ctv_will: Welcome to Court TV Online chats. Today we'll be talking to Fay Faron You may have seen her on Court TV today, she was on the Crier show as well as Pros & Cons. In a little while you'll be able to ask her your own questions about rip-offs and scams. Ms. Faron is actually a private detective, but she also devotes her time to protecting people from fraud. She is the president of www.elderangels.com which is devoted to protecting the elderly from being scammed. And she's even written a book for writers to help them write more authentic scam artists into their novels and stories. She'll talk to us today about everything from scam letters to identity theft. Our guest Fay Faron, in addition to being a "scamologist" is the host of the documentary. The documentary tonight is going to outline different ways scams work. And also how to protect yourself from them. I'm hoping to hear what she has to say about credit and credit cards. As far as I know, right now there is nothing preventing me from finding your social security number and using it to apply for credit cards using your name and a PO Box from Mailboxes etc. Within a month I could apply for as many credit cards as possible, max 'em out, get cash advances, totally ruin your credit, and even stick youwith the bill for the bogus mailbox. For those who don't know, Fay's agency is the Rat Dog Dick detective agency. That's www.ratdogdick.com not a very savory name to be sure. We'll find out how she picked that one. Have any of you gotten that "You may already be a winner" envelope? What about the ones that look like checks but aren't? Do those qualify as scams? Something else worth asking is how sympathetic she is to the expression "a fool and his money are soon parted." Do some people who get ripped off deserve it? In the documentary they describe a scam where a guy actually sells the Eifel Tower in Paris....TWICE! Here's a big scam I see a lot...bogus charities. How do you know if the charity you give money to is for real? Here in NYC we have kids who walk around in the streets (where are their mothers?!?!?) selling candy bars out of a box. People buy them because they think they're buying baseball uniforms, but in fact the parents just send the kids out to make a little money. By the way, Fay also does an advice column on her website. I'll make sure she mentions that. A lot of people are writing in about online scams. Something to consider when you're online is that the computer can be used to catch you with a "real world" scam. I've heard the example of child molesters loggining into teen chats as, say, a girl soccer player. The guy will strike up a converstation and eventually say, "I play for central middle school, who do you play for?" And a girl with answer with the name of her school. And then he says "I have number 23 on my shirt, what's your number?" and the girl says 7, and now he knows he can go to that school and find number 7 on the soccer field, and the two are no longer separated by computers. It's not a "virtual" crime any more. So online safety is not just about giving out credit card numbers and social security numbers. bubbah72 asks: I was just private messaged for 2 porn sites, is this a scam too ctv_will: Absolutely, although not in the conventional sense since it doesn't really cost you more than an inconvenience. That's the spam I mentioned in the warm up. The thing is, those sites get paid by advertisers according to the number of hits they get. So they do whatever they can to get as many people as possible to go there. Once you're there you probably find a lot of those automatic pop up windows that just keep opening (adding more hits for them) but basically taking you farther away from where you want to be (unless you want to be looking at porn ads) Ok, Fay is finally here...one sec.... Welcome Fay Faron!! Fay Faron: Thank you. j_cicone asks: WHERE ARE YOU LOCATED Fay Faron: San Francisco etmom6 asks: After reading "Hasten to the Grave" I do not have much confidence in police taking action against scams against the elderly. Who do you recommend contacting if you suspect a fraud or scam? Fay Faron: I have faith in certain police persons, not all, but some I have great respect for you should certainly call your local police. If it's fraud against the elderly, you can call Elder Angels at 415-284-1160 Or the web site which is www.elderangels.com etmom6 asks: I'm not comfortable giving credit card number on line (the web)..what is your thoughts about this..too many hackers for me to be comfortable bubbah72 asks: How safe is it to use Credit Card info on secure sites on the internet. Fay Faron: I'm not an expert on that but from what I understand, they've done a pretty good job with this. I know that every time you use your credit card you open yourself to problems, but online is no safer or unsafer than giving your credit card at a restaurant. ctv_will: What's wrong with using it at a restaurant? Fay Faron: What can happen...if the individual is careless with the reciept, it can end up in the trash, or a waiter can steal it. Every time you use your credit card, people see it, and you're counting on them all being honest. junipersnap asks: are those make money from home deals a scam? Fay Faron: Yes. LOL! :) Almost all are. Especially if they're low skill, and high paying, you can pretty well count on it. If they weren't, we'd all be doing that. For example, normally, --the broad answer is-- they will send you something, but they won't send you the product that is supposed to do what they say. If it's assembling jewelry, you won't be able to do it to their satisfaction, so you won't make the money they said you would, but you will think it's your