Recovery Room Scams

In this scam, fraudsters contact victims they’ve already ripped off claiming they work with law enforcement and that they can help them recover their money.

If you thought there were limits to how low a telemarketing scammer would go, guess again. Some telemarketers re-contact their victims in order to con them out of even more money. “Recovery-room” schemes are scams that occur after one telemarketing scam has already taken place.

Once the first telemarketing scam has drained most of the victim’s money, they become desperate to get their money back. Victims also feel foolish and many are too embarrassed to report what happened to the authorities. This is where the “recovery room” scammers step in to save the day.

The crooks claim to be cops

A scammer from the “recovery room” calls the victim posing as a representative of a government agency or organization that aid scam victims and says they can help recover some of their losses. Some recovery room scammers pose as FBI, IRS or Customs agents. Others pretend to be attorneys from law firms or representatives of government agencies including the local district attorney’s office. They could claim to be any one of many things, and it’s usually music to a victim’s ears.

In many instances, the telemarketer was involved in the scam the victim lost money from. Because of this, they are aware of many details regarding the earlier crime including how much the victim was defrauded. This makes the caller appear well-informed of the victim’s predicament and gives them credibility. Who else would have this kind of information other than law enforcement?

Buying time to get away with your money

In order to get their money back, the victim is told, they must pay a fee. Once the fee is paid, their money will be released by the court and transferred or delivered to them. This ugly scheme does more than add insult to injury. It means the victim is out even more money than they were before. You might call it “double dipping”. While the victims cheerfully await their money, the telemarketer disappears, never to be seen again.