MCLB BARSTOW, Calif. -- Married Marines and their spouses are the current targets in the latest scam to try and separate victims from their money.
“It’s called the ‘Fiancé’ scam'” said Linda Schmidt, a finance management program specialist aboard Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow.
“(The Fiancé scam) offers to make you beneficiary of your spouse’s life insurance automatically because you are the fiancée and you’ll get all of the goodies the wife is supposed to get,” Schmidt said.
The phony flier purportedly issued by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service charges $350 to do the paperwork, and the fee was supposed to be refundable.
“The only thing (the spouse) might get, if (the Marine) fills out the proper paperwork, is they can be beneficiary to his life insurance,” Schmidt pointed out.
“There is nothing in the military human resources office that costs you anything, and if they charge you for it, then you’re getting scammed,” the native of Scottsbluff, Neb., said.
Even more than the money they might get from a victim initially, Schmidt said the real prize is the information they obtain during what computer scammers call a phishing expedition.
“That’s phishing with a ‘p-h’, where scammers try to get your Social Security number, birth date, or other personal information,” Schmidt said.
“The information the scammers collect would set up their victims for a number of things and the information would also make a very nice list to sell to other criminals,” she explained.
“The phony DFAS form with the fake logo on it requests the date of next deployment of the Marine,” Schmidt said. “That’s so that the victim can be taken advantage of on deployment scams while the Marine is gone.”
The Fiancé scam is just the latest in a series of criminal enterprises aimed at the active duty military, she said.
Recently a message from Headquarters Marine Corps warned of the so-called “H&R Block” ruse where the scammers used text messages to try and pry personally identifiable information from a potential victim.
“Nobody in the professional world texts anybody about anything unless it’s some form of advertisement,” Schmidt said.
“Real organizations send you a paper letter in an envelope or if you contact them by email they may send you an email.
“Anybody who asks for this kind of information over the email or through texting is trying to scam you,” she said.
Efforts to defraud active duty Marines and their families are being monitored closely by Headquarters Marine Corps in Quantico, Va., according to Alan A. Katzberg with HQMC Administration and Resource Management Division.
The recent email written by Katzberg warning against the “H&R Block” scam urges anyone who thinks they are being scammed to take a few simple steps to protect themselves.
Never respond to a scam email, never open any embedded links contained within what appears to be a scam email and then delete the email and empty your Deleted Items Folder in Outlook.
One of the biggest and longest lasting scams, according to Schmidt, is the Nigeria scam.
Once again, computers play a major role in moving the con along, Schmidt said.
“Somebody from far away sends you an email saying they’re going to get $2 million in an inheritance but can’t collect the money directly because of legal difficulties in their native country of Nigeria.
“So they’ll deposit the money to the victim’s account and share the interest with them for one year if the victim sends them $20 thousand as a show of good faith,” Schmidt said.
Although the con seems obvious, Schmidt pointed out that there are currently victims of this scam aboard MCLB Barstow.
The cons work, Schmidt continued, because the victims believe they are too smart to be fooled.
“A lot of people believe that if the scam comes on a computer in an official looking email, then it has more veracity than if somebody walked up to them,” Schmidt said.
“The scams are possibly a little bit dishonest looking,” she said, “so that you feel you would be getting away with something.
“To sum it all up, somebody wants to make money off of your ignorance, and they are surprisingly successful with surprising people, people who you think would know better,” Schmidt said.
“A basic rule of thumb is that nobody ever wins a lottery that they didn’t buy a ticket to.
“And never give anybody your personal information that you didn’t call,” Schmidt said.