Scams

SCHEMES, FRAUDS, scams, and cons are devices by which one party defrauds another of a desired object, usually cash. In some scams, victims are willing participants, hoping to gain an unfair advantage over someone else (Nigerian fraud, winning lottery ticket, etc.) while in other scams victims are unwilling participants (home repair, bank examiner, bumper cars, etc.)

Unwilling participants are often selected because of their age, ethnic heritage, or apparent naivete. Often willing participants are hesitant to file criminal charges, as are other scam victims who are too embarrassed to admit they were duped. Scams range in nature from the feasibly possible (merchandise at slightly under cost, lost pet) to those that are physically impossible (money-making machine.)

The people perpetrating the scams are hoping to identify certain characteristics in their victims: desire for excitement, greed, compassion, or lack of confidence. Perpetrators of scams and cons become quite adept at quickly identifying their next victim or “mark.” Similarly, they will often quickly cancel an attempted scam if they note hesitancy by the potential victim. Many scams often follow a scripted format, with each step designed to draw the victim further into the scam. The steps are put into operation as follows: locating a mark, a victim is identified both by personal characteristics and the amount of money they control; playing the con, gaining the confidence of the mark through various subterfuges; roping the mark, drawing the mark further into the scam often through the use of partners, sometimes acting as uninterested bystanders and other times as participants; telling the tale, giving the victim “the inside scoop” on how they can profit from the venture; putting on the touch, the scam is executed and the victim is relieved of funds; losing the mark, the victim is separated from the scam operation, often not realizing that she has been the victimized.

Some common, specific types of perpetrated scams are described below.

Advance fee scam: This is a generic scam, sometimes identified as the Nigerian 419 scam, in which a person is requested to pay an advance fee for paperwork processing, taxes, or bribes in order to receive a much larger amount of cash later. In many cases, the money is allegedly coming from less than legitimate business transactions and that is the reason the cash payments are required. The scam is usually repeated, requesting additional payments, as new glitches to the transfer of the larger amount have occurred. The amount of the money promised to the victim is often said to be in the millions, so that payments of only a few thousand dollars seems to be a wise “investment.”

Advertising materials scam: Businesses are approached concerning an exceptional deal on advertising materials (placemats, pens, calendars, etc.) but after payment is made no materials are received.

ATM repair: In this scam, an official-looking repair technician arrives at a location (convenience store, gas station, shopping mall, casino) that has an automatic teller machine (ATM) terminal and proceeds to work on it with a computer keyboard.[Page 717] After some time working on the machine, the fraudster approaches an employee on duty and asks to use the telephone to call the maintenance supervisor. The caller explains that the ATM is in need of shop repair and to send over a service truck. A service truck appears shortly and the technicians remove the ATM and clean up the area. In some cases, the “supervisor” will call to the location to speak to the “technician.”

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