(NewsNation) — Los Angeles-based Trilogy Media is trying to unravel complicated global scams that target vulnerable people, including the elderly, and sometimes the self-styled internet vigilantes are even able to turn the tables on fraudsters.
“These scammers are becoming so prolific and so successful. They are really good at making several different layers of separation between themselves and the victim,” co-founder Ashton Bingham tells “CUOMO.”
With its online content, Trilogy Media primarily educates the public about how some of these elaborate scams work by coaxing victims to part with information or money. Bingham and co-founder Art Kulik say bringing the perpetrators to justice is challenging because of jurisdictional issues.
“Domestic law enforcement will say, ‘Well, they’re out of the country, we can’t do anything,’ but then foreign law enforcement will say, ‘The victim is in the United States, so we can’t do anything,’” Bingham said.
In certain instances, Trilogy Media has been able to find people in the U.S. who are working with the scammers overseas.
“You can talk to us, or we can report it to police,” Bingham tells a suspect in one episode.
Internationally, scammers are believed to siphon $1 trillion annually from victims.