AND THE POLICE CAN DO NOTHING???

A column by David Lazarus in the Los Angeles Times begins with the warning: “if you get call or an e-mail from someone who claims to be a close friend or a loved one in trouble it often causes people to ignore their natural suspicions.” He documents some horror stories that have resulted in money being sent to a scammer. I am suddenly aware of this because someone in my family was nearly the victim.

The Lazarus article says that his own mother was “used.” An Email from her to him said she had been mugged and robbed in London and needed $1800 to pay her hotel bill. He was able to contact her and discover that it never happened. He documents other stories of people who were not so lucky and sent the money to a relative stranded in a foreign country.

My relative nearly got stung. A cousin of hers received an urgent Email saying she was stranded in London and needed money. The cousin had the good sense to check and of course, the story was bogus. In fact, the absurdity was the she was not in London.

What I cannot understand is that we seem to be powerless to apprehend the scammer. In my relative’s case, the Email gave an address to forward the money to. It would seem to me that it would not be difficult to trace the sender and close down the fraud. Not so apparently. She made a call to her Email service provider, a large and reputable company, and the person she spoke to could only advise her to change her password. Not a word about informing the authorities, not a word about getting to the root of the problem. Makes me wonder how good our hi-tech people really are.

My relative’s email address was compromised. Someone hacked into her list of contacts and sent S.O.S. emails to all of them. She is flabbergasted at the apparent inability (or unwillingness?) of the service provider to attack the problem with more than a “change your password” solution.

We have all received email scams. We have all been winners of huge amounts of money along with a request about our own banking so the money could be forwarded. Or the “I have inherited a large sum of money but…” and you are supposed to act as a kind of agent to help the person get at the money, for which you will be rewarded. But first….

Hackers are everywhere. Some are just playful whiz kids who like the idea of upsetting a major corporation. Other of course, are in it for profit. I wonder what the statistics are. If you are the scammer and you send out ten thousand emails and get half of one percent return – you’re way ahead.

Are the police on top of this? Why do I continue to read and hear about internet fraud?