There’s an entire online underworld determined to take your money, and the numbers reveal Arizonans have been hit hard.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2022 Internet Crime Report, Arizona saw $241,191,959 in losses related to online crimes, the 10th highest in the nation.
The state also ranked 11th highest in number of victims — 12,112 in total. These numbers include a wide range of internet crimes, ranging from extortion to identify theft to even pretend lovers.
Online fraud tends to target the elderly, who made 88,262 complaints to the FBI about internet crimes and lost a collective $3.1 billion nationwide, according to the 2022 Annual Report. The nationwide loss for all internet crimes was $10.3 billion.
“Why we have found the elderly are a target is because they are more vulnerable,” said Special Agent Mary Gleason of FBI Phoenix Division. “These overseas actors are professionals. Their full-time job is to deprive Americans of their money. They target them, they look at obituaries and reach out. People are lonely and more willing to start a conversation. They also play on their fear.”
Not all victims are elderly, however: people under 20, for example, collectively lost about $210.5 million across 15,782 reports.
Gleason and the white collar crime squad she supervises investigates fraud, typically healthcare and complex financial crimes, such as romance scams.
She speculated Arizona’s high victim and loss numbers could be attributed to the state’s temporary snowbird population — but it’s also possible the real numbers are much higher.
“That could also be why some of our numbers could also be under reported. If they’re living elsewhere, they’ll put down their permanent address,” Gleason said.
Regardless of age, the numbers of scam reports are nonetheless trending up, Gleason said. Total losses were up by nearly $4 billion between 2021 and 2022.
“We don’t know if that’s just because more people are reporting it. There’s a lot of shame associated with it, so I think it’s a hard thing for people to report,” Gleason said.
The FBI doesn’t localize state internet scam data into county and city levels, so it can be difficult to ascertain from local law enforcement numbers.
In Bullhead City, internet crimes are tracked as part of the overall fraud reports.
Since 2020, the city has seen 661 total fraud reports: 208 in 2020, 154 in 2021, 251 in 2022 and 102 reports so far this year.
Although the BCPD fraud reports include non-internet fraudulent activity, BCPD Public Information Officer Emily Fromelt and Community Services Officer Lori Duggins said they have seen many types of online scams locally.
“Any kind of phishing scam that you can imagine, we have people fall victim to them here,” Duggins said.
Phishing scams involve contact from a legitimate-seeming company requesting personal, financial and/or login credentials.
“The Bullhead City Police Department really tries to go out and educate the public about these scams, especially our elderly population, because unfortunately, that’s who scammers target,” Fromelt said.
The “grandparent scam” is another big one in the community — schemers pretend to be a loved one, like a grandchild, and convince their mark to wire them money due to some kind of emergency.
Spoofing software, which makes phone calls look like it’s coming from a different phone number, can even make it look like it’s coming from the loved one’s or an otherwise legitimate number.
Unknown numbers should also be treated with caution, especially if they’re from someone promising a big payday, like winning the lottery, or are seeking investment into a supposedly low-risk purchase.
“I heard someone use the term once, ‘Make the call, don’t take the call.’ The same can be said about text messages,” Gleason said. “A lot of these lottery or crypto scams, they start because you receive a text message that just says hello.”
Other scams have included fake calls or messages from the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security or law enforcement agencies threatening legal action or take away benefits if the victims refuse to pay up. Another tactic involves technology, such as a scammer claiming they’ll steal computer files or digital photos unless they’re paid.
Romance scams are also commonly reported, wherein a fraudster builds a relationship with someone only to fleece them of all their money.
“It’s a ‘romantic relationship,’ so they can’t break it off,” Duggins said. “It’s ongoing. A lot of the time, I say you may want to contact Adult Protective Services. Sometimes they can go out and get more information when the person’s not ready to make a police report. They often get angry when police show up, because they don’t feel they’re victims.”
Gleason said in many romance scams, the victim usually doesn’t meet the person or have only spoken to them over the phone.
“(Sometimes) they have had Facetime or Skype communications, but it’s always a still shot. It doesn’t look like they’re talking to a live person, but they always have a reason for that.” Gleason said. “… They always say what they need to say to convince you that they are 100 percent legitimate when they’re not.”
