Feds slam phone scams

Kim Smith

Sunday, Jan. 9, 2000 | 8:53 a.m.

June used to look forward to the phone calls. Friendly people who called all the time, asking for her help. Asking for money.

She knew their names, they asked about her dog. They told her about needy people and worthy charities. She sent them money.

June chatted to them about her health. They told her she was generous and kind hearted. She sent them more money.

But the 80-year-old Idaho woman finally got suspicious. After mailing them $40,000 over a 10-year period, June finally figured it out. Smooth-talking telemarketers from Las Vegas and around the country had suckered her into financial ruin.

"They were some of the most convincing people I've heard in my whole life, and I've been a business woman my entire life," June said. "You keep thinking you're helping people and instead you're being made a fool of."

But, June isn't alone and telemarketers in Las Vegas are responsible for much misery and financial heartache for gullible people across the nation.

Las Vegas has long been a haven for telemarketers attracted by the city's nonstop action and transient lifestyles that allow people to melt into the background. All they needed was an empty motel room or small office, and they were in business.

Things have started to change over the last five years however. State, local and federal law enforcement officers and prosecutors have been waging a war in Nevada and Las Vegas in particular, and telemarketing is no longer the problem it once was.

According to the National Consumer League's Fraud Information Center, Nevada was ranked fifth in the nation in 1995 in terms of the number of fraudulent telemarketing companies drawing complaints. Statistics due to be released Monday show Nevada is now ranked 10th in the nation with people calling in to complain about 135 companies. California, Texas and Florida traditionally hold the top three spots in the nation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Schiess said that although the league indicates Nevada has lost some ground -- it was ranked 14th in 1998 -- the strides made have been significant when you look at the impact of just one crooked telemarketing company.

Two of the U.S. Attorney's Office's more high-profile telemarketing cases had more than 1,000 victims each, and U.S. Attorney Kathryn Landreth said that thanks to June and the joint efforts of the law enforcement community, they have steadily been putting people like John Ciccone and Georgina Diane Wrobel behind bars.

Ciccone was one of 138 Las Vegans indicted in December 1995 as part of a 14-state sweep of telemarketers. He now shares the record with Wrobel for the lengthiest sentence for a telemarketer in Nevada -- 14 years.

Authorities said that over a two-year period telephone solicitors working for Ciccone convinced June and about 1,000 other people to donate cash to the homeless, to people who needed AIDS-testing and -- in a ploy that made national-headlines -- to the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing.

"John Ciccone put Las Vegas on the map, his case made 'Dateline,' " Schiess said.

Wrobel's sentencing on Thursday was just the latest victory for the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Wrobel was sentenced to 14 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Philip Pro. She and her son, Jan Wrobel, 23, were indicted on more than 70 wire fraud and money laundering counts in connection with a scam that bilked elderly victims out of almost $3.2 million. Jan Wrobel, who was brought into the telemarketing business by his parents at age 17, received six and a half years in prison on Dec. 20.

The Ciccone and Wrobel's case are the results of a nation grown weary of telemarketing con games, Landreth said.

In the mid-1990s, law enforcement agencies throughout the United States were getting frustrated. Elderly people were falling victims to disreputable telemarketers at an alarming rate and according to the U.S. Department of Justice, the telemarketers were walking away with more than $40 billion a year.

Law enforcement was crippled on a number of fronts, Landreth said. There were gaping loopholes in the law, daunting paper trails to follow, and victims were often too sickly or scared to travel to trials. Fictitious names and the transient lifestyles of the telephone solicitors also posed a major problem, she said.

Then, local and federal authorities came up with Operation Senior Sentinel. The program called for members of the American Association of Retired Persons to record their conversations with telemarketers. The tapes, which provided authorities with irrefutable evidence of fraud, were then sent to a national library to be catalogued and cross-referenced.

The number of cases being prosecuted steadily began to rise and then, on Dec. 7, 1995, almost 300 telemarketers were arrested nationwide, 138 of them in Las Vegas. There were so many arrests in Las Vegas that the federal magistrates held initial court appearances in the National Guard Armory.

Ciccone was one of those indicted, and he was ultimately convicted of 71 counts of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering.

Another Las Vegas telemarketer to make the national news was Mark Dittmar. The 27-year-old was sentenced to more than four years in prison in 1997 after convincing hundreds of telemarketing victims they could get their money back if they paid him a recovery fee.

Dittmar's three companies hoodwinked victims again and eventually pulled in more than $300,000.

Had it not been for Operation Senior Sentinel, telemarketers would likely still be flocking to Las Vegas, Schiess said. They now know that to come here means risking zealous prosecutors and harsh sentences.

Schiess said that since 1993, the Las Vegas U.S. Attorney's Office has prosecuted 321 telemarketers. Of those, 302 have been convicted and the rest are awaiting trial.

Defense attorneys, knowing how damaging the tapes are and picturing nightmare images of fragile, wheelchair-bound witnesses taking the stand in a steady stream, are urging their clients to plead guilty, Schiess said.

"Less than a dozen of them have gone to trial and we haven't had any acquittals," Schiess said.

Landreth said that while Las Vegas has "won the war" on telemarketing she regrets that the victims have only received back a fraction of the $31.9 million in damages the courts ordered telemarketers to pay back.

The vast majority of crooked telemarketers are young and irresponsible, Schiess said.

"It's the nature of the beast," Schiess said. "They don't take the money and invest it in land or jewelry. They spend it as fast as they get it. A lot of the money went up their nose (as cocaine) or on parties."

Telemarketing schemes aren't difficult to pull off, which appeals to younger crooks, Schiess said. Plus, they get greedy. Many times they decide that making $2,000 to $4,000 for a 25-hour week isn't good enough.

"They watch their bosses and basically decide that 'if that idiot can do it, I can do it too and far better,' " Schiess said.

June said she was probably taken in by at least 10 different fraudulent telemarketing companies.

"It's so personal, you feel like they're friends and they're interested in your welfare, too," June said. "If I fell for them, I can't imagine how people who haven't been in the business world or haven't been around lousy people can avoid falling for them."

Although something in the back of her mind prompted her to begin recording her conversations, June said she still kept handing out money until Ciccone's arrest.

"Your Las Vegas FBI and U.S. Attorney's office were my saving grace," June said.

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