Because the only reasonable thing for the world to do at this point is continue to be awful, the FBI has uncovered two separate fraud schemes that have gone after families of undocumented unaccompanied minors living in the US. Because families who send their children to another country as a refugee to flee violence aren’t dealing with enough tragedy and vulnerability.
Via Reuters:
“One fraud scheme involved individuals who claimed to be representing a charitable or non profit organization, which they claimed assists in processing and reuniting the children with their families,” said Special Agent Michelle Lee.
Another scheme used what Lee described as “caller I.D. spoofing” to make it appear that the calls were coming from a San Antonio business, which she didn’t name, in an attempt to lend credibility to the scheme.
Lee said the callers requested payments from the families of the young immigrants ranging from $300 to several thousand dollars, claiming the money was for travel expenses.
It takes a certain kind of soulless barbarian to manipulate someone’s sense of hope over the very life and fate of their child to make some money. With such a massive influx of children (an estimated 90,000 over the year by September), there are more than plenty of families to prey on. The FBI has put out a warning regarding these scams, but who knows how many families the warning will reach?
I really don’t know how to express how I feel about this, but here are some words: rage, disheartenment, exasperation, crying.
Image via Getty.