Scammers Getting Away With It
William Bortz said criminals stole his family's nest egg of almost $700,000 in an elaborate scheme. Sophisticated overseas criminals are stealing tens of billions of dollars from Americans every year, a crime wave that's projected to get worse as the U.S. population ages and technology like AI makes it easier than ever to perpetrate fraud and get away with it.
Internet and telephone scams have grown “exponentially,” overwhelming police and prosecutors who catch and convict relatively few of the perpetrators, said Kathy Stokes, director of fraud prevention at AARP’s Fraud Watch Network.
Victims rarely get their money back, including older people who have lost life savings to romance scams, grandparent scams, technical support fraud and other common grifts.
“We are at a crisis level in fraud in society,” Stokes said. “So many people have joined the fray because it is pretty easy to be a criminal. They don’t have to follow any rules. And you can make a lot of money, and then there’s very little chance that you’re going to get caught.”
A recent case from Ohio, in which an 81-year-old man was targeted by a scammer and allegedly responded with violence, illustrates the law enforcement challenge.
Police say the man fatally shot an Uber driver after wrongly assuming she was in on a plot to extract $12,000 in supposed bond money for a relative. The driver fell victim to the same scammer, dispatched to the home midway between Dayton and Columbus to pick up a package for delivery, according to authorities.
Homeowner William Brock was charged with murder in the fatal March 25 shooting of Lo-Letha Hall, but the scammer who threatened Brock over the phone and set the tragic chain of events in motion remains on the loose more than three months later.
Brock pleaded not guilty, saying he was in fear for his life.
Online and telephone rackets have become so commonplace that law enforcement agencies and adult protective services don’t have the resources to keep up.
“It’s a little bit like drinking from a fire hose,” said Brady Finta, a former FBI agent who supervised elder fraud investigations. “There’s just so much of it, logistically and reasonably, it’s almost impossible to overcome right now.”
Grifts also can be difficult to investigate, particularly ones that originate overseas, with stolen funds quickly converted into hard-to-track cryptocurrency or siphoned into foreign bank accounts.
Some police departments don’t take financial scams as seriously as other crime and victims wind up discouraged and demoralized, according to Paul Greenwood, who spent 22 years prosecuting elder financial abuse cases in San Diego.
“There’s a lot of law enforcement who think that because a victim sends money voluntarily through gift cards or through wire transfers, or for buying crypto, that they’re actually engaging in a consensual transaction,” said Greenwood, who travels the country teaching police how to spot fraud. “And that is a big mistake because it’s not. It’s not consensual. They’ve been defrauded.”
Federal prosecutors typically don’t get involved unless the fraud reaches a certain dollar amount, Greenwood said.
The U.S. Justice Department says it does not impose a blanket monetary threshold for federal prosecution of elder financial abuse. But it confirmed that some of the 93 U.S. attorneys’ offices nationwide may set their own thresholds, giving priority to cases in which there are more victims or greater financial impact. Federal prosecutors file hundreds of elder fraud and abuse cases annually.
The Federal Trade Commission says the “vast majority” of frauds go unreported. Often, victims are reluctant to come forward.
A 74-year-old woman recently charged with robbing a credit union north of Cincinnati was the victim of an online scam, according to her family. Authorities say they believe the woman was preyed on by a scammer, yet there is no record she made a formal police report.
“These people are very good at what they do, and they’re very good at deceiving people and prying money out of them,” said Fairview Township, Ohio, police Sgt. Brandon McCroskey, who investigated the robbery. “I’ve seen people almost want to fist fight the police and bank tellers because they ... believe in their mind that they need to get this money out.”
Older people hold more wealth as a group and present a ripe target for scammers. The impact can be devastating since many of these victims are past their working years and don’t have much time to recoup losses.
Elder fraud complaints to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center rose by 14% last year, with losses increasing by 11% to $3.4 billion, according to a recent FBI report.
Other estimates put the annual loss much higher.
A 2023 AARP study calculated that Americans over 60 lose $28.3 billion each year to fraud. The Federal Trade Commission, seeking to account for unreported losses, estimated fraudsters stole a staggering $137 billion in 2022, including $48 billion from older adults. The authors of that study acknowledged a “considerable degree of uncertainty.”
In San Diego, 80-year-old William Bortz said criminals stole his family’s nest egg of almost $700,000 in an elaborate scheme involving a nonexistent Amazon order, a fake “refund processing center” in Hong Kong, doctored bank statements and an instruction that Bortz needed to “synchronize bank accounts” in order to get his money back.
Bortz’s scammer was relentless and persuasive, harassing him with dozens of phone calls and, at one point, taking control of his computer.
