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On or off-line trust among ‘friends’ must be verifiable

Joanna Jullien's photo
Sacramento Cyber Safety Examiner

SACRAMENTO, Ca. -  Yesterday the U.S. Attorney Eastern District of California, Benjamin B. Wagner, announced the district-wide results of “Operation Broken Trust”, a national FBI sweep on investment scams and Ponzi schemes conducted from Aug.16 - Dec. 1, 2010.

Six cases involving 250 victims amounting to $31 million were included in the “take down” of this sweep according to Lauren Horwood, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento.

Horwood also indicated these scams were perpetrated by criminals who through the affinity of church, ethnic group or another affiliation leveraged the trust of the members of their victims’ communities with the promise of big payoffs .

In the cyber-powered world we can become conditioned to assume a "connection" is trustworthy because of affiliation with others in their personal networks. Hence trust must always be verifiable even among “friends” in our personal networks.

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One Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Barry Winnett and a co-schemer in Roseville solicited 22 people to invest their retirement accounts amounting to $2,975,352.

According to Horwood, the first level of investors recruited for these scams received the return promised and then they referred their friends believing it was a genuine investment opportunity. “The sad thing is that the first people recruited into the scam are probably trustworthy friends who don’t realize the people they refer will be making payments to previous investors and risk losing their money,” said Horwood.

Marie Hall is the Executive Director of BeMoneySmartUSA, a financial literacy non-profit in Carmichael.

“You have to watch your money, make sure you don’t jump regardless of how good you feel about making the decision to invest with anyone and always, always do your research.  I always tell the kids and our adult students, if it’s too good to be true, than it probably is!” Hall said.

Report financial fraud here: Web site of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.

For tips on investment fraud prevention go to Operation Broken Trust

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These scams were perpetrated by criminals who through the affinity of church, ethnic group or another affiliation leveraged the trust of the members of their victims’ communities with the promise of big payoffs.
These scams were perpetrated by criminals who through the affinity of church, ethnic group or another affiliation leveraged the trust of the members of their victims’ communities with the promise of big payoffs.
Photo credit: 
RambergMediaImages(Flickr)

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, Sacramento Cyber Safety Examiner

Joanna (jullien@surewest.net) and her husband have raised two sons in Roseville, CA. She has a degree from U.C. Berkeley in Social Anthropology (corporate culture). Her honors thesis was awarded the Kroeber Prize and funding from National Science Foundation grant. Joanna writes to help parents...

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