Fraud Definition and Examples

Fraud is a broad legal term referring to  dishonest acts that intentionally use deception to illegally deprive another person or entity of money, property, or legal rights. Unlike the crime of theft, which involves the taking of something of value through force or stealth, fraud relies on the use of intentional misrepresentation of fact to accomplish the taking. Fraud: Key Takeaways Fraud is the intentional use of false or misleading information in an attempt to illegally deprive another person or entity of money, property, or legal rights.In order to constitute fraud, the party making the false statement must know or believe that it is untrue or incorrect and intended to deceive the other party.Fraud may be prosecuted as both a criminal and civil offense.Criminal punishments for fraud can include a combination of prison, fines, and restitution to victims. In proven cases of fraud, the perpetrator—a person who carries out a harmful, illegal, or immoral act—may be found to have committed either a  criminal offense  or a  civil wrong. In committing fraud, perpetrators may be seeking either monetary or non-monetary assets by deliberately making false statements. For example, knowingly lying about one’s age to obtain a drivers license, criminal history to get a job, or income to get a loan may be fraudulent acts. A fraudulent act should not be confused with a â€Å"hoax†Ã¢â‚¬â€a deliberate deception or false statement made without any intention of gain or of materially damaging another person. Perpetrators of criminal fraud may be punished by fines and/or imprisonment. Victims of civil fraud may file lawsuits against the perpetrator seeking monetary compensation. To win a lawsuit claiming civil fraud, the victim must have suffered actual damages. In other words, the fraud must have been successful. Criminal fraud, on the other hand, can be prosecuted even if the fraud failed. In addition, a single fraudulent act may be prosecuted as both a criminal and civil offense. Thus, a person convicted of fraud in criminal court may also be sued in civil court by the victim or victims. Fraud is a serious legal matter. Persons who believe they have been the victim of fraud, or have been accused of committing fraud, should always seek the expertise of a qualified attorney. Necessary Elements of Fraud While the specifics of laws against fraud vary from state to state and at the federal level, there are five essential elements necessary  to prove in court that a crime of fraud has been committed: A misrepresentation of a material fact:  A false statement involving a material and pertinent fact must be made. The gravity of the false statement should be adequate to substantially affect the victim’s decisions and actions. For example, the false statement contributes to a person’s decision to purchase a product or approve a loan.Knowledge of falsehood:  The party making the false statement must know or believe that it is untrue or incorrect.Intent to deceive:  The false statement must have been made expressly with the intent of deceiving and influencing the victim.Reasonable reliance by the victim:  The level to which the victim relies on the false statement must be reasonable in the eyes of the court. Reliance on rhetorical, outrageous, or clearly impossible statements or claims may not amount to â€Å"reasonable† reliance. However, persons known to be illiterate, incompetent, or otherwise mentally diminished may be awarded civil damages if the perpe trator knowingly took advantage of their condition.Actual loss or injury suffered:  The victim suffered some actual loss as a direct result of their dependence on the false statement. Statements of Opinion vs. Outright Lies Not all false statements are legally fraudulent. Statements of opinion or belief, since they are not statements of fact, may not constitute fraud. For example, a salesman’s statement, â€Å"Madam, this is the best television set on the market today,† while possibly untrue, is an unsubstantiated statement of opinion rather than fact, which a â€Å"reasonable† shopper might be expected to disregard as mere sales  hyperbole. Common Types Fraud comes in many forms from many sources. Popularly known as â€Å"scams,† fraudulent offers may be made personally or arrive through regular mail, email,  text messages,  telemarketing, and the internet. One of the most common types of fraud is  check fraud, the use of paper checks to commit fraud.   One of the main goals of check fraud is  identity theft—the gathering and use of personal financial information for illegal purposes. From the front of every check written, the identity thief can get the victim’s: name, address, phone number, bank name, bank routing number, bank account number, and signature. In addition, the store may add more personal information, such as date of birth and driver’s license number. This is why identity theft prevention experts recommend against using paper checks whenever possible. Common varieties of check fraud include: Check theft:  Stealing checks for fraudulent purposes.Check forgery:  Signing a check using the actual drawer’s signature without their authorization or endorsing a check not payable to the endorser, both usually done using stolen checks. Counterfeit checks are considered the equivalent of forged checks.Check kiting:  Writing a check with