First announced in 2020, the case against Long Leaf Trading Group could hardly be simpler: A boiler-room operation based in Chicago cold-called unsuspecting marks to push a commodity-trading scheme. Practically all the customers lost money while the traders collected $1.2 million in commissions.
As rip-offs go, it seems almost nostalgic compared with today’s modern versions of consumer fraud. Maddeningly, the 2020s have become a golden age of scams. Gone are the poorly worded pitches from supposed Nigerian princes promising future riches to anyone sending money now. Instead, artificial intelligence editing makes the pitches sound smooth and natural, and with voice cloning, the delivery can mimic the familiar speech of a celebrity, friend or relative.
Consumer fraud cost Americans a record $10 billion last year, according to the Federal Trade Commission, and the losses are climbing sharply.
Law enforcement is better equipped to deal with the old-fashioned likes of Long Leaf Trading than the high-tech con artists. Technology makes it much more difficult for even skeptics to protect themselves from misleading robocalls, emails and text messages. The pitches are made even more convincing by including personal information gleaned from social media, data breaches and other Internet sources.
The Department of Justice and FTC say they have stepped up efforts to protect the public, but the rising losses indicate the crooks are staying a step ahead. Imposter scams, in which criminals pretend to be someone trustworthy, are the fastest-growing category of consumer fraud, according to the FTC, and email has replaced text and phone messages as the most frequently reported contact method.
The FTC also has brought multiple cases against investment schemes in the same vein as Long Leaf Trading, which ran afoul of commodity market regulators.
Long Leaf fleeced unsuspecting customers with promises of riches in the options markets that Chicago has dominated for years. In bringing its case, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said it is committed to stamping out fraud and urged anyone tempted to say yes when telemarketers reach out with a too-good-to-be-true proposition to instead “exercise caution.”
In other words, fellow citizens, we’re on our own in a dangerous world.
The best we can do is educate ourselves about the many new types of scams afoot, recognize that all of us are likely to be targeted at one time or another, spread the word to friends and relatives who may not be as vigilant, and report fraud attempts to authorities as they happen. Very smart people often get ensnared.
There’s no hiding from the epidemic of highly sophisticated consumer fraud. So it’s best to meet it head-on, with eyes open and both hands on your wallet.
