|
6.
Determining exactly how much you will invest:
Depending on the success of Step 5, you will now either invest more money or go find other investors so that you can earn a commission on additional investments or both.
Because your level of trust in his contact has now been completely solidified, you will discuss with the con exact dollar amounts that can be brought into the investment, whether the funds are your own or those of friends, acquaintances, family, or even borrowed from the bank.
7. Sending you home to get this money:
In the days before electronic transfers, the con artist literally sent the victim home to bring back the money. But in these days of Internet banking, you can transfer funds with the click of a keyboard, providing instant gratification for the con artist and the incentive to keep the ball rolling.
So at this point the scam is escalated - you are told
that there are more opportunities available but that time is short.
Any number of reasons for this are used, depending on the nature of
the scam.
You will now feel pressured on three fronts, one
being the urgency of making money before the opportunity disappears,
one being the urgency not to disappoint your "friend", and lastly
the urgency to maintain your "worthiness" in the eyes of the
insideman.
With the pressure on, you invest large sums and/or put the pressure on your friends and family to join in the investment. If you bring friends and family into the scheme, you have now become a middleman.
8.
Playing you against a big store
and fleecing you:
Again, depending on the nature of the scam, you hand the money over and that's the end of the story, or phony expenses are brought into the picture. In either case, the money is gone into the swindler's pockets.
This happens the moment the funds are transferred.
In some cases, provided you act quickly enough, a portion of the investment can be recovered.
Back to top
9.
Getting you out of the way as quietly as possible:
If you have been played in such a way that you
believe you are earning profits illegally, then any number of
scenarios can be staged.
You can be told that the police are investigating the
insideman and that you had better make yourself scarce, or that the
banking commission is investigating, or the FBI, or whoever.
You are honest, he can be told that the insideman has had a heart attack and all funds have been frozen or confiscated by some foreign government. Any number of excuses can be used. If you do not quietly disappear down the road, then Step 10 is used.
10.
Forestalling action by the law:
This is where terror tactics are used.
This is the step where the swindler will use every
sort of threat imaginable to induce your the deepest fears in order
to prevent you from contacting the authorities for as long as
possible, or maybe never.
The swindler will threaten you with anything from
total loss of all funds, convincing you that you have involved
yourself in some sort of questionable activity, or threaten you with
maiming or death.
The swindler will use stall tactics by telling you
that funds are tied up in a bank audit, or that transfers are frozen
during bank mergers, or that the SEC is investigating the investment
fund and no money can be disbursed until the investigation is
finished.
The insideman is in the hospital, his mother died, he
has been called away on urgent business and wasn't able to transfer
funds on time ... I could fill up a few pages with excuses I have
read, heard, or experienced.
The results are always the same - it gives the swindler time to wrap up his scam and make a clean get-away, and/or it gives him time to clean out other victims he has on the hook before making his getaway. We will show the 12 most common excuses con artists use for not returning your money later in the tour.
Back to top
|
