"The Age of the Scammer"

 Spring arrived last evening on the eastern seaboard around 11:30pm, but whoever is in charge forgot to tell the one who controls the thermostat. It was thirty-six degrees this morning, and turtles and peepers are squawking. And, for the next two days, forecasts for the weather are for the low 20s. Nevertheless, spring is on its way, and scammers are in full bloom. 

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

More Essays from Essex

“The Age of the Scammer”

March 20, 2024

 

“Internet scamming is the safest crime in the world.”

                                                                                                                                Answer on Quora, July 22, 2023

 

AARP estimates that Americans lost $8.8 billion in 2022 to scammers versus $3.5 billion in 2020, a revenue increase that must be the envy of most New York Stock Exchange-listed companies. But perhaps we should consider ourselves fortunate (and maybe U.S.-based scammers less so). The Delhi-based and English language daily Hindustan Times estimated that, world-wide, people lost about $1.02 trillion between August 2022 and August 2023. Scammers mostly target older and younger consumers – both vulnerable because of a sense of loneliness or isolation. As octogenarians, my wife and I, while often acting like the latter, fit the profile of the former. Most calls on our house phone do not come from those wishing us well.

 

Despite recent notoriety – reflecting aging populations, media interest, new technologies, and a surfeit of scammers – the profession of fraudster vies with prostitution for the title: “world’s oldest profession.” In the Book of Proverbs it is written: “Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth will be filled with gravel.” If only…! Among more famous con artists and swindlers were Charles Ponzi (1882-1949) who brought down six banks and cost investors $20 million between January and November of 1920; Ivar Kreuger (1880-1932), the “Swedish match king” who committed suicide in 1932, forged securities worth about $700 million (and among whose victims was my maternal grandfather); and Bernie Madoff (1938-2021) who cost investors approximately $17 billion when he was finally defrocked in 2008. While the individual stealing my credit card is a small fish, he is a member of the same guild.

 

Most scams come via phone or e-mail. The perpetrators are aided by technology: In Connecticut, there are four area codes for 3.6 million people and 1.4 million households. However, there are over nine million combinations of a seven-digit number, meaning that those four area codes could produce over thirty-six million different phone numbers. While most of us, at least those of us with caller-ID, will not answer the phone unless we recognize the name or the number, phone scammers have the capability of calling you from your area code, using made-up names. If you answer the phone you may find that the voice does not fit the name. In a recent op-ed on scammers in The Wall Street Journal, Joseph Epstein wrote that he takes amusement in their false names, writing that his favorite is ‘Shawn Parker’ delivered in a heavy South Asian accent. More alarming is that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will soon allow scammers to produce individual avatars that provide the image and voice of a child, grandchild, or friend. 

 

E-mail scams are often not subtle. A message will be received from a friend or relative’s hacked account asking for money, because he or she has become ill, involved in an accident, or is in jail. While I am tempted to answer humorously, the best thing to do is delete the e-mail and notify your relative or friend.

 

Scams appear on internet accounts. One is asked to click on a link, as I once did, forcing me to change my credit card number. The worst are those intent on stealing your identity, generally by getting hold of your Social Security card number. Be skeptical. If you have a question or are in doubt shut down your computer, and call the Social Security office, bank, credit card company, or merchant. Caveat Emptor does not apply just to the real estate industry. It is a motto we should all obey, especially in this age of the scammer.

"Imperialism in the East"

 Martin Luther King’s emphasis on character over race is a lesson for us all, as we in the United States and in these discordant times, celebrate his birth today. Unlike our color, height or biological sex that are determined genetically, character is a quality for which we bear responsibility, and something on which we can all work.

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Imperialism in the East”

January 17, 2022

 

“…the American left should focus on where empire

as an ideal truly endures, which isn’t in the West.”

