Questions and Answers: Criminal Justice

Fraud is defined as an intentional act of deception, while abuse consists of improper acts that are unintentional; but inconsistent with standard practices.

Another scam that I have heard about is after being hired as a mystery shopper, people are sent some checks to deposit in their personel accounts. One of their tasks will be to evaluate the money transfer service of companies like Western Union. They are told to wire the money back to their employer. Everything seems normal and the mystery shopper will complete a report. The problem is that the check is a fake and this may take the bank several weeks to discover. Once discovered it will be the person who deposited the check who is responsible for reimbursing the bank.

The distinguishing factor between abuse and fraud is that abuse cannot be proven to have been committed intentionally, whereas fraud can.

There are five elements needed to commit fraud: (1) a false statement containing material fact, (2) the defendant possesses the knowledge that the statement is untrue, (3) the false statement’s intent is to deceive the intended victim, (4) the intended victim justifiably relies on the statement, and (5) the ending result is financial injuries to the intended victim. All false statements do not constitute for fraud; they need to contain a material fact. The materiality of the statement induces the intended victim to agree to something with the defendant. Statements of belief (puffing) are not considered fraudulent since there is no legitimate statement of fact. For example, Joe goes to buy a car and the dealer

Embezzlement may occur in many different circumstances. Sometimes, it can cost a person to lose millions of dollars to another individual or something as simple as a small, every day product. Embezzlement may be defined by “fraudulent conversion of another 's property or money by a person to whom it has been entrusted.” (4*) For example, if a waitress in a restaurant were to take your order, bring your food, and proceed to collect the payment without punching it into the computer. Instead she chooses to

Fraud cases are extremely serious events that affect a number of factors for those involved. Fraudsters take advantage of circumstances for his/her benefits, but cause surmountable damages to individuals and entities. The extent of the damages can destroy individuals’ dreams and lead entities to cease from existence. Fraudsters, however, are held liable for the crimes committed, which involve criminal and civil cases. Criminal and civil cases are prosecuted differently, involve different legal aspects and different consequences.

Financial statement fraud occurs when financial statements are intentionally misstated in order to make an organization appear better off than it actually is. This not only includes misstatements but also information that is intentionally omitted or improperly stated. The two sub-categories of financial statement fraud are asset/revenue overstatements and understatements. Financial statement fraud is the least common type of fraud, occurring in 9% of the cases studied in 2014, but the most costly with a median loss of $1,000,000. (Report to the Nations,

When Fraud occurs there is three conditions present. These conditions are Opportunity- this is when circumstances are present and provide an opportunity for fraud to take place, the second one is Pressure or incentive- this can provide the person with the motivation to commit the crime, finally the last condition is Rationalization or attitude- this is when the person who has committed the crime

Fraud is a special term that is used to define the act of deception in order to gain something unfairly or unlawfully (Benson, & French, 2009). Fraud is considered to be a branch of civil crime and it is one most common act of crime in today’s society. The concept of fraud varies differently in different situations, and because of that, frauds can be of many types (Benson, & French, 2009). In this paper, we will be analysing four different cases of fraud and assess the elements involved.

Fraud by definition can be a lot of things when it involves malicious and dishonoring actions. It has anything to do with misappropriations or even have knowledge of the wrong appropriation, a single or group can achieve. Extortion by definition can be a great deal of things when it includes vindictive and disrespecting activities. It has anything to do with misappropriations or even know about the wrong appointment, a solitary or gathering can accomplish. These describe the elements of how fraud can be affected and taken into account of harming the company.

Fraud can affect a broad spectrum of individuals at any time. Companies and consumers are losing billions of dollars every year. The effects of such deceptions can way heavily on companies and consumers. Fraud can be committed in many different ways. It can range from employee embezzlement to email scams. With increasing frequency, fraud continues to occur. No matter what the news reports, without proper controls; fraud will still occur. Proper controls and training need to be put in place at companies and individuals need to have the tools readily available to know what types of fraud can occur and how to prevent it. The purpose of this paper is to show how the different types of fraud can affect everyone and how to mitigate and report the fraudulent activity.

As a criminal offense in common law jurisdictions fraud takes many different forms, some general and some specific to certain categories of victims. The necessary elements of perhaps most general form of criminal fraud, theft by false pretense, are the intentional deception of a victim by false representation or pretense with the intent of persuading the victim to part with properly and with the victim parting with property in dependency on the representation or pretense and with the perpetrator intending to keep the properly from the victim. It also reads that in civil law systems and other legal systems the concept of fraud seems to exist, but its elements and application may or may not vary significantly from the common law system concepts discussed.

Computer trespassing is another type of fraud. Criminals are able to gain access to personal or company computers to look through files, peek at website browsing history, gain passwords, and can even save files to the computer, which are often viruses. In most circumstances, computer trespassing is achieved by attracting people to ads and luring them to click

Under a great pressure, fraudsters will try their best to find any little opportunity, and of course they will look for the best way to cover their malicious actions.

The main assumption of the fraud theory is that fraudulent activity will not occur unless three components exist, which are: (a) a perceived pressure or incentive; (b) a perceived opportunity; and, (c) a perceived ability to rationalize the fraudulent act (Albrecht, Holland et al., 2015; Boyle et al., 2015; Buchholz, 2012; Cressey, 1953/1971; Free & Murphy, 2015). These three components of the fraud theory work together interactively based on individual perceptions (Albrecht, Holland et al., 2015). Cressey (1953/1971) strongly suggested that perceived nonshareable problems serve as the stimulus to commit fraud. However, Cressey (1953/1971) emphasized the individual must possess the knowledge and experience to recognize an opportunity and the ability to rationalize their actions to execute fraudulent activity. Whether the fraud is perpetrated against a company, or on behalf of the company, the three components are always present (Albrecht, Turnbull et al., 2010; Boyle et al., 2015; Cressey, 1953/1971).