565 arrested in fraud schemes

I saw that headline on CNN and MSNBC today: 565 people were arrested in fraud schemes in five countries, the U.S., Canada, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, and Spain. The MSNBC article is here. And here is a Department of Justice fact sheet summarizing the crimes. Some of the crimes listed are eerily familiar.

Although this investigation is more recent than the one that included my mother's misfortunes, my thoughts went to all those names on all those little scraps of paper. They weren't real names, of course, but they were real to her. Did they arrest John Mason, Steve Mercer, Claude Azzario, Lewis Marley, Victor Torres? What about John Henry, Harry Diamond? What about all those customs agents and Lloyd's of London representatives demanding fees to deliver her lottery winnings?

I had to disconnect Mother's land line and change her cell phone number twice to get rid of Steve Mercer. Otherwise, he would still be calling, as would they all.

Little scraps of yellow paper everywhere

That January day my mother's house was littered with junk mail, magazines (including duplicates), boxes of stuff everywhere. She usually knew when I was coming and tidied up a bit, stashing boxes behind furniture and in every corner of every closet and under beds. I took her by surprise that day. One thing was ubiquitous -- little torn pieces -- corners, half pages -- of lined yellow paper. I was still finding them until the day I closed on the house. Sometimes I still find them in her purse -- when I can get near it, that is. She guards it with her life.

Mother wasn't totally crazy yet. She had had the presence of mind to write down the name of every caller, date of the call, area code and phone number, the amount of money they wanted and where to send it, all on little snippets of yellow paper. Her memory was selective, but she had retained more than she wanted to admit. The snippets of paper served as reminders for the narratives she wrote of the scams. One such narrative was already in process before I found her out. A villain named Claude in Canada had identified himself as a government official wanting information about the Canadian lottery. The narrative started out: "Dear Claude" and was titled "Canadian Sweepstakes Group." Claude called often and occasionally sent gifts. He had a French accent.

I stayed in touch with the FBI agent who wanted all the information I could muster for an ongoing California-based investigation of the Canadians (Costa Rica was new to him). Mother liked the idea of helping the FBI so I had little trouble convincing her to gather up the little scraps and continue her narrative writing. It kept her occupied while I held her captive (her words) in Fayetteville as much as I could. The information was scattered and not well organized, so she was the only person who could conceivably pull it together. I was shocked at how well she could do this and how well she could still write. Yes, it was a slow and painful process, but she managed to organize the information into surprisingly coherent lists over a few weeks time.