the intent of accessing funds that have not yet been deposited in the checking account. Also referred to as â€Å"floating† a check, kiting is the misuse of checks as a form of unauthorized credit.Paper hanging:  Writing checks on accounts that are known by the perpetrator to have been closed.Check washing:  Chemically erasing the signature or other handwritten details from checks to allow them to be rewritten.Check counterfeiting: Illegally printing checks using information from the victim’s account. According to the  U.S. Federal Reserve, American consumers and businesses wrote 17.3 billion paper checks in 2015, four times the number written in all of the  countries of the European Union  combined that year. Despite the trend toward debit, credit, and electronic payment methods, paper checks remain the most often-used way of making large payments for expenses like rent and payroll. Clearly, there is still plenty of opportunity and temptation to commit check fraud. Federal Fraud Through the  United States attorneys, the  federal government  prosecutes and punishes various types of fraud specifically identified under federal statutes. While the following list includes the most common of these, there is a wide range of federal, as well as state, fraud crimes. Mail fraud and wire fraud:  Using regular mail, or any form of wired communications technology, including telephones and the internet as part of any fraudulent scheme. Mail and wire fraud are often added as charges filed in other related crimes. For example, since the mail or telephone are typically used in attempting to arrange bribes of judges or other government officials, federal prosecutors may add charges of wire or mail fraud in addition to charges of bribery and corruption. Similarly, wire or mail fraud charges are often applied in the prosecution of  racketeering and RICO Act  violations.Tax fraud:  Takes place whenever a taxpayer attempts to avoid or evade paying federal income taxes. Examples of tax fraud include knowingly underreporting taxable income, overestimating business deductions, and simply not filing a tax return.Stock and securities fraud:  Typically involves the selling of stocks, commodities, and other securities through deceptive practices. Examples of securities fraud include  Ponzi or pyramid schemes, broker embezzlement, and foreign currency fraud. The fraud usually occurs when stockbrokers or investment banks convince people to make investments based on false or exaggerated information, or on â€Å"insider  trading† information not available to the public.Medicare and Medicaid fraud:  Usually takes place when hospitals, health care companies, or individual health care providers try to collect illegitimate repayments from the government by overbilling for services, or by performing unnecessary tests or medical procedures. Penalties Potential penalties for conviction of federal fraud typically involve prison or  probation, stiff fines, and repayment of fraudulently-acquired gains. Prison sentences can range from six months to 30 years for each separate violation. Fines for federal fraud can be very large. Convictions for  mail or wire fraud can bring fines of up to $250,000 for each violation. Frauds that harm large groups of victims or involve large sums of money can result in fines of tens of millions of dollars or more. For example, in July 2012, drugmaker Glaxo-Smith-Kline pleaded guilty to falsely branding its drug Paxil as being effective in treating depression in patients under age 18. As part of its settlement, Glaxo agreed to pay $3 billion to the government in one of  the largest health-care fraud settlements in U.S. history. Recognizing Fraud in Time The warning signs of fraud vary according to the type being attempted. For example, telemarketing calls from unknown callers telling you to â€Å"send money now† to take advantage of a special offer or claim a prize may be frauds. Similarly, random requests or demands for a Social Security or bank account number, mother’s maiden name, or a list of known addresses are often signs of identity theft. In general, most offers from companies or individuals that sound â€Å"too good to be true† are signs of fraud. Sources .Legal Dictionary: fraud  Law.com..Basic Legal Concepts / Fraud  Journal of AccountancyFraud—Burden of Proof: Washington Civil Jury Instructions.† Westlaw

Dante and Christian beliefs of the afterlife - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 1972 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2019/08/08 Category Literature Essay Level High school Tags: Dante's Inferno Essay Did you like this example? Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieris poem, Divine Comedy, which tells of a journey of Dante through hell, purgatory, and heaven guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. Inferno is about the experiences Dante faced on his journey of the soul towards God as he travels the nine circles of hell to reach heaven. In the poem, hell is depicted as the realm for those who have disobeyed the spiritual values for cruel and violent actions against fellow human beings. