1998 Annual Report
Fraud & Forgery
The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting System does not include fraud, false pretenses, forgery, embezzlement, 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 1998, 321 incidents of fraud and forgery were reported to the Cambridge Police, ranging from simple check forgery to elaborate confidence swindles:
Counterfeiting
(7 in 1997; 6 in 1998)
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. The six incidents this year in Cambridge involved $20, $50, and $100 bills. Very likely, 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 receive 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.
Embezzlement
(25 in 1997; 30 in 1998)
The employee of a company takes advantage of his position for his own financial gain, diverting company funds to himself. The means by which the offender accomplishes the embezzlement varies, depending on the business, from store clerks "skimming" the register to shady company accountants falsifying corporate records.
Bad Checks
(32 in 1997; 29 in 1998)
The writing of checks on insufficient funds or closed accounts. This number is low because most "bounced" checks are not reported as criminal incidents, particularly if it seems to be an innocent mistake.
Forged Checks
(76 in 1997; 60 in 1998)
The fraudulent use of a lost or stolen check, with the offender forging the victim's signature. This crime is often committed by someone who knows the victim and thus has access to his or her checks-a friend, a family member, a co-worker, or a roommate. Other check forgery incidents occur following a burglary, a larceny from a motor vehicle, or a larceny from a person.
Credit Card/ATM Card Fraud
(124 in 1997; 145 in 1998)
ATM and credit card fraud were once categorized separately, but with the proliferation of "check cards," the line between them has become blurred. Credit card fraud has become the most common type of fraud, and it is increasing every year. Since "check cards" can deplete entire accounts within hours without the offender having to know the victim's PIN, owners of these cards should keep a close watch on them. Typically, the amount of money for which the victim is liable is higher on "check cards" than on credit cards.
Scams and Confidence Games
The worst breed of fraud offender employs "flim flams" or "con games" which exploit victims' good will, gullibility, ignorance, 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." Scams used in Cambridge in 1998 are listed below. This list is a mixture of classic "shuck and jive" confidence swindles and newer millennium-era stunts.
The Travel Scam
Ten reports were taken in 1998 for various travel & tourism related swindles, including overpricing and non-delivery of airplane tickets. All reports have identified one of two agencies, one in East Cambridge, one in Area 4.
The Big Carrot
So-called by the con men because they dangle a "carrot" (an expensive television or laptop computer) in front of a "donkey" (the victim) who then "leaps for it" (hands over large amounts of cash). This scam has been happening in Massachusetts for as long as anyone can remember. In addition to the nine reports taken by the Cambridge Police Department in 1998, we received intelligence from police departments ranging from Danvers to Natick. Any town with a shopping mall is a target.
It appears that one group, operating out of the Everett/Somerville/East Cambridge area, is responsible for a majority or all of the scams. Here's how it works:
The victim receives a telephone call at his or her place of work, which has ranged from southern Maine to Rhode Island. The caller identifies himself as "Jim," the victim's UPS driver.
"Hey," says Jim, "My [brother/friend] works at [Lechmere/Sears/Best Buy] and they're way overstocked on [laptop computers/big screen televisions/CD players]. He can get you [30/50/75] percent off the regular price!"
"I'll take [one/two/five/twenty]!" the victim responds. "What do I have to do?"
"Meet my brother George [usually ‘George Collins'] at the [Lechmere/Sears/Best Buy] in [Cambridge/Danvers/ Saugus/Natick/any other town with a shopping mall] tomorrow evening. Make sure to bring [$1,000/$2,500/
$4,000/some other obscene amount] in cash!"
The victim meets the con man at the arranged location, usually outside the store. The victim forks over the money. The suspect gives the victim a written receipt from the store and says he'll get the merchandise. He instructs the victim to go wait for him at the receiving area. The victim waits. The suspect never shows up.
It appears that con men use the same store time after time-Lechmere until it closed, Sears for about a year, and most recently Best Buy-because they steal a receipt book from that store and use it until it is exhausted.
Many, many arrests have been made for this scam, three of them by the Cambridge Police Department. The arrestees are usually men in their 20s and 30s from Cambridge, Somerville, Everett, or Malden. Yet the scams continue-indicating a large conspiracy of individuals. The "Big Carrot" series took an interesting turn in Cambridge in November 1998 when one of the suspects in the scam, apparently afraid that another suspect was going to "snitch" on him, shot his accomplice in the foot.
In January of 1999, Cambridge investigators arrested a Somerville man for the scam. Hopefully, this recent arrest will curtail this activity in Cambridge for a time. When this same man was arrested in February 1997, the scam disappeared from Cambridge for a year and a half.
