Scams: Almost everyone’s a victim, sheriff says

VICTOR — The number of people who have fallen victim to scams is vastly underreported, Iowa County Sheriff Rob Rotter told an audience at Victor Library last week.

People are embarrassed that they were tricked, Rotter said, and they don’t want to tell anyone.

But telling someone is exactly what victims should do, said Rotter. “By hearing about it, we can at least warn people.”

If authorities know about scams, they can try to prevent them, Rotter said. Iowa County residents should call 319-642-7307 to report suspected fraud.

Rotter has given a few talks about scams and fraud prevention, he said. “They’re becoming more popular,” he said.

“It’s the one crime that almost everyone has been a victim of,” Rotter told his audience in Victor. Even people who haven’t fallen for a scam have seen it attempted.

59 million a year

According to statistics, 59 million people were scammed last year, Rotter said. He believes the number is much higher.

Rotter has taken reports after people have been scammed, he said. They lose their life savings, but there’s nothing law enforcement can do about it.

In Iowa County, there isn’t a year that goes by that $50,000 to $60,000 isn’t lost to scams, Rotter said.

The worst one Rotter’s dealt with involved a couple in Amana who gave up half their savings when they were told they’d won a lottery and had to pay taxes on the winnings.

They sent the tax money, but the lottery winnings never arrived, Rotter said.

Within a year the couple fell for an insurance scam that took the rest of their savings. They lost a total of $130,000, Rotter said.

The scammer needs only one call to pay off, said Rotter. “The reward for them is immense.”

Robocalls

Robocalls are cheap but effective, said Rotter. “They want you to push a button,” he said.

The caller might claim to offer supplemental health insurance. That’s a big one for scamming seniors, Rotter said.

“All they really want to see is if you answered,” said Rotter.

The computer calls random numbers, and the moment a person answers, the company knows the number is legitimate. It’s added to a list.

There are people in the business of recording the numbers that answer, said Rotter. “They’ll sell it for a legitimate reason,” but some people use the lists to take advantage of people.

Rotter said he doesn’t answer a call unless he knows the number. If the call is important, the caller will leave a message, he said.

Caller ID is worth having, said Rotter. He also advised seniors to put legitimate numbers — such as those for doctors, banks and insurance companies — in their contacts on their phones so the number won’t show as unknown.

“Grandma, I need money.“

One of the big scams is someone calling Grandma for money, Rotter said. That scam began about 15 years ago.

The caller claims to be a grandchild who has had an accident and isn’t allowed to leave the hospital until he pays. Or the grandchild has been arrested and needs money to get released from a Mexican jail.

People are spread out today. Grandparents don’t know their grandchildren as well as in the past, said Rotter.

If grandparents don’t know if their grandchildren are out of the country or not, they may believe the fake calls.

Scammers do their research and have correct names and addresses of their victims. Websites such as Spokeo offer people searches to anyone.

“Spokeo will tell me how old you are,” said Rotter. “It will even tell me residences, towns you lived in over the years.”

A quick search will give scammers names of a person’s relatives. “I can call you up and pretend to be ‘Tommy,’” Rotter said.

“I’ll call you back.“

The best thing to do when someone calls claiming to be someone you know is to tell them you’ll call them back, said Rotter. Call a number that you already have for that person, not the number they called from.

Someone claiming to be a utility company may say you fell behind on payments and must pay now or your utility will be shut off. They want banking information or credit card information or a prepaid Visa card.

That’s not how utility companies do business, said Rotter. “They’re going to send you letters. They’re not going to call you on the phone.”

A quick phone call to the utility company can reveal the scam.

Sometimes scammers won’t ask for money. They’ll call and claim to be from the bank. They may say someone has gotten access to your account and ask you to confirm the information by giving them your bank number or social security number.

Your bank will already have that information, said Rotter.

People receive fake calls from the IRS — especially at tax time — or debt consolidation agencies.

“If anyone is asking for money to do this, stay away,” said Rotter. “There’s no one that’s going to get you out of debt but yourself.”

