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Chapter 1: What personal experience led to the discussion about scams?
You know, I like to think that I'm a relatively smart and savvy guy, although some might disagree. Smart enough to sniff out a scam pretty quickly anyway. And yet, just recently, I almost fell for one. It was a scam text message, one of the seemingly dozens that I get every week now. And you probably received a similar message.
It was one of those fake toll notifications where you're told that you owe money because you passed a toll booth without paying. And the reason that it almost worked on me and kind of tripped me up is that I had recently done exactly that when I was out of state. I came up on the toll, didn't have an easy pass, didn't have any cash on me, so I just blew through it.
like an irresponsible citizen, and I knew I'd get a ticket and figured I'd just pay it whenever it comes in. It just so happens that a few days after my dastardly toll-dodging crime, I got this text message. So my first reaction was to take it at face value. The text said I had an unpaid toll. I did, in fact, have an unpaid toll.
So I was just about to click the link, but then I thought better of it. I realized that they probably wouldn't send a text to get me to pay a toll. And also the wording of the text was weirdly aggressive, threatening that my license might be imminently suspended if I don't pay right away, which, of course, is not true. So on second thought, it seemed suspicious.
And then on third thought, I realized that it was very obviously a scam and I was an idiot for even considering clicking on the link. So I deleted the text and moved on, slightly embarrassed. Still haven't gotten the ticket for the toll, by the way. But this put things in perspective. If I could...
comes somewhat close to falling for a scam as a relatively young, emphasis on relatively vigilant adult who's very familiar with the internet and all these different scams. And it stands to reason that elderly people are getting ripped off constantly.
As a 39-year-old, my general familiarity with these kinds of scams was enough to set off the alarm bells at the last minute, stop me from doing something really stupid. But if I was your 75-year-old grandfather, it'd be a different story. Now, put another way, enormous amounts of money are being stolen primarily by foreigners who despise this country.
This problem has long since reached epidemic levels. The vast majority of Americans have been targeted by attempted scams, are targeted all the time. In fact, the majority of Americans receive scam calls and texts weekly, if not daily. And a lot of Americans are losing a lot of money, sometimes their life savings because of it. Now, we have... No idea where specifically that money is going.
And when you understand the implications of this theft, then you quickly realize that this is a genuine national security crisis. It's not a civil matter or a nuisance or anything like that. Bombs should be dropped. That's not an exaggeration. This is one foreign intervention that every rational American would support wholeheartedly without any reservation. It's also very easy to do.
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Chapter 2: How do scammers manipulate victims into believing their schemes?
They're moving fast. You'll have to be careful, be alert, be aware. And the FBI says Erica is not alone. Where are we seeing these QR scams happening? Unfortunately, they're relatively widespread. They are happening in parking lots. They're happening in areas where you may anticipate this is a legitimate QR code and I'll scan it, but somebody has altered it.
Fake QR codes aren't just misdirecting your payment in garages like this one. The FBI telling us thieves often use QR codes to take your money and steal other important personal information. What happens when you scan a QR code that isn't the one you're supposed to be scanning? They can give the criminal access to your phone, which then allows them access to any apps that you normally use.
It can also drop some sort of computer intrusion type of software that can alter your phone and steal credentials and that sort of thing.
So the QR code scam is most effective when it's done in real life, just like this. Nobody thinks twice when they scan the QR code at the local parking lot because they want to get out of there as quickly as possible. And on top of that, it's hard to imagine that anybody would actually go through the trouble of messing up with the payment terminal of a parking lot.
But the QR codes are slightly less effective when they're used for text message scams, where they're becoming more prevalent. Take a look at these two letters, which were just sent to my producer over the last week via text message. As you can see there, other than location, they're very similar.
They threaten some kind of enforcement action if you don't pay the fine for toll evasion, as well as speeding and some unexplained parking violations. So they really covered their bases with this scam. just accuse you of committing every imaginable parking infraction in the hopes that you'll say to yourself, well, I must have done at least one of those.
But in order to clear this violation, you're directed to a QR code in the bottom right of the letter. And when you follow that QR code, you're taken to a website with a very strange name, something about puffer jackets, which is obviously a red flag. But if you don't notice the URL, the first thing you'll be asked to do is confirm that you're a human.
It looks like a normal verification step, which you'll see on any number of websites. But in reality, it's a way to download a virus to your computer. Watch.
Okay guys, I am really alarmed by this new scam going around and I am someone who covers consumer news and scams for a living. So I could really see a lot of people falling for this one. So you know those capture boxes you have to click I'm not a robot on? Well, scammers have found a way to create fake versions of this that look real.
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Chapter 3: What types of scams are most prevalent today?
