South Snohomish County Crime Watch Hot Sheet: May 2025

Saturday, May 17, 2025

RECOVERY SCAMS- Fraudsters Come Back for More

Like retailers, scammers like repeat customers. Retailers try to earn repeat business by selling quality products at good prices and providing good service. Scammers get repeat customers by manipulating victims over and over again.

Some scammers will keep a list of victims who have surrendered money to return with another scam to try to get more money. Other scammers purchase victim lists (known as sucker lists in the “trade”) for a list of people who would be more likely to be manipulated in a scam.

One scam that fraudsters use is a Recovery (or Refund) Scam. If someone has been victimized in a scam, the scammer may come back pretending to be a trustworthy government agency, a recovery company, advocacy group, or law firm to offer their services. This could be to process a refund or to work through the bureaucracy to pursue your claim.

They will make lavish promises that they can recover your lost funds. They will claim that they have a very high success rate for their “clients.”

But they need to be paid a “retainer fee,” “processing fee,” “administrative charge,” “tax,” “shipment and handling charge.” They may also want some personal information to help process your claim such as social security number, checking, debit, or other financial account number.

There are legitimate recovery companies, but often only do the filing that you can do for free.

Being scammed is a devasting experience. And it is natural to want to recover any lost funds. But be careful.

· Ignore unsolicited offers. If you have an interest in a specific organization, such as a law firm, do a web search with the name of the firm and keywords such as “scam,” “fraud” or “complaint.” You can also look up companies and charities on the Washington State Secretary of State website- https://www.sos.wa.gov/. You can also look up a business to see if they are a member of the Better Business Bureau- https://www.bbb.org/.

· Reject pressure tactics. Scammers use pressure to get you emotional so that you act emotionally not logically.

· Be leery of anyone who guarantees that they can return all of your money.

· Walk away from up-front fees. Scammers will charge up-front fees to start getting money out of you. And they may string you along with one more fee. Then one more fee.

If you are scammed, you will feel foolish. Remember, you have been victimized by a criminal. It is the criminal who is at fault for stealing your money and possibly your personal information.

Federal Trade Commission:

https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/refund-and-recovery-scams

AARP:

https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/recovery-scams/

It can be possible to recover scammed funds. Here are a few tips:

https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/recovering-stolen-money/?msockid=1ccaa3490741631714d9b3fb03416160

FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3):

https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2024/PSA240624

https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/sandiego/news/fbi-san-diego-seizes-cryptocurrency-recovery-websites

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/operation-level-up-how-the-fbi-is-saving-victims-from-cryptocurrency-investment-fraud

Financial Regulatory Authority (FINRA):

https://www.finra.org/investors/insights/recovery-scams

Friday, May 9, 2025

SCAM UPDATE- Scam Losses Continue to Grow

We hear about scams all of the time and it seems there are more ways scammers try to take your money or your personal information so that they can take your money. Several government agencies and non-profit organizations attempt to track scams and their impact on citizens.

One of the key agencies tracking scams and fraud is the FBI. It investigates reports of scams that it receives through its web site at www.ic3.gov. It analyzes information it receives to determine the direction of its investigations. It recently published an annual report on the scam trends it has observed in 2024.

The FBI reported a record $16.6 billion in losses for 2024, a 33% increase in losses from 2023. The average reported loss was $19,372. It received around 860,000 total complaints in 2024 or about 2,000 complaints per day. That compares with the beginning of collecting scam/fraud complaints in the early 2000’s when the FBI averaged 2,000 fraud complaints every month.

The FBI also noted that people over the age of 60 suffered the most losses and submitted the most complaints.

The report showed concern about the reported increase in losses and reported incidents in spite of its enforcement efforts. The report noted that the FBI has been active in trying to bring online fraudsters to justice. In 2024 it shut down LockBit one of the world’s most active ransomware groups. It also conducted a variety of enforcement actions that disbanded fraud and laundering syndicates, shut down scam call centers, shuttered illicit marketplaces, and put hundreds of online fraudsters in jail.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also tracks fraud complaints through its https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/ website. The FTC charges fraudsters in civil court, does education on how to avoid fraud and shares the data that it collects on fraud complaints with national, state, and local law enforcement agencies.

The FTC’s 2024 report shows that it received 2.6 million fraud reports with a total reported loss of $12.5 billion, an increase of $2.5 billion from 2023. More than 1 in 3 people who reported a scam also reported losing money. People lost over $3 billion to scams that started online. When scammers contacted victims via phone call, text message, or email, people lost $1.9 billion. And people lost more money per person (a median average of $1,500 according to the FTC) when they talked to the scammer over the phone.

In contrast to the FBI, the FTC reported that younger people reported losing money more often than older people. But, when older people lost money, they lost far more than younger people.

The top 5 scams reported to the FTC were,

1. Imposter scams

2. Online shopping

3. Business and job opportunities

4. Investments

5. Internet services

The increase in losses to scams and fraud schemes that are accelerated by our modern technology shows that fraud is a continuing and growing problem for our society. As noted by the FBI, national law enforcement agencies, including the IRS, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, FTC, etc. are attempting to hold fraudsters to account. Organizations such as AARP, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), Better Business Bureau, and the National Cybersecurity Alliance undertake educational campaigns to warn citizens about fraud and provide tips to citizens to avoid fraud.

Modern fraudsters are agile crooks. They find new ways to scam organizations and individuals. They refine old techniques. They use new technology such as AI to social engineer their victims into giving money and personal information. Plus, with modern communications, they can victimize people on the other side of the world, making attempts at bringing them to justice more difficult.

Clearly, law enforcement agencies at the federal, state, and local levels need to find new, innovative ways to bring international fraudsters to justice and to find new ways to prevent fraud from victimizing more citizens before the rising trend of losses to fraud will fall.