He enjoyed what he did, it made him a good living.
He sat fingering the tiny, beautifully hand-carved figure, bought while on holiday in Russia. It was an Amur Leopard. He felt that he and the cat had a lot in common. They were both rare; not many left world-wide. He gave regularly. This was unusual, because he didn’t give often, he was someone who took. He took a lot. Not all at once but moderate sums, regularly. Some might say he didn’t have to work for it, but he did. Research was important. Arranging kickbacks for the guy in the bank, the social security worker, and a couple of others took care of that. It was all about dossiers. Scam targets need to be selected with care. You could say that he needed his targets to be well off; cash poor, but well off. Out of the public eye was good, and of course, greedy enough to take the bait.
He put the figurine back on the corner of his desk and picked up a folder. It was time for some action. There’s one born every minute, just waiting to be fleeced. He opened it and selected the first of three dossiers. At first glance it was the most likely one to go ahead with. He began leafing through what had been gathered.
Respectable city gent, no convictions, large house, family vacation apartment, two cars, two mortgages, mutual funds, some blue chip stock, a number of credit cards, charge cards, store cards, club memberships…
Then he saw it, right near the bottom of the form. Regular donations made to the Save the Amur Leopard Foundation!
The dossier went into the shredder. He picked up the next.
Even a scammer can have a conscience…