So the problem is bad, and it's getting worse. And even now, it's worse than it looks, and it looks pretty bad. And in particular, older people are getting hit the hardest, as you might expect. As you can see on the graphic there, people over the age of 60 are reporting more scams than any other age group. And they're losing more money as well.
And what's interesting about this chart is that the number of reported scams drops by quite a bit, around 30,000 between the ages of 50 and 59. And then after that age group, the number jumps up again. And you can come up with your own theory as to why that might be the case.
Most likely it's because people in their 50s are old enough to be wise and savvy about these things, but not so old that they're totally out of touch with modern technology and easily confused. But whatever the case, as for the specific scams that people are getting hit with, here's the data on that point.
Gold courier scams is an interesting one that happened a few hundred times and caused hundreds of millions of damages. Apparently the way this works is that
scammers convince people to hand over their gold to them at the front door of their homes the scammers promise to safeguard the gold or something along those lines and then they just walk away with it i guess toll scams like the one i almost fell for um accounted for 60 000 complaints but only 120 000 9 000 in total losses which is a high number of complaints more than any other category on the page but it's also the lowest amount of total losses so the um
Toll scams are stealing a few bucks from people on average. No one's getting scared into paying a $500 toll or anything like that. But the important point is they're giving away their credit card information, which even if they're not taking a lot from you up front, can obviously create a lot of problems down the line. Watch.
They make you feel like you better do this or there's severe consequences for not paying this toll.
Sue Walters had just returned from a spring break road trip when she got a text claiming to be from Easy Pass, demanding $6.68 for an unpaid toll. The message threatened severe penalties, including suspension of her registration if she didn't pay within hours. Having just crossed the Ohio River, she thought it could be legit.
Even though she's usually skeptical, the timing, the small amount, and the urgency tricked her into giving up her credit card information. But when the site asked for a second card, And she spotted the typo in the URL. She knew something was wrong.
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Chapter 4: How can individuals protect themselves from falling for scams?
Then suddenly the company's website was gone and through a chat room, they were told they were fired. Then they realized their money was also gone. Nearly $40,000 of the Hovland's money, around half a million for the entire group.
It was traumatic. It's definitely one of the toughest times, I think, that we've ever had to go through.
It's a scam known as pig butchering. It's like they're fattening you up to basically get you to first slaughter later.
So when you compare to other losses, this $40,000 actually got off kind of easy. It's all relative. That was their life savings. But in terms of sheer numbers, people lose a lot more than that. This woman gave away a million dollars for no apparent reason. Watch. Almost a million dollars gone.
I know. And then I had to tell my kids because they had no idea I had that kind of money. All that money was socked away in investments and now Erica Damask is in financial ruin. In fact, she was forced to sell her Lombard home and everything in it. This is my garage sale. It's really hard because a lot of the stuff, there's glasses here that belong to my husband and I have to sell them.
Her husband passed away decades ago and recently to mask met a man online. He said he loved me. But the FBI says that tactic is just part of the fattening up or pig butchering. Fraudsters are going to fatten up the victims by putting more, enticing the victims to put more money into an investment. And then they're going to slaughter them by walking away and stealing their money.
He's working on a oil rig and something broke down. Can I send him $20,000? And I said, whoa. I said, you know what? I need to pray about this. The second time I sent $35,000. Over time, that money sent reached nearly $1 million. DeMass says the scammer told her she would get double her money back in his investments.
Instead, she now owes money back to her bank, cash which she took from her home equity loan. Plus, she must pay taxes on her investment withdrawals. She was sending $100,000, $300,000, $50,000 at a time, and it was never brought up and stopped and checked. She and her son say the money was sent via cashier's checks or wire transfers through Fifth Third Bank.
They say when they filed reports with the FBI and the Secret Service, agents told them that bankers should have spotted unusual patterns. They never questioned, why are you closing this whole account?
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Chapter 5: What role does technology play in modern scams?
I was ready to fly. I was ready to go. I was going to start a new life with this person. I didn't know what had happened to my dad. It was kind of this... Like he flipped a switch into someone I hadn't seen before. Adan's son, Jonathan of Hayward, saw signs of trouble. Found some pictures of a woman, Asian woman. He saw the text messages about love and investing. He confronted his dad.
Well, you're a married man. What is this? I don't know. 20 something year old woman. I wasn't paying no attention to it because I was too immersed in my bubble. Then Jonathan discovered this $300,000 wire transfer to a fake company and a deposit into an unknown account. Immediately I shifted to red flags everywhere.
Later, he discovered his dad also wired thousands of dollars directly to banks in Malaysia and Vietnam. First $5,000, then $100,000, then another $100,000. He told me he was investing and that not to worry. But Jonathan was worried. He warned his dad these crypto websites he was using appeared fake. So the $6 million in his account was not really there. Annie herself probably didn't exist.
