STEALING YOU BLIND

This book is not intended to make the fraud perpetrator a better criminal or to teach those the methods of a law enforcement investigation. The fraudulent activities mentioned in the following chapters are well known among the majority of con men, scam artists, and fraud perpetrators. According to the Federal Trade Commission or FTC, in excess of 30 million people in the United States in 2007 were victimized by some type of fraudulent criminal incident. If a person takes in to account other fraud related incidents such as counterfeit check fraud and credit card fraud, for example, the number of victims in the United States in astonishing. Each year, more and more people fall victim to these fraud perpetrators. This book was written to inform the general public some of the fraudulent activities, scams, and cons that are present in our every day society. I have always believed that when a person is knowledgeable about certain cons, scams, and fraudulent crimes, the less susceptible they are to becoming a victim of one. The fraud perpetrator uses several different factors to his or her advantage. For the most part, the fraud perpetrator is an actor of deception. Fraud can be explained as stealing by use of deceptive means. In the case of Identity Fraud, the fraud perpetrator will pretend to be someone else. The scam artist or con man will often pretend to be someone such as a banker, lawyer, or investment broker when, in fact, he is just playing the part to deceive you of your money. Fraudulent criminal acts often require the element of secrecy. With this, the fraud perpetrator can go on deceiving others before the con, scam, or scheme will not work. Fraud perpetrators might work a particular scam in one area for a short time and then pick up and move somewhere else to work the same exact scam. At other times, knowledge of working scams and cons are passed between fraud perpetrators in different parts of the nation. Some types of fraudulent activity will be re-invented after a period of time when people have let the guard down. Claims have been made that you can prevent fraudulent criminal acts such as Identity Fraud but the truth is that it cannot be prevented. Your personal information as well as your financial information can be obtained by these fraud perpetrators even if you take every precaution. The information is available and the fraud perpetrator armed with the right resources can and will find the weak link in the system. This weak link could very well be a dishonest employee of a business. I do believe that a person can deter a lot of criminal behavior and even limit the amount of losses and headaches associated with these fraudulent criminal acts when and if they do become victimized. By knowing what frauds, cons, and scams that fraud perpetrators have committed in the past and present, a person gains the knowledge needed to recognize these for what they are. Fraudulent related criminal activities have been around for a very long time. Swindlers, con artists, and cheats have been in existence ever since the invention of currency. There are those in each society and within each period of time who prey upon others. In the late twentieth century and now in the twenty-first century, these fraudulent crimes have increased dramatically. Fraudulent related criminal activities and incidents probably occur as much as all of the other crimes combined. Fraudulent related crimes are far less likely to be reported than most other types of crimes. This may be true because the victim feels that it often more of a hassle to report the incident or perhaps the victim does not want the incident known to anyone. Some businesses will only report a small percentage of crime and will keep the investigation “in house” so to speak. The actual number of fraud related incidents is constantly on the rise and the true amount of fraud related incidents throughout the United States remains unknown and can only be estimated. Fraud related criminal statistics are now gathering much more attention than the same statistics from 10 years ago. Law enforcement and the general public have a better understanding of fraud related criminal acts as a result of these statistics, law enforcement should be able to direct their manpower to combat these fraudulent activities.