Sometimes scammers pretend to be attorneys and offer a chance to join class action suit to recoup monetary loses, but you have to pay them a retainer.

Or they’ll claim to be raising money. One of the most popular scams in Iowa County is one that claims to raise money for bullet proof vests for law enforcement.

“What’s funny is, I get those calls,” said Rotter.

He’ll argue with the callers for a while and eventually tell them he’s the county sheriff and knows the calls are scams.

It makes them angry, said Rotter, because every minute he keeps them on the line is a minute they aren’t scamming someone else.

Arrest scams are also prevalent.

Rotter’s son was attending the University of Dubuque when he received a call that he had a speeding ticket from a traffic camera. He needed to send a $500 bond or he’d be arrested.

Because he didn’t have the money, he called his dad.

Rotter called Dubuque police who told him the call wasn’t legitimate. Dubuque had seven or eight others who had received the same call, he said.

Law enforcement agencies don’t take bond over the phone, said Rotter. “If you have an arrest warrant, we’ll go get you.”

Another scam involves program that displays an FBI logo on your screen and says you’ve been locked out of your computer because you’ve been accessing child porn.

You have to pay them to unlock the computer.

The FBI is not going to send you a message like that or lock up your screen, Rotter said.

Sometimes people pay the money, but the computer remains locked. “What kind of warranty are you getting with a scammer?” Rotter asked.

“But people get scared and they think they have to pay this.”

Ransomware

A computer program that locks up a computer until money is paid is called ransomware.

Ransomware often targets large organizations, such as governments, said Rotter.

The State of Iowa has been a victim, and the 911 board constantly hears of 911 systems being taken down, Rotter said.

“We spend a lot of money in Iowa County keeping our computers safe,” Rotter said. He can’t log in to a county computer without authenticating his identity on his phone.

“We have money for you, but …“

Scammers will sometimes offer to help pay taxes on a sweepstakes award.

They’ll send you a $25,000 check, but you have to pay them a few thousand in taxes, said Rotter. You send the check, but the check they sent you is no good, “so you’re out the money.”

One Iowa County victim of fraud was told he was entitled to a refund of several thousand dollars from Alliant Energy for over paying, said Rotter.

The same day, the same caller said he made a mistake and sent too much money. He asked that the victim send back the amount of the over payment.

Gone for good

Anytime a person asks you to wire money or buy a prepaid card and tell them the number for it, it becomes their money, “and you will not get it back,” Rotter said.

Even if a victim remember a name, it’s probably a fake, Rotter said.

Banks used by scammers are usually overseas, Rotter said. “I don’t have authority … outside the United States.”

Interpol has the authority, but it doesn’t have the time. It has bigger crimes investigate, Rotter said.

When scammers use addresses in the states, those addresses are usually for parking lots or for abandoned houses,“ said Rotter.

Out of 50,000 or more cases, Rotter’s seen only one person get her money back, he said. And she lost it in another scam later.

Snail mail

Mail fraud is still a thing, Rotter said.

Rotter receives mail at the sheriff’s office periodically claiming that someone has died overseas and Rotter is the only relative they can find. The scammer needs money to pay taxes on the inheritance.

They’ll want you to call them, Rotter said. “They’re not going to want you to write a letter back.”

These scams may take a long time as the scammers pretend to help you solve problems, Rotter said.

A North English resident worked with a scammer for so long to allegedly recover an overpayment that they became friends, Rotter said. “That scammer really put a lot into this.”

Medical scams

Medicare fraud is huge, Rotter said. Scammers will pretend to be real patients and file for Medicare reimbursement. “It’s easy to bill Medicare acting like a provider.”

People also file fake unemployment claims under the names of real people. If those people need unemployment later, they can’t get it because they’ve already reached their limits.

More than $3 billion lost

In 2020, more than $3 billion was lost in scams for people over 65 years of age, according to statistics.

“I know that’s wrong,” said Rotter. “There’s no way it’s that low.”

It’s rare that the situation is resolved and very few people go to jail for it, said Rotter.