Anger, Disappointment, and Disgust: Reactions of Victims of a Telephone Investment Scam (From International Victimology, P 105-111, 1996, Chris Sumner, Mark Israel, et al., eds. - See NCJ-169474)

• NCJ Number: 169486
• Author(s): D Shichor; J Doocy; G Geis
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 7 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

This paper reports the results of a survey of victims of a California telecommunications fraud.

Abstract

A great deal of research has focused on the physical and fiscal consequences of victimization by street crimes, but much less attention has been paid to the consequences of victimization by fraud and false pretenses. The research reported in this paper was based on a survey of victims of a telecommunications fraud that primarily involved land leases for oil and gas prospecting and for conveyance through pipelines of oil and gas allegedly already pumped. From a base of 8,527 victims of this nearly decade-long scam, 281 were selected at random to receive questionnaires. The overwhelming reason why people invested was the agent's persuasiveness. Victims' major reactions when they learned they would likely lose their investments were anger and disappointment. The survey indicated strong personal distress among the victims, but no expressions of malaise with the society in general, the economic system or cynicism about human nature. The data from this study reinforce the theme regarding the high fiscal cost of frauds and white-collar crime. The victims of this scam invested on the average about $30,000. Very few burglaries and many fewer robberies come close to taking so high a fiscal toll on their victims. Note, references