Regardless, the goal is make the victim not question what they’re doing, even if it’s as absurd as paying a government agent in gift cards.
“People go along with it. Sometimes, even when family members or the bank tell them it’s fraudulent, they don’t want to hear it,” Gleason said. “They push to do that wire or that withdrawal, they liquidate 401ks and IRAs.”
Taking money directly, be it through a wire transfer, gift cards or e-currency, isn’t the only way to scam someone. Fraudsters can solicit personal information and steal their victims’ identity for loans, medical bills or to steal benefits.
“They might finance a motor home and be living in it. You get your credit report and it shows you have this loan. You’re making payments, sometimes you’re late or whatever, so no one is notifying you about it. You’re like ‘I never bought a motor home!’” Duggins said. “People find really crazy stuff like that.”
Gleason also recommended anyone paying into Social Security, regardless of age, to register an online account with the Social Security Administration and to check on it annually.
“There have been reports of people who log into it and they find out somebody has already collecting benefits, they’re somehow registered as a veteran receiving social security,” Gleason said. “The Social Security Administration will work with people to fix it. But as with any government agency, it can take up to two years to correct the problem and somebody out there has been collecting money on your behalf.”
Sometimes, an online scam is as simple as a fake Facebook listing.
“We see a lot of animal scams for breeders selling animals that are fake,” Duggins said. “People pay all this money, go to pick the animal up and it doesn’t exist and there’s no way to get the money back.”
Regardless of what the scam looks like, eventually it will be time to make a report.
“When it is reported locally, it is assigned to an investigator or a detective to follow-up on,” Fromelt said, “However, since typically these scammers are using untraceable cash methods … when it gets to us, it’s untraceable cash. So, there’s really not much they can go from there.”
The department provides resources on how to navigate the reporting process, including the parts beyond reporting a crime — such as check list of what to do if your identity is stolen with sample letters to send to banks and credit bureaus.
“I’ll walk them run through it. I will put together an e-mail package and walk them through or put together paperwork if they want to pick it up in the lobby,” Duggins said.
Fromelt said victims are referred to IC3 and the Federal Trade Commission in those situations.
Anyone can make a report to IC3 — Gleason has seen reports from adult protective services, banks, family and friends.
On the federal side, investigations can take years, Gleason said. The scam perpetrators are often located outside of the country and the scale of the problem is massive.
“There’s certain tools and techniques we can use to try to recover some of the funds. But the fraud is so rampant, there’s not enough people to actually work it and it happens so often,” Gleason said.
One way to aid investigators is to include as many details as possible in the report, such as by including the names of the malicious people or entities involved in the scam.
“There was one (scammer) who kept using the name same. I was able to go in there and link it to another investigation in another field office,” Gleason said. “Let’s say, you said your victim had lost $10,000. If we find 100 victims, that’s a more significant dollar amount for us to then get involved.”
Gleason also recommended reporting sooner rather than later, particularly if a wire transfer was involved, noting there were some recovery tools available if notified within 48 to 72 hours.
However, sometimes the funds are recovered.
In April, $112 million linked to cryptocurrency investment scams were seized by Gleason’s squad in a case being investigated by the Phoenix Division.
“All that money will go back to victims,” Gleason said.
The virtual currency accounts were allegedly used to launder proceeds of various cryptocurrency confidence scams — a scheme where fraudsters cultivate long-term relationships online, eventually enticing their targets to make investments in fraudulent cryptocurrency trading platforms.
This particular fraud, often called “Sha Zhu Pan,” a Chinese phrase that loosely translates to “pig butchering,” often do not stop until they have deprived victims of any remaining savings.
“Depriving scam organizations of their ill-gotten gains is an important part of our strategy to combat these ruthless schemes,” said Director Eun Young Choi of the Criminal Division’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team. “We will continue to use all tools at our disposal to disrupt and deter cryptocurrency confidence schemes, including by following the money on the blockchain and seizing cryptocurrency to return funds to victims, and by targeting and taking down online infrastructure used by the scammers”
Gleason said the process of returning funds could also take years, especially as more victims come forward and are connected to the case.
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