to deposit the fake checks and then send the scammers money from her bank account, before supposedly getting her jackpot.

Susan and her husband Elmer didn’t fall for it.

“I said this is a scam and a fraud and I’m not going to be a part of it. Then the lady said, ‘Oh yes you will! You took that money and it's our money,’” Susan said.

She wondered if the checks might actually be real. That thought terrified her, but not as much as the phone calls.

“They told me they were coming to the house and that they were putting a hit on me and watching me and said they were following me around. They said we know you have the money,” Susan said.

The calls continued for more than a month, starting at 2 a.m. and sometimes coming at a rate of 30 a day.

The Highs became afraid of answering the phone. They don’t have caller ID so when they stopped answering the phone they missed important calls, including several from their physician.

KGW obtained the number the scammers were calling from and called it from the Highs’ phone. The con artists started to threaten KGW Reporter Wayne Havrelly until he told them he was a reporter.

“We’re going to monitor this. You make sure you stop calling the Highs,” Havrelly told the scammers.

The person at the other end hung up.

Con artists in the Nigerian scam almost always operate outside the country, hiding behind international borders, usually Canada. Susan High was relieved to know her family is safe.

The Highs were very thankful for the help. They were told to just “hang up” if they ever received calls from the scammers again.

“If I ever win a real sweepstakes the first thing I’m doing is buying a phone with caller ID,” Susan said.

Boiler rooms filled with con artists keep lists of retired people like Susan and her husband.

A good first step in getting your name off those lists is to sign up for the U.S. government's Do Not Call List. Consumers may sign up online.

It helps, but it’s not perfect, so when someone does call making big promises, just hang up.

[Tom Wetmore]

Senior citizens are favorite marks for cons of all sorts. A close second are religious people because they tend to be trusting and less suspicious of others, especially if the con professes religious ideas, etc. (A most heinous form of taking the Lord's name in vain...)

The check from the cons is a growing problem. (One common variant is getting a check/money order in an overwritten amount on a legitimate transaction with the request for you to give them the difference.) The checks are bogus, but they know the banking system clearance timing and play the odds your bank will clear it a day or so ahead of the actual time it takes to go through international banking system clearance. Once the money is deposited they will urge you to wire the "cleared" funds as soon as your bank clears the deposited check. After you have wired the money for the "fees and expenses" you are left with an overdrawn account when the checks finally bounce in a few days. (I spoke to one victim a few years ago who lost $75,000 this way)

It will be done under the scam story lines similar to the classic Nigerian scams, or estate settlements of erstwhile wills of some unknown benefactors or long lost relative, lottery winning, bogus indecipherable complex high yield/low risk investments. (look for more of these in these really bad economic times...)

Given that more people are aware of and understand the MO and stories of the Nigerian type scams, these cons have become quite inventive in response and in coming up with new stories to sell the scam. The basic MO is a very large sum of locked up money of some rich dead guy that requires paying advance fees and expenses to get it moved from one place to another on a promise of a very generous percentage for your help to the sick/dying last relative.

Increasingly the initial contact is from someone posing as an official, lawyer, estate executor, accountant, or someone you might be more inclined to believe or trust. Once you take the bait (any response) the pitch starts and once interest is shown then the never-ending list of fees and expenses start to come one or two at a time. Once you pay, they come up with more...

With more wary people who say they have no such money, or suggest the logical idea of deducting the expenses from the big pile of money when it is transfered/distributed, the scammers have come up with the bogus check alternative. If pressed, they will let you in on a "little secret" or do you a "special favor" by advancing you the money from another source, even "trusting" you to not take the money and run. (It seems to never occur to the victims that if these cons have another source of money to pay these fees why would they need your help in advancing the fees to begin with!?!?) They will send you a check from that source. It may even appear to be a cashier/bank check. They also will give you wiring instructions of where to direct the payment to the accountants, lawyers, tax office, bank, or whatever. And they will make sure you wire it as soon as possible...

Tom

[Jeannieb43]

It amazes me how people can be taken in by ANY telephone caller. Anytime I pick up the phone and it's a strange person trying to offer me something or ask me something on a "survey," I just say "I never take telephone solicitations; if you have something to offer me, send me a letter." Then I hang up without waiting for a reply from them.

And I never ever give out my name, address, or any other identifying information over the phone.

[Nan]

Another scam here that some have fallen for involves the delivery of flowers and/or wine, paid for but unsolicited. The person making the delivery insists that the delivery fees must be paid for - quite a small amount - but he does not take cash so asks for a credit card. Once those details are handed over, the account

is creamed.

Of course good SDAs would refuse the wine and might be safe!!