The Pigeon Drop
One of the classic swindles. A pair of swift-talking con men pretend to have found a wallet or bag with cash in it. They stop a passer-by and claim ignorance about what to do with the money. They offer to share it with the victim if he or she can help them make it "legit" by contacting a bank or lawyer for advice. What happens next is usually confusing, but the con artists manage to get the victim to give them "good faith" money, or collateral, for his or her share, then they leave the victim with worthless paper or nothing at all. These schemes tend to be very convoluted and defy easy explanation. In the winter of 1998, a pair of female swindlers struck around local universities, conning two foreign students out of thousands of dollars.
The Psychic Pswindle
In this scam, a troubled victim visits a psychic, who tells the victim that the source of his or her trouble is "tainted money." The victim is told to bring the money-usually several thousand dollars-to the psychic, who will perform a cleansing ritual on it to remove the taint. The "cleansing ritual" then goes on indefinitely, and the money is never returned to the victim. One such report was taken from the East Cambridge neighborhood, and one in Harvard Square, in 1998.
The Cash Shuffle
Another classic scam, this type of con games requires a special art that is rarely developed any more. Two were committed in Cambridge in 1998. A fast-talking swindler enters a retail establishment and looks for a young or inexperienced cashier. The swindler asks for change for, say, a $20 bill. Then the game starts. By distracting the victim with talk, "changing his mind" about the denominations he wants, handing bills back and forth, confusing the cashier about whose money is whose, and so on, the con artist manages to walk out of the store with two to five times the amount he went in with-leaving the slightly dumbfounded cashier thinking he has only "made change." The poor cashier has a revelation that evening, however, when he tallies his register for the day.
The Utility Impostor
This is an ongoing scam scenario in Cambridge, though only one was reported in 1998. Two or three middle aged men show up at the house of an elderly resident, claiming to work for a utility such as the electric company or the water department. Claiming to need access to the victim's house, one distracts the victim while the other prowls the house looking for valuables.
The Charity Impostor
An unsophisticated type of scam, the charity impostor simply involves someone posing as a charity worker, collecting cash which then simply goes into the con man's pocket. The charity impostor may conduct his business door-to-door, or he may stand in the street. Sometimes it is hard to distinguish imposing a charity worker from panhandling (i.e., "Help the homeless!"). We had only one report for this scam in 1998, probably because the victims-believing they had given money to an actual charity-did not report the incident as a crime.
Other Scams
Con artists are notoriously original, creating in 1998 a dozen scam scenarios that could not be fit into any existing classification. Some examples:
A psychiatrist who told her patient that the expensive artwork he possessed was causing his problems; at her suggestion, he brought the artwork to her office, and she refused to return it when the "therapy" was concluded.
Around Christmas time, someone tried to take advantage of the good will of a church by calling and claiming to be a parishioner, stranded with car trouble and without cash in some other town.
In October, a Concord Avenue man took advantage of a national fad and sold counterfeit "Beenie Babies."
In August, a guy was seen hanging around a Trowbridge Street apartment building. He told all the residents he was taking care of the "squirrel problem." Later, he delivered a pile of "invoices" to all the residents. This innovative but poorly-executed scam did not pay off.
Identity Theft
This serious type of fraud has become a national concern, particularly with the proliferation of personal information over the Internet. The Cambridge Police Department received only two reports of this crime in 1998, but because they cross state and sometimes national boundaries, it would be unusual for a municipal police department to receive many.
In 1998, identity theft became a federal crime, subject to arrest and prosecution by federal law enforcement agencies. The new law establishes the Federal Trade Commission as a clearinghouse for information on identity fraud as well as a register of people victimized by the crime. The FTC estimates that about 40,000 people have their identities swiped each year.
How does someone steal your identity? Usually, all it takes is your name, date of birth, and social security number, which an identity thief can glom from multiple sources: your driver's license; your loan, credit card, or mortgage applications; information you give over the Internet; even your garbage. Armed with this information, the thief assumes your identity and applies for credit cards, loans, and mortgages; orders products you can't pay for; steals from your checking or savings account; obtains professional licenses, driver's licenses, and birth certificates in your name; submits fake medical bills to private insurers; and otherwise makes a mess of your life and finances. If he is an all-around criminal, he may use your identification in his criminal enterprises. Eventually, a warrant may be issued with your name on it.
The damage can range from minor (you have to cancel some credit cards) to moderate (your credit report is ruined and you spend months straightening out your finances) to extremely serious (you get pulled over for speeding and suddenly find yourself in jail on a warrant for dealing cocaine in Miami).
In any event, the Federal Trade Commission is now authorized to help you out. If you would like more information, or if you are a victim of identity theft, you can call the local FTC office at 617-424-5960 or visit their location at 101 Merrimac Street, Suite 810, Boston, MA 02114-4719.