Consumer Safety & Awareness Part 1

Thieves All Around Us

My wife and I love penguins. We once traveled a few hundred miles, during a vacation, to visit a rookery. One of the most interesting facts about these creatures is that Adélie penguins, which use rocks for nests, have no hesitation stealing the rocks of other penguins. This behavior is not limited to penguins. Grosbeak, Sparrows, and Starlings have been known to steal the entire nest of other birds, occasionally taking parts and at other times just laying their eggs in nests made by others and moving right on in.

Anyone who has a flower or vegetable garden is quite familiar with animals that steal what we work hard to produce. Deer, raccoons, chipmunks all like to eat our favorite flowers. Animals also take from each other. Monkeys do not hesitate taking whatever they want, no matter who or what it belongs to. Squirrels and crows love to carry away things that would surprise you.

Although this may come as a shock, humans also steal. Yes, they do. In fact theft predates human history, that is, before we learned to write our ideas down. It is simply a human trait. When it is easier to take from someone else than to get something ourselves, our ancestors did not hesitate doing so. Morality and social attitudes towards stealing is a relatively recent addition to human behavior.

Today, throughout the world, human societies have taboos on thievery, especially from one’s own group. It has long been believed that Gypsies had no qualms about taking from others, yet there is no actual proof this is a trait of these Romanian people. Due to the need to stay alive, all creatures will steal when their survival or those of their families depend on it.

Yet some humans make an art of stealing from others, whether they need it or not. People do this to obtain things they simply want, or to deny others from having material goods. People steal works of art and other treasures simply for the pleasure of having such objects. Rich people have been known to steal simply to become richer. Many people take what is not theirs because they know they can get away with it. More than 70% of shoplifters can afford the objects they take.

In this new series, we will be looking at organized planned thievery. Although theft of opportunity probably accounts for a large portion of stolen goods and money, theft by design probably accounts for over 90% of the value of property stolen. It take only a moment, and little thought, to take a candy bar, a pair of socks, or a bottle of perfume from a store or to lift a valuable from a house you are visiting or living in. But a lot of planning must go into art heists, bank robberies, and embezzlement.

It is doubtful if anyone reading this has a Monet or a Ming vase. If you do, you probably have all sorts of alarms and insurance policies. Most thieves are not sophisticated enough to get away with super-heists. But by taking $100 or $2,000, or $15,000, organized groups and knowledgeable individuals can do just as much harm to us as those people who get millions in museum robberies. Most of these small thefts are the result of scams.

A scam is theft by design. It is planned, practiced, perfected. It uses trickery, the skill of a magician, and deception. It works because the scammers study human nature, can predict how people will react in certain situations, and they take advantage of people’s trust. They target older people who are usually in need of someone to believe in. They target religious people who have an interest in sharing

There are many types of scams. The most common, which we will be writing about in this blog, include, but are not limited to:

> Bait & Switch
> Pyramid Scams
> Advanced Fee
> Theft of Services
> Robbery
> Counterfeiting
> Theft by Design
> Blackmail
> Deceitful Advertising

By knowing how the scammers operate, and examining the types of people and situations that make their work easy, you can learn to protect yourself, your family, and your valuables.