Scams Are Everywhere

Scams Are Everywhere

This week has been horrifically hectic. To make a very long and gut wrenching story short, there are people out there perpetuating identity theft scams, but they are stealing "company identities" to defraud people.

And fighting this is a very difficult thing to do because the crimes span so many states and jurisdictions that it's difficult to find a central place to use. To make matters worse, many federal agencies will not act on something until they receive multiple complaints. But the catch 22 is that receiving multiple complaints is unlikely unless hundreds, or thousands, have been victimized. Not everyone complains to the same place, not everyone even files formal complaints at all.

As a citizen, you think that law enforcement will protect you but they don't always do.

I know that, been down that road before. What I have to my advantage is that I know enough to know when someone is giving me useless advice. I know when someone at ____(insert government agency here)_____ doesn't know what they are talking about. But most people don't and then end up running in circles, doing what everyone tells them to do but it's all wrong.

Speaking to the people who have been victimized, is really an experience. People prey on those who are already in some kind of disadvantaged position. People looking for a job, people with financial problems, it is rarely the well to do that are victimized.

And so I was talking to a friend because I can't see how so many people would fall for this scam. There are many variations: the company that needs all your personal information to perform a background check (with no face-to-face interview, mind you, this is all done via telephone), the company that needs a "manager" to sign leases on cars, the company that needs a bank account to "deposit funds into" the company that needs to have merchandise shipped to you so you can forward overseas. The scam evolves each time.

Anyhow, I'm telling my friend how I can't believe that people fall for this, you can smell it a mile away. And she says, well, some people truly believe most people are honest. They don't think that most people are scamming.

Nope, try again.

I believe that many people are so eager for a big break, something to rescue them from their financial situation, that they go for things they know they shouldn't just on the off chance that it works.

I think most of us sense when something is wrong. but there are some who will go for it anyway, crossing their fingers in the meantime. Why is this important to you? This is how people get scammed buying bad deals or counterfeit merchandise. I think the psychology of the buyer is just as important as the traits of the scammer or the scam itself.

Anyhow, this has consumed a great deal of my time and I'm just putting the other projects on pause for a moment to straighten this out.