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Dante and Christian beliefs of the afterlife" essay for you Create order Through punishments, the poem serves an allegorical purpose and depicts how one suffers from committing such sins to redemption and eventually salvation. Allegory poems depict both the literal and symbolic meaning. Dante uses allegory in the poem and describes his struggles through the dark forest to salvation, and uses poetic justice in the form of contemporary, historical and mythological figures. The allegory used in the poem depicts the struggles a man goes through in his journey for redemption through Purgatorio and eventually to salvation through Paradiso. In Canto I, there are various Christian beliefs that demonstrate the consequences the humankind faces after committing sin. Dante describes how he finds himself confused in a dark forest as a result of his sins. The poem reads in the midway of this our mortal life; I found me in a gloomy wood, astray/Gone from the path direct. Dante was 35 years old when he wrote this poem, and he illustrates this by saying that midway through his life because most readings of the book of Psalms depict the life span of human kind to be 70 years old. He finds himself in a dark forest because he has gone astray from salvation and this is the punishment for doing so. The poem does not illustrate whether the forest is real or just another example of the allegorical and symbolic forest. Dante illustrates how confused he is because he has strayed from the right path of life and now the punishment is so harsh on him, that forest, how robust and rough its growth/ which to remember only my dismay/ renews, in bitterness not far from death. He regrets the life he has been living and now seeks redemption. Hope and faith are restored on him when he sees a mountain with light shining above it and hopes he can climb the mountain for redemption; he states in the poem that, I looked up and saw its shoulders brightened with the rays of that sun that leads men rightly on every road. However, as he tries to climb the mountain, he first sees a leopard leaping in front of him, but determined to climb the mountain, he continues trying, and then sees a lion coming on his path followed by a wolf, and, behold, almost at the start of the slope, a light, swift leopard with spotted coat. It would not turn from before my face, and so obstructed my path, that I often turned, in order to return. The three animals represent the three sins of violence and animosity, lack of self-control and finally, fraud and malice. These three animals make him turn around to the dark forest and stops climbing the mountain. Dante is saved by the Roman poet Virgil from this misery. In Canto II, Dante meets Virgil after losing hope and hopes that he will be his savior in his journey, and he states, Have pity on me, whoever you are, whether a man, in truth, or a shadow. Virgil explains how he has been sent by Beatrice, the girl that Dante loves and deems to be an angel from heaven, who represents divine love to come rescue him. Symbols of compassion (Virgin Mary), grace (Saint Lucia) and contemplative life (Rachel) are depicted in this Canto. Dante follows Virgil in the journey to the underworld. In Canto III, Dante passes through the gates of hell with a phrase that implies all hope should be abandoned forsake all hope, all you that enter here. Here, Dante meets the souls of those who never took sides in life but were only concerned with themselves. They are continually stung by wasps and hornets, and this symbolizes the sting of their guilty conscience from their sin. These people live miserable lives as they are cast out by Heaven and denied entry by Hell and Dante asks, Master, what is this I hear, and what race are these, that seem so overcome by suffering?. Dante and Virgil then meet Charon, the Hells boatman who transports the dead into the underworld, and is very hesitant to take the living into the underworld, Woe to you, wicked spirits! Never hope to see heaven: I come to carry you to the other shore, into eternal darkness, into fire and ice. And you, who are there, a living spirit, depart from those who are dead. Virgil guides Dante through the nine circles of Hell. The circles represent the wickedness of human beings on earth and how Satan is forever held in bondage of suffering. The sinners for each circle face punishments for their crime in what he refers to as poetic justice. The first circle is the limbo where Virgil resides and represents the people who are unbaptized and do not recognize the existence of Christ. These people represent that group that did not sin but rather refused the existence of Christ, they are the non-Christians adults and the unbaptized babies, they had no sin, yet, though they have worth, it is not sufficient, because they were not baptized, and baptism is the gateway to the faith that you believe in. They are punished by living in a deficient form of heaven for their ignorance of God, however, just like Noah, Moses, Abraham, David among others was saved from the limbo, they too can be saved. The second circle is the circle of lust, where those who are overcome by lust and sexual love are punished by the violent hellish storm that never stops. Lust in this circle led to the sins of adultery, and for cases such as Dido and Cleopatra, it led to a violent death. The third circle represents those who are swayed by voracious appetite and commit the crime of gluttony. They are punished by the constant icy rain which makes them grovel in the mad. The fourth circle represents