Even though he was the victim of a crime, Bortz struggles with self-blame.
“I understand now why so much elder abuse fraud is never reported. Because when you look back at it, you think, ‘How could I have been so stupid?’” said Bortz, who retired after a career in banking, financial services and real estate.
His daughter, Ave Williams, said local police and the FBI were diligent in trying to track down the overseas scammer and recover the money, but ran into multiple dead ends. The family blames Bortz’s bank, which Williams said ignored multiple red flags and facilitated several large wire transfers by her father over the course of eight days. The bank denied wrongdoing and the family’s lawsuit against it was dismissed.
“The scammers are getting better,” Williams said. ”We need our law enforcement to be given the tools they need, and we need our banks to get better because they are the first line of defense.”
The Justice Department contends industry needs to do more, saying the U.S. can’t prosecute its way out the problem.
“Private industry — including the tech, retail, banking, fintech, and telecommunications sectors — must make it harder for fraudsters to defraud victims and harder to launder victim proceeds,” the agency said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Banking industry officials told a Senate subcommittee in May they are investing heavily in new technologies to stop fraud, “and some hold great promise.” The American Bankers Association says it’s working on a program to coordinate real-time communication among banks to better flag suspicious activity and reduce the flow of stolen funds.
But industry officials said the banks cannot singlehandedly prevent fraud. They said the U.S. needs an overarching national strategy to combat scammers, calling the federal government’s current efforts disjointed and uncoordinated.
Law enforcement agencies and industry need to join forces to fight fraud more quickly and efficiently, said Finta, the former FBI agent, who launched a nonprofit called the National Elder Fraud Coordination Center to cultivate better cooperation between law enforcement and major corporations like Walmart, Amazon and Google.
“There's very, very smart people and there's very powerful, wealthy companies that want this to stop," he said. "So we do have the ability, I think, to make a greater impact and to help out our brothers and sisters in law enforcement that are struggling with this tsunami of fraud.”
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/sc ... 29024.html
SCAM AND SCAMMERS
Re: SCAM AND SCAMMERS
NY Post
73-year-old in financial ruin after scammers drain life savings from bank account in just 25 minutes
News.com.au
Tue, November 12, 2024 at 3:35 PM CST·
Little did she know this would turn into a nightmare that would see her lose her life savings — drained from her Bendigo Bank account in a matter of 25 minutes.
“It was a disaster for me,” she told news.com.au.
The Melbourne woman had called the number that claimed to be from Microsoft, which popped up to alert her of the virus on her computer in May.
Gay de Beer was working on her laptop when her screen went black and a message popped up that she had a major virus.
She was told someone was trying to get into her PayPal account and her debit card details had been leaked too.
“Maybe I was bulldozed but I kept on listening and I asked if it was scam,” she said.
“I gave them access to my computer and they said they would put a stop to it and I was watching what they were doing.”
De Beer had fallen victim to a remote access scam. From 12:26 pm to 1pm the scammers transferred out the entirety of her lifesavings — all $44,000.
However, she realized the grave situation while the transfers were still being made and said she rushed out the door to a Bendigo Bank branch just five minutes down the road.
She is angry that at least the final transaction wasn’t stopped as she was in the bank branch while it was happening.
She is also critical the funds in some instances were transferred with numbers and letters that made no sense as the name of the transaction. She can’t understand why Bendigo Bank’s systems did not pick up the unusual fraudulent activity.
Tragically, the loss of the funds has left her suicidal, she said, claiming there has been no empathy from Bendigo Bank over the fact she has lost her lifesavings.
“That was my safety for paying for my car and rent, you name it, I do a little bit of bookkeeping and ride share to supplement my pension,” she said.
“Otherwise I have nothing and no one and I have no family in Australia.”
The 73-year-old is absolutely scathing that one of the transfers was made into another Bendigo Bank account, according to what police told her, yet only $7500 of the funds have been recovered.
She said the four transfers were amounts of $19,900, $9900, $4900 and $9400.
de Beer is also critical that it appears scammers just get away with their crimes.
“I’ve got the names of the two accounts that the money was transferred into, so why can’t the police track these people down and get the money back?” she asked.
“Bendigo Bank said I was totally and wholly responsible for the transactions as I gave them access through my biometrics. I’m absolutely sh*tting myself thinking I have lost all my money.”
She has been badly impacted by the experience.
“My mental health has gone to the wall, every time I need to do something I need to think I can I afford to do this? I’ve had problems with my back and can’t afford to do ongoing treatment as its $80 a pop and I don’t have money on hand,” she said.
“That money was to service my car and live on for what is rest of my life and now I have nothing.
