Edward Shrum

One thing Americans don’t understand is that the FBI and DOJ don’t really care about fraud prevention. Let me explain: I once worked a timeshare fraud scam with dozens if not hundreds of victims. After interviewing a handful of them, I had a pretty good idea of how the scam worked. I was then able to track down a list of potential victims who were newer to the fraud scheme. After confirming who I was, I explained that the victims were being scammed and they should not send the “broker” any more money. These were not long interviews, so they didn’t require a detailed 302. Seeing they were short, my supervisor had questions. I explained that I could write dozens of time consuming interview memos with the same story, OR I could try and protect as many people as possible from losing their life savings. He looked at me like I was a madman. The FBI doesn’t care about slowing fraud because investigating a $10M scheme looks way better on a press release than a $1M scheme. And $100M scheme would be even better! This basically explains why scams like PPP loans, mortgage fraud and childcare centers are allowed to run for years or even decades. The FBI would prefer to ride in and save the day after every horse has left the barn because a big loss figure makes is seem like we really need them.