876: Welcome to Jamrock

By Din Duggan

They know our number in Breckenridge, Minnesota. In Wahpeton, North Dakota, they're calling our name. The local news in Pocatello, Idaho, is reporting about us. From municipal squares in idyllic little towns across America to city centres in the country's metropolises, the biggest little island on earth is stirring up waves once again. "Jamaica to the world."

One problem: We're not making these headlines for winning Olympic medals or thrilling concertgoers. The recent publicity is not the result of technological or biomedical innovations on our part. No, the Jamaica that America is getting to know and not-quite-love is not the serene portrait of a charming island paradise with white-sand beaches and Red Stripe beer.

In this Jamaica, everything isn't 'irie' and the people aren't spreading 'one love'. America is beginning to know us as an incensing and indistinct voice at the other end of an unsolicited phone call, baring promises of riches and threats of death.

'Welcome to Jamrock'

As Damian Marley sang in his hit tune of the same name: "Sandals a nuh 'Back-To', the thugs dem will do what dem got to, and won't think twice to shot you." Or, in this case the thugs wont think twice to threaten to 'shot' you - or your wife and baby.

In Caldwell County, Kentucky, a young couple, Jennifer Mills and Todd Hayle, received a phone call from a man in Jamaica calling himself Bob. Bob told the couple he had a package for them consisting of several million dollars, which they had won in a Jamaican lottery. All they needed to do to claim their bounty, Bob explained, was to wire a bit of money to him in Jamaica - constituting the taxes and fees on their supposed winnings.

Of course, Jennifer and Todd didn't play any lottery. As a young couple with a newborn, they didn't have money to spare. And they certainly didn't intend to send what little they had to some foreign voice making fantastic promises of phantom bonanzas.

Fair enough, right? Not to Bob. He called relentlessly, threatening deportation, arrest, and eventually to kill the couple and their baby if they didn't cooperate. The local NBC affiliate conducted an in-depth report. The reporter spoke to Bob, warning him that his scam would be revealed on the news. Bob's response: I don't give a flying [expletive]. Bob eventually calmed down, offering the reporter a cut of the lottery winnings if the reporter would send the money himself.

All across America, the Jamaican lottery scam is flourishing. One elderly American - the typical target of these scams - lost her life savings of nearly US$250,000. Distraught and dejected, she eventually killed herself. Police evacuated a Detroit grocery store when angry scammers suggested that a bomb would be detonated there. And they've threatened the lives of countless others for rejecting their propositions.

Bad publicity

The scam has stirred a bevy of warnings across the USA. Renowned consumer advocate Clark Howard has cautioned his nationwide audience to beware of certain calls from 876 area codes. State attorneys general have issued stark warnings to their residents. And the FBI has alerted the American public about the threat, which is yielding as much as US$300 million annually for scammers in Jamaica.

Congratulations, Jamaica. Once again, you've outdone yourself on the world stage. Not since Steven Seagal ran roughshod over gun-slinging, coke-dealing dreads in the movie Marked for Death have we appeared this unscrupulous. Surely, when we sought ways to narrow our widening trade deficit, a US$300m influx of illicit funds to gangsters, and deadbeats like Bob, wasn't what we had in mind.

It's now up to National Security Minister Peter Bunting and Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller to tell us how they intend to cripple this scourge, the negative publicity from which is threatening to marginalise Jamaicans and undermine our multibillion-dollar tourism industry.

Of course, this isn't merely a tourism issue, it's a public-safety issue. Scam funds buy lots of guns and drugs for trafficking - further fuelling organised crime and threatening to destabilise Montego Bay - the tourism capital and epicentre of the scam.

Wayward youth and other swashbucklers with few opportunities are flocking to this chance at ill-gotten riches faster than an ineffective police task force can suppress the problem. But the security forces must become as unrelenting in their efforts as the scammers have been, lest Sandals and Montego Bay do indeed become Back-To.

Din Duggan is an attorney working as a consultant with a global legal search firm. Email him at columns@gleanerjm.com or dinduggan@gmail.com, or view his past columns at facebook.com/dinduggan and twitter.com/YoungDuggan.