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Admit it, a lot of times when you see us bring you a story about the victim of scam, you think, “I'd never fall for that!”
Well, not so fast. The I-Team has come across new information about how scam artists target their victims and what type of person usually falls for them.
By the time a con artist calls you or mails you a letter, he already knows you're a prime target, because he's bought your name from a mailing list full of people with the same interests as you.
Like to play sweepstakes in the mail? You could be a target like Charles Anderson.
If there's a sweepstakes out there, chances are it's in the box of sweepstakes information that Charles Anderson keeps in his kitchen. He loves them. And---through no fault of his own---it's probably what led a con artist right to him.
A couple of weeks ago, a letter came in the mail telling Charles that he'd won 95,000 dollars in a lottery held in Geneva, Switzerland. He and his wife wondered if the lucky 7's throw, that he keeps on the back of his favorite chair, might have worked its magic.
"She kept saying, 'What are you going to do with all that money?' I said, 'I don't know what I'm going (to do). I'm just going to wait and see if I get it,'" said Charles Anderson.
All he had to do was cash a 3,000 dollar check that came with the letter and wire the money to a woman in Ottawa, Canada.
"In fact, that check was the thing that really made me do this. (laughs) Because I thought jeez, they sent me this money, so it must be a pretty good deal," said Charles Anderson.
His daughter agrees.
"And it had that check. And the check looked official. I mean, it had all the right stuff on it, the bank and the bank number and all that," said Sue Anderson.
But four days later when Charles tried to use his debit card at the grocery store, he learned he was nearly 3,000 dollars in the hole. It was a shock.
"Boy you ain't a kiddin' it was. So I came home and told the wife that, 'Wow, they sure got me,'" said Charles Anderson.
Then another shock came. The bank told his wife someone was trying to get more.
"They called her and alerted her that somebody had been making large withdrawals, trying to make large withdrawals, and spending large amounts on this account, their credit card account that was through the bank," said Charles Anderson.
The bank didn't let those go through, but does want the 3,000 dollars it lost from the counterfeit check.
Remember how Charles wired the money to Canada? It turns out, the country is a hotbed for lottery scams, as the Better Business Bureau knows all too well.
"It's because they share a lot of the same cultural references, they're kind of on the same time schedules that we are. And they really know the cultural cues that they need to use to manipulate people and get them to cooperate with them,” said Jeremy Zidek of the Better Business Bureau.
Which is exactly what happened when the con artist called Charles demanding even more money. He responded:
"You can take that and put it (laughs) --you know. And he said, 'Well, I'm going to send the FBI after you,'" said Charles Anderson.
He said that to you?
"Yeah," said Charles Anderson.
"And what did you say?"
"I said, 'You just go ahead and send those FBI people over here. And we'll see what happens,'" said Charles Anderson.
In the end, it was the Anderson family that ended up calling the FBI, with little hope of ever getting their money back.
There's some fascinating research just out about the typical profile of a lottery scam victim. It's from the National Association of Securities Dealers' Foundation. Researchers found most lottery scam victims are likely to say they are "very religious" or "extremely religious."
They're more likely to feel that they have not gotten what they deserved out of life and believe a person has to live for today.
Also, many say they typically only pay the minimum on their credit cards each month.
They tend to make less than 30,000 dollars a year and live alone.
There is something else we should also point out: the FBI says it's illegal for Americans to play a foreign lottery through the mail or by phone. So these solicitations are illegitimate from the start.
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If you have a story for the I-Team that you want me to look into, you can call the I-Team hotline number at 273-3111.
