Fraud, scams and cons are everywhere. They affect many people every day, making this a form of crime likely to affect most people, in some way, during their lifetime. The various types of scams and cons are staggering. A Google search for a list of frauds netted over 1,000 types of schemes, scams, frauds and cons. The simple truth is this: There are people out there with the desire and motive to profit from the misfortune and deception of others. They will use the methods they know to succeed (usually financially) and make a situation profitable for themselves. Some schemes are very simple, while others are incredibly complex; walking a fine line between legal and illegal. We will examine some of the various schemes and scams that have been used in the past and many of which are still used today.
Fraud
Fraudulent means to obtain something by means of deception. Usually, it is known by its shortened form, fraud. Different types of fraud account for a notable number of the crimes committed in the United States. Fraud is always evolving, keeping up with changing technology and attempting to stay ahead of law enforcement. Most likely, fraud will not go away. It is important to note that the best way to combat fraud is to be knowledgeable about fraud. The following paragraphs outline several typed of fraud and the people affected by these crimes.
Fraud tends to capitalize on opportunity. If there is an opportunity to gain from a situation, the chance for fraud is present. One case of this is Charity or Disaster Fraud. Persons looking to commit fraud take advantage of the misfortune of these situations and the willingness of others to help. On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 Earthquake shook and nearly leveled the island...
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...ail form and have evolved to using false names of military soldiers stationed overseas and ailing socialites in London with a last dying wish for assistance. The e-mails are usually not very well written; full of spelling and grammatical errors, they can raise a flag of suspicion. The best way to avoid this scheme truly is common sense. If it seems too good to be true, it just might be.
In 1919, Charles “Get Rich Quick” Ponzi began redeeming coupons obtained overseas for between 100 to 300 percent profit. The investors in his plan were promised 40 percent profit on their investment within 3 months (Hagan, 2011). Word quickly spread about the money-making opportunity and Ponzi found himself with more investors than he could handle. He paid the early investors with money obtained from later investors, creating a situation that simply couldn’t be sustained.
Fraud is one of Canada's most severe acts of financial criminality as the economic impact of this crime could potentially handicap an entire society. According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre Annual Statistic Report (CAFC), a report established to monitor fraud with the aid of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and Competition Bureau of Canada, it reported an annual loss of 74 million dollars affecting over 14,472 victims (Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, 2014). Given this alarming statistic, it is worrisome that we as a society still ignore or turn a blind eye towards those who commit fraud as seen in the low conviction (Canada Revenue Agency, 2014), and focus our efforts on petty thefts as seen with the high rate of convictions
In recent years, it seems as if there is a new financial fraud being reported any given day. One could even say that fraud has become almost a much a surety as taxes. Given the opportunities and pressures, many will businesses will fall victim to human natures and suffer losses through fraudulent activities. This case study will follow one such fraud, following the crimes of Terry Scott Welch in his pursuit for happiness by indulging his passion of landscaping.
“Fifty percent profit in forty-five days!” was the claim of Charles Ponzi. Ponzi was a purported financial wizard. In the summer of 1920, he ran an “investment company” in Boston. He claimed to reap great profits by trading postal reply coupons. Nonetheless, the investment scheme was a fraud. Ponzi was using investors' money to pay off earlier investors, while keeping some for himself. In the end, he had collected $9,500,000 from 10,000 investors.
When discussing health care fraud we need to know what exactly we are discussing. There are many different types of health care fraud. This paper will give an overview of the five major types of health care fraud. The different types occur on both the patient/consumer level and at the provider level. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) the five major types of health
A deception is a form of a lie. Scams are similar to deception in the way that each are lies and are used to achieve the same goal. They are used to gain something about an individual whether it is trust, money information of some kind or simply
1) Under-ringing of sales and the tearing up order tickets are two longtime scams in the food and beverage industry. An employee serves a customer in the restaurant, and the customer pays the check at the meal's end, but instead of putting the money and ticket in the register, the employee tears up the order ticket and pockets the cash. The restaurant owner has no record of that order or money tendered. Or an employee sold something for $17.50," and rang in $7.50 The employee put the $17.50 in the register and at the end of the night, would pocket the extra $10.00. Since the cash in the register drawer would match the transactions listed on the register tape, the theft would not be known. ...
