Fraud

Fraud is the crime or offense of deliberately deceiving another in order to damage them -- usually, to obtain property or services from him unjustly. [1] (http://www.lectlaw.com/def/f079.htm). Fraud can be committed through many methods, including mail, wire, phone, and the Internet.

Forms of 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
• 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
• 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 fraudsters and various forms of fraud

• Frank Abagnale, US impostor who wrote bad checks
• Ivan Boesky, inside trader in the 1980s
• Cassie Chadwick, who pretended to be Andrew Carnegie's daughter to get loans
• Anthony Di Angelis, "the Salad Oil King"
• William Duer, embezzled $238.000 from US Treasury Department in the 1790s
• Megan Ireland, Australian con artist and Lottery scammer
• Ivan Kreuger “The Match King”
• Dennis Levine
• 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
• Gaston Means
• Michael Milken, "The Junk Bond King"
• Barry Minkow and the ZZZZ Best
• Frederick Emerson Peters, US impersonator who wrote bad checks
• Charles Ponzi, namesake of Ponzi scheme
• Christopher Rocancourt who defrauded Hollywood celebrities
• Serge Rubinstein, Russian-born diamond swindler
• Richard Whitney, stole from Stock Exchange Gratuity Fund in 1930s
• Robert Vesco, US fugitive financier
• Alves Reis, a Portugese who forged documents to print official escudo banknotes

See also

• Accounting scandals
• Caper stories such as The Sting
• Creative accounting
• Credit card fraud
• False Claims Law
• Internet fraud
• Mail fraud
• Phishing
• Phone fraud
• Political corruption
• Ponzi scheme
• Questioned document examination
• Spin
• The National Council Against Health Fraud

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