Squeeze the scammers where it hurts

A local guy named Dan was at work Tuesday afternoon when his phone lit up. It was a Seattle number.

Good news! Dan had been approved for a grant. The robo-voice informed him that they’d tried to call him before and that he should call them back right away so he could get his grant.

You can read Dan’s story on the front page today. While he could laugh about a member of law enforcement being targeted by scam artists, he was dead serious when he noted that “Sadly, as I write this, someone is being defrauded by this scam.”

It is sad — and unacceptable.

As a community, we need to be more aware. That’s the only way we’ll eradicate the scam menace.

That’s easier said than done. Scams aren’t just proliferating; they’re getting increasingly sophisticated. The phone number that shows up on your caller ID might actually be the county prosecutor’s. The person who calls you might have so thoroughly researched the person he’s pretending to be that you don’t have to be a fool to get fooled. There’s big money in preying on the innocent; huge money, in some cases. And they don’t even have to get off their duffs to scoop up handfuls of your hard-earned cash.

A case in point: One local victim was so convinced that he had to make a payment that he went to Walmart not once, not twice, but three times to send a moneygram. On each occasion, employees told him it was a scam. But the man eventually divided and conquered, finding two outlets that carry out his misdirected wish.

Soumas and other experts agree that rounding up and putting away all the bad guys is never going to happen. The more practical option is to cut off their supply line and put them out of business.

If you get nothing else from our coverage today, our weekly columns by CDA Press Consumer Guy Bill Brooks and anti-scam articles we publish regularly, please remember this:

When somebody calls or emails you asking nicely or not-so-nicely for money, no matter how tantalizing the offer or scary the threat, don’t do it. Don’t give them your credit card or bank info. Don’t give them access to your computer. Don’t go to a retail outlet or financial institution to wire money, gift cards or anything of value. Do any of these things and you’ll only be feeding parasites, keeping them alive to hurt other people.

Healthy skepticism and a quick trigger on suspicious calls can save you untold grief.

Just hang up.