| For
immediate release -- Tuesday, August 26, 1997. |
What:
Presentation concerning the National Undercover Tape Library
When:
11:30 a.m., Tuesday, August 26, 1997
Where:
Airport Holiday Inn, 6111 Fleur Drive, Des Moines -- Central Ballroom.
(Law Enforcement Coordinating Council Executive Training Conference.)
Who:
U.S. Attorney Steve Rapp, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, Special Agent
Michael Jones of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service
Background:
Rapp will present a major financial contribution to the Iowa Attorney General's Office for support of the "National Undercover Tape Library" -- a federal/state/local cooperative repository for undercover audio tapes used to combat fraudulent telemarketing scams.The Iowa Attorney General's Office took a lead in proposing and creating the Tape Library, which is housed with Federal offices in San Diego. The Office proposed the tape library after pioneering the concept of undercover taping of fraudulent telemarketers. (In Iowa, persons who have been frequent repeat victims of scams "give" their old telephone numbers to ring into the Attorney General's Office, where the calls are monitored, taped and used for criminal prosecution of con-artists.) The program has been extraordinarily successful in Iowa and has been replicated around the nation. Many jurisdictions share their tapes via the Library.
U.S. Attorney Steve Rapp's office for the Northern District of Iowa obtained substantial funds in connection with prosecuting a telemarketing operation based in Ft. Dodge, Iowa (U.S. v. Habhab). A judge has approved directing a substantial portion of the forfeiture proceeds to be used to support the National Undercover Tape Library.