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Fifty Shades of Fraud by CHARLES R. LARSON
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/19/fifty-shades-of-fraud/The call finally came, twice actually. The first was in the morning with the recording informing me that I owe the IRS money andif I dont paycourt proceedings will begin immediately. And then the phone number I was expected to call. I hung up and noticed that the number on caller ID was a different one, which I dialed within seconds. I listened to a recording, informing me that that phone number was not in service, but I already knew this was a scam. Then, early evening, the call came againpay up right away or be hauled off to court. This time I dialed the number they provided (twice) in the recording. And another recording said that all lines were busy but I could leave a message, which I did not. Again, the caller ID number was different than the number I dialed, different than the one in the morning andwhen I dialed itonce again, I was informed that the number was not in service.
Theyve become pretty good at this, the crooks making these callsnever using the same number so their tracks are almost impossible to tracefrightening enough people into paying millions of dollars they do not owe. And where is the government in all this? No ability to stop them (remember Im Rachel, from card member services?), so thoroughly annoying that you almost want to pay so theyll stop calling. The State Department admits that it cant control the hacking on its site, so why should we believe that lowly citizens can be protected? Were all left in the open these days, which may be the most frightful thing about the current explosion of fraud everywhere around us. One day will we discover that all of our assets have been removed from our accountsan amount so massive that the banks will no longer reimburse us for our losses?
Ive had twenty plus calls from a number professing to be the circulation division of New York magazine, always beginning with the innocuous question, Are you receiving your New York magazine regularly? Since I subscribe, I am, yes, receiving it regularly, but I never answer their question. I tell them instead that I do not renew subscriptions over the phone. That I have a multi-year subscription that is not up for renewal. That doesnt matter. They call me a few days later and the entire sequence begins again. Ive called the editorial office of New York, and theyve confirmed (as I already realized) that the calls are a scam and they, also, have no way of stopping them in spite of reporting them to the FBI. Its beginning to appear that fraud cant be stopped; it can only metastasize so that it infects everything...Fraud is a growth industry in the United States, but dont expect that anyones going to help you stop it. Youre on your own. Its increasingly difficult for many people to realize whats happening to them. At least with the international calls, its possible to detect the foreign accent, the semi-articulate speech of some of the scammers, and no number listed for caller ID...Dozens of these fraudsters send me daily emails, many of them from overseas. The Nigeria scam (the millions of dollars in a bank that will be shared with me if, first, Ill send them a few thousand dollars to pay the service fees) now come from all over Africa, Asia, Russia, Eastern Europe, and the South Pacific. Then the domestic ones, claiming to be the Bank of America or some other American bank where I have never had an account. They want me to respond via the Internet in order to claim funds in my account. I certainly dont have much faith in American banks in regards to their honesty, but I also know which banks I have never had any dealings with. Then there are the ubiquitous emails with the subject category: Free $50 Target card, $100 Starbucks card, $75 Wal-Mart card and every other blasted chain store in the United States. Often the same email will be resent to me half a dozen times, one right after another. (Forget all the other scams: bigger erections, bigger breasts, bigger feet, bigger tomatoes [no joke])....
Ive come to loathe American capitalism, almost every aspect of it. The subtle and not-too-subtle daily fraud. The frequent errors on billing statements for credit card companies, bank statements, telephone bills and the red tape created so that you give up in your attempt to get that excess charge of, say $15, removed from your bill because you simply dont have the necessary time (endless phone calls) to get the error corrected. Ive become pretty good at catching most of these false charges, but what I dont have is unlimited time to unravel them.
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! SEE LINK
Charles R. Larson is Emeritus Professor of Literature at American University in Washington, D.C. Email: clarson@american.edu.
HE LOATHES IT BECAUSE IT ISN'T AMERICAN CAPITALISM...IT'S CRIMINAL FRAUD...PERPETRATED BY AMERICA'S VICTIMS ABROAD, WHO LEARNED THEIR LESSONS WELL, FROM AMERICA'S CAPITALISTS!
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Fifty Shades of Fraud by CHARLES R. LARSON (Original Post)
Demeter
Mar 2015
OP
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)1. ,
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