[00:00:03] The scammersare always thinking of stuff, and they’re very creative and they’re verynimble.
[00:00:09] Yeah, theywalked away with a quarter of a million dollars.
[00:00:19] HOST: Whatwould you do if you were scammed?
Who would you turn to?
Who would you call?
Ontoday’s episode, we’re going to introduce you to some of the AARP’s top fraudexperts.
These are people who are working with scam victims and potentialvictims every day across the country.
These are, in fact, the people who wantyou to call when you’ve been scammed.
And they’re helping all of us do a betterjob protecting ourselves.
Frank, thanks forbeing here.
[00:00:47] FrankAbagnale: Thank you, Will.
[00:00:56] FrankAbagnale: Whatever you like.
[00:00:56] HOST: Conman, maybe.
Has there ever been a Frank Abagnale impersonator that you’re awareof?
Well, I never, I don’t know anything about art.
[00:01:30] HOST: Givingyou far more much more credit than you deserve.
I mean your thing was checks.
[00:01:33] Frank Abagnale:That’s right.
And we’ll get tothat.
But first of all, we wanted to have a little fun today.
We’re going totalk about some of the scams that you might not have heard of out there.
[00:03:00] FrankAbagnale: Exactly.
[00:03:01] HOST: Insome realm.
[00:03:01] FrankAbagnale: Exactly.
I’m lookingfor things to do, but I know good quality goods.
[00:03:21] HOST: Sothey’re looking for people with a lot of money.
[00:03:24] FrankAbagnale: A lot of money.
[00:03:24] HOST: Yeah.
[00:03:40] HOST: Andjust so we are clear, what is a cashier’s check?
You are told to send that money back but takeout $2500 and so you send back 7500?
They wire the money only later to find out that the checkis no good.
So that’s her liability.
So she’s lost the moneybecause she endorsed the check and deposited it in her account.
The bank reallydoesn’t care that she was scammed or how she was scammed or what happened.
Thefact is, the law is very explicit.
The last endorser holds the liability forthe check that was deposited.
[00:05:55] HOST:Because that money, that check wasn’t, was a fraud.
[00:06:09] FrankAbagnale: Yeah.
[00:06:10] HOST: They’vegot to get this money back before anybody determines it.
How long is thatusually?
[00:06:32] HOST: So,these scammers have gone to, and this is really happening?
This sounds like amovie in and of itself.
[00:06:38] FrankAbagnale: Yes.
So, you know, I mean these things happen all the time.
So, a lot of times some people do report it and wehear about it.
The one that I was reciting to you was publicly known.
It was inthe paper.
It was in all of that of what actually happened.
That was one lady.
[00:07:20] HOST: Andthat would presumably be a small team of people or one or two people?
[00:07:29] HOST: Yeah.Alright.
So from sort of a very involved scam to a very low tech scam, themustard scam.
This is real, too.
Tell us about this.
It was anactor, so we did it to people, and every time it worked.
It’s what you do in anyscam.
You’re kind of making people think about the opposite of what you’reactually doing?
They’ve been doing it foryears, that’s how they make a living doing it.
They don’twant anything to trace back to them.
They’re looking for cash.
[00:09:42] FrankAbagnale: Right.
So I’m calling you to tell you that I found thewallet."
“Oh, my God.
“Oh, that is so kind of you.”
“Not aproblem, I’m happy to do it.”
I called thecredit card companies, cancel all my cards.”
“Oh great.”
[00:10:41] HOST: Don’tcancel anything.
They fall for that becauseno one wants to call and cancel all their credit cards.
It doesn’t cost anything to cancel them.
You cancel them,even if it may turn out they sent it back temporarily.
[00:11:07] HOST: Youcan temporarily cancel them, right?
[00:11:08] FrankAbagnale: Yeah, much better to be safer.
[00:11:09] HOST:Alright.
Alright, so up next, we are going to check in withthe AARP Fraud Watch web connection Team.
(MUSIC SEGUE)
[00:12:10] HOST:Alright, I’d like to welcome Kristen Keckeisen.
She is the campaign directorfor the AARP Fraud Watch data pipe.
Kristen, thanks for being here.
[00:12:16] KristenKeckeisen: Thank you for having me.
[00:13:34] KristenKeckeisen: You’ve got it.
[00:15:01] HOST: WillJohnson: Under the ether.
This is an actual term.
[00:15:03] KristenKeckeisen: Under the ether.
This is an actual term that, that fraudsters haveused.
Let mecall you tomorrow.
But,in fact, that is not the case.
And we also aregetting ready to launch an initiative to warn people about ancestry websites onFacebook as well.
[00:17:15] KristenKeckeisen: Go to AARP.org/fraudwatchnetwork.
[00:17:42] HOST:Alright.
Kristen Keckeisen is Campaign Director for The AARP Fraud WatchNetwork.
Thanks a lot for talking to us.
[00:17:48] KristenKeckeisen: Thank you.
[00:17:58] AmyNofziger: I’m great, how are you?
[00:17:59] HOST: I’mgood.
So can we reveal where you are, where the call center is?
We’re going totell people all about what you do and how you help people avoid and then reportfraud.
[00:18:07] AmyNofziger: Certainly.
So I am actually located in Denver, and that is where oneof our volunteer managed call centers is.
We also have one in Seattle,Washington.
Any time you have any suspicion,just call us and we can help you through it.
[00:18:53] HOST: Amy, Ihear you’ve been doing this a while, right?
[00:18:56] AmyNofziger: About 15 years, a while.
[00:18:59] HOST: So I’mgoing to put you on the spot here with a few questions.
What’s the weirdestcall youve gotten for, for a throw in of scam or fraud?
Everything weird is out there.
[00:19:43] HOST: Well Ilike the, I like the small bagel complaint.
That seems legit to me.
As you lookback over 10 years or so, how have things changed?
Certainly we’ve got a lotmore technology out there.
[00:19:54] AmyNofziger: Yeah, technology has certainly made things change.
I assume it’s all ages, all walks of life.
[00:21:26] HOST: Tellus about the virtual kidnapping scam.
That sounds insidious and awful and weneed, we need to know about it.
[00:21:30] AmyNofziger: It is, it is, absolutely is.
And they areholding them for ransom and that you gotta go right away to wire money.
[00:23:16] AmyNofziger: Absolutely.
Hang up the phone.
Hang up the phone,hang up the phone, delete the email, and hang up the phone.
I don’t know howmany times I can say that because one, you’re giving them an in.
They know how to manipulate people and they know how to getit in.
So just hang up the phone, do not engage, and then really report it.
[00:24:53] Amy Nofziger:Yeah, the number if 877-908-3360.
[00:25:01] HOST: Amy,it’s been really great and helpful talking to you.
We’re going to let you go,but thanks so much and, and we appreciate your time.
[00:25:07] AmyNofziger: Thank you so much.
[00:25:09] HOST: AmyNofziger is Fraud Expert for the AARP.
END OF TRANSCRIPT
In this episode of The Perfect Scam, Frank discusses his favorite scams.
For instance, if you are looking for a job you are more vulnerable to a work-at-home scam.
