MASSIVE MAKE-A-WISH PHONE SCAM STEALING MILLIONS
FROM AMERICAN ELDERLY
A massive phone scam exploiting the good name of the Make-A-Wish Foundation has siphoned
more than $20 million from unsuspecting Americans and has been escalating in recent months.
Authorities say it is fast becoming one of the ugliest telemarketing schemes to target the
elderly in years.
Swindlers pretending to be calling from such government agencies as the Internal Revenue
Service and the Federal Trade Commission have put a new twist on an old con. They are hiding
offshore, thousands of miles away, but they're using internet phone technology to disguise
their location. Victims see a 202 area code on their phones when the calls come in, and dial
seemingly authentic U.S. phone numbers to call the scammers back.
"Unlike the standard telemarketing frauds...these weren't people hiding behind a phone
number you couldn't call or a voice you couldn't recreate. These were people who left
telephone numbers and would talk to you," said Paul Allvin, a vice president of the Make-AWish Foundation, who became alarmed when he started hearing from multiple victims a week
about the fraudulent calls.
One team of con artists spoke with the owner of a Virginia modeling studio almost every day
for more than a month. Eventually, they persuaded her to send more than $300,000 through
Western Union and Moneygram in what she thought were luxury taxes and insurance fees on
the $1.1 million dollar prize they promised would be arriving any day. She told ABC News Chief
Investigative Correspondent, Brian Ross, that she was devastated when she learned the woman
claiming to be from the U.S. Treasury Department was really just a crook, and her money was
never coming back.
During a six month investigation, ABC News obtained never-before published recordings of the
phone calls and tracked down two fugitives who have been hiding in Costa Rica. The two men,
Roberto Fields Curtis and Andreas Leimer, both Americans formerly of Florida, have been
indicted in the scheme, but avoided extradition because they also held Costa Rican citizenship.
Both denied their involvement in the fraud, but both also made it clear they had no intention
of returning to the U.S. to attempt to clear their names.
Federal prosecutors have alleged that Leimer reaped millions installing internet phone lines in
the illegal call centers..a charge he denied when ABC News found him in a posh gated
community in Costa Rica.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has set up a hotline for victims to call to report
having been ripped off. It is 1-866-DHS-2ICE. The Federal Trade Commission has posted
information about the scams and advice for victims on two special web pages and has also been
compiling a list of complaints for law enforcement agencies to pursue.