Because of these positive stereotypes, many people have a positive impression of con artists and scammers. However, they have no qualms about taking advantage of people of various socioeconomic backgrounds, especially older people. Some con artists are well-off, with stable families and college degrees. I know an insurance salesman who spent his weekends behind bars. He was nevertheless busted for peddling fake stock, though. The con artist doesn’t find anything improper in selling artificial waterproofing for roofs or bankruptcy scams. In the words of one con artist: “First you hustle, then you get honest, then you get honored…We are almost honest.” Get the Best information about Cryptocurrency crime investigation.
While these con artists may not resort to physical force (such as entering a home or holding a gun to someone’s head), they can do far more financial harm to their victims than a robber or burglar ever could. Due to the difficulty in apprehending and convicting skilled con artists, they are rarely subjected to heavy sanctions. Caution can save you from wasting your time, money, sanity, and pride. Catching con artists in the act may be somewhat entertaining.
CHARITIES
Most of us automatically pull out our money when we hear causes related to healthcare, animal welfare, developing nations, or children in need. But the general public tends to overlook that anyone with a clipboard and some bluster can pretend to be a charity.
I made a common mistake when writing my book, One Less Victim. A lovely girl knocks on my home, saying she’s doing a walk-a-Thon to raise money for medical research. I was willing to part with a few dollars if the story lived up to its promise. The girl thanked me, took the money, and moved to the next apartment.
I didn’t get that “Something’s wrong” feeling until I locked my front door. When the girl rang up my purchase, there were the following:
1. There is no designated charity phone number;
2. There was no receipt;
3. Donation was not documented;
What system did she use to tally up the generosity of each person?
I’d been tricked.
Even so, two dollars is two dollars. So, I looked around the building and discovered the charity girl talking to a random resident. I told her to leave the building immediately and demanded my two bucks back. Then, I went to the police station and submitted a report afterward.
Remember that scammers can know when you are home and potentially break in later even if they don’t collect from you directly.
TELEMARKETING
A fundraiser manager had questioned me, “Did you get the money off of ol’ _______ _____? Wasn’t he a bag of hammers, buying ten tickets and not even going to the game.”
I was a nighttime courier picking up donations for a nonprofit organization. I was appalled by how often the fundraisers from a corporation named “Child Find, B.C.” belittled the donors who had so generously given their own money. Even though some of the donors were not the richest, they bought tickets so disadvantaged kids in Vancouver could attend a basketball game featuring the police and a professional team. The mayor and several notables were among those who secured access to the game. However, I can promise you that the fundraisers kept a sizable portion of the proceeds they generated. Unfortunately, the office abruptly closed the day before the game, leaving no contact information or forwarding address.
MEDICAL ITEMS
A boiler room-style operation can sell anything, including healthy food. For example, a prosperous Portuguese property manager I met at a conference was liquidating his holdings to devote himself full-time to promoting a dietary supplement.
GeForce was the name of the product. People were left with large quantities of decent health product after it was actively pushed through a multi-level marketing organization. The manager/owner maintained that it was the most significant medicinal advancement since penicillin because it treated his constipation (as could some dietary fiber). He took me to the Winnipeg headquarters to sell me on the fantastic opportunity. Unfortunately, it smacked of a boiler room setup too much. Specifically, it was a cramped, smoke-filled office with a handful of obese chain smokers making cold calls to promote the product. Customers would likely spend more money if they could observe these “health experts” in operation.
I learned the property owner had significant financial losses but finally bounced back. The GeForce Corporation was penalized by the Canadian government for violating the MLM provisions of the Competition Act. This suggests that the GeoForce Corporation misled investors about the true profitability of their investments.
There have been quick fixes for losing weight and gaining muscle for decades. Unfortunately, most scams stand out for their absurd claims and rapid fixes, such as La Mar Reducing Soap, which promised to wash away fat from the body. That’s a red flag to me when unhealthy folks promote dietary supplements. Typically, this person has difficulty using the stairwell, but they’ll spend the entire ascent reflecting on how great their miracle nutritional supplements are. In actuality, they are seeking to unload cases they purchased to someone else.
