經濟危機 謹防詐騙趁虛而入

Broke, desperate Americans are most likely to be targeted by scam artists and the amount they lose is rising, the National Consumers League said.

The non-profit group received 15,000 complaints last year about fraud, including 5,742 from people reporting they lost money, according to new data.

The average loss was $2,332.03 (1,630.79 pounds), about $500 more than in 2007. The amounts may seem paltry compared with what accused Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff's investors lost but still were serious for those taken in by the scams.

With the United States in recession, the financial sector in crisis and Americans worried about keeping their jobs and homes, the National Consumers League urged extra vigilance.

"Consumers today should be even more on their guard than they were in the past. When you're in desperate straits, you're going to be more attractive to scammers," said John Breyault, the group's vice president for public policy.

Breyault said the number of e-mail scams -- like the one from the putative prince who will make you rich if you just send $10,000 -- are down, probably partly because of better spam filters.

But there were more Internet merchandise scams, he said, possibly because people in dire financial straits were hunting for bargains on unreliable websites.

His group also found more cases of "social engineering fraud" -- like "phishing" messages that purport to come from a bank and seek personal information that could be used for identity theft.

美國國家消費者聯盟稱，經濟破產、心情絕望的美國人最有可能成爲騙子的目標，而且他們被詐騙的數額呈上升趨勢。

據最新數據顯示，這家非贏利組織去年共收到一萬五千起詐騙投訴，其中5742起是錢財詐騙。

去年的平均詐騙金額達2332.02美元（合1630.79英鎊），比2007年增加500美元。雖然詐騙金額與華爾街伯納德•麥道夫的驚天詐騙案相比，也許不足掛齒，但對於受害者來說還是很痛苦。

目前美國深陷經濟衰退，金融領域面臨危機，人們擔心工作和家庭不保，美國國家消費者聯盟敦促人們此時更要提高警惕。

該組織的公共政策副總裁約翰•布瑞約特說：“消費者現在應該比以往更加小心。當你處於困境時，更容易成爲騙子的目標。”

布瑞約特稱，去年的郵件詐騙數量有所減少，這可能得益於垃圾郵件過濾器性能的提升，例如某個傳說中的大亨告訴你只要給他匯一萬美金就能讓你成爲富翁。

但與此同時，網絡商務詐騙有所增加，這可能是因爲身處財政危機中的人們在不可靠的網站上購買廉價商品。

該機構還發現“社會工程詐騙”增多，例如聲稱來自銀行，盜取個人信息以實施身份盜竊的“網絡釣魚”信息。

Vocabulary:

scam artist:騙子

paltry: lacking in importance or worth;trivial（不足取的，無價值的）