By Staff
Our View
The Office of Fair Trading in London is warning British consumers that scam artists have began setting up "sucker lists" so that other scammers can steal from easy targets more easily.
How does that affect us?
Britain's OFT claims that scam artists have reached the point where they can prey on individuals anywhere in the world from anywhere in the world.
They warn that scammers come from all over the world, Canada, America, Europe, Africa, India, and Asia and they are mostly targeting the poorer people of wealthier countries.
Since Hurricane Ivan there are few weeks when The Atmore Advance is not told of some new scam that threatens the residents of Atmore.
First National Bank warned us about people claiming to be contacting consumers about problems with their bank accounts.
The YMCA contacted us about a scam where people were told they had won a new car.
The Atmore Area Chamber of commerce told us about a man that calls cities and schools and tries to sell them bogus merchandise.
And this week we were told about three types of scam where people claim to be in federal agencies and ask potential victims for either money or account information.
In most cases the person trying to steal our money from us is not in Atmore, they're not even in Alabama and in many cases the callers appear to be from foreign countries.
The two Escambia Counties have been targeted because of the suffering we have already faced.
We are being targeted because unscrupulous people believe we have recently come into money thanks to legitimate federal agencies or because they think we are vulnerable, easy targets.
England is organizing programs to help battle the problem of scam artists. They have realized that scammers are banding together against unfortunate victims. They have realized that in a technology based society evil-doers from around the globe can steal from anywhere they chose.
America is the most technologically advanced and tech-based country on the planet. We must not let ourselves be victimized by people using that technology for evil.
If none of us fall for their schemes we can not be put on a global "easy target list."
If we band together as they have and work to stamp out these scammers; if we report each and every one of them each and every time they call we can slowly eradicate them from the planet.
To report a scam contact your local attorney general's office.