If you have concerns about a service or “financial opportunity,” you should check with the BBB or a federal consumer agency. They can potentially spare you a lot of stress, money, and perhaps even your marriage.
CLUB GYMS
Like the weather, health spas can be unpredictable. Fitness centers that lock members into one-year contracts and then leave town are a problem, even if lifetime subscriptions are in the same city; I saw the management of a fitness center do this three times over four years. He also stole money from the credit card account of a club member. The last time I heard, he had beaten the fraud accusations in court by arguing that he had an ill aunt.
Sign up for at least three months and pay by cheque or cash. Don’t give away your credit card number, and keep your receipts.
PLEASE HOLD ON TO THIS MONEY
The pigeon drop is a classic con. This con has numerous variations, but they always begin with the mark (the victim) and a stranger “finding money.” The effect is then requested to put up some money to demonstrate good faith before they seek a valid owner. For instance, an retarded individual approaches you, offering some old coins he discovered in a back alley. If you call the number on the envelope, the “owner” of the cash will give you $500 for the envelope. The owner of the envelope requests that you compensate the person who discovered it. After paying the finder monetarily, you take the worthless coins back to their rightful owner. Unfortunately, the owner won’t be available.
One more complex tactic is getting a letter or email from a group, typically based in a developing nation, pleading for your help holding their money. They only need your bank account number from you. They say they’ll wire you hundreds of thousands of dollars, then pay you a cut when they withdraw the money. All your money in the bank is taken from you. Data is a commercial good. Please keep it safe.
ATMs
There is a high potential for theft and fraud at ATMs. When a victim’s bank card becomes trapped in an ATM, that’s an example of a scam. A nearby well-dressed person reports the same issue and advises you to re-enter your card. You try again and again, but eventually, give up and leave. Later, the con artist uses pliers to free your card from a plastic sheath that had been jamming it. The scam artist then makes a large cash withdrawal and disappears.
ONLINE SNAGs
Items offered online for a fraction of their actual cost are often misrepresented as more expensive models. As a result, the vendor, frequently a minor, makes tens of thousands of dollars before giving up or getting arrested. Using reputable online marketplaces like eBay ® is the best way to avoid being scammed.
The riskier aspect is downloading “free software,” which can give hackers access to your computer and personal data. Names, addresses, and credit card numbers may be collected. It would be best to use the same caution with your computer as your home.
THE PARTICULARLY BAD SAMARITAN
Mark’s car tire goes flat in the middle of the city. A helpful couple drops by to offer their services. One of the two steals Mark’s wallet while he is distracted by the tire replacement. The target may not want to make a fuss even if they do react. In another version, the mark rewards the sympathetic couple monetarily for their assistance. (Even though they slashed the tire, to begin with.)
Having a Bad Day
If I had a penny for every time a stranger told me they were “down on their luck,” “financially kicked in the teeth,” or “my mother just died,” I could retire today. For example, a Canadian couple in Burnaby, British Columbia, was approached by a man after midnight outside of a 24-hour grocery shop (guess where). The guy asked the couple if they could cash a cheque for him because his front axle had just broken.
The man showed his checkbook and driver’s license. The stranger offered the couple $20 and then $50 to cash the cheque. So, they cashed his cheque for $550 at their ATM and took $50 for themselves. The guy later asked them to cash him a second $100 check. The bank contacted 48 hours later to inform the couple that the cheques had bounced and that, with the overdraft fees, they now owed more than $900. Jason M., the victim, was. and Neilson agreed, saying, “The guy seemed like a genuine blue-collar worker down on his luck.” The time and location of the scam should be noted once more. Victims were also financially vulnerable in most cases, making them more likely to take risks with their money.
CONGRATS, YOU JUST WON
These show up in the mailbox every once in a while. Scratch-off or customized number cards boast instantaneous results. You are instructed to dial a 1-900 number once you have finished a grade 3 level competency question. The other party in a phone call will gladly accept your dollar-per-minute rate if you keep them on the line for an extended period. Your award could be coming to you after waiting for a while. But all you get for your efforts is a big phone bill.