                                                                                                              Robert D. Kaplan (1952-)

                                                                                                              American author and political commentator

                                                                                                              The Wall Street Journal, January 14, 2022

 

President Biden’s two immediate predecessors fractured the nation with divisive talk. In his campaign, Mr. Biden promised unification. Instead, he has increased dissension, focusing on identity politics, federalizing voting laws and diminishing the role of the traditional family, all the while calling his political opponents misogynists, racists, xenophobes, bigots and domestic terrorists who want to destroy democracy. Such intemperate language does little to bridge legitimate differences between Democrats and Republicans – progressives and conservatives. He has wasted political capital, personally denigrating those with whom he disagrees, which has meant less time on issues that affect all Americans, regardless of Party – from the economy, inflation, education and illegal immigration at home to the consequences for the United States as to what is happening in the Middle East, Central Asia, China and Russia.

 

The calamitous withdrawal from Afghanistan sent a message to its allies that the United States’ commitment means little, and to its enemies that America need not be feared. The Abraham Accords, one of the Trump Administration’s finest achievements, has been stalled by the anti-Israel stand of the Biden Administration, and by a desire to reinstitute the Iranian nuclear deal. While Western imperialism of an earlier time is, perhaps justifiably, denigrated, its reincarnation in the East – in China and Russia – is ignored by the same pundits who criticize the West. Recent riots in Kazakhstan and the plight of the Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang Province are examples of unrest that are being dealt with harshly by Russia and China, while the West turns a blind eye.

 

Under both land-based and sea-based Belt and Road initiatives (BRI), Chinese banks and companies fund and build roads, power plants, ports, railways, 5-G networks, and fiber-optic cables around the world. According to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), as of last March 139 countries from five continents have joined BRI. Not all members host projects, but all endorse BRI as a concept and “pledge to cooperate with China to promote the initiative.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has lauded China’s BRI for having “sustainable development as the overarching objective,” and pledged that “the United Nations stands ready to travel this road with you.” China’s Belt and Road initiative began, shortly after Xi Jinping assumed the Chinese Presidency in 2013. The absorption of Hong Kong and China’s threat to Taiwan have shown what they can (and will) do to free markets and political freedom. In increasing the dependency of member states on China, BRI is reminiscent Ivar Kreuger’s early Twentieth Century scheme to create monopolies in myriad countries for his match businesses, by lending the countries money. Kreuger’s business collapsed in bankruptcy in 1932. China has an anti-democratic, authoritarian government that competes for the hearts and minds of people around the world, with their supposed economic success. It risks impoverishing its Belt and Road members by indebting them.

 

The threat in Ukraine appears more imminent. Over 100,000 Russian troops have gathered on Ukraine’s eastern border and have been joined by tanks and other weapons from Russia’s east. “Mr. Putin,” wrote Kathryn Stoner, author of Russia Resurrected: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order, in Saturday’s The Wall Street Journal, “has a history of using foreign policy to improve his domestic standing when he has felt his status slipping.” COVID-19 and the economy have caused his poll numbers to slip. They are now at their lowest level in ten years. Last September’s national election saw proceedings so corrupt that even the Communist Party – the “loyal opposition” – cried foul. In December, a Russian court closed the Memorial Human Rights Center, originally established to document Stalin’s crimes against humanity. In 2014, with his poll number slipping, Putin invaded Crimea, and then saw his approval numbers jump from around 60% to 90%. Since, they have slipped. Vladimir Putin justifies his imperialistic tendencies by claiming concern for the security of his homeland. It is true that the Baltic states, which had been part of the Soviet Union after World War II and at least six former Warsaw Pact countries have joined NATO. However, the only threat Ukraine poses to Russia is the pitting of democracy against authoritarianism. Putin’s interest in Ukraine is personal. As Ms. Stoner wrote: “What does any autocrat truly fear? Being strung up by his own people from a lamp post.” 

 

What we are seeing is what Yaroslav Trofimov of The Wall Street Journal termed the “Great Power competition.” The question: What will the West, led by the United States and Europe, do to deter this trend? The prognosis does not instill hope. Wokeness and identity politics dominate both cultures. Europe’s focus on social welfare has meant that it spends little on defense. Led by Germany, the Continent has become dependent on Russian energy. At the same time, the United States has given up its oil independence and has been embroiled in battles of self-hatred, focusing on what is wrong with our lifestyles and government, rather than what is right. The West is smug, fat and complacent. Europe’s lack of defense and now buying oil and gas from Russia, and with Mr. Biden disparaging his political opponents as enemies of democracy, the West risks the world becoming more authoritarian.