White Collar Crime

Mass Marketing Fraud

There are many forms of mass media such as postcard mailing, email blasts and telemarketing. Con artists utilize these methods to reach large numbers of people to attempt to defraud them with various schemes. Most of these schemes fall under the category of advance fee frauds - scams that are designed to get people to send money with the promise of goods or services that will never actually be supplied.

Foreign lotteries

Every day thousands of people receive notification that they have won a large sum in a foreign lottery. They are told that to collect their prize, they must pay various fees that are negligible when compared to the amount of money they will be collecting. Anyone who pays these fees will receive nothing in return, because these lotteries are completely phony. The best way to avoid this fraud is to realize that if you did not enter a contest, sweepstakes or lottery, you will not be eligible to win. Never send money to anyone who claims you have won a lottery you did not buy into.

Money transfer fraud

One of the most common mass market frauds comes in the form of an email that requests your help in exchange for a large sum of money. The reasons vary from scam to scam, but the basic principle is always that a very rich individual, quite often a member of a foreign royal family, desperately needs to transfer money into an American bank account. The recipient of this email is the lucky person who has been chosen, and to get started all they will have to do is provide several thousand dollars. This amount is irrelevant compared to the sum of money that will be received in return. Of course these messages are all completely false, and no one will actually have millions of dollars placed into their private bank account after agreeing to help. The victims will lose any money they pay out.

Overpayment scams

Individuals who have items for sale may receive payments that are well above the amount they were charging. They are then told to cash in the payment, and send the amount that was overpaid back. After they have returned the extra money, they will find that the form of payment they received was not valid, and they have therefore given away their item and lost money in the transaction.

Troubles with enforcement

Owing to the widespread nature of mass market frauds, they are difficult to investigate and impede. The money that is received from victims is often moved around and laundered so that it cannot be traced. The FBI leads the investigations into these cases and utilizes their many offices worldwide to attempt to track down the con artists who defraud people with these schemes.

The best way to protect yourself from these scams is to be suspicious of anyone who claims to be offering large amounts of money for no valid reason. These frauds prey on victims who are hoping to "get rich quick" and take everything they can get from them.