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19 January 2011

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Confidence Tricksters

Prey on Gullible

 

Confidence tricks range from elaborate

investment schemes to entrapping an

unwitting target into a love tangle

 

When the recession hit in 2008 it exposed many Ponzi schemes around the world because as has been pointed out when the tide goes out you can see who’s swimming without a bathing suit.

 

But, clever tricksters are constantly dreaming up new ways to convince their targets that they are properly clothed.

 

The Matrix Scheme

People wanting to jump the line for the latest technology gizmo were born for the scam artists who run Matrix Schemes, also known as Elevator Schemes, Escalator Schemes, or Ladder Schemes.

 

The Evening Standard newspaper describes a typical Matrix Scheme (September 2009) involving the iPod mini. The target is offered an opportunity to buy the much sought-after item: “But the offers are usually a scam with extremely small print, which reveals that the buyer will not get an iPod but simply a link to a website where they must pay to join a waiting list.

 

“The buyer will only get an iPod when they reach the top of the list.” The story adds that the chances of getting to the top of the list are very low and in some cases non-existent.

 

Salting the Mine

The people who invested in Bre-X do not need to be reminded of this fiddle. It involves doctoring an ore sample from a proposed mining operation to suggest it contains valuable minerals.

 

In the case of Bre-X, the Calgary-based company announced a huge gold deposit at a place called Busang,

 

Indonesia. The ore samples were examined by experts and declared legitimate. The value of Bre-X shares went from pennies a piece to almost $300 each. Investors who got in early were very happy.

 

But, it didn’t last. On March 19, 1997 a Filipino geologist who worked for Bre-X “fell” from a helicopter in Indonesia. A few days later, the gold-loaded ore samples were found to contain “insignificant” amounts of the precious metal and the jig was up.

 

Insiders sold their shares at the top and left town.

 

Mark Twain summed it up best when he wrote that, “A gold mine is a hole in the ground surrounded by liars.”

 

The Badger Game

On a more personal level, there must be many a man who has gotten caught up in this scheme though it would likely prove impossible to find any that would admit to it.

 

This is an extortion scheme that involves getting a married man (it’s not so likely to work with single men) into a compromising situation with a woman.

 

The Badger Game is thought to have started in Wisconsin (the Badger State) in the 19th century but it’s found its way around the world. An attractive woman sidles up to a lone man in a hotel bar. Drinks are consumed and the woman invites the man to her room.

 

Eventually, the man is confronted with video or photographic evidence of his evening’s entertainment and asked to pay up. The victim would be too ashamed of his own actions not to pay off the con men.

 

In Australia, the Badger Game was perfected by “Jean Lee, a small time crook and prostitute, and the last woman hanged in Australia,” whose story has been immortalized by playwright Kate Toon. It also featured in a 1966 episode of The Beverly Hillbillies.

 

Image credits

Neil T.

 

Sources

“Warning over iPod Scheme.” Mark Prigg, Evening Standard, September 24, 2009.

“Stranger than Fiction: The Bre-X Gold Scandal.” CBC News, March 11, 1996.

 

© Canada and the World, January 2011

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Fraud Artists