“They’re unstoppable.”
It’s a chilling assessment from Royal Cayman Islands Police Sergeant Michael Montaque regarding the new breed of scammers that use technology to assist them in their schemes. The veteran investigator says, these days, once your money is taken in such instances, it’s too late.
“They cross any jurisdiction, they go to the banks, get into your computer, get into e-mail…there’s no privacy, so to speak, anymore,” he says. “Because of technology, the scammers are getting more sophisticated.”
Since the beginning of 2011, a number of high-profile scams perpetrated by suspects from outside the country have been reported in the Cayman Islands. The schemes cover a wide variety of methods and have involved individual suspects from North America, Europe and the Caribbean.
Not all are terribly sophisticated, Montague says. One ‘old school’ scam – called the ‘black money’ scam was recently busted up at a hotel room on Seven Mile Beach. Others, including one that took a reported $300,000 from a local law firm, involve clever set ups and international banking requirements.
But the end goal is always the same, Sergeant Montaque says: get your personal information if necessary, take your money, and leave town.
The trouble for local police is once monies are transferred through any processes through a foreign bank account in any of these scams, it becomes more difficult to trace and almost impossible to recover.
The RCIPS has been able to make arrests in several of the scams that have occurred this year prior to the individuals involved leaving the Islands. Montaque says that’s fortunate for the would-be victims.
Poker cards
Royal Cayman Islands Police arrested two men in February in connection with a cash machine skimming scam.
Investigators in the RCIPS Financial Crime Unit received a report that a number of fraudulent withdrawals had been made from cash machines in the George Town area around mid-February.
The bank involved advised police that the cards used during the transactions had been seized by the machines.
The cards were not legitimate bank cards – they were “poker cards” used in casinos, police said. The metallic strips on the cards had been loaded with potential victims’ account details taken from foreign bank accounts.
The exact amount of money stolen was not known.
Police enquiries revealed the ‘poker cards’ had also been used to make purchases at local businesses.
Following a police operation, two Romanian men, aged 22 and 25, were arrested at Owen Roberts International Airport in connection with the scam as they tried to leave the country. Both men later received one year jail terms after entering guilty pleas.
Law firm taken
Fraudsters targeting Cayman Islands law firms in attempts to obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars illegally got away with approximately $300,000 in one recent case, according to sources.
Chief Inspector Claudia Brady of the RCIPS Financial Crime Unit says those in the law profession should be on the lookout for suspicious communication from people posing as overseas clients.
“So far one law firm has fallen victim to the scam,” Chief Inspector Brady says. “But we are aware that other firms are being targeted. That’s why people need to be extra vigilant.
“People posing as overseas clients are contacting law firms claiming that they want to retain their services. They say that they want the law firm to act on their behalf to collect a debt from someone living on island.
“A short time after the law firm accepts the work the ‘debtor’ pays up – sending the law firm a high value US dollar check. It’s at that point the ‘client’ asks for the money to be transferred to their overseas account. When the ‘debtor’s’ check reaches the clearing bank it is found to be fraudulent and the law firm is hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket.”
The Observer on Sunday has contacted the law firm that was involved in the scam for comment. Phone calls had not been returned by press time. Police also had not responded to requests to provide further details.
Property sale
Unlike many scams, police say the suspect involved in this case actually had something tangible to sell.
It just didn’t belong to him.
Louisiana, USA resident Delbert Allem Hyland, 65, is now being held in a local jail after being accused of presenting a real estate agent with a document that purported to be a power of attorney for a man who owned property in Cayman.
That man, Donald Cosby of Colorado, died in March. Hyland was arrested in Cayman earlier this month when he visited the Islands.
According to RCIPS Superintendent Brian Donley, the sale attempt involved a condo at the Poinsettia property on West Bay Road just south of Captain’s Bakery. The Poinsettia condo was valued at nearly US $500,000.
Donley said police had been working on the case with US authorities “for some time”.
Police said the forged documents the man used in the scam were obtained in the US and brought into the Islands with the specific intent to commit fraud. Hyland was charged with one count of uttering a forged document and could face additional charges under the Proceeds of Crime Law.
Senior Crown Counsel John Masters told a court hearing the case that the local real estate agent found out Cosby was the property owner and later received an e-mail advising that Hyland was Cosby’s administrative assistant.