the greedy people in society who are swayed by the material greed. They are punished by jousting heavy weights in their chests. Dante in his poem illustrates that, here, too, I saw a nation of lost souls/ far more than were above: they strained their chests against enormous weights, and with mad howls rolled them at one another. The fifth circle depicts the wrath faced by the wrathful and the sullen. The wrathful are forced to fight each eternally on the surface of the river while the sullen lay is gurgling under the river. Here, the poem allegorically reveals the punishment for sins that neither philosophy nor the nature of human kind can understand and it states in part, Now, son, see the souls of those overcome by anger, and also, I want you to know, in truth, there are people under the water, who sigh, and make it bubble on the surface, as your eye can see whichever way it turns. The sixth circle is for the heretics who claim that the soul died with the body and failed to believe in God and the afterlife and they are punished in the flaming tombs. They are locked in the burning tombs since they did not believe in Hell. The seventh circle is for violence, O blind desires, evil and foolish, which so goad us in our brief life, and then, in the eternal one, ruin us so bitterly, and it is divided into three sections. First, violence against neighbors that includes the war makers, murders and the tyrants and are punished by being immersed in a river of boiling blood and fire symbolizing the blood they took from their neighbors. The second section of this circle is the violence against self which includes people who committed suicide or even attempted to commit suicide, and they are punished by transforming their souls into gnarled thorny trees fed by birds or the Harpies that have women faces. The last section is for violence against God, art, and nature and includes the blasphemous and the sodomites where they are punished by the burning sand and hot flames falling from the sky. This symbolizes how those who go against the will of God never find peace and live in a very uncomfortable life. The eighth circle is that which punishes those who committed fraud and Dante describes it as the place in Hell. They include the flatterers, simonists, seducers, sorcerers corrupt politicians thieves, hypocrites, counselors of fraud, falsifiers among others and each of them were severely punished. Panderers and seducers are forced to march eternally in opposite directions just as they used seduction to force others to incline to their will. Flatterers who used their language to commit fraud are plunged in excrement, and he quotes one them saying, the flatteries, of which my tongue never wearied, have brought me down to this. Simonists represent the group that bribed for power in the Catholic Churches and are punished by being placed upside down in holes. The sorcerers and false prophets have their heads twisted so that they cannot see what is in front of them because of their false prophecies of the future. The corrupt politicians were placed in sticky pitches that represented their dirty and corrupt deals. The thieves are constantly attacked by lizards and snakes, and their human identity keeps undergoing various transformations and always subject to theft. The sowers of discord have their bodies torn apart as they divided people by their division among people while the fraudulent councilors are entrenched in their individual pyres. The falsifiers who consist of the impersonators and counterfeiters have their bodies and minds rotting in diseases. The last circle represents those who were punished for treachery. From the first circle Limbo to the last circle treachery, Dante documents the punishments of sinners from all walks of life, either as people in authority such as politicians to the very low class in society. These circles represent the seven deadly sins committed by human kind. The punishment depicted in these circles fits the sins committed, and the poem illustrates the realm of Satan and the Christian perception of sin. Through the use of allegory, contemporary, historical and mythological figures and poetic justice, Dante impacts hugely on the Christian beliefs of the afterlife and the live in hell. Through imagery of the poem, Dante depicts a very horrifying life one has to face for living a sinful life. The use of the first person narrator in the Inferno helps the reader associate with the struggles of a man in his journey for salvation and how it feels to go through the midlife crisis. Dantes Inferno also shows how the society views Satan as being inferior to God and how the decisions we make in life determine our fate in the afterlife, for instance, repentance and acknowledgement of God by following His will will guarantee us salvation in the afterlife while the sinful life we lead will lead us straight to the wrath of hell. Dante also goes into detail by differentiating the levels of sin by illustrating the different types of punishment described in each circle for the different sins committed . The poem describes the fundamental religious beliefs the society today deals with and the concept of punishment. Hope for salvation is displayed by the fact that Dante sees the light at the end of his journey and understands his own heart and what it takes to be saved from the sinful life.