“I’m on the pension and get $540 a week and my rent is $270 and that is my only permanent income.”
She has taken her case to AFCA and in a recent conciliation meeting was offered a goodwill payment of $2000 by Bendigo Bank, which she has rejected.
Banks are required to pay AFCA money as part of the complaints process.
“Why don’t they put the money back in my account rather than paying AFCA? The profit Bendigo Bank made in the last six months just makes you shiver.
“They should have a contingency fund for when situations like this occur as it’s caused mental anguish.”
For the 2024 financial year, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank reported profit after tax of $545 million up 9.7 per cent for the year.
The bookkeeper is also critical that the transfer limit can be increased with a “click of a button” rather than imposing strict security systems, adding she had never transferred such large amounts of money in the history of her account.
“They upped the limit to $50,000 and I haven’t even got $50,000,” she added.
de Beer is also scathing that Bendigo Bank refunded Australian comedy pioneer Rod Quantock his savings of $30,000 after he transferred the money into a scammer’s account when he was told he had been hacked. The goodwill payment only came after he spoke out to the media.
“They paid Rod the $30,000 he lost and he did it himself. It was cut and dried that he transferred the money into the account. This has set a precedent,” she added.
“Mine went out in four lots but I wasn’t the one transferring it.
“I really am at my wits end and feel that these monies should be reimbursed and not just offered a measly $2000.”
Another Bendigo Bank customer Sylvie Leber also fell victim to a similar scam in March this year losing her lifesavings of $20,000,
Her daughter has been left furious, arguing that scam victims are treated appallingly as they are accused of being careless rather than classified as victims.
A Bendigo Bank spokesperson said it protects the privacy of its customers and does not comment on specific matters.
“Bendigo Bank takes cyber security very seriously, protecting our customers and safeguarding our systems with a variety of cybercrime prevention methods. By working together with our customers, we can even further reduce the incidence of scams and fraud,” they said.
“It is important customers take steps to protect themselves and do not share their passwords or allow someone they don’t know or trust to log in to their computer remotely, as it is extremely difficult to recover money that has been transferred to scammers.”
Bendigo Bank attempts to recover funds lost to scams wherever possible and it goes without saying when the bank is at fault, we will reimburse customers for the loss of funds, they added.
“Each instance of fraud and financial crime is unique, and every scam loss is treated with equal care and consideration. Goodwill payments are sometimes made at the discretion of the bank and may take into account a variety of factors.”
Bendigo Bank continues to work with our financial sector peers, fintech companies, government, regulators, and law enforcement agencies to combat what is an organised criminal activity, they added.
“The Bank’s security staff remain vigilant and work closely with Australian cybersecurity agencies, intelligence, and technology partners to detect any malicious or abnormal behaviour,” they said.
“In the financial year ending 30 June 2024, the Bank stopped $34.4 million in fraudulent transactions. The Bank has tightened transaction rules blocking high-risk payments to cryptocurrency exchanges, removed all unexpected links from SMS messages and significantly increased the size of its fraud prevention and response team.
“The bank has added more than 400 phone and fax numbers to our telco provider’s ‘do not originate’ list that will prevent scammers from impersonating our people.”
Bendigo Bank has also recently introduced advanced security tool, NameCheck, which is now being used to screen all payments made by Bendigo Bank and Up customers whenever they enter the BSB and account number for a new payee, they said.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/cm/ ... 09484.html
73-year-old in financial ruin after scammers drain life savings from bank account in just 25 minutes
News.com.au
Tue, November 12, 2024 at 3:35 PM CST·
Little did she know this would turn into a nightmare that would see her lose her life savings — drained from her Bendigo Bank account in a matter of 25 minutes.
“It was a disaster for me,” she told news.com.au.
The Melbourne woman had called the number that claimed to be from Microsoft, which popped up to alert her of the virus on her computer in May.
Gay de Beer was working on her laptop when her screen went black and a message popped up that she had a major virus.
She was told someone was trying to get into her PayPal account and her debit card details had been leaked too.
“Maybe I was bulldozed but I kept on listening and I asked if it was scam,” she said.
“I gave them access to my computer and they said they would put a stop to it and I was watching what they were doing.”
De Beer had fallen victim to a remote access scam. From 12:26 pm to 1pm the scammers transferred out the entirety of her lifesavings — all $44,000.
However, she realized the grave situation while the transfers were still being made and said she rushed out the door to a Bendigo Bank branch just five minutes down the road.
She is angry that at least the final transaction wasn’t stopped as she was in the bank branch while it was happening.
She is also critical the funds in some instances were transferred with numbers and letters that made no sense as the name of the transaction. She can’t understand why Bendigo Bank’s systems did not pick up the unusual fraudulent activity.
