Has anyone not received an email claiming to need your help to get money out of a country? How about the Internet lottery you won that you do not remember entering, or the account you have that is frozen until you click on the link and give the bank, or PayPal, or (insert the financial company here), your credit card info or SSN.
Anyone got a check from a Craigslist buyer for more than you asked? The catch is you cash it, keep a little extra for the hassle and send him the item and the change. Of course when the check bounces like a super ball your bank dings you for the money.
Stuff like this happens every day...change that, several times...perhaps hundreds of times per day. Proving that without a doubt CRIME DOES PAY!!! These criminals face almost no risk of prosecution.
I use the Internet to buy and sell. I tried using Craigslist (I liked the idea of not paying a commission on a sale). I listed several very expensive coins, and to my surprise got an immediate response. The buyer wanted to pay by check (fine with me, I would rather not pay the credit card company either), what came next made me immediately suspicious. The buyer informed me he would be traveling for a few weeks, did not have his checkbook with him, but had a check he was going to use to buy some other coins until he saw mine for sale. The problem was the check was for 2 thousand dollars more than I was asking for my coins. He wanted me to cash the check, give the coins and the change to his assistant who would come by to pick it up, and keep an extra $500 for my troubles. Was I lucky or what? $4,000.00 for $3500, worth of coins and all I had to do was deposit his check and give him $1,500.00 change. Anyone who doesn't smell a rat is blinded by greed.
I had a problem. When the buyer originally asked if he could send me a check, I emailed my address to him. Now a person I knew was a crook had my home address and the impression that I kept some very valuable coins in my home. Since, like you I watch TV, I thought lets run a sting operation. I emailed him that everything was fine except that I keep my coins in a safety deposit box (which is true) and that I owned a very large dog that did not like strangers (he is actually a medium sized dog who is terrified of strangers. the biggest risk you take is that he will pee on you from fear). I suggested we meet at the bank where I could cash the check and make the exchange.
After I emailed him that idea, I called the local Police and told them about my plan. They sent a squad car to my house, where I explained what was happening. His first question was "how do you know the check will be bogus". I explained it was a common Internet fraud. His response was "maybe this one isn't, and even if it is, the person he sends may have no knowledge his boss is breaking the law" "he could have paid some poor guy to pick up the goods and the change and send it to him" "and even if the check was bad, the fraud would not be happening in our jurisdiction" "The actual fraud would have taken place where he counterfeited the check". So much for my brilliant sting idea. The officer suggested I contact the FBI.
The next day, the check arrives by UPS express mail. This guy makes enough money to spend $5 to send a check! It actually added to his credibility! Had I not been aware of the scam, I would have been impressed! Just to be sure I called the bank the check was drawn on. It was a real check, from a real account, that had it's checks really stolen! The poor guy who ran the business the check was drawn on had calls from across the country from people who had been defrauded. Of course they wanted him to make good on the checks.
Patting myself on the back for being so smart, and bad check in hand, I called the G-men expecting them to like the idea of a sting. I had visions of wearing a wire, and signaling the Fibbies by running my hands through my hair when the deal was done. The feds would slap on the cuffs while I snarled "read him rights" and spit on his shoes. I saw myself at the trial saying "that's the piece of shit that tried to con me" and being admonished by the judge for using that kind of language in his courtroom. Real "Law and Order" stuff was dancing in my head. I was going to see these bad guys brought to justice!
Reality Bites (wasn't there a movie with that title?)! The local Feds explained that this happens so often they don't have the manpower to follow up on it all. The best he could do was take the name of the guy, and if he screwed enough people out of enough money, they might go after him. Hmmmm, what are the odds the guy uses the same name for every scam? I watched an episode of "America's Dumbest Criminals", even they would not be that stupid. I asked him if I should at least send him the bogus check which I had never touched without wearing latex gloves so they could dust it for the bastard's fingerprints (man I watch too many crime shows). His response was at last predictable to me "nah, just throw it out"
I pondered keeping it, if it is this easy to screw people out of money, maybe I'll give this crime thing a shot. All I had to do was search Craigslist for someone selling something worth $5,000 or less, and try the same thing with the same check. All the really hard work (stealing the check, forging the signature) had already been done for me. After all, I had learned it is all but impossible to get caught. Imagine how much more difficult it must be if the crook is in another country!
I really didn't give it much thought, unlike most crooks, I have a conscience The sad thing is, the more you need money, the more likely you are to be fooled by these SOB'S. It happens every day, frequently to the elderly who can be easily fooled by a slick con man. Even very intelligent people can be fooled or blinded by greed, ask any Bernie Madoff client (what an appropriate name since Bernie made off with everyone's cash). If he had not gotten greedy and stolen billions, the Feds would never have arrested him! Every day he should be forced to listen to at least 3 people whose lives he has ruined, until he can't take it anymore and hangs himself.
Crime does pay. It shouldn't, but it does. Can we as a society afford to continue to let this happen? Something has to change. So many people suffer irreparable harm due to these criminals, to not pursue them should be a crime. There may not be enough jail cells to hold them, but cant we liquidate all their assets, including any assets that might have belonged to them? Should Madoff's wife get to keep even a penny? Maybe if the risk of financial disaster is greater than the reward for stealing the money, a person will think twice before they do it, How does 5 to 1 sound?
Steal a hundred pay a five hundred dollar fine. steal $100k pay a half million. Extend the fine to cover all the assets in the family. Don't let their wives and kids keep houses and trust funds. Right now, "white collar" criminals have almost nothing to fear. That has to change.
What do we do about the Nigerian scams (a lot of Internet fraud is based there)? We make it harder to transfer money to countries that allow those crimes to continue, or we reduce their aid by 5x the amount we can prove was stolen by their countrymen. It won't be long before their government tracks these crooks down and exacts their own type of punishment.
Once again, this is just my opinion, but anyone who has been fooled will share my opinion I'm sure
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