WEBVTT
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This program is designed to provide general information with regards
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to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
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the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
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are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial,
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legal counseling, professional service, or any advice.
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You should seek the services.
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Of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas.
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The information contained in this podcast is intended for informational
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purposes only and is not a substitute for individual professional
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legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled from vetted
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sources and references. However, Rose Resources outreach to safeguard the
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elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim to
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a scam. Let's talk about scams. It's the must listen
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show for anyone who wants to protect themselves and their
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loved ones from scams. Every Tuesday am Pacific time on
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K four HD Radio, Joyce Petrowski, founder of Rose, and
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her guests will provide valuable insights and practical tips on
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how to recognize and protect yourself from scams. And now
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here is your host, Joyce Petrowski.
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Hi, everybody, welcome back. I'm Joyce Petrowski, founder and board
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president of Rose Resources Outreach to safeguard the elderly. You
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can find more information on our website at Roseadvocacy dot org.
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You'll also find our social media channels, and you can
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subscribe down at the bottom of the homepage to our
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emailed and or mailed newsletter that we send out every
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month to get more information on scams and how to
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protect yourself.
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So today.
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I wanted to talk about the FBI just recently, as
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of last Friday, the eight April eighteenth, issued a public
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service announced FBI warns of scammers impersonating the IC three.
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But before we get into that, I just wanted to
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give you a little bit of background on what the
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IC three, what that department actually is. So it started
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back in two thousand and they receive complaints. They're a
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division of the FBI where you file complaints and of
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all types of cybercrime, including online fraud and a lot
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of other types of fraud and cybercrime. And in two
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thousand and three, well, let's say when they first started it,
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it used to be called the Internet Fraud Complaint Center
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the IFCC. But in October of two thousand and three.
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They renamed it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, which
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is how they got the I, the C as in
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CAT and then the number three, and that was to
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basically so no one would distinguish it as Internet fraud,
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so it would include all types of crimes matters related
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to the internet, cyber.
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And all of that.
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So it's the Internet Crime Complaint Center, the IC three.
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The website is IC three dot gov, So with the
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dot gov you can tell it's a government organization and
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they file based on the data that they collect when
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people file complaints, they print. They would do an annual
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report every year, very comprehensive. It includes breaks things down
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between different age populations, It breaks things down between a
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number of victims, amount of losses, and it will even
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talk about give you more detail on some of the
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most reported crimes that year. Just a wealth of information.
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And then they take it a step further and they
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take that report with all the complaints and say we're
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going to do an elder fraud report, which is for
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the age population of sixty years old and older, and
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then they publish that one. Now, I did just look
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this morning, and for the reports for twenty twenty four
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are not on their website, but they should be out
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any day. I'm very very curious, especially with the Elder
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Fraud Report, to see what the statistics are for the
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calendar year twenty twenty four. Just to give you a
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quick mission statement of the Internet Crime Complaint Center is
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to provide the public and private sector with a mechanism
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to submit information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, so
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that's the FBI concerning suspected cyber facilitated criminal activity, and
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to develop effective alliances with law enforcement and industry partners.
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Information is analyzed and disseminated for investigative and intelligence purposes
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to law enforcement and for public awareness.
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And just to give you.
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Some history on from twenty and nineteen to twenty and
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twenty three. Based on the Internet Crime Complaint Centers reporting
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in twenty and nineteen, and again this is all age populations,
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there were three point five billion dollars in reported losses.
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That was in twenty nineteen.
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Twenty twenty three, it jumped all the way to twelve
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and a half billion dollars. And again that's just what's reported,
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So the number of actual losses is much higher than this.
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But if you combine twenty and nineteen's losses all the
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way through twenty twenty, twenty one, twenty two, and twenty
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three losses, there's over thirty seven billion dollars were reported lost.
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So you can see how this is this is a
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becomes a larger and larger problem every year, let's see. So,
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so the IC three is a is a forum for
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people to report their crimes. The Internet Crime Complaint Center
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is a place for people to report their Internet crimes
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when they've become a victim. And then the IC three
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takes this information and distributes it out to the relevant
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law enforcement departments. So if somebody is in Florida and
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they're filing the report that they've been a victim, then
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that information is going to get disseminated to the different
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law enforcement offices in Florida in the area where this
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person lives. So now we're going to get to the
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public service announcement that they issued. Again, I said it
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was on April eighteenth, which was just last Friday. So
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when the FBI issues these public service announcements, it's because
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they've seen an uptick in this activity that they're talking about,
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and they've seen an uptick in scammers are impersonating the
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IC three Department, just like they impersonate all other They've
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impersonated a wide variety of other government agencies. They impersonate large, larger,
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more well known companies. I always, even in the presentations,
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I use Amazon as an example. You know, scammers love
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to impersonate Amazon because.
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They know.
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The majority of the majority of us have an Amazon account.
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Whether we use it or not, it's a different story,
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but the majority of us have one, and so there's
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a bigger chance that they're going to get more people
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to click on those links in the emails or the
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text messages, or call the phone number that's listed, or
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if they happen to call, you know, answer the phone
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and start engaging with them, or call them back. Because
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I have seen where people have shown me that scammers
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actually have started leaving voicemails. I know a lot of
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times they'll say that they'll just hang up, but I've
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actually listened to some people's voicemails that scammers have left.
