EDITORIAL - The next act against the scammers

External muscle may have helped to push things along, but we nonetheless congratulate the Government for the speed with which it was able to push through legislation to tackle the lottery scam that targets mostly Americans. If only the Jamaican Government could get other things done this quickly.

But as important as that is, having the law - which must be urgently promulgated - is only part of the equation. Just as or more important will be its implementation. And this is something Jamaica has not been particularly good at - law enforcement.

In this case, though, there are encouraging signs as well as incentives for Jamaica to get serious about going after the scammers.

First, the victims of such fraud, emanating mostly from Jamaica, are primarily Americans - usually old people, considered to be among their society's most vulnerable. The criminals gather personal information about their victims, who are told that they won this or that prize via random lotteries. Retrieving the supposed prize requires 'paying' certain fees and/or taxes, which, in fact, are collected by the fraudsters.

The United States estimates upwards of US$1 billion is stolen in this fashion from its citizens annually and that a big chunk of that money comes to Jamaica. It is not surprising, therefore, that when, a fortnight ago, the US Senate Committee on Ageing held a hearing into the matter, there was quite a fair bit of Jamaica-bashing and demands that Kingston go after the scoundrels.

SPAWNED MURDERS

Yet, Americans are not the only victims of these frauds. The scam is believed to have spawned a spate of murders in western Jamaica as competing fraudsters vie for turf within which to 'conduct' business. Further, their activities often compromise information held by Jamaican firms operating in the business process outsourcing and telemarketing sectors.

Last week's arrest of prominent persons and the seizure of property in Montego Bay by the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Task Force (MOCA) was perhaps a signal of a new, post-legislation dispensation. If this is the case, there are many Jamaicans who will be cynical. Similar arrests in the past yielded little. Therefore, if people are to be convinced that there is real change, arrests will have to be followed by convictions.

In this regard, we hope that MOCA is doing a better job at gathering evidence than seems to have been the case in the past. Or, the evidence it unearths has to be competently marshalled by government prosecutors.

The latter point is important. In recent years, several cases of alleged corruption, fraud and other high-profile offences have crumbled in the courts or been dismissed at appeal. A not-unreasonable inference here is that prosecutors are taking weak cases to court or are not doing a good enough job in presenting the evidence.

In this regard, we hope for enhanced cooperation between the law-enforcement agencies of Jamaica and the United States in tackling a crime that affects both countries. Indeed, given the problems with Jamaica's judicial system, including its huge backlog of cases, it is perhaps sensible for America to extradite alleged scammers for trial in its jurisdiction.

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