Fraud

Related Topics:
Fraud :: Fraud_and_Misconduct

In the broadest sense, a fraud is a deception made for personal gain, although it has a more specific legal meaning, the exact details varying between jurisdictions. Many hoaxes are fraudulent, although those not made for personal gain are not best described in this way. Not all frauds are hoaxes - electoral fraud, for example. Fraud permeates many areas of life, including art, archaeology and science. In the broad legal sense a fraud is any crime or civil wrong for gain that utilises some deception practiced on the victim as its principal method.

In criminal law, fraud is the crime or offense of deliberately deceiving another in order to damage them — usually, to obtain property or services from him or her unjustly. ^*. Fraud can be accomplished through the aid of forged objects. In the criminal law of common law jurisdictions it may be called "theft by deception," "larceny by trick," "larceny by fraud and deception" or something similar.

In academia and science, fraud can refer to academic fraud - the falsifying of research findings which is a form of scientific misconduct - and in common use intellectual fraud signifies falsification of a position taken or implied by an author or speaker, within a book, controversy or debate, or an idea deceptively presented to hide known logical weaknesses. Journalistic fraud implies a similar notion, the falsification of journalistic findings.

Fraud can be committed through many methods, including mail, wire, phone, and the internet (Patent Fraud in Australia http://ipta-info.com and computer crime and internet fraud).

Acts which may constitute criminal fraud include:

bait and switch
confidence tricks such as the 419 fraud, Spanish Prisoner, and the shell game
false advertising
identity theft
false billing
Patent Fraud, unique to Australia, see http://ipta-info.com/
forgery of documents or signatures
taking money which is under your control, but not yours (embezzlement)
health fraud, selling of products of spurious use, such as quack medicines
creation of false companies or "long firms"
false insurance claims
bankruptcy fraud, is a US federal crime that can lead to criminal prosecution under the charge of theft of the goods or services
investment frauds, such as Ponzi schemes
securities frauds such as pump and dump

Fraud, in addition to being a criminal act, is also a type of civil law violation known as a tort. A tort is a civil wrong for which the law provides a remedy. A civil fraud typically involves the act of making a false representation of a fact susceptible of actual knowledge which is relied upon by another person, to that person's detriment.

Known and alleged fraudsters and various forms of fraud

Alves Reis, a Portuguese fraudster who forged documents to print 100,000,000 PTE in official escudo banknotes. (Adjusted for inflation, it would be worth about 150 Million USD today).
Frank Abagnale Jr., US impostor who wrote bad checks
Ivan Boesky, inside trader in the 1980s
Otto von Bressensdorf. German-born fraudster
Nicolas Bruno, pictures saler condemned for fraud(breach of trust) (12 May 2003).
Cassie Chadwick, who pretended to be Andrew Carnegie's daughter to get loans
Anthony Di Angelis, "the Salad Oil King"
John Draper, also known as Captain Crunch, was a phone phreaker (questionable, claimed by his partisans to be a grey hat and not to have profited from his deceptions)
William Duer, accused of embezzlement of $238,000 from US Treasury Department in the 1790s
Leontina Espinoza, a Chilean woman who did not give birth to 58 children
Billie Sol Estes - cotton subsidy and loan fraud in 1960s, resulting in the eventual creation of the federal Office of Inspector General
Shinichi Fujimura - archeologist who announced on Oct. 27 that he had discovered eight stoneware pieces, from a layer of earth, more than 600,000 years old in the Kamitakamori ruins in Tsukidate, Miyagi Prefecture, believed to be the nation's oldest. However, Fujimura confessed that he had buried the stones at the ruins in advance of the excavation.
Sante and Kenneth Kimes, US fraudsters
Ivar Kreuger, “The Match King”
The g00ns, “Paypal Thiefs”
Dennis Levine
Mirko Manojlovic South African conman and fraudster.
Gregor MacGregor, Scottish conman who tried to attract investment and settlers for a non-existent country of Poyais
Robert Maxwell, UK newspaper tycoon who milked his companies dry (he may have committed suicide to prevent exposure of this)
Gaston Means
Michael Milken, "The Junk Bond King"
Barry Minkow and the ZZZZ Best scam
Antonio Jiminez Moreno, welfare fraud
Frederick Emerson Peters, US impersonator who wrote bad checks
Charles Ponzi and Ponzi scheme
Peter Popoff, whose faith healing-based Pentecostal televangelist ministry was debunked by professional skeptic James Randi and television presenter Johnny Carson
Christopher Rocancourt who defrauded Hollywood celebrities
Oscar R. Rosales, a cardiologist and professor at the Yale School of Medicine plagiarized and intentionally misrepresented his work in an application for a national medical research grant (see reports of the findings by the Public Health Service's Office of Research Integrity at ^*)
Serge Rubinstein, Russian-born diamond swindler
Rajendra Sethia, Indian fraudster
Foutanga Dit Babani Sissoko, West African fraudster held in Miami during the late 1990s
Franz Tausend, fake alchemist
Richard Whitney, who stole from the New York Stock Exchange Gratuity Fund in 1930s
Dorothy Mae Woods, US "Welfare Queen"
Robert Vesco, US fugitive financier

References

Podgor, Ellen S. Criminal Fraud, (1999) Vol, 48, No. 4 American Law Review 1^*

Crimes | Deception | Fraud | Criminology topics

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Known and alleged fraudsters and various forms of fraud

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References