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MSNBC.com
Inside
the Dark Art of Phone Fraud
September 26, 2004
--I've been covering phone fraud for years and every
time I try to tackle one of these criminal chameleons I am
struck by how ruthless they are. Many are phone gangsters.
They work in gangs, they are very tough and they are extraordinarily
elusive. Their victims are often the most vulnerable and the
least able to take the monetary or the emotional hit.
It is hard to explain
how clever and sophisticated these guys are unless you can
infiltrate them with hidden cameras or catch them somehow
in the middle of their crime. So, when we noticed a short
AP wire story about the conviction of a Canadian conman who
was caught on audio tape scamming a Phoenix woman, we jumped
on the story. We called the FBI agent on the case, Julia Halferty,
a longtime crusader against telemarketing fraud, and asked
if we could have the tapes. She was enthusiastic. She felt
by airing them, others could be protected.
But the Justice Department
wasn't so quick to respond. We filed Freedom of Information
Act requests, we cajoled, we pleaded, we made scores of phone
calls. Ultimately, it took two and a half years to persuade
the FBI to release the Phoenix tapes.
In the meantime, we
discovered other FBI cases where the agency wiretapped phone
gangsters. In all, the diligent and dogged producer of this
story, Sandra Thomas, collected 50 audio cassettes. They contain
hours and hours of chilling conversations between heartless
conmen and their unwitting victims.
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