He texted, Dad, your friends and I need to talk about the romance scam you are a victim of. Adan replied, No, I'm good, Jonathan. My choice, my life. Ready to run away from everyone.
So he thinks he's turned his $500,000 investment into $6 million and he only realizes something's wrong when he tries to withdraw the money, but he's told he needs to spend $25,000 more to unlock his account and he doesn't have $25,000 anymore because he's given everything he has to this non-existent woman while he was cheating on his terminally ill wife.
His defense when he was confronted by his family was, let me live my last few years, okay? And it's hard not to conclude based on that statement that he realized at some level that he was being ripped off, but he didn't care. doesn't think he's going to be alive for much longer, and he's probably right. So in his mind, the value of the money is extremely low.
He's obviously not loyal to his family, so he's not concerned with their inheritance or anything like that. So he's happy to waste the money on the slim chance that his phantom relationship is actually real. That's the pig butchering scam, basically.
And although that guy is a scumbag and an idiot, a lot of people get sucked into it who are neither of those things, who are just decent, normal, and even relatively intelligent people. And these kinds of scams are usually run out of big call centers, which we'll come back to the call centers in a moment.
There's also the emergency scam where people are pressured into paying money to save their relatives from some kind of disaster. This is a more rare form of a scam, but it costs victims millions of dollars every year. If you're tempted to think that you'd never fall for something like that,
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Chapter 6: How have countries responded to the rise of scam operations?
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we should immediately drone strike every illegal foreign call center that scams American citizens, regardless of where it's located. It's just obvious. Why shouldn't we do that? And after we're done with some place like Nigeria, we could turn to countries like Cambodia, which are full of scammers to a degree that's frankly difficult to even believe, but it's true.
Turns out that Cambodia's entire economy is dependent on scamming. And it's sort of like Somalia for so long was their whole economy was based around piracy, less so today because of the crackdown on piracy. Now they just come here and scam Americans. But just like that, Cambodia's, their whole economy is based on scamming. If they weren't defrauding Americans, they'd have basically nothing left.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, quote, Cambodia has emerged as a central hub of this illicit economy. The country hosts more than 50 scam centers, and the revenue from these operations exceeds $12.5 billion annually, roughly half the country's formal GDP.
Senior Cambodian government officials and business elites are reportedly involved in and benefit from scam operations. For instance, Chen Xia, Chinese-Cambodian national who the U.S.
Department of the Treasury sanctioned for operating a transnational criminal enterprise through online investment scams, served as an advisor to both current Prime Minister Hun Manet and former Prime Minister Hun Sen, as well as other senior Cambodian government figures. Yes, half the country's GDP comes from scamming at a minimum.
100,000 people are employed in scam operations in the country, according to the UN, and in these centers that we know where they are. We know where the centers are, and we know that they exist purely to steal money, mostly from Americans. Why exactly should we put up with that? What would be the reason? And the most senior politicians in the country are directly profiting from this arrangement.
There's no reason whatsoever why the United States should allow this. Cambodia's air force has zero fixed wing combat aircraft. We already have air supremacy and we haven't even started bombing them. This would be the shortest military campaign in recorded history, or at least since we took over Venezuela a few months ago. So why are we doing that? Thailand has already taken action.
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of scams on national security?
A security guard who kept watch outside an office inside the compound said his bosses had locked up the foreign workers when the shelling started. He said he worked at a building that the Cambodians called Animal Farm and that he guarded an office of 15 people, mainly Vietnamese and Chinese.
The workers had to ask him for permission to use the toilets and were only allowed to leave to have lunch at the restaurants within the compound. Six workers inside the compound detailed a range of human rights abuses that they witnessed at work.
They spoke of seeing numerous workers beaten with shock batons, whipped with belts, made to stand for hours in the sun, forced to carry barrels of water on their backs for hours, and injected with serum. One of them reported seeing dozens of people beaten to death. Yes, the Chinese overseers are literally whipping the scammers into compliance, even as they're under direct military attack.
They're being forced to romance lonely American men and pretend to offer tech support to elderly women while bombs are actively being dropped. Keep this in mind the next time you get a wrong number text from some crypto millionaire who happens to be an attractive woman.
There's a good chance that this woman is really a Cambodian man who's currently being beaten and submission by a Chinese overlord while dodging bombs at the same time. And while it's very difficult to sympathize with these people, you have to admit it's quite a remarkable visual. To borrow the neocon argument, we have no choice but to liberate them from their oppressors.
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Chapter 8: What actions can be taken to combat scamming effectively?
What were Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson afraid of? Did they know something they're not allowed to say today? It's time for the truth. So here it is. Robert E. Lee was a military genius and a man of immense honor. He was beloved by Americans from the North and South for a century after the war. This is the real history of the Civil War.