fault. JemMind asks: I recieved a "penpal" letter from somebody wanting money. Is there any way I can tell if its a scam or just a poor little girl? It was from West Africa. Fay Faron: Where did she get the stamp? A good litmus test for any scam is if this deal goes south, how would I get my money back? If this is not a little girl, how would you get your money back? You can't. That's why it's a scam, because there's no recourse. I think your letter is a scam. Editor's Note: The question for this answer got eaten by the machine, but it had to do with how Ms. Faron kept her spirits and determination up when police wouldn't help her with a fraud case. Fay Faron: When it happened, I was never told up front that nothing would happen. I was told up front that something would- I was scammed basically. It was only later when nothing happened that I lost my patience. What I finally did was alert the media, and I only did that after the suspects themselves knew they were suspects and there was nothing to lose. AutumWench asks: I heard on the news tonight about 1-800 numbers that you call using caller Id to track your number and then turn around and charge you for the call. This happened with a Florida company that has now been asked to give back the money. How do you know which companies do this and how can they bill you via your telephone number? Fay Faron: What I can say is that every time you call an 800 number, they know your phone number because they're billed for your call, so they have a right to know your number. That's the first part. How they turn around and bill that to you, I don't know, with all the slamming that's going on, who knows. ctv_will: Slamming? Fay Faron: Slamming is where they, without you knowing, they switch your long distance carrier and then you're their customer and you have to pay their bill. The reason this is so popular is that everything with the phone company is gravy, it costs them as much for one customer as it does for ten. So they are wrought with fraud. Very lucritive. bubbah72 asks: Aren't you concerned the unusual name of your detective agency will turn people away when searching for one? Fay Faron: LOL! We only like clients with a sense of humor. :) It probably has, but I think we've gotten a lot more acclaim than almost any detective agency in the US, so the important thing is that we've developed a very good reputation and people are able to remember our agency because of our name. etmom6 asks: Are Mary Tene, Geo. Lama & Angela still working scams and is Phil Tummarello still with the juvenile unit? BTW..How is Beans? Fay Faron: George and Angela just pled guilty to elder abuse charges. After 3 years in jail George got 8 years and Angela got 3 years and Mary hasn't been senteced yet. Phil Tumarello is out of juvenile. He was back on the case within two weeks, and he's up to his old tricks. Beans is wonderful! :) daisypusher23 asks: What about those sweepstakes? Fay Faron: They're perpetrated mostly against the elderly. Almost every legitimate magainze has gotten into this con because it is so lucritive, which is a tragedy. Yes, somebody wins, but people are led to believe that htey won when the didn't, so they continue to spend huge amounts of money and almost have a personal relationship with these companies. Some have gone so far as to write and ask directions to a person's house as if the prize patrol is on the way. It really is awful. And what makes it even more so is that the people who are doing it are our most trusted periodicals. IL_kid asks: Fay, Dennis here, need any help? Fay Faron: Jump right in! He's the one who did the bank examiner scam in the documentary. Just take care of Wisconsin. LOL! imascamartist asks: What books have you published and how may I buy them? Fay Faron: In quantity LOL! No, my first book was called "Take the Money and Strut" and I wrote two called "Missing Persons" and "Rip-offs" on which tonight's documentary is based. Those are in bookstores. Otherwise, you can get all of my books on the web site. ThisSpaceVacant asks: Does Rat Dog Dick Detective Agency have a web site as well? Fay Faron: www.ratdogdick.com junipersnap asks: so you're basically saying the only work from home jobs are those like medical transcribing and likeness? Fay Faron: If you have a legitimate skill where you could work in an office doing the same thing, typist or book keeper or something, they don't usually outsource stuff like that. If it's unskilled labor, then that's even more likely that they're just taking your money. For example stuffing envelopes, the ad will say you can make $1000 a week, if you order the kit for 39.95. The kit is a single sheet of paper telling you to run an ad just like the one you answered, thereby inviting you to sucker others as well. rexmiller1959 asks: are the "get paid while you surf the web" a scam? Fay Faron: 99.9% of all spam (unsolicited e-mail) is fraud. to find out if this is the .1%, if you have to pay something in order to find out how to make this money, then it's fraud. If it just asks for a lot of personal information, that is used for a variety of reasons, one is fraud, and another is simple information. for marketing. Never give your SS# or your birthday. things like your salary range or general info is not too dangerous. However, it is not unheard of for them to get the information in pieces, some personal info during one phone call, and differnet information in antoher phone call, and then put it together. yourdockrat asks: Tell Fay that her Webmaster in Dallas says "Hello" Fay Faron: Kiss Kiss! :X lynnmaz asks: please repeat elder angel#!! Fay Faron: 415-284-1160 ctv_will: For anyone who missed any of this chat, I'll have the