Griesman<\/a>, based in Washington, D.C., observed that consumer fraud\u2019s impact can ripple through a victim\u2019s life in multiple ways. \u201cIt\u2019s economic harm; it\u2019s borrowed money at outrageous interest rates. It\u2019s tapping into whatever savings\u2014emergency savings; retirement savings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe FTC received \u201cnearly three million reports of fraud\u201d last year, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scams range from the spike in sales of inferior medical products to protect against COVID to more pernicious romance scams, where victims become \u201cmoney mules\u201d\u2014someone who is asked to send money to a third party via gift cards\u2014making the flow and ultimate destination of funds more difficult to trace and recover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greisman cautioned attendees about underestimating the emotional distress that successful scams invariably inject into people\u2019s lives. \u201cOur job is to protect people from scams and fraud\u2026. If at all possible, we try to get money back to consumers who have been harmed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scams vary by community<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Claire Stewart is a staff attorney in the FTC\u2019s Midwest Regional Office, which covers 11 states, including Kentucky. She cited one recent FTC success that returned $10 million to consumers who had been caught up in an automobile leasing scam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She also explained that the type and prevalence of scams vary from one ethnic community to another. Used auto sales, credit bureau and student debt-relief scams topped the list in Black communities, while business opportunity and job-related scams are more prevalent in Latino communities. Fraudsters targeted members of the Navajo community in the Southwest with social media advertisements in their Native language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The challenge of making older adults less susceptible to fraud falls to individuals like Corrine Keel, an assistant U.S. Attorney in the federal Attorney General\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI prosecute economic crimes,\u201d said Keel, known among her peers as the \u201cElder Justice Coordinator.\u201d She said one reason the elderly are targeted is because they can be easier to manipulate. They may be hard of hearing, for example, not recognizing that a phone call from a \u201cgrandchild\u201d begging for money is an imposter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How fraudsters ask people to send money should be a warning sign that foul play is afoot, Keel and the other speakers stressed. Federal agencies such as the IRS do not solicit payments by cash, gift cards, or crypto currency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speakers urged communities to do more to protect personal information. Phone numbers, addresses, names of family members and friends are often too prominent, too accessible, and therefore easily gleaned by scammers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fear and shame mean scams go unreported<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
They also noted that many successful scams often go unreported, and that the $31.5 million toll on Kentucky residents is likely an undercount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat number is absolutely higher\u201d because so many victims of fraud crimes won\u2019t report them, noted Karina Barillas, director of La Casita Center, Louisville\u2019s largest service organization for Latino residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Often scammers will threaten to report victims to ICE unless they comply with demands, which can have a chilling effect on people\u2019s willingness to talk with authorities, regardless of their immigration status, she explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scammers have also threatened to kidnap an immigrant victim\u2019s relative still living in their country of origin, or to \u201cdestroy\u201d their residency status or credit ratings. \u201cYou can\u2019t get a job, can\u2019t get a house. You\u2019re going to do anything it takes\u201d to comply with the scammer\u2019s demands, said Farhan Abdi, director of Louisville\u2019s Somali Community Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not far away is the Burmese Community Center, where director Eh Nay Thaw says his father routinely sends money \u201cto support the resistance movement\u201d against Myanmar\u2019s military rulers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the funds are presumably used to purchase firearms and munitions, the only verification are photographs over the Internet which could be easily faked. Social media influencers, meanwhile, keep the requests current, tapping into the yearning among Burmese immigrants like Thaw\u2019s father for a liberated homeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cases such as these are why the FTC is working to connect with local communities, to track new scams as and when they arise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need to hear from people on the ground,\u201d Stewart said, and get the word out through trusted media and community organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source: Published without changes from Ethic Media Services<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Khalil Abdullah Immigrants and refugees from across Asia, Africa and Latin America pursuing the American dream in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,46,24],"tags":[66,82],"class_list":["post-3635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-community-outreach","category-regular-column","tag-african-american","tag-scams"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3637,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3635\/revisions\/3637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}