76 THE WIDE WORLD OF FRAUD There is no legitimate organization called ISIPC. It popped fully formed from the imagination of a scam artist designing what we call a recovery scam. The scamsters designed a logo that closely resembled the logo of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), a legitimate U.S. organization that seeks to refund the assets of those who lose money when a brokerage firm closes. ISIPC worked hard to give its web site the same feel as the SIPC web site. By (falsely) quot- ing Mr. Picard, whose name every Madoff victim knew, and providing links to government web sites, the scamsters made the ISIPC look legitimate, giving their scam the best shot at success. Recovery scams prey only on those who have already lost money to a scam. They often claim to be government agencies or to have been contracted by the government to assist in the recovery effort. They collect information from the victims and assure them that recov-