Hanson, J. R. (n.d.). Fraud or confusion? RDH Magazine, 19(4). Retrieved 3 15, 2014, from http://www.rdhmag.com/articles/print/volume-19/issue-4/feature/fraud-or-confusion.html
Since fraud is a civil law violations and mostly involves financial transactions by white collar criminals, through investigations are necessary. Fraudsters are can use any fo0rm of communication to contact their potential victims. These methods include face to face communication, use of email, phone call and even sms. The US Department of Commerce estimates that about 30% of business failure can be traced directly to embezzlement, which is a form of financial fraud. Callahan & Associates in Knoxville have a team of highly dedicated investigators keen to unravel any fraudulent act against you, your family and company in order to keep you safe.
Con artists are everywhere. They seem to sense when other are vulnerable, such as older people. Our elderly come from a time when people believed others. They truth their neighbors and friends. If they say they will do something, they mean they will do it. Our elderly are simply too trusting. It is hard for them to look another person in the eye and lie. It is hard for them to take something that does not belong to them. Unfortunately, the con artist does not have a problem with either lying to people or stealing from them. He has his chosen profession down to the art he has practiced. He is good at what he does because he works at being good at it. The con artist is an actor. He should win an Oscar for his performances. He is able to change personalities like a chameleon changes colors. The con artist can be anything he needs to be for whatever “job” he is working on at the time. He usually is a very likable person who is able to blend in with others on any occasion or any given situation. Sadly, if these swindlers had chosen to work an honest job, they probably would have been very good at what they did. It requires more planning and convincing to rip people off than it takes to work at a legitimate career.
The Internet plays the biggest role in identity theft. On the Internet, a thief can hide from detection while stealing peoples’ identities from their homes, being able to steal peoples’ information one by one “then disappearing into another identity,” (Vacca 60). Internet fraud consists of two phases. The first being spoofing where a fake site is set up made to look like the real thing. Once that is completed the second phase, phishing, begins. This usually starts with an email that uses the
A Ponzi scheme is a type of fraud called investment fraud. It, “involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors” (6). Investors are usually promised a high return rate. The fraudsters attract new investors and pay back their old investors with the new investor’s money. Ponzi schemes are named after Charles Ponzi who created scheme by getting residents to invest in a postage stamp scheme. Bernie Madoff is a well known and not well liked Ponzi scheme fraudster. He is currently in federal prison. These types of fraud schemes hurt hundreds or millions of individuals and families.
Most deception occurs in lower income communities with money as the topic. Look at Los Angeles certain parts will have many billboards advertising gets money quick schemes. Yes, the advertisements look appealing when passing them on the freeway but once the effort is put in to do the, “get money quick scheme,” the person does get money; but the person always has to pay in back with insane interest. That’s what the company does not tell you and what the advertisements do not show. Retailers also do the loopy loop around laws so they squeeze by fraudulent and untruthful claims. Advertisements have intelligent people behind the words. They know how to make a statement sound one way, but when a person looks back at the statement closely it means something completely
Fraud in charitable organizations occurs when legitimate organizations or the individuals working for the organization misuse donations, or when illegitimate organizations or individuals collect donations on behalf of a sham organization. Perpetrators of charity fraud prey on the generosity of their donors through a variety of means. Some individuals may try to get the attention of a passerby on the street requesting cash for the hungry or disabled while others may use telemarketing scams in which the perpetrator tries to convince the potential donor of their legitimacy and the immediacy of financial need for a worthy cause. Yet, the most u...
This particular kind of scheme has been around for a long time dating back the 1920's. They are fraudulent investment operations , operated by a person or an organization, they promise significantly high return rates to investors to draw them in. They are able to pays returns to investors from new capital paid to the operators by new investors, rather than from proceeds obtained by the operator. The scheme was named after Charles Ponzi , who became notorious for using the technique in 1920's. Ponzi's became the first scheme to be widely known across America despite other schemes being done before, because the staggering number of money and people he defrauded. Ponzi's original scheme was based on the arbitrage of international reply coupon however, he soon redirected investors' money to make payments to initial investors and himself. A wide variety of investment vehicles or strategies, usually legitimate, have become the basis of Ponzi schemes.For example, Hedge funds which can degenerate into ponzi schemes if they unexpectedly lose money or fail to properly earn the returns promised or expected by investors. The promoter might decide to fabricate fals...
Fraud in a very general term is the crime of deceiving a person in order to get them to give up something in value, usually money and usually to the criminal himself or a group of criminals. This paper will be discussing cybercrime fraud, specifically cybercrime auto fraud, the type of scams associated with cybercrime auto fraud, the criminal profile of a cybercriminal fraud, law enforcement initiatives to combat this type of fraud and the penalties that go along with committing this type of fraud.