SCRATCH
You’ve Got (Scam) Mail
Is everyone being swindled all the time and just not talking about it?
Julia Rothman and
Julia is an illustrator. Shaina is a writer and filmmaker.
A few months ago, I received an email that, at first glance, looked like dozens of others that arrived in my inbox this year. I’m a professional illustrator, and this person was writing with what appeared to be a job offer.
Some things felt slightly off, but I wrote back.
The response was surprising: The person knew some things about hiring an illustrator, using industry terminology and making other requests typical of art directors.
We exchanged several more emails. I asked some questions and negotiated a higher rate. At this point, I was almost certain it was a scam.
And then the most glaring red flag: The person wanted to pay me immediately. As a freelancer, I almost always collect payment once a project is completed. Sometimes it takes months.
Out of curiosity, I decided to play along and agreed to take the job.
Scams have been around forever, but in 2022, consumers reported losing almost $8.8 billion to fraud, a 30 percent jump from the year before, according to data released by the Federal Trade Commission.
The actual number is probably much higher. John Breyault, a fraud expert at the National Consumers League, said that fraud tended to be underreported.
The pandemic also created a perfect storm for scams.
My experience made me think that other people were being scammed too, but just didn’t talk about it.
So I decided to find out firsthand: I put out a call on Instagram and was almost instantly flooded with peoples’ stories of being swindled through LinkedIn when applying for a job, on eBay when buying things, on Craigslist when looking for an apartment. Often, the targets were in vulnerable positions: desperate for work or housing, or experiencing momentous life changes.
Credit...“My mom had gotten a link that said her PayPal account had been compromised. She gave this person permission to screen-share with her computer. They got her to buy two $500 Target gift cards. Many hours later, she showed up at my house, still on the phone with them. I took the phone and hung up. She had a box of books that was stuffed with $17,000 in cash that she was about to send to them. I asked her how she got so much money from her bank, and she said that the people on the phone had told her to tell her bank that she was buying a car.”
Miki DeVivo, 46, Anthem, Ariz.
Credit...“I got a phone call from a person claiming to be with the police who told me that I had missed jury duty. He said that I had to pay a bond to not be arrested. He had told me that the only way they process bonds is in Visa gift cards. Saying it now, I know it’s crazy. Eventually I got $750 worth of gift cards and sent them off. On Monday I walked myself over to the police station. I walk in there and tell this lady that I am turning myself in. She was like: ‘You’ve been scammed. You wouldn’t have to pay a fine in gift cards if you missed jury duty!’”
Victoria Bartholomew, 34, Lynchburg, Va.
Credit...“I got a Venmo request from my sibling. It said: ‘Hey, I’m at the store. Forgot my wallet. If you could cover me I’ll get you back as soon as I get home.’ It was kind of weird, but I love them to death and don’t want them to be in a bind. The request that came through had the same profile picture and username — I would discover later that someone had added a dash at the end. I sent $209. Eventually, I reported it to Venmo and they said, ‘Sorry, you authorized the transaction.’”
Rachel Platner, 32, Atlanta
Talking to others about their experiences sent me down an internet rabbit hole about scammers, and I discovered an entire subculture devoted to baiting them.
I began obsessively watching YouTube videos of people trying to “scam the scammers,” like the account of a software engineer from Northern Ireland who uses the pseudonym Jim Browning to protect his privacy. On his channel, which has over four million subscribers, he creates content to educate people about common tactics of scammers and how to catch them in the act.
“I go to extremes,” he said about the tactics he uses to turn the tables on con artists. “If they’re using computers, do they have a webcam or CCTV? Can I see the guy that’s trying to scam me? I’ve changed the robocall messages that they’ve sent out. I’ve made videos where I’ve sent harmless devices into scam call centers. I teamed up with Mark Rober — an ex-NASA engineer — and we managed to send things that released cockroaches and mice. That was an attempt to poke a bit of fun at the scammers.”
The mechanics of scamming are as old as time, but technology has made it more sophisticated. “There will always be scammers, there always have been,” the software engineer from Northern Ireland said. “The only thing that’s changed is the technology that they use.”
Mr. Breyault, the fraud expert, agreed.
He also said that generative A.I. could be used by scammers to make their ruses more sophisticated.
Eventually I let my scammer know that I knew what was really going on. What I got back was a confession:
Was this person really in dire straits? I’ll never know. But at that point the only thing to do was walk away.
Produced by Rebecca Lieberman.