Fraud
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 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. [
1] 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 dumpFraud, 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.
*
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.
*
Colleen McCabe, English former headmistrss who conned her school to the tune of £½ million
*
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 [
2])
*
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
*
Robert T. Kiyosaki, Self-help fraudster
*
Accounting scandals*
Affinity fraud*
Benford's law*
Caper stories (such as
The Sting)
*
Click fraud*
Corporate abuse*
Creative accounting*
Credit card fraud*
False Claims Law*
Front running*
Get-rich-quick schemes*
Hoax*
Impersonator*
Inspector General*
Internet fraud*
Mail fraud*
Phishing*
pious frauds, a form of fraud in religion motivated by sincere zeal
*
Phone fraud*
Political corruption*
Ponzi scheme*
Quatloos.com*
Questioned document examination*
Spin*
The National Council Against Health Fraud*
SAS 99*Podgor, Ellen S.
Criminal Fraud, (1999) Vol, 48, No. 4 American Law Review 1[
3]
