CAMBRIDGE POLICE DEPARTMENT

1996 ANNUAL REPORT

FRAUD

The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting System does not include fraud, false pretenses, forgery, and confidence games among larceny. Yet in many cases, fraud is a much more serious crime than theft. Victims of check forgery and "con" games stand to lose thousands of dollars. Often added to this loss is the personal humiliation that accompanies being "duped" by a "con man." The confidence game crook, a particularly crafty breed of criminal who has no qualms with deceiving his victims face-to-face, expects that his victim's embarrassment will deter him or her from reporting the crime to the police.

In 1996, two hundred and nine incidents of fraud and forgery were reported to the Cambridge Police, ranging from simple check forgery to elaborate confidence swindles. These crimes are recapitulated below:

Check Forgery (72 incidents). A relatively simple scenario: the forger manages to acquire some of the victims checks, generally through purse theft or by intercepting them in the mail. The thief cashes the checks or uses them to buy merchandise. Often the victim does not learn of the theft until he or she receives his or her next balance statement-by this time, the thief may have depleted the account of thousands of dollars.

Credit Card and Atm Card Fraud (96 incidents): Another simple scenario: a thief steals a credit card or ATM card from his victim, then uses it to purchase expensive items or deplete the owner's account. Again, the victim sometimes does not discover the theft until he or she receives a balance statement.

Counterfeiting (10 incidents): Counterfeiting is one of the more devious types of fraud. True counterfeiters invest thousands of dollars for counterfeiting equipment to produce near copies of genuine dollar bills. Because of the cost, counterfeited bills are usually of high denomination: six of the incidents in 1996 involved one hundred dollar bills, three involved 20 dollar bills, and one involved a 50 dollar bill. Very likely, many more counterfeit bills were passed that went undetected. The preferred tactic of counterfeiters is to buy a low-value item, use the forged bill, and received genuine change. The crime of counterfeiting is a federal crime and generally falls under the jurisdiction of the United States Secret Service, though the Cambridge Police Department often takes the initial report.

Scams and Confidence Games (23 incidents): The worst breed of fraud offenders employ "flim-flams" or "con games," which exploit their victims' good will, gullibility, or greed and bilk them for thousands of dollars. We are warned from childhood to beware of offers that are "too good to be true," but our defenses are often overcome by the belief that an offer is "too good to pass up":

"The Big Carrot": Nine swindles of this type occurred in 1996; four have since occurred in 1997, and all of them probably involve the same suspect or group of suspects. The modus operandi is virtually identical from incident to incident: the suspect phones his victim at work, claiming to be the victim's UPS driver, named "Joe" or "Jim." "Joe" makes a too-good-to-pass-up offer: his brother or friend works at Lechmere in Cambridge and can offer the victim a television, computer, or CD-ROM drive at a fantastically low price. Once the victim agrees, the suspect meets him at his place of employment and drives with him to the Cambridgeside Galleria. Outside Lechmere, the suspect receives the cash from the victim, returns a phony Lechmere receipt, and instructs the victim to wait at the receiving area for the merchandise. The suspect is never seen again. Each victim of this crime was taken for hundreds or thousands of dollars in cash. Their places of employment (where they were contacted by "Joe") range from Salem to Harwich. A suspect from Somerville was arrested for this pattern on February 1, 1997, but several other subjects are presumed to be involved.

 

"The Pigeon Drop": One of the oldest scams in the proverbial book, the pigeon drop is the tool of a fast-talking group of con-artists who prey on the greed and naivet» of their victims. Pigeon drop artists swindled 10 Cantabridgians in 1996.

There are several variations of the pigeon drop. In general, the victim is approached on the street by one or two perpetrators and told a story about finding a large sum of money or a winning lottery ticket. The victim is offered a share of the money if they are willing to give the perpetrators a deposit (the swindlers often request money to show the victim's "good faith"). The perpetrators tell a variety of stories about they money and how the victim will get his or her share. After the victim puts up his or her portion of the cash, the hustlers secretly exchange it for worthless paper or steal it outright.

In one version of this scam, the con-artist claims to have a winning lottery ticket for thousands of dollars. The perpetrator claims to be an illegal immigrant-he or she therefore cannot claim his or her winnings on the ticket. The perpetrator offers the victim half of the winnings if the victim will cash in the ticket-but the victim will have to give the swindler some money in advance as a "security deposit." The victim goes to the nearest convenience store, tries to cash in the ticket, discovers that it is worthless, and then finds that the perpetrator has run off with the victim's money. Other variations involve "found" wallets with no address. Sometimes, the swindlers pretend to seek the advice of a lawyer or a bank before offering to share the money with the victim. Usually, two hustlers will work together, but will pretend to have just met.

The perpetrators are generally described as being well dressed, and driving newer vehicles. They tend to be older than thirty and appear to be polite and friendly and usually choose victims of their own race.

 

The Utility Impostor: These con-artists visit their victims at home, impersonating employees of the electric company, gas company, or water department. While one perpetrator distracts the victim, the other roams the house and collects valuables; he looks primarily for cash, purses, jewelry, or other items that the owner might not notice missing right away. A pattern that has occurred in Cambridge and Somerville over the last several years involves two middle-aged men claming to be employees of the Water Department. They wear clothing similar to a uniform and sometimes carry false identification. They tell the resident that they need to read a water meter (or check a valve in the basement) and steal valuables as describe above. In a often employed variation, the perpetrators will first tell the victim that he or she is due a $20 refund. They ask if he or she has change for a $100 bill, and thereby discover where the victim keeps his or her cash. These scam artists often target elderly women living alone. Utility impostors committed four scams in 1996, but their trail goes back many years.

 

Back to the 1996 Annual Report Index

Back to the CPD Home Page