Ocean of Misery: The Hidden Epidemic of Scams by Chris Durst & Michael Haaren on Creators.com

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Ocean of Misery: The Hidden Epidemic of Scams

Millions of people are scammed on the Web each year, but the epidemic has little remedy in the halls of justice. Yet many of the scams cause catastrophic damage.

Here's what's happening.

PORTAL TO THE TORTURE CHAMBER

Out there in the real world, where few politicians venture unless they're looking for votes — and where not one of them live — times are tough and have been for years. The few "safety nets" our society offers are tattered or gone. Many people are about to be evicted into the street, their children along with them. This is beyond desperate.

Enter the scammer. His website has psychological traps at every turn: heartrending testimonials (often featuring grave illnesses and mountainous medical bills), with joyful escapes from debt; pictures of happy customers; and well-groomed spokeswomen (usually actresses earning a little extra cash) walk out on the Web page in a recorded presentation, boosting the "opportunity" in trustworthy tones.

The scam dangles a simple work-at-home job that pays well, such as "rebate processing" or "data entry." Or for a low fee, it offers information on "free grant money," or "e-commerce websites" that purport to produce immediate cash flow with little upkeep.

But the scam sites (or late-night TV infomercials touting similar schemes) are just the threshold of the catastrophic experience awaiting the victim. Yes, their credit card may be hit with repeated monthly charges of $69 or $99 or $197, and they may labor for months at a futile task. But far worse, once the scammer has obtained their personal data, he sells it to a "boiler room" — a call center specializing in abusive sales tactics — and that's where the tale gets grim.

BOILER-ROOM BEATDOWN

While the victim works in vain to make the "e-commerce website" produce a few dollars, the phone rings.

It's a friendly salesman on the line, telling her or him how she really needs the help of "coaches" or "mentors" to make that website produce cash and change her life in the process. (We know this for a fact because we've tested it, receiving these calls ourselves.) He tells her she can use "other people's money" (in other words, the bank's money via her credit card) to do this. Better yet, she can earn back her "investment" in just a month or two, guaranteed.

And it's only just $10,000 or $15,000 or (fill in the blank with the ceiling of the victim's credit information that the salesman extracts ASAP in the call). The victim already feels foolish or even stupid for having failed to make any money with the "package" she bought earlier. She is also often psychologically vulnerable due to age or disability or long-term unemployment.

These boiler-room calls can last literally hours, in whatever time it takes to grind the victim down and soak her for the maximum amount. Afterward, she's passed along to a "coach" who is paid a few dollars an hour to baby-sit the victim while she drowns in the deep end of the debt pool.

Why aren't they prosecuted? They are, occasionally. But authorities are overburdened; litigation is lengthy; scammers are elusive; and the boiler rooms often have deep pockets, hiring aggressive law firms to defend them.

The result? Millions of victims each year, suffering silently in their misery.

For more detail on this trend, see a recent article at The Verge, at http://vrge.co/JkfqGy.

Christine Durst and Michael Haaren are leaders in the work-at-home movement and advocates of de-rat-raced living. Their latest book is "Work at Home Now," a guide to finding home-based jobs. They offer additional guidance on finding home-based work at www.RatRaceRebellion.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.