$1bn in fraudulent schemes designed to prey
on vulnerable people in 2020 alone.
Federal and state authorities
in the United States say they
are cracking down on a
wave of illegal schemes that
have proliferated during the
pandemic and prey upon the
desperation of people who
have lost jobs in the outbreak’s
economic upheaval.
The scams have ranged from
the work-from-home reselling
of luxury products to pyramid
schemes soliciting cash and
that play on cultural norms
in immigrant communities, to
fraudulent investment rackets
promising quick profits.
Regulators on Monday unveiled
what they are calling “Operation
Income Illusion”, a yearlong
nationwide law-enforcement
sweep targeting the scammers.
Consumers lost an estimated
$1bn in the schemes since the
start of 2020.
Especially vulnerable targets are
seniors and retirees, immigrants,
Black and Latino people,
students and military families.
Losses reported by consumers
from the schemes rose to the
highest level on record in the
first nine months of the year
at more than $150m, Andrew
Smith, director of the Federal
Trade Commission’s consumer
protection bureau, told reporters
in a conference call.
Officials estimate only a
small fraction of the burned
consumers report their losses to
authorities.
“These scammers are taking
advantage of a desperate
situation to rip money from the
hands of those who most need
it,” Smith said.
The FTC conducted the sweep
along with nine states, federal
prosecutors in Arkansas,
Arizona and California, several
local law enforcement agencies,
and the US Securities and
Exchange Commission and
Commodity Futures Trading
Commission.
“There are people out there
whose job it is to steal your
money,” Maryland Attorney
General Brian Frosh said on the
conference call.
He said his office is seeing
growing numbers of cases
involving affinity fraud, a form
of pyramid scheme in which
consumers are urged to tap
friends, family, and church or
ethnic-community members for
money in addition to their own
payment.
A scam promoting investments
in bitcoin was among them,
Frosh said. His office also has
brought several cases against
sellers of phoney franchises.
In addition to Maryland, the
states participating in the
sweep are Arizona, Arkansas,
California, Florida, Indiana,
New Hampshire, Oregon and
Pennsylvania.
FTC
On Tuesday, Sep 24th, the FTC along with Ethnic Media Services,many local media and ethnic Journalists, FBI, Legal Aid, experts from several agencies for a robust and informative session. How to Protect Yourself A great resource to learn about avoiding scams is...
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