2015 Crime Prevention Month Partner Resources
Prevent Financial Fraud: Before You Invest, Ask and Check
Each year, an estimated 13.5 percent of U.S. consumers (30.2 million people) are defrauded, losing a total of close to $3 billion. A survey conducted by the FINRA Investor Education Foundation of U.S. adults age 40 and over found that more than 80 percent of respondents had been solicited to participate in a potentially fraudulent scheme, and more than 40 percent of those surveyed could not identify the classic red flags of fraud. Learn more about the risk factors and red flags of financial fraud. Help spread the FINRA Foundation’s consumer strategy, Ask and Check to help prevent Americans from fraud victimization, which can have devastating consequences for individuals, families, and communities.
NCPC Resources
Audio/Video
Elder Financial Fraud News Segment: This video highlights the prevalence and severity of senior financial fraud and provides tips on how to avoid being scammed.
The Call: This radio-ready PSA provides useful tips on how to avoid becoming a scam victim (available in 30 second and 60 second formats).
Seniors and Mortgage Fraud Podcast: Listen to how counseling services help seniors and what economic factors seniors are facing. Find out what makes seniors vulnerable to scams, the most common scams, and how they lead to mortgage and reverse mortgage fraud.
Improving Public Safety Series Podcast on Senior Crime: This informative podcast features Doug Shadel, Senior State Director of AARP, as he describes helpful ways seniors and their families can protect themselves from financial fraud.
“School for Scoundrels” TV Ad: This PSA works with the Seniors and Telemarketing Fraud 101 booklet to teach seniors how to avoid scams.
Senior Financial Crimes Reproducible and Localizable Outreach Tools: These tools help law enforcement and crime prevention practitioners teach senior citizens how to foil “scoundrels and scams” (available in flier, palm card, and poster size)
Senior Scams Reproducible and Localizable Outreach Tools: These tools help law enforcement and crime prevention practitioners teach senior citizens how to protect themselves against scams.
• Available in English in palm card, flier, and poster sizes
• Available in Spanish in palm card, flier, and poster sizes
Partner Resources
Training
Find an investment fraud prevention trainer near you and arrange a presentation for your community.
Kits/Resources
Crime Prevention Month Kit 2013-2014 – Protecting Your Assets: Keeping Our Communities Safe from Financial Fraud – Colorful, informative, and reproducible for crime prevention practitioners, law enforcement, and community members, this Crime Prevention Month kit will help people spot and stop scams.
“Fighting Fraud 101: Smart Tips for Investors”: This booklet is a great educational resource.
Avoiding Investment Scams: This FINRA Foundation Alert warns investors about classic types of investment fraud and helps investors spot and avoid the types of persuasion tactics used by fraudsters.
Investor Knowledge Quiz: Test your knowledge on smart and safe investments.
Sign-up for Investor News Alerts.
Order a free DVD of the award-winning documentary, Trick$ of the Trade: Outsmarting Investment Fraud.”
Print Tools
The FINRA Foundation, NCPC’s partner in investment fraud prevention, has additional print resources to help you fight fraud that are available through this ordering portal. Some of FINRA Foundation’s newest resources include:
Program and Outreach Toolkit – This new release for the Investor Protection Campaign on SaveAndInvest.org is part of a research-based program and includes an hour-long documentary, interactive curriculum, and print and online materials.
Financial Fraud Study ‒ The FINRA Investor Education Foundation's 2013 research report, Financial Fraud and Fraud Susceptibility in the United States (PDF 417 KB), contributes to a deeper understanding of financial fraud. Visit http://www.saveandinvest.org/FraudCenter/Research/ for more information.
Taking Action: An Advocate’s Guide to Assisting Victims of Financial Fraud – More than 30 million Americans are victims of financial fraud each year. Advocates can use this new tool to support fraud victims.
Scams, Schemes, and Swindles – The Financial Fraud Research Center presents a summary of research on consumer financial fraud. This white paper outlines what experts know (and what they have yet to learn) about consumer financial fraud – its prevalence, victims, perpetrators, and methods.
Get Real About Intellectual Property Theft
Many people believe that purchasing counterfeit products is a victimless crime and bargains like these are a part of everyday life. The consequences of intellectual property theft are real and include increased gang and organized crime activity, economic loss, and life-threatening harm to consumer health and safety. Intellectual property theft isn’t a victimless crime. Thieves reap huge profits from the counterfeit products, which in turn can damage lives and destroy neighborhoods.
NCPC Resources
Video/Audio
Premonition: On a busy street teeming with sidewalk stalls, a young woman looks down at a stack of DVDs held in her hands. Beside her stands the vendor. As the vendor touches the money, we close in on the young woman's eyes. Glimpses of the consequences flash before her.
It Hurts: Addie Brownlee (www.addiebrownlee.com), a young musician, plays her guitar to the commuting crowd in a subway station. At her feet is a guitar case open for donations, some loose bills are scattered inside. As she sings commuters gather around but one by one they remove money from her guitar case.
The Dangers of Intellectual Property Theft: Just because something is cheap doesn’t make it a genuine bargain after all. There’s a lot at stake when you purchase counterfeit or pirated products. Intellectual property theft has real consequences.
Center for Safe Online Pharmacies - Be Safe. Buy Smart. The Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies (CSIP) is a nonprofit organization chartered in 2011 to help Internet industry leaders find a way to address the growing problem of consumer access to illegitimate pharmaceutical products on the Internet. The entities selling these “medicines” typically advertise and present themselves as pharmacies, which inspires consumer trust. The average consumer has no way to know whether the product he or she is purchasing is counterfeit or otherwise unsafe, and is therefore not only vulnerable to the dangers associated with these substances, but also often has little recourse.
"Spot the Fake" Video - Canon asked everyday people if they think they can spot a counterfeit "Canon" battery. Do you think they were able to spot the fake? Watch the video and find out.
'Counterfeit: Don't buy into organized crime' - UNODC launches new outreach campaign on $250 billion a year counterfeit business.
Counterfeit Drugs: Fake medicines contain potentially dangerous ingredients like antifreeze.
Don’t Get Burned: Dangerous counterfeit products are purchased every day unknowingly.
Fashionista: The dollars you save on counterfeit goods come at a cost to others.
Jobs/Piracy: The pirated entertainment your purchase or download can cost U.S. jobs.
Dangerous Fakes: Buy safe. Purchase medicine from legitimate sources.
Sneakers: These sneakers really were a steal – stolen trademarks and company profits.
Website
Intellectual Property Theft: Get Real: This website will tell you about the research that went into the campaign, the different types of intellectual property theft, and how to keep from being a victim of intellectual property theft.