The agent received other inquiries from Hyland and she advised that since he was not on the register she could not disclose the information, Masters said. She requested confirmation as to whether he had authority regarding the property. On 8 April, Hyland produced the power of attorney. He also requested that she reduce the price from US$425,000 to US$275,000 to get a quick sale.
The agent became concerned and reported the matter to the Financial Crime Unit.
“I have no hesitation in saying they have done a most sterling investigation,” Masters says.
Cruise ship scam?
On 28 February, a pair of theft suspects – who either posed as, or who actually were cruise ship tourists – swiped tens of thousands of dollars worth of jewellery from the Effy Jewellers store on Fort Street.
Not one of the more than two dozen people who were inside the store at the time the theft occurred noticed anything was happening, even though the two expensive pieces taken were being kept in a glass case at the front of the store.
A closed-circuit television video that was reviewed by the Caymanian Compass, did manage to catch the two men in the act. But police have reported no arrests.
The two pieces, a 15 carat diamond tennis necklace and an 18 carat gold setting tennis bracelet, were taken from the front display case. The case is visible from the street, but it cannot be opened from outside the store without smashing the glass.
“These are the two most expensive pieces,” store manager Deepak Mirchandani says. “They really knew which corner to go around; they did their homework. “
The store manager said none of the staff or other customers noticed what was happening partly because the thefts occurred at the busiest time of day – 10.30am – and there were literally dozens of people in the store. Also, there is a large rectangular marble column in the front of the business just behind the entrance. This would have shielded the view of many store customers and staff from the display case, the store manager said.
Old school
They haven’t seen it here for about seven years, but detectives in the Royal Cayman Islands Police Financial Crime Unit said earlier this month that they’ve busted up a counterfeit money scam known as the “black money” or “wash scam”.
A 47-year-old Guyanese man was arrested in the pre-dawn hours last week at the Treasure Island resort along Seven Mile Beach in connection with the scam. Police officers said the incident began as a drug raid, but that a search of the suspect’s room turned up other, more unusual items.
These included piles of rectangular paper the suspect was apparently trying to pass off as “official bank note paper”, some “chemicals” used to wash the bogus bills – likely just soapy water, and dyes typically used in such a scam.
The man was taken into custody on suspicion of possessing counterfeit currency. He had not been charged at press time.
Montaque says said a “black money” scam artist is usually trying to bilk real cash from someone who wishes to purchase counterfeit money. The suspect will typically offer to “make” a larger amount of counterfeit bills for the buyer, after receiving a certain amount of money from them; for instance, the suspect will promise to make $100,000 worth of bogus bills if the victim pays $10,000 in cash.
Montaque says it was not immediately clear if the man arrested had been here long enough to carry out any such scams, but he said police wanted to hear from potential victims who had been taken in.
“The suspect has only been on Island for a few days,” Montaque says. “It’s important that if anyone has been approached by him, or has parted with any cash, that they contact us right away.
Once the victim has been convinced that the scam artist can make the money, he or she is invited to watch a demonstration which usually involves the suspect putting a dark coloured dye over the “blank bank note”. The “blank note” is usually just a piece of paper, he said.
The scammer then takes the dyed “bank note” and proceeds to put it into a container of liquid which can be anything from dish soap to just plain water. Unbeknownst to the victim, the scam artist has already put a real bank note in the liquid where they are now placing the dyed “bank note”. Typically, this is done in a bathroom or secluded area where the suspect can’t be clearly seen.
After a short while to allow the “dye” to wash off, the suspect then emerges with the real cash, leaving the bogus “black money” behind in the liquid. They urge the unwitting victim to spend the real money that was taken from the liquid container at a nearby store to prove its effectiveness.
If the scam victim buys it, the suspect will usually then take the victim’s payment and then say anywhere from three to five days is needed to finish “making” the counterfeit money. Montaque says it is usually at this time that the scam suspect leaves the jurisdiction without delivering any of the fake cash.
“It’s not sophisticated by any means,” Montaque says. He noted the Financial Crimes Unit investigated a similar “black money” case back in 2004 against an African man who had come to Cayman for the same purpose. “The black money scam is an old scam that we have seen emerging from the African coast.”
In such a situation, Sergeant Montaque says it can be difficult to get victims to come forward since they will usually be embarrassed at being “taken” and have actually engaged – in some cases – in attempts to purchase what they believed was counterfeit currency.
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