Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
A brand new set of dishes and a bread maker were the door prizes for Sweet Home Police Department’s monthly seminar last week.
Police Chief Bob Burford handed a stack of plastic plates and spoons to one door prize winner and a stack of tiny tins and plastic knives to another. Total value was a couple of bucks.
Across the meeting room, on a countertop sat a pair of boxes with pictures of nice set of dishes and a bread maker.
Tricks like this are the kind that con artists use to fool senior citizens and other folks, Burford said. After all, he said, he never said the prizes were those depicted on the boxes displayed on the counter.
Seniors are not particularly more vulnerable than other segments of the population, Burford said. They are often portrayed that way in the media, but they are disproportionately growing as victims of fraud.
Retired seniors are often more available than others, Burford said. “You’re home. You have a phone and time to listen.”
And seniors can sometimes be left behind by technology.
Burford said he used to laugh at his parents, who could not program a VCR, but these days when he has a computer problem at home, he has to turn to his own children to fix it, he said.
At the same time, the senior population is growing, he said. Some 13 percent of the U.S. population is above the age of 65. In Sweet Home, 17.2 percent of the population is above the age of 65, according to the 2000 census.
Burford focused on frauds perpetrated against seniors during the Sept. 19 seminar at the Police Department.
“These guys are looking to get cash from you directly or get access to your credit or credit rating,” Burford said. “They are smooth. They can fool anybody.”
They don’t get in the face and steal cash, he said. Rather, they are quite polite.
Common types of scams involved a so-called Reader’s Digest contest where a con artist calls to tell his victims they have won money. He’ll tell them they need to go to the Western Union, fill out a “green card” and send money to pay related costs. After that, he promises, the money will be sent.
In other cases, the con artist actually sends a bogus check, Burford said. He tells victims they have won money, $50,000 in all of the case samples Burford looked at.
The check, which may be written for a couple of thousand dollars, is sent as a gesture of good faith. The bogus check is supposed to be deposited, and money sent back to the con artist to pay “clearance fees” before the entire prize can be claimed.
If the victim sends a check, the con artist will ask for another after explaining that he forgot about state income taxes, for example.
“Again, they’re very nice,” Burford said. “They’ll be talking away. They’ll trade recipes with you.”
These scams can actually target anyone, Burford said. “They’re going on all the time.”
In the last five years, the chief said, he has seen an upswing in cons involving prizes, deals, opportunities and bargains. Con artists send bogus checks to hook their victims, attempting to get them to think, “It’s got to be real. Why else would they send me a check?”
Con artists get information about their victims through a variety of sources, Burford said. Sometimes, it comes from information sold by legitimate companies compiled when people provide information for subscriptions or warranties. Those often ask for an age demographic.
Other thieves operate by stealth, Burford said. They may hijack their victims’ identities and slowly drain their accounts. They may use their victims’ credit ratings to obtain credit cards or use pre-approved credit cards stolen from a mailbox, diverting them to a new address on the sign-up form.
They spend credit with no intention of ever paying it back, Burford said. A victim may be unaware that he or she has been the target of a thief until the victim attempts to get a loan or some other type of transaction and discovers his or her credit has been damaged.
“Once you’ve been a victim of identity theft, it messes you up something fierce,” Burford said, but it’s getting easier to recover.
Burford said the bottom line is: “If someone makes you an offer that seems to good to be true, it is.”
He recommends people obtain credit reports on themselves from the three major credit bureaus. By law, the bureaus will soon be required to provide one free credit report per year.
They have already started doing that, and he suggests staggering the free reports to one every four months.
The reporting agencies include Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Free annual reports can be obtained contacting them:
– Equifax, (800) 685-1111, PO Box 740241, Atlanta, GA, 30374-0241. Web address is http://www.equifax.com.
– Experian, (888)397-3742, PO Box 2002 Allen, TX, 75013. Web address is http://www.experian.com.
– TransUnion, (800)888-4213, PO Box 1000, Chester, PA, 19022. Web address is http://www.transunion.com.
All three may be reached through http://www.annualcreditreport.com.