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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Soul Crusher on November 17, 2009, 05:50:45 PM
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Grifters cash in on stimulus aid
By Brad Heath, USA TODAY
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WASHINGTON — Stimulus aid has sparked an economic boom for some unwanted entrepreneurs — con men.
State and federal officials say they are fielding thousands of reports of scam artists, many operating from overseas, using the promise of money from the Obama administration's $787 billion economic recovery plan to entice people to hand over bank account numbers. The scams are so numerous, and the criminals hard to identify, that authorities say it's all but impossible to catch them.
"People are being tricked out of their money," according to Federal Trade Commission lawyer Monica Vaca.
Rip-offs based on current events are nothing new. In the past few months alone, scams have tried to cash in on Michael Jackson's death, the swine flu and foreclosure prevention. "These are true predators," says Tony Green, a spokesman for the attorney general's office in Oregon. When it comes to stimulus scams, he says, that usually means "appealing to people's desperation."
TRACK THE STIMULUS: More USA TODAY reports
Oregon officials warned consumers in August that con men were sending out thousands of e-mails telling people they were entitled to stimulus money from the IRS. All people had to do, the e-mails advised, was provide a bank account number. In another scheme, reported in New York, a telephone caller promised $1,000 worth of free groceries for any person willing to provide a credit card number to pay a small processing fee.
Exactly how many people have been conned is impossible to measure, but the numbers are likely substantial. FTC lawyers filed four civil cases this year accusing companies of using misleading promises of stimulus aid to persuade people to buy products or provide personal information. They estimate that about 270,000 Americans were victimized in those schemes alone, Vaca says.
Detectives in Fort Lauderdale concocted a stimulus scheme of their own: In August, they mailed letters to people wanted for crimes ranging from failing to pay child support to attempted murder, saying they were eligible for stimulus checks. When 76 of them showed up to claim the money, officers put them in handcuffs instead. "It looked very real," said Sgt. Frank Sousa, a police spokesman.