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So now, whether it's them or whether they've got some
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computer software out there leaving those voicemails, you know, not
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too sure about that, but you know, they're always looking
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for ways to up their games.
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So scammers are out.
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There impersonating the Internet Crime Complaints Center, and just between
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December of twenty three and February of twenty five, so
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a little over a year, the FBI had received more
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than one hundred reports of the IC three impersonation scams.
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So here's here's how it works. And in the show notes,
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you're going to see where we've given you the link
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to the actual public service announcement if you want to
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go there and read it. So, the people that complained
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said the initial contact that came from the scammers varied.
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Some people received an email, some people received phone calls.
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Other people were approached on social media or other types
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of online forums. So again, they have a wide If
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we go back to our anatomy of a scam, what's
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the first part. Part of that is the scammer has
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to make contact somehow, right, And we've talked about phone calls,
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text messages, social media, online chat forums, online games, dating sites, emails,
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just a whole wide variety of ways they can make contact.
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But almost all of those complaints that the FBI received,
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the scammers claim to have recovered the victims lost funds
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or offered to assist in recovering the funds, So they're
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basically it's a claim in a roost to revictimize those
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who have already lost money to scams. Here's a recent
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example of how this impersonation scheme indicates.
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It indicates that scammers.
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Create female persona profiles on social media networking sites, and
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then they join groups for financial fraud victims, representing them
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themselves as fellow financial fraud victims. And then the scammers
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recommend actual victim victims reach out to a male persona
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and that person alleges to be the chief director of
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the Internet Crime Complaint Center, and they've noticed a lot
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of that has come via telegram. I'm not too familiar
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with telegram, but I understand it's another chat service, another
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way to communicate. And then once the victim contacts the
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alleged chief director of the IC three, that person claims
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to have recovered that victims lost funds and then uses
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that to gain access to their financial information, which then
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will revictimize then. So this is going to be especially
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for the people out there that one have already fallen
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victim to an Internet crime and have whether you've reported
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it or not, if you're joining, if you're in a
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group specifically for financial fraud victims, and there could be
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a wide variety of those types of groups out there. Right,
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It's like a support group for just about anything. You know,
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there's support groups out there for like grieving widows or widowers,
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or support groups for different types of addictions and things
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like that. So just be extremely careful if you are
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in one of those support groups and somebody is trying
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to tell you that you need to talk to this
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person from the IC three because they might already have
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gotten your money back or they can help you get
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it back, just be very wary of that. The IC
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three has said that they will never directly communicate with
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individuals via the phone, email, social media, phone apps, or
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public forums. If after a report is filed with the
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IC three, if further information is needed, those individuals will
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be contacted by FBI employees from local field offices or
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other law enforcement officers. So again in the beginning, remember
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when we said you would go to the IC three
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dot gov and click on the link to file a
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complaint or file a report and give them all of
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that information. The people that are working there that are
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collecting all of that information, they are taking it and
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disseminating it to the appropriate local FBI field offices and
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or other law enforcement of offices locally to where the
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victim is. So this IC three is a data collection
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to then be able to disseminate information. They are not
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going to contact you to get more information. You will
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have if more information is needed, you will have someone
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from the local your local FBI office or other law
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enforcement office contact you about the situation to get more information.
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Even though the scammers might change their names and their tactics,
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they have found that the scheme generally remains the same.
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You think you're talking to somebody an employee of the
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IC three and they've either already recovered your funds or
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they can help you get them back, all in a
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ruse to get your financial information.
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So you have to be very careful with that.
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And you never want to share any sensitive personal confidential
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information with anyone that you've meant online or over the phone,
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and even if you've met them in person, you want
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to be extremely careful that you don't share personal confidential
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information with them. You need to be very very protective
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of that information. Have that healthy skepticism. Ask yourself in
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your head the question, why do they need this information,
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ask them the question, why do you need this information
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if it's if it truly is a scammer. I'm sure
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they're going to have answers for you, but still you
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have to have that healthy skepticism and just tell yourself, no,
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I'm not giving it. I will contact this office directly
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with a phone number or an email or a website
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that I know is verified for that verified office, and
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I will.
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Talk to them myself.
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Also know that FBI, other law enforcement officers, the IC three,
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all of them, none of them will ask for payment
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to help recover lost funds, or will they refer you
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to a company, a quote unquote company that can help
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you recover your funds, but they need a payment in advance.
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They're not going to refer you out either. And be
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very careful when someone says, hey, you know there's a
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fee for this, or I can help you get your funds,
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or you've won this, but you need to pay. You
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need to pay these fees or these taxes, or you know,
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and you can just buy gift cards, or we have
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a cryptocurrency account. You can just go to this cryptocurrency
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ATM and put the money in there. Be very careful
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with that. The FBI does highly suggest that if you
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are a victim of.
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An online you.
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Know, scam or fraud, that you do immediately report it.
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Again.
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You go to the I, so the letter I, the
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isn't kap the number three dot gov, and that dot
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gov lets you know that it is a government website,
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and try to give them as much information as you can,
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so like identifying information about the person or company that