Think only the uneducated can be caught in a criminal’s web? Hardly…
This is the sad story of “The Doctor” and “The General.” The doctor, in this case, is an internationally recognized psychiatrist, 89 year-old Dr. Louis A. Gottschalk. The general is a anonymous figure Dr. Gottschalk met in Nigeria known only as “The General.”
According to papers filed by his son, Dr. Gottschalk has been a ten year victim of a Nigerian Advanced Fee Scam, losing up to $3,000,000. Like the last victim we talked about, Dr. Gottschalk is also accused of destroying bank records in order to hide the crime. Understandably, his son is trying to wrest control of the family partnership before more money is lost to the criminals.
Gottschalk was first contacted in 1995 by Nigerian fraudsters. He traveled to Nigeria and Amsterdam to “show them that he was sincere so he would get the money.” Early on, he admitted to his family that he had given “The General” $300,000. After being convinced he was being conned, he promised not to give any more money.
Dr. Louis Gottschalk, Nigerian Scam Victim
Unfortunately, time passed and Dr. Gottschalk continued to send money to his “partners” in Nigeria.
Why would someone do that - especially someone as educated as Dr. Gottschalk? Here’s one assessment from Anthony Pratkanis, a fraud expert from UC Santa Cruz:
“There’s a line that gets crossed when they send in the money and then they’re caught in a rationalization trap,” Pratkanis said. “One way to convince yourself the scam is for real is to send more money, ironically enough.”
Makes sense to me. Evidently it made sense to Dr. Gottschalk as well. When asked by his son as late as October 2005 about the money, he replied:
“Don’t worry, everything will be all right on Thursday because I will be getting $20 million.”
Dreams die hard, don’t they? Here’s a link to the whole story from KTLA.
(8 votes, average: 3.88 out of 5)
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Arcaydia
March 12, 2006 @ 1:42 pm
I think that this is a scam thats playing on age. Just because someone is a doctor does not mean they are all that with it at the old age of 89. Obviously because his son seems to be stepping in to act for him, he may not be completly with it.
Dave
March 13, 2006 @ 10:11 am
It very well could be that age has something to do Dr. Gottschalk’s behavior, though he is still going in to work each day and this has been going on for over 10 years. The point of the article is that young and old, rich and poor, educated and ignorant can all become victimes. Greed is universal.
Ray
March 14, 2006 @ 3:23 pm
Social status, income and education are irrelevant when it comes to identity theft. I am a 56-year-old well-educated executive working in a large well-known corporation. I just learned last week ((3/4/2006 ) that I am a vicitim of Identity Theft (social security # & all relevant info) resulting from a “security breach” between EXPERIAN CREDIT–CITIFINANCIAL RETAIL SERVICES–and “PRESTIGIOUS FURNITURE” (aka “Coral Furniture”) in Brooklyn, New York. (I live on the West Coast and have not been in New York since 1976) On 12/4/05 CITIFINANCIAL RETAIL SERVICES approved a $7,000. furniture loan in my name. I just received the first “billing statement” because furniture had been purchased during a “SPECIAL PROMOTION” “No bill for 90 days”: I learned this morning, from Detective Lyons, NYPD (718)-851-5535 ext.5537, that he has received 27 reports since 3/5/06 from individuals all over the country who have been victimized by this recent security breach and “cooperative insider relationship” between EXPERIAN, CITIFINANCIAL, & “PRESTIGIOUS FURNITURE.” NEITHER EXPERIAN NOR CITIFINANCIAL ARE FORTHCOMING ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON. I have retained a private attorney and a private investigator.
Esther
March 20, 2006 @ 10:02 pm
Ray, I am having a similiar situation, and the fraud is also being tracked back to Brooklyn. In my case I live in New Jersey, and am not having much luck getting coordination with NJ police and NYC police. In one instance alone with Saks, $10,000 was placed on an account I did not authorize. I am nervous about what other damage may be happening and I am not yet aware of it.
Duane
April 16, 2006 @ 1:05 pm
I received a letter with official looking letterhead from UNITED BRITISH LOTTO (without mailing address) certifying that I had won $ 95,000.00, accompanied by a valid looking check in the amount of $ 2,998.75 ostensively to partially defray costs and clearance fees of $ 4,750.00. This appears to be a scam since I did not enter such a lotto.
Valerie
May 13, 2006 @ 5:10 pm
Hi. I’ve emailed Ray a couple times but have gotten no response. I am hoping maybe he checks up on this website often. I know personally the owner of Prestigious Furniture and fell like maybe I could help you. If you would like to email me, please do so at v29b83@hotmail.com.
Thanks,
Valerie
Chris Browder
June 28, 2006 @ 7:57 pm
I am SO GLAD That not only do I have a company monitoring my credit, but I have this special service called ID Theft Restoration. provided by a very reputable company. If you’d ever needed something like this, I would STRONGLY recomend you get service like this. make sure they restore your identity too because most 90-95% of the monitor companies dont restore, instead they give you a kit so you can spend your time and money to fix it yourself.
Teknon
July 7, 2006 @ 7:25 am
Hello:
Greed and Pride is are very destructive spirits. Rationality and logicgal thinking are not part of their makeup. Greeds biggest weapon is delusion. Delusion will cause a person do do things that go against what makes sense. It overides education, race, or social status. Prides biggest weapon is denial. It will not let the individual see that they are being fooled. This doctor has been overtaken by greed and pride.
zelda
August 30, 2007 @ 9:11 pm
I have received an email from a Mr. Song Li le that works with the Hang Seng Bank in Hong Kong.There is $19,500,000.00 in his bank and “there are no beneficiaries stated concerning these funds which means no one would come forward to claim it”. He wants to trasfer the money out of his bank into my account. All he needs is my full name, private phone number and current residential address. I can’t believe this. I’m afraid there might be people out there that would fall for this. It scares me. I have received other scam letters but never one with this much money involved.