More and more people, especially middle aged and on, are falling prey to scams.

And the number of potential scams for people to be aware of are almost too many to contemplate.

Worse, the likelihood of the police catching those behind phone, online or door-to-door scams is almost non-existent.

However, a Cranbrook RCMP Detachment officer wants to educate the public to be aware of the potential they could be a victim of fraud and scam artists.

“Nobody has the money to lose to these guys,” Cst. Louis Saule told e-KNOW.

“We’ve received quite a number of complaints of scams lately,” he said, adding, “The people who are usually caught in these are of the age where they have grandchildren.”

Scammers commonly tap into the rich vein of unconditional love, often shown by grandparents, he said.

A scammer will uncover enough information about a given individual and call a grandparent, claiming to be a grandchild in trouble and in need of immediate financial support – with the clause “please don’t tell my parents,” Saule said.

“They prey on your emotions and they kind of make you a bit of an accomplice,” he said, because they get people to agree not to double check on what might be up with the grandchild in question.

“I mean, which young person wants to admit to their parents that they’ve got themselves in trouble, right?” Saule suggested.

Another scam that has circulated through Cranbrook and area involves online advertising, such as Craigslist or Kijiji.

“One in particular was a student who responded to an ad looking for a house to rent. A beautiful ad, nice photos, everything else and so the student contacted the seller by email, the only type of contact, and expressed some interest, wanting to see the place. The suspect sent the student an email back saying, ‘Well, I don’t have a problem with you seeing the place but I live a long distance away, so I kind of want a commitment from you, demonstrating that you are really interested. I don’t want to make the trip for nothing’. The scammer convinces the victim to send a Western Union or Money-gram money voucher for the first month’s rent and damage deposit to demonstrate that they are really interested.’ The scammer asks that the money be sent in a relative’s name.

“’Don’t make it out in my name; just send it to a relative’s name and then once you’ve done that, you can give me the transaction number so I can verify with Money-gram or Western Union that the money was in fact sent and then I’ll know the money is there and you are interested,’” Saule described. “So the victim sent the money transfer to somebody’s name – a girlfriend, a boyfriend or somebody else and he/she emails the scammer back saying ‘here’s the reference number and the transaction number.’ The scammer forges ID in the name of the receiver and is able to pick up the money anywhere in Canada. There is very little the police can do to track these people.

“It’s really, really hard to trace them. They use fake ID, they may or may not be from that particular area; usually the money gets picked up in a big metropolitan city where thousands of people come and go. It’s virtually impossible to catch them,” Cst. Saule admitted.

Such scams can be devastating to students who have finite funds to get through school years after working all summer, he said.

“It’s really despicable,” he said.

Hand-in-hand with such scams is identity theft.

Cst. Saule said too many people make their personal information too readily available.

“So far, what I have been able to determine is that once you’ve been a victim of identity theft, you’re likely to be a victim of it again as your information is passed on or sold from criminal to criminal. Where we see problems with identity theft is criminals applying for credit using other peoples’ names and information. I don’t know how scammers obtain the information but information is easily collected nowadays – from Facebook to the Internet, to people having an innocent conversation in a restaurant, which is overheard by someone else.

Old scams continue to linger, Saule said, such as the Nigerian money-laundering scheme (also called 419 scams) that surfaced in the 1990s on the Internet and in people’s mail, and similar cons.

“We investigated one file where somebody received an email from another country saying ‘I’m a lawyer representing this person who died seven years ago, who died in North Africa somewhere and we think that person is related to you. We have a considerable amount of money, a few million dollars, and if the money doesn’t get claimed it is going to revert to the state because of the statute of limitations.’ So you start thinking, ‘people are very mobile these days. I’ve got relatives all over the world, is it possible I have a relative in Africa who died I didn’t know about and lost touch with?” Once you’re on-board, the scammers ask for money to pay the estate tax or some other administrative fee and they may ask that the money be sent to a bank overseas. Then they start nickel and diming you, saying ‘we need more money for this and that and before you know it you are on the hook for thousands of dollars,” he noted.

“In our case, after the scammers had communicated with the victim for a while and the victim had sent them money for this and that, the scammers contacted the victim again telling them, “All we have to do is get you the money now. To avoid paying exit taxes on it when the money is taking out of the country, we can get it out in cash. Someone we know works as a diplomatic agent overseas and they are coming to Canada and are willing to transport the money for you for a small fee. There is a process that banks all over the world use to transfer large amounts of cash without having to worry about security by treating the money with a chemical that erases the ink on it, essentially rendering it worthless to anyone but someone who has the chemicals to treat it again. The money now white pieces of paper can be transported without being stolen as people who don’t know think it’s just paper.  Once it reaches its destination, the paper is treated again and the ink comes back.”

The scammers, using sleight of hand, a real $100 bill and some water demonstrate this to the victim to create some peace of mind and trust. They explain that the chemical is tightly controlled and very expensive so they need money to buy it.  The victim is convinced this is plausible. When you’ve been told that millions of dollars are within your reach, what’s a $100,000 more? After the victim pays and the scammers feel that they can’t get any more money from them, they cut contact.

Being taken in scams isn’t unusual, Cst. Saule said, noting that over the years unsuspecting people have been sold the Eiffel Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Statue of Liberty, among other con jobs.

