I did some digging and found a report that enlisted suspicious activity reports, known as SARs in the banking world. Well, SARs are the documents that financial institutions must file with the federal government’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) whenever behavior by employees or customers is detected that may be associated with money laundering, fraud, or other types of criminal activity. They are considered to be one of the most accurate measures of the prevalence of financial crime in any given year in the United States.
Well, not surprisingly, the number of SARs have been steadily rising. According to the statistics behind the SARs filings, fraud is on the rise and there is no indication of a slowdown.
But believe it or not, that scam information was not what rattled my cage today. In fact, what rattled my cage did not even involve ripping off thousands of dollars in life savings from an older adult, albeit what got me so upset was fraudulent indeed, and conducted by a con artist. Allow me to share.
The Philadelphia Inquirer published a story by Julia Terruso a few days ago reporting that a woman received a fake letter in the US Mail notifying her that she’d have to house migrants under a nonexistent Biden-Harris program.
The woman, Elizabeth Bennett, 62, a resident of a Philly suburb, got a detailed letter from the made-up Pennsylvania Congressional Office of Immigration Affairs notifying her that her household had been selected to house five migrant refugees.
The article goes on to say that no office exists, nor does such a government-mandated housing program. The letter, doctored to look like an official government document with an imprint of a fake Pennsylvania seal on the letterhead, provided specific details designed to mislead someone less attuned to a scam — and laid the blame for the fake program at the feet of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The return address it listed was for an intersection in front of the Pennsylvania Capitol building in Harrisburg.
So, what’s the lesson to learn here?
Scams and fraud continue to target all of us, from teens to older adults – and they don’t necessarily always have to be the kind looking to rip us off, conning us out of our life savings. They can also be designed to influence our thinking, pursuade us to take action based on faulty information, or simply confuse and frighten us to do nothing at all.
As we count down the days to November 5th, we all need to exercise a high degree of caution and discernment when it comes to any of the political messaging we see and hear coming from our radios, newspapers, televisions, and yes, even our mailboxes. Always verify with other news sources and never act in haste making judegments or arriving at conclusions based on what we see, hear and read!
Do not allow the con-artists to influence your thinking with fraudulent information about the candidates you wish to vote for. And certainly, do not allow them to frighten you to such a degree that you take no action at all. Be sure to make your voice heard on November 5th.
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