Tragically, the loss of the funds has left her suicidal, she said, claiming there has been no empathy from Bendigo Bank over the fact she has lost her lifesavings.
“That was my safety for paying for my car and rent, you name it, I do a little bit of bookkeeping and ride share to supplement my pension,” she said.
“Otherwise I have nothing and no one and I have no family in Australia.”
The 73-year-old is absolutely scathing that one of the transfers was made into another Bendigo Bank account, according to what police told her, yet only $7500 of the funds have been recovered.
She said the four transfers were amounts of $19,900, $9900, $4900 and $9400.
de Beer is also critical that it appears scammers just get away with their crimes.
“I’ve got the names of the two accounts that the money was transferred into, so why can’t the police track these people down and get the money back?” she asked.
“Bendigo Bank said I was totally and wholly responsible for the transactions as I gave them access through my biometrics. I’m absolutely sh*tting myself thinking I have lost all my money.”
She has been badly impacted by the experience.
“My mental health has gone to the wall, every time I need to do something I need to think I can I afford to do this? I’ve had problems with my back and can’t afford to do ongoing treatment as its $80 a pop and I don’t have money on hand,” she said.
“That money was to service my car and live on for what is rest of my life and now I have nothing.
“I’m on the pension and get $540 a week and my rent is $270 and that is my only permanent income.”
She has taken her case to AFCA and in a recent conciliation meeting was offered a goodwill payment of $2000 by Bendigo Bank, which she has rejected.
Banks are required to pay AFCA money as part of the complaints process.
“Why don’t they put the money back in my account rather than paying AFCA? The profit Bendigo Bank made in the last six months just makes you shiver.
“They should have a contingency fund for when situations like this occur as it’s caused mental anguish.”
For the 2024 financial year, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank reported profit after tax of $545 million up 9.7 per cent for the year.
The bookkeeper is also critical that the transfer limit can be increased with a “click of a button” rather than imposing strict security systems, adding she had never transferred such large amounts of money in the history of her account.
“They upped the limit to $50,000 and I haven’t even got $50,000,” she added.
de Beer is also scathing that Bendigo Bank refunded Australian comedy pioneer Rod Quantock his savings of $30,000 after he transferred the money into a scammer’s account when he was told he had been hacked. The goodwill payment only came after he spoke out to the media.
“They paid Rod the $30,000 he lost and he did it himself. It was cut and dried that he transferred the money into the account. This has set a precedent,” she added.
“Mine went out in four lots but I wasn’t the one transferring it.
“I really am at my wits end and feel that these monies should be reimbursed and not just offered a measly $2000.”
Another Bendigo Bank customer Sylvie Leber also fell victim to a similar scam in March this year losing her lifesavings of $20,000,
Her daughter has been left furious, arguing that scam victims are treated appallingly as they are accused of being careless rather than classified as victims.
A Bendigo Bank spokesperson said it protects the privacy of its customers and does not comment on specific matters.
“Bendigo Bank takes cyber security very seriously, protecting our customers and safeguarding our systems with a variety of cybercrime prevention methods. By working together with our customers, we can even further reduce the incidence of scams and fraud,” they said.
“It is important customers take steps to protect themselves and do not share their passwords or allow someone they don’t know or trust to log in to their computer remotely, as it is extremely difficult to recover money that has been transferred to scammers.”
Bendigo Bank attempts to recover funds lost to scams wherever possible and it goes without saying when the bank is at fault, we will reimburse customers for the loss of funds, they added.
“Each instance of fraud and financial crime is unique, and every scam loss is treated with equal care and consideration. Goodwill payments are sometimes made at the discretion of the bank and may take into account a variety of factors.”
Bendigo Bank continues to work with our financial sector peers, fintech companies, government, regulators, and law enforcement agencies to combat what is an organised criminal activity, they added.
“The Bank’s security staff remain vigilant and work closely with Australian cybersecurity agencies, intelligence, and technology partners to detect any malicious or abnormal behaviour,” they said.
“In the financial year ending 30 June 2024, the Bank stopped $34.4 million in fraudulent transactions. The Bank has tightened transaction rules blocking high-risk payments to cryptocurrency exchanges, removed all unexpected links from SMS messages and significantly increased the size of its fraud prevention and response team.
“The bank has added more than 400 phone and fax numbers to our telco provider’s ‘do not originate’ list that will prevent scammers from impersonating our people.”
Bendigo Bank has also recently introduced advanced security tool, NameCheck, which is now being used to screen all payments made by Bendigo Bank and Up customers whenever they enter the BSB and account number for a new payee, they said.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/cm/ ... 09484.html