“I guess it can happen to anybody,” he shrugged.

So how do people dodge scammers?

Going back to the scam where a thief is preying on a grandparent trying to help out a loved one, Saule recommends, “There are steps people can take. If people receive a phone call saying ‘I’m your grandson, I need you to send me some money by Western Union,’ the first thing I would do is obtain the information then try to get in contact with him directly by means you’ve contacted him before. And if you are able to contact him, the chances are that you are going to discover the call was a scam.”

The old adage often recited by police offers trying to make people aware of scammers is ‘if it is too good to be true, it probably is.’

However, Cst. Saule pointed out, “There are windfalls,” so due diligence is always recommended.

“You need to check things out to make sure you are not being taken,” he said.

“Nowadays, with the ease with which documents can be forged, what your eyes see may look real or authentic and not be. These scammers are usually very well organized. In a way, it is organized crime,” and adding to the difficulty police have in catching scam artists is they often convince an intermediary to do the dirty work, such as retrieve the funds.

Sadly, criminals have a large sea of people to go after, Cst. Saule said.

“If you can reach one per cent of the population, that is a lot of money” available to pinch for scammers, he said.

Keeping your Facebook or Linked-In profile clean of vital information and making use of high security settings can help reduce the odds of being taken in a scam, he suggested.

“A lot of information is available on social networks; your friends, who you are related to, what you like, where you’ve been and when,” he said. “There is lots of information. People also put their birthdate out on Facebook, where they work, etc. It’s amazing the trust that we have.”

“Get educated; learn, learn, learn what kind of scams are out there. Go to Google, do inquiries and read up on it. If you get a phone call and you don’t know who it is from, don’t get involved – step back and call the police to verify things. It’s so easy these days to forge an email or fake a text message or phone number. If you don’t know about these things, you can easily be taken in and believe what you see,” he said.

Saule advises that if people receive an email asking for information such as passwords, birthdates, “or to click a button – don’t – just delete it.”

Most online banking services have security protocols to spare people from scams and if you have concerns, call your bank personally and enquire about the call or email you’ve received to verify authenticity.

Another “scary” aspect of the current and growing trend of Internet and online scamming is the large gulf that remains between those who have a strong understanding of the digital world and those who have no clue about it.

Saule said last year there were 32.3 million computer users who were victims of scams around the world, with most coming from “phishing” scams.

“The scammers send thousands and thousands of emails which look like they are from legitimate companies or banking institutions telling the receiver that there is a problem with their account and they need to click on the link provided and log in to their account hoping to catch a small percentage of potential victims off guard. The link takes the victim to a fake website and asks them to log in giving the scammer access to whatever information the victim enters. Now the scammer doesn’t only have the victim’s email address, they also have their log-in name/username and password,” he related.

Another way people can reduce the odds of being scammed online is to use different passwords for different accounts and change your password often.

“Most people keep the same user name and password for multiple accounts, so if a scammer only has a person’s email address and password, once you access their email, you have access to a lot on information. Whenever you register on a website, that website sends you a confirmation email, sometime a password by email, updates making it easy for someone who has access to your email account to determine what other accounts you may have. ”

Phishing isn’t just restricted to email, it is also performed on the Internet on secure websites, so be careful what you click on should pop ups or sidebar pages appear, Saule warned.

“We are so geared to giving information whenever we register on a website. From passwords, passphrases and security questions” he said, pointing out that some of the questions posed, for example, as back-up security, are often as simple as “Where were you born?” or “What is your mother’s maiden name?” and such information is readily available online nowadays.

“It doesn’t take long to find out that information.”

A way to avoid being stung, Saule said, is to “make up the answer. Don’t give your mother’s real maiden name and then that way, if someone knows your mother’s maiden name, they won’t be able to use that answer to try to access your account. Don’t necessarily answer the question you are asked with a real answer, but you have to remember what it is.”

Another solid piece of advice offered by the Constable is “never write your password(s) down.”

Also, mix up passwords with combinations of upper case and lower case letters, numbers, special characters and make them as difficult as possible to decipher, for even a close friend to figure out, he said.

“I’d sure like to know how much money is lost annually in Canada to scams. It’s has to be huge,” he said.

Saule concluded by recommending to the public to not hesitate calling the RCMP if they suspect they’ve been targeted in a potential scam.

“We may be able to check into it and find out if it is a genuine thing or determine that it is a scam. People can and should do their own research first but if they are still not sure, then they should call us,” he said.

Following the interview with Cst. Saule, e-KNOW asked via Twitter if anyone had any more information about scams.

Windermere resident Jesse Nicholas replied (at the end of July), “I’m getting the Air Miles call scam from an Invermere number. Have you heard from anyone else in the valley getting these calls?”

Remember, if you come upon a ‘deal’ or an unexpected windfall that seems too good to be true, do your due diligence before providing any information.

A good source site to get more information about scams is:

http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/english/recognizeit.html

or try: http://www.onguardonline.gov/topics/avoid-scams

or: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/money/consumer-protection/beware-of-these-scams/overview/index.htm

Cst. Louie Saule can be reached at: 250-489-3471.

Ian Cobb/e-KNOW

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