transcript up on the Court TV talk page by the end of the week. www.courttv.com/talk bubbah72 asks: If Credit Cards can be so easily scammed & green money can be lost or stolen, why can't a system be set up to use only Traveler's checks, have Credit Card Companies issue those in same way they do cards Fay Faron: Travellers checks can be counterfeited as well. First we invent something and then the con artists find a way to compromise the system. For example, there was no identity theft 10 years ago because you needed green money to buy things. Also, there was no pigeon drop because it involved a switch with cut up news paper doubling for money, and before they invented paper money there was just coined. So with the advent of paper money, the pigeon drop scam came into being. The other thing is that if you're buying a stolen VCR out of the back of a truck, and it turns out you just got a box of bricks, it doesn' t matter how safe your money is. You just got ripped off. bubbah72 asks: This is Will's ? actually, what is your take on the phrase "A fool and his money are soon parted" Fay Faron: Everybody has a vulnerability. Certainly fools are foolish and greedy people are taken advantage of because of their greed. But identitiy theft can happen to random strangers. We saw in the documentary a man who lost thousands of dollars to fake charities. He thought he was helping children. You could say he's a fool, but he's a sweet old fool. Another thing is that it's really important if you're conned to report it because we need to create a paper trail to catch the con artists. If you feel foolish because you've been conned, and you don't report it, you let the con artist get away. bubbah72 asks: Well u make everything sound "unsafe", what do you reccomend we do to protect ourselves from anything or everything etmom6 asks: Sounds to me our best bet is to stay alert and friendly with your family. keep paper money in mattress with shot gun on top. Fay Faron: Good idea! :) Any time you go into an environment that you're unfamiliar with , you can be conned. The world is so vast that we can't know everything, and I'm not in favor of keeping my head under the covers. The basic rule is to ask yourself, "If this doesn't work out, how can I get my money back?" And if you can't, don't do it. Whether it's the boyfriend with the business or the letter in the mail. Part of not being scammed is to simply know what the scams are. One way to do that is to research it, simply knowing what they are is enough not to fall for a lot of them. In tonight's show, we show the deception and the slight of hand involved, and we break down the psychology that they play on. It's not only entertaining, it's informative as well. ctv_will: Thank you Fay for taking this time with us. Fay Faron: Thans a lot. ctv_will: Fay mentioned that she might use the transcript for this chat in her advice column. If you have further questions for her, or need help with a scam (stopping one, not perpetrating one) you can find her at www.ratdogdick.com or try www.elderangels.com She's involved with both of those organizations. The show she was just referring to is the documentary premiering tonight on Court TV called Rip-offs and Scams. It's on at 10pET, and I think it's on again 3 hours after that for you west coasters. I saw some of it already and some parts are kind of like those "secrets revealed" shows on Fox. It's pretty interesting. mahornbuckle asks: what about these letters you get in the mail promising you a cruise and hotel in the carrijbean but you have to pay for your airfare? a ctv_will: I see this one all the time too. I encourage you to write to Fay for the answer. From what I understand, usually you have to endure a very high pressure sales pitch once you get there. It's like if you don't want to sit through the 8 hour real estate lecture to buy swamp land in Florida, you don't qualify for the free vacation. neilly_99 asks: how do i know what a secure internet site to order from online is? ctv_will: We covered this at the beginning of the chat, but something we didn't mention was that I think it's a good idea to keep a separate credit card for Internet transcations. Find one with some kind of loss protection, and at least if the number gets stolen, you know how. You'll know that it was an online theft if the only time you use that card is for online transactions. wends_lee asks: My recently retired father has volunteered to give presentations to senior citizens about scams and ripoffs.... ctv_will: You should put him in touch with elderangels. Fay is very open to working with other groups for the same cause. Pardon me while I roll some credits.... This chat was brought to you by the good folks at Court TV Online www.courttv.com Keep up on CTV chats with the CTV talk page www.courttv.com/talk and if you have soem time, check out our Yahoo Club at clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/theofficialcourttvclub Our next chat is tomorrow at 5pET when we'll be talking about whats in the news. That's the crime and justice news of the week chat where we talk about whatever you ask about as long as it has some connection to crime or justice (and as long as we know the answer :) ) wends_lee asks: Could you suggest sources for information for him? ctv_will: Oh, I almost forgot.... Besides www.elderangels.com go to the Court TV home page, www.courttv.com and click on the link for the scams and rip-offs documentary. The documentary maker gave us a list of sites and we have them up there. I don't know them off the top of my head, but some were quite good. Ok, that's enough out of me. Until next time, fear simple answers. This chat has ended, you may go in peace. :)