Baseball and Boxing from Pre-modern to Modern Free Essays

Baseball and boxing make up a very large portion of the American sports culture, and for more than 100 years have developed into the professional, nationwide and international games that we can see on television today. In the 1870’s baseball started to be acknowledged as America’s national sport, however boxing enjoyed a similar popularity and both of these sports have changed from small-time amateur pastimes into televised, professional league sports that bring in millions of dollars each year and pay their athletes considerable amounts of money to keep on playing. While both baseball and boxing may now, and always have, attracted a different sort of crowd, they have both nevertheless developed along very similar lines. We will write a custom essay sample on Baseball and Boxing from Pre-modern to Modern or any similar topic only for you Order Now In 1869 the Cincinnati Red Stockings were formed; the team was the very first professional baseball team and it went undefeated that first year after being challenged by many amateur teams (Goldstein, 1989, p. 70). Over the subsequent years (more than a century) since the inception of the National League and the American League, two factors of the game have changed significantly: the integration of ethnic minorities into the major Leagues and the fact the game itself has become less violent than it was in its earlier years. In the 1890’s, the segregation of black and white baseball teams began, following an initial period of integration that was very short-lived (White, 1995, p. 140). The Negro Leagues incorporated several different non-white leagues into one general ‘outsider’ structure of teams that were comprised predominantly of black players. Other ethnic minorities would have been relegated to these leagues instead of joining the National or American Leagues, which were solely comprised of white, male players. In 1945, after a huge push from many people within professional baseball that echoed the sentiments of an anti-racist American population, black baseball player Jackie Robinson was signed to the Montreal Royals and in a few short years the Negro Leagues would disband due to full integration. The early baseball players were not only taking part in a segregationist sport, they were also playing the game with much more violence than they are today. They tried harder to steal bases and to score runs than experts feel today’s players do; where once it was not uncommon for runners to physically interject when the basemen tried to catch a throw, now base runners will simply run to their base and let the field and basemen do their jobs. It is fair to say that the game has mellowed. Boxing has exhibited great similarity to the development of baseball in America, albeit an entirely different sport. Where baseball is a team game dependent on specific rules of play, boxing emerged as a sport totally dependent on the strength and will of one man to simply overpower another in a direct fist-fight. Bare-knuckle boxing is the ancestor of today’s boxing, a sport that is blatantly violent however in comparison to some of the fights that took place in the 19th century. Boxing in its infancy was carried to America by British settlers and has forever secured a place in the hearts of many sport enthusiasts in modern day. This is another sport that has become decidedly less violent and which has also seen its participators overcome the segregation that was rampant in early American society (Gorn, 1986, p. 128). In place of very strict guidelines where whites and blacks must not engage each other in sport, like in the baseball leagues, it was more common for mixed fighting to occur in boxing. The crowds could be massive at any event, and often the pitting of a white champion against a black one would draw even more attention to the point where thousands of would-be spectators were turned away. This was a sport in which black athletes could really carve a niche for themselves and, while constantly facing discrimination like any other minority at the time, a boxer could literally fight his way out of racial oppression. Bare-knuckle boxing is not extinct, however professional boxers are required to wear gloves that will not only protect their hands but their opponents as well. The sport is not as bloody and less of its participants will leave the ring with broken bones, however there can be no doubt that boxing is still a very primal, violent sport. Superficially speaking, it bears no resemblance to baseball, however these are two American sports that have evolved with a change in racial tensions and equality issues and with modern concerns over health and safety. Both have tamed considerably and allow minorities to play professionally. Reference List Goldstein, W. J. (1989). Playing for Keeps: A History of Early Baseball. New York: Cornell University. Gorn, E. J. (1986). The Manly Art: Bare-Knuckle Prize Fighting in America. