In law, fraud is an intentionaldeception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law or criminal law, or it may cause no loss of money, property, or legal right but still be an element of another civil or criminal wrong.[1] The purpose of fraud may be monetary gain or other benefits, for example by obtaining a passport, travel document, or driver's license, or mortgage fraud, where the perpetrator may attempt to qualify for a mortgage by way of false statements.[2] In contrast, a hoax is a distinct concept that involves deliberate deception without the intention of gain or of materially damaging or depriving a victim.
Advance-fee – involves promising a victim a significant share of a large sum of money, in return for a small up-front payment, which the fraudster claims will be used to obtain the large sum.[3]
Affinity – a form of § investment fraud in which the fraudster preys upon members of identifiable groups, such as religious or ethnic communities, language minorities, the elderly, or professional groups, by gaining their § confidence and using unsuspecting community leaders to help further the scheme.[4]
Bank – the use of potentially illegal means to obtain money, assets, or other property owned or held by a financial institution, or to obtain money from depositors by fraudulently posing as a bank or other financial institution.[5] The term applies to actions that employ a scheme or artifice, as opposed to bank robbery or theft.
Bankruptcy – concealment of assets by a debtor to avoid liquidation in bankruptcy proceedings; may include filing of false information, or multiple filings in different jurisdictions.[6]
Chargeback, Friendly – where a consumer makes an online shopping purchase with their credit card, and then requests a chargeback from the issuing bank after receiving the purchased goods or services. Once the chargeback is approved, this cancels the financial transaction, and the consumer receives a refund of the money they spent, and the merchant can be held accountable for the chargeback amount.[7][better source needed]
Check, kiting, paper hanging – a category that involves the unlawful use of checks in order to illegally acquire or borrow funds that do not exist within the bank account balance or account-holder's legal ownership.
Confidence trick – an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. They involve "voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", and benefit the fraudster ("con man") at the expense of the victim.[8]
Cramming – a scheme in which small charges are added to a bill by a third party without the subscriber's consent or knowledge. These may be disguised as a tax, fee, or bogus service. The crammer's intent is that the subscriber will overlook and pay these small charges without dispute.[9]
Electoral, or election manipulation, voter fraud, vote rigging – illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of rival candidates, or both.[11]
Employment – the attempt to defraud people seeking employment by giving them false hope of better employment, offering better working hours, more respectable tasks, future opportunities, or higher wages.[12]
Front running – entering into a stock trade or other securities transaction with foreknowledge of a large, nonpublic, pending transaction that will influence the price of the underlying security.[18] See also § Securities.
Identity theft, Impersonation – unauthorized use of another person's personal identifying information, such as name, identifying number, or credit card number (1964)[19]
Insurance – any act committed to defraud an insurance process. It occurs when a claimant attempts to obtain some benefit or advantage they are not entitled to, or when an insurer knowingly denies some benefit that is due.[20] See also § Pharmaceutical.
any act committed to defraud a legitimate lottery, such as a perpetrator attempting to win a jackpot prize through fraudulent means; or in the case of a stolen lottery ticket, to defraud an individual of their legitimately won prize.[citation needed]
a type of § advance-fee fraud that takes the form of informing an individual by email, letter or phone call that they have won a lottery prize. The victim is instructed to pay a fee to enable the non-existent winnings to be processed.
Mismarking – when a trader assigns a value to securities that does not reflect what they are actually worth, due to intentional mispricing,[21] allowing him to obtain a higher bonus from his employer, where the bonus is calculated as a percentage of the value of his securities portfolio.[22] See also § Securities.
Odometer – the practice by the seller of a used vehicle of falsely representing the actual mileage of the vehicle to the buyer, by rolling back the odometer to make it appear that the vehicle has lower mileage than it actually does.[23]
Phone, Communication – the use of telecommunications products or services with the intention of illegally acquiring money from, or failing to pay, a telecommunication company or its customers.[25]
Welfare – illegal abuse of a state welfare system by knowingly withholding or giving false information in order to obtain more funds than would otherwise be allocated.[citation needed]
^Lazarus, Suleman; Okolorie, Geoffrey U. (2019). "The bifurcation of the Nigerian cybercriminals: Narratives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) agents". Telematics and Informatics. 40: 14–26. doi:10.1016/j.tele.2019.04.009. S2CID150113120.
^George J. Benston (July–August 2006). "Fair-value accounting: A cautionary tale from Enron". Journal of Accounting and Public Policy. 25 (4): 465–484. doi:10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2006.05.003.
