If you get a phone call from a guy claiming to be a friend, neighbor or long lost relative who needs quick cash to get out of some kind of jam, you’re not alone.
Over the past year dozens of lakeside expats have been targeted by a wily English-speaking con artist who invents sob stories to play on their heartstrings with the intent of picking up easy money.
Despite repeated alerts published by the Guadalajara Reporter and widely circulated on local web boards, new victims are still falling for the ploy. The Chapala district attorney’s office (MP) has registered five new cases since the first of this year. Several anecdotes have also been directed to this newspaper, including one received minutes before this article went to press.
Here are key warning signs that you’re being set up by this prolific scammer:
• The caller does not identify himself by name, using vague hints to fish for a moniker that is familiar to the target.
• An initial contact call is placed to engage and butter up the victim. A plea for emergency cash comes with a follow-up call or text message shortly afterwards detailing an auto accident, an issue at the airport customs desk or some other problem. A cohort posing as a policeman or other official may get in on the conversation to lend authenticity.
• The crook gives an accountant number, requesting a transfer of funds to his bank account through deposit at a convenience store.
• If asked to give some explicit personal data – your mother’s maiden name for instance – the conversation is abruptly ended.
Victims are encouraged to report attempted or completed extortion crimes to municipal police, the MP’s 089 anonymous tip hotline, preferably citing the numbers of the telephone source and accounts for deposits.
Local authorities, however, continue to emphasize the importance of prevention due to factors that hinder tracking down the culprit.
He can easily deep six a cell phone and buy a cheap replacement with a different number at the same places he collects his ill-gotten gains. Tracing an account number is a lengthy process that is handled in the nation’s capital and ultimately depends upon the banking institution’s willingness to break secrecy codes.