» Part II

By Mary O’KEEFE

Some predators are becoming more sophisticated, using burner phones, social media and other technology to try and snare victims. Readers have called CVW with concerns about calls they’ve received supposedly by the IRS [Internal Revenue Service], calls regarding Social Security “breaches” and others that ask personal questions about everything from voting practices to race. Many of these calls are considered by law enforcement as fishing, or phishing, exercises. This is when scam artists contact people on a random basis just to see who will “bite” or believe their fabricated story.

According to the FBI, there are several scams that are now active; two prey on people’s concerns about financial burdens. One is known as debt elimination.

Debt elimination schemes generally involve websites advertising a legal way to dispose of mortgage loans and credit card debts. Most often, the one seeking to ease their debt (the participant) is to send $1,500 to $2,000 to the subject along with all the particulars of the participant’s loan and a special power of attorney authorizing the subject to enter into transactions regarding the title of the participant’s home on their behalf. The subject then issues bonds and promissory notes to the lenders that purport to legally satisfy the participant’s debts. In exchange, the participant is then required to pay to the subject a certain percentage of the value of the satisfied debts. The potential risk of identity theft-related crimes associated with the debt elimination scheme is extremely high because the participants provide all of their personal information to the subject.

Employment/business opportunities are another scheme. Employment/business opportunity schemes have surfaced wherein bogus foreign-based companies are recruiting citizens in the United States on several employment search websites for work-at-home employment opportunities. These positions often involve reselling or reshipping merchandise to destinations outside the United States.

Prospective employees are required to provide personal information as well as copies of their identification, such as a driver’s license, birth certificate, or Social Security card/number. Those employees who are “hired” by these companies are then told that their salary will be paid by check from a United States company reported to be a creditor of the employer. This is done under the pretense that the employer does not have any banking set up in the United States.

The amount of the check is significantly more than the employee is owed for salary and expenses and the employee is instructed to deposit the check into their own account and then wire the overpayment back to the employer’s bank, usually located in Eastern Europe. The checks are later found to be fraudulent, often after the wire transfer has taken place.

In a similar scam, some web-based international companies are advertising for affiliate opportunities, offering individuals the chance to sell high-end electronic items, such as plasma television sets and home theater systems, at significantly reduced prices.

The affiliates are instructed to offer the merchandise on well-known Internet auction sites. The affiliates will accept the payments and pay the company, typically by means of wire transfer. The company is then supposed to drop-ship the merchandise directly to the buyer, thus eliminating the need for the affiliate to stock or warehouse merchandise. The merchandise never ships, which often prompts the buyers to take legal action against the affiliates, who in essence are victims themselves.

Locally, the Los Angeles Sheriff Dept.-Crescenta Valley Station takes continuous reports about identity theft and other types of scams.

Often when vehicles are burglarized and purses or wallets are stolen or wallets are stolen while victims are shopping at grocery stores, victims will get calls concerning fraudulent activities from their bank or credit card company – sometimes on the same day of the theft.

Detective Rodger Burt of the CV Sheriff Station spoke of an arrest he was involved in several years ago. During a routine traffic stop in Tujunga, two men were arrested after law enforcement found a flash drive in their vehicle’s console that contained about 80,000 personal profiles of individuals.

“This included their social security [numbers], names and addresses,” Burt said.

Scams are often difficult to investigate because phones that are used to call victims are often considered burner phones, which are phones that can be purchased that have an unidentifiable number or can mislead people into thinking they are receiving calls from a legitimate source. About a year ago the FBI warned the public of a phone scam in which the scammer impersonated an FBI government official insisting that the victim owed the government money. The scammers would also tell victims they had a federal warrant out for their arrest that could be dismissed if they paid a certain amount to the caller.

Criminals who conduct scams are often not in the same state or even the same country of the people they are calling.

Burt advises residents to check their credit card and bank activity on a regular basis to make certain there is no fraud on their accounts.

Scam complaints can be filed with the FBI at ic3.gov. Victims can also call local law enforcement to make a report. In the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County La Crescenta-Montrose and La Cañada Flintridge, call the CV Sheriff’s Station at (818) 248-3464 and residents of Glendale can call (818) 548-4911.

  Mary Okeefe