Beware of the Ja 50 scams

Collin Greenland, Contributor

DURING HER contribution to the 2012-13 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on July 3, Minister of Youth and Culture Lisa Hanna elaborated on dates, events, venues, partnerships, sponsors, entertainment, media and the programme that will cumulatively highlight our nation's celebrations of our 50th year of Independence. Project director, Mr Robert Bryan, recently announced that these Golden Jubilee celebrations will offer innumerable business opportunities, and already with the launch of the 'one million pins initiative', it appears that entrepreneurial prospects will abound.

A sad reality of life, however, is that wherever human endeavours offer lucrative possibilities, the monster of crime rears its ugly head. Accordingly, the Jamaica 50 organisers, law-enforcement personnel, public/private sector partners, sponsors, entrepreneurs, and indeed the public at large must be on the alert for the ubiquitous scammers.

There is no telling when, how and where these scammers will strike, but it can be any or all of the activities to occur in the "best independence festival performances; other nightly concerts; ongoing programme of entertainment and activities night and day; live Olympic feeds; streaming capabilities over the Internet, social pages and mobile devices; 14 satellite stages across various towns and places in Jamaica on August 5 and 6; some 50 street dances to be held across Jamaica between August 1 and 6; Independence Thanksgiving Services to be held in all parishes on Sunday, August 5; and/or 'Independence Nostalgia' to be held at the Golden Jubilee Village at Independence Park on August 5"; as described by the former Miss World, now saddled with ministerial responsibilities. Of course, scammers will not limit themselves only to these 50th-related activities because, as 'old-time people' say in Jamaica, "ants falla fat."

Although specific predictions of how these swindlers will strike is difficult, we can use our knowledge of past trends and tendencies to deter, prevent and, if needed, detect the inevitable rackets that will be perpetrated. The lotto scammers have taught us that scammers are more sophisticated these days, and will employ more elaborate, technologically savvy methods to deprive us while we celebrate our nation's achievements. We can expect scams to range from the traditional straightforward ticket 'scalping', as occurred recently at the National Olympic Trials at the National Stadium, to more adroit counterfeiting attempts, straight up to very sophisticated copyright or other types of intellectual property infringements.

Scams involving tickets will occur mainly at the more popular high-demand, mainstream events and will tend to victimise those zealous patrons who will do anything and spend any amount to attend certain events. Since buying tickets online for events in Jamaica is not as popular as abroad, local ticketing scams will occur mainly through the traditional methods that include previously used tickets, resale of lost or stolen tickets, counterfeiting, tickets for non-existent events, and fictitious tickets. Jamaican promoters, however, are increasingly using modern, high-tech ticketing mechanisms to counter these scams. Most major events in Jamaica these days usually issue high-quality tickets that are not only bar coded and uniquely numbered, but contain colours, watermarks, special graphics, bar codes, serial numbers, ultraviolet marks, and/or other security features.

Intellectual property attacks

Fiftieth celebration scams can also come from any of the gamut of white-collar crimes that exist these days. Based on the massive merchandising expected over the next few months, for example, we should be wary of attacks on intellectual property, particularly attempts at 'product piracy' or 'product counterfeiting'. This normally involves the imitating or forging of products, that is, the deliberate violation of trademark rights, copyrights and other industrial property rights and their illegal exploitation. However they occur, let us all be prepared, since prevention is better than cure.

For those who feel that these warnings are not merited, be guided by the philosophy of the legendary Anglo-Irish author, orator, statesman, political theorist and philosopher Edmund Burke, who opined: "Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security."

Collin Greenland is a forensicaccountant. Send comments to columns@gleanerjm.com; cgreeny.collin@gmail.com.