Bleeding the Bleeding Hearts

Jan. 18, 2009

When it comes to getting ripped off, people with a generous or romantic heart are the most likely to fall.
So says Darryl Nelson, owner of the Cash Plus store in Traverse City, who sees two or three people getting scammed
every week.
Nelson believes there are three basic motivations involved in a scam—greed, romance, or a generous heart. A scammer will quickly glean what makes you tick, and then swoop in for the kill, Nelson said.
Sometimes it’s the woman who has fallen in love with the wrong man—a guy who comes to Northern Michigan, but has a counterpart in Nigeria, ready to reel her in.
The romance scam is simple enough. A man develops a relationship—either in person or over the Internet (he’ll make contact on a matchmaker site). Over many weeks, maybe months, love blossoms. He sends flowers. He sends her daily love notes. He listens to her problems. And then he has an emergency. He had to run back to Nigeria because his grandmother is dying and he urgently needs money because he finds his account is locked up.
“The girlfriend comes in to wire him money, and I tell her, ‘I can’t say whether your story is true or not, but it looks like a scam.’ Most times they’ll insist that this is really their boyfriend, that no one has ever treated them this well, has never listened to them the way he does. And now he needs to take care of his grandma who is sick.
“… Most people think that people who are scammed are simply idiots. But in a lot of cases, that’s just not true. These are not dumb people. They’re people who have a big heart and a diminishing checkbook.”

‘SWEETUMS’
The woman—usually the victim is middle aged—might send her boyfriend a $4,000 check. Nelson said the victim will give him a security question that she and her boyfriend have agreed on, and most often it’s this one: “What’s the name of my greatest love?” The answer is the scammer’s pet name for his girlfriend … snookums … candy apple … sweetums.
Once the scammer receives the money in Nigeria (where he’ll never be caught), he keeps going. He’ll ask for higher and higher amounts, or he’ll ask her to send the money twice.
“He’ll email that someone else had accidentally picked up the money in Nigeria. “But, God has blessed us, he’ll say. Western Union has admitted responsibility for the mistake and will reimburse the money. In the meantime, could you wire the money again?”
The scam usually goes on for as long as the woman has money in her account. Nelson said the victim might come in every week for four weeks, and then he’ll never see her again.
Here’s another common scam: The guy sends his sweetheart a $5,000 cashier’s check to deposit in her account, and tells her to keep $4,000 for herself and just wire him the difference of $1,000. So of course, the $5,000 cashier’s check is fake and that makes the woman subject to criminal charges. She is also liable for the money she deposited or cashed.
In fact, Nelson has a civil suit against a Traverse City minister who cashed two fake money orders for a total of $1,700 at Cash Plus in March. The man is also being criminally charged. Although the minister said he didn’t know the money orders were fake, he failed to express his concerns to Cash Plus.
“He said the money orders came out of the blue, and he was thankful because he had some bills to pay. The money arrived with a request to wire back some of the money to somebody else.”
Nelson said if a customer is up front and asks his clerk for advice, Cash Plus does not sue because the person is obviously not involved in the swindle.

THE BIG HEART SCAM
A young woman answered an ad in the newspaper from a nonprofit firm claiming to be located in Grand Rapids. The mission of the nonprofit was to give emotional support to children with cancer. A Traverse City woman answered the ad and quickly went to work, writing personal letters of hope and support to the hospitalized children. She sent the letters to the patient names and addresses, provided by the nonprofit.
“She had written a whole bunch of letters, sent them, and then brought in three money orders in May that she was supposed to cash to cover her expenses,” Nelson said.
The money orders totaled $2,600, and the nonprofit asked her to wire back $1,600.
“We were in the unfortunate position to tell her it was a scam, and she didn’t want to believe it. She said, ‘I’m doing a good thing.’ So we called the police, and they told her, ‘Yup, it’s fraudulent.’”
Sometimes it’s obvious a money order is fake, but not always, Nelson said.

THE PUPPY SCAM
Kristi was selling puppies and ran an ad in the Traverse City Record-Eagle, GT Insider, and Craig’s List. A woman called her from Texas and said she wanted to buy two puppies. The odd thing was she was speaking through a TTY phone machine—a system set up for deaf people where they communicate through an operator.
“So we talked on the phone a couple of times, and emailed over two or three weeks. We were asking $250 for the puppies, it would have been $900 with the shipping.”
But the woman sent a check for $2,000 and asked the overpayment amount of $1,100 to be wired to Indiana. The check was drawn on Claflin University and sent via UPS from Alabama.
Kristi was confused and asked the woman via email, why Claflin University? And why did it come from Alabama? No answer. Then she went into Cash Plus with the check.
“I told them what was going on, and I didn’t know whether the check was good or not. They did some checking, and discovered it was a scam and it wasn’t the first time it happened to the college (Claflin University).”
The Michigan State Police arrived and investigated. The check was not only stolen, but so was the UPS number used to mail the check. It belonged to the Under Armor Company.
“I thought it was smart on their part, claiming to be deaf. But you could tell the check was fake. It had different font styles. The signature line, where you’d sign your name, something was erased, and another signature stamp was on there. I was hurt, but I kind of had a feeling all along that something wasn’t right. Especially when we got the check, a big alarm went off there.”

THE CAR SCAM
This scam was perhaps the best that Nelson heard of so far. A couple put an ad in the Record-Eagle to sell their car for $13,000. They received a call from an older couple who lived in Grand Rapids who said they had just bought the same kind of car for $16,000 when they saw the ad. They said they’d prefer to buy the cheaper car, but already had a check in hand from the Grand Rapids Commission on Aging, which provides car subsidies to the low-income elderly. They asked if they could just send the $16,000 check, and get a $3,000 check in the mail for the difference. The extra $3,000 would really help them out, and they’d like the difference right away, so they’d have the gas money to come to Traverse City.
So that’s what happened — almost. The Traverse City couple felt like they were doing the elderly couple a real favor. They received the check for $16,000 and deposited it. But they were just leaving town on a four-day vacation and would deal with sending the $3,000 check when they got back. By the time they returned, the $16,000 check had bounced.
The couple was lucky. If they had sent the scammers a $3,000 check, they’d also be sharing a lot of information about themselves on the check—their name, address, checking account number, and potentially their license number, Nelson said.
“A scammer might be working 25 people at once, and maybe one or two will fall for it. And they’re not out anything—just a couple of phone calls and a postage stamp. Not only do they have their money, now they’ve got your check.”

NELSON GETS HIT … ALMOST
The scammers have gotten so good, that even Nelson was almost fooled. He recently received a call claiming to be from Visa. “There was a purchase made on your credit card in New Jersey,” he was told. “Do you have the credit card in your possession?” Nelson replied that he did, and they asked for the code number on the back.
Nelson was suspicious and asked the caller to read his credit card number, which she did. He said, “I’m at a soccer game right now, let me call you right back.” Instead, he called the Visa 800 number and was told the caller was a scammer; he was immediately referred to Visa security.
“You gotta admit, these guys are really good,” he said.