‘Con Artist Season’ Arrives With Autumn

Police here have issued a weather report of sorts, warning residents that “con artist season” has begun.

Marked not by the fall of rust-colored leaves but by polished scams that victimize the unwary, police are hoping that reminders that the autumn swindling season is underway will prevent the kinds of confidence games that con men used to cheat homeowners in the past.

The culprits are scam artists who travel a regular circuit, which appears to bring them into the San Fernando Valley area each fall.

“We have found several nomadic groups who travel into town each year about this time and run a variety of scams,” said Sgt. Rick Young of the Glendale Police Department.

These groups, he said, typically target the elderly, who are not always as alert to the danger of swindlers as they should be.

Only one such scam has been reported so far this year, Young said. In that case, an 89-year-old woman was duped Aug. 18 by a group of thieves who ransacked her house of a few hundred dollars worth of possessions.

The premise used was familiar to Glendale police: A group posing as a family with car troubles gains entrance into a home to use the phone. While one is on the phone and another creating a diversion, typically by using the bathroom, others move throughout the house, pocketing whatever valuables they can, according to police.

Often, say police, the victims don’t realize they’ve been robbed until the “family” has already slipped off down the road and the victims realize that wallets, silverware and other valuables are missing.

“If people are aware of this, it makes it harder on the scammers,” Young said, noting that in years past the con artists left town just as police noticed their presence but before any could be apprehended.

“They seem to hit us in the fall, but I don’t know where they go the rest of the year,” Young said. Last year, 15 scams were credited to the roving bands of crooks, he said, noting that none were caught.

“Our guestimate is that the 15 scams a year are 1/10th of what’s done,” Young said. “Some people are probably too embarrassed to report them, and others probably don’t realize it.”

Police cannot identify the con artists but believe they move throughout the country, working their scams in bursts here and there and moving on before police can get a fix on them. Their swindles typically net from a few hundred dollars to as much as $5,000, police said.

Eight years ago, five members of a family believed to engage in cross-country con games were arrested at the Burbank Airport with a few thousand dollars worth of silverware, electronic goods and jewelry, according to police. “But arrests are rare,” Young said.

Many of the scams run by the con artists revolve around home contracting work that is either never done or done so poorly as to be worthless.

“They may come to your door, tell you a big storm is coming and that your roof needs work,” Young said. “They’ll ask that you pay ahead of time, some of the cost, and then they’ll either never do the work or pretend to do it.

“They definitely prey on the elderly,” he added.

Tips offered by police to avoid becoming a victim include not giving out credit card, bank account or social security numbers over the phone; not allowing strangers into homes; and not signing anything without carefully reading it over.