While we’re distracted by constant Chicken Little cries of “the sky is falling” over soda pop and shopping bags, a real poison is being spread by telemarketing scammers are who use the simple phone system to prey on society’s most vulnerable – the elderly, the poor and recent immigrants. If there ever was an environmental poison, the scam artists are it. They are inventive, clever, students of human nature, and totally ruthless.
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) loves to brag about its enforcement actions, but if my telephone is any indicator they are failing to catch more people than they identify; recently I received six illegal telemarketing calls on the same day.
Last month the FTC moved to close down a multi-million dollar telemarketing fraud that targeted U.S. seniors across the nation, scamming tens of thousands. Absorb that, the accused had already stolen millions of dollars from thousands of consumers and now the FTC is finally moving to get some of the money back. The problem is there are so many crooks the FTC could close one large scam a week if they had the staff or the incentive; that is a clear indication that the current laws are not working.
“The defendants used a telemarketing boiler room in Canada, where [the organizer] lived, to cold-call seniors claiming to sell fraud protection, legal protection, and pharmaceutical benefit services. The cost for the defendants’ alleged services ranged from $187 and $397.
In some instances, the telemarketers who carried out the fraud impersonated government and bank officials, and enticed consumers to disclose their confidential bank account information to facilitate the fraud. The defendants used that account information to create checks drawn on the consumers’ bank accounts. They then deposited these remotely created checks into corporate accounts they established in the United States. The U.S.-based defendants then transferred the money to accounts controlled by the Canadian defendants, according to an analysis of bank records.”
The FTC alleges that the telemarketing scheme drew in over $20 million dollars between May 2011 and December 2013. The accused company had more aliases than John Dillinger and stole a lot more than he did too – even after adjusting for inflation. When it comes to financial crimes the only effective deterrents are limiting the potential gain, increasing early detection and prosecution, and real punishment; serious fines, and jail time. Consent agreements are a joke – oh, you were caught stealing; now you have to give back the loot and promise not to do it again.
The government will never get them all but they should at least put in some rules that really slow them up. One would be unlimited no-cost number blocking. In the digital age this is easy as pie and there is a miniscule cost to the carrier, why are they charging? If the Feds won’t do it, then the state should make it mandatory. If you sell telephone service in California, the consumer must have the right to keep the crooks off of their phone lines at no extra charge.
The second is lawsuits, including suing the boiler room workers not just the owner. If the gang boss convinces you to rob a bank you do not earn a “get out of jail free card” because you were merely a follower. Many of these boiler room phone callers are professional thieves, they know exactly what they are doing and we should put them out of business too, not just allow them to keep selling their services elsewhere.
For those telemarketers who intentionally spoof a telephone number to hide their identity the punishment should be not less than 10 years in prison because they are threatening the nation’s entire communications and economic systems.
Why won’t the body politic act to protect the public from these sharks? The answer is simple, they use unsolicited calls themselves to raise campaign funds; it’s hard to resist, I used them myself to try and get votes and finally said, what am I doing, and went to email with an opt-out option.
Finally, if you oppose the death penalty, won’t you at least consider an exemption where illegal telemarketers are concerned? If you want to do something about it – other than capital punishment – call your U.S. or state Representative or Senator – and keep calling on the subject, perhaps they will get the idea, eventually.
Marty Richman