False award notifications and subscription offer flood my mailbox regularly. Everything from excursions to Sin City to exotic Eastern financial ideas is on the table. The fact that this gang of con artists has used the exact location for the past nine years is my biggest clue. They are still operating since they have not been shut down or bothered to update their address.
WARM INVESTMENT ADVICE
Scammers are easily identifiable by their massive egos. Once, a man named Jim Fisher approached me and a few of my pals about investing in a business called Horizontal Drilling. That cutting-edge technique was expected to allow oil drillers to bore horizontally beneath the earth’s surface and reach several oil reserves.
The guy’s constant boasting made me wonder if he was telling the truth about the project’s success. My suspicions were raised when his girlfriend began to add her bragging to the conversation. There was something about their superiority complex that felt all too familiar from past “great deals” I’ve encountered. Furthermore, neither of them had any experience in oil drilling. As a result, they came off as little more than some empty chatter.
I stopped by the B.C. bookstore the following week. The commission on securities. Indeed, Horizontal Drilling was among the most prominent scams of the year. After contacting the commission, it became clear that Jim Fisher was a well-known figure who had been accused of theft and fraud. This indicates that there were just two instances in which he was apprehended, convicted, and charged. All the times he got away with nothing are ignored. That he was getting away with more fraud than he was accused of was evident.
SHARES ADVERTISING
Stocks are sold to generate capital for a business. Commissions compensate stock brokers for their services. They use various sales techniques to convince investors to purchase a stock, regardless of whether or not the stock’s value would increase. In his book License to Steal, several of these forms of pressure are described in detail by Timothy Harper. One day, a worker wearing protective rubber boots passes a stock broker’s office. After glancing at the overshoes, the broker continued his phone conversation with his customer, saying, “Listen, Tony Galoshes is heavily into this stock and thinks it could double by the end of the year.”
Time pressure is a common tactic used by con artists. For example, a couple of brokers I’ve spoken with have insisted to me how hot a stock is (like Northern Telecom in 2002), and then a few days later, the stock plummeted. What is their rationale? A more appropriate response would have been, “You should have gotten in earlier.”
Hype is one thing, but outright lying is another. Stock market prediction is one approach. Say you get a call or letter with a “hot tip” that the price of gold is going up. You shrug it off, but the price of gold does soar in a matter of weeks. The same company approaches you later to warn you that silver prices are about to decrease. And sure enough, it does in a matter of weeks. So far, it’s a perfect 2-0.
The following piece of information guarantees that the price of Galium arsenide, the “new silicon chip replacement,” is about to skyrocket, and you, oh selected one, are urged to invest soon. As in, “Even Tony Galoshes is investing!”
This “broker” has called around 400 people, telling 200 that the price of gold is rising and the other 200 that it is falling. If the price of gold rises, he’ll call the 200 people he said about it. In his second presentation, he predicted that the cost of silver would rise by 100 individuals while simultaneously convincing another 100 that it would fall. If you are among the lucky 100, you have just been exposed to two astoundingly prescient statements. Maybe you, like the other 99 people, are considering taking a chance on a few grand. It will be lost forever if you do that.
CONTRACT LABOR
Companies in the contracting, sales (such as vacuum cleaners), and haulage industries are notorious for failing suddenly and leaving workers underpaid. When a business fails to make ends meet, it declares bankruptcy. Sometimes a business owner will intentionally shut down. Con artist that M. One time, Shane boasted, “I’ve gone bankrupt at least thirty times, and my credit is great!”
A red flag is raised when a corporation informs a new hire that “the product sells itself” and that they, the employee, must make a financial investment in the company. Newly arrived people are always strolling about with boxes of knives, tool sets, and appliances they are attempting to sell. I wish they would declare that they are not medical students seeking to accrue points for a free trip to Europe. Their sales boss dumped them off at the end of the street and told them to knock on every home on the block, so that’s the only reason they’re trying to sell these products. They are helpless to stop their door-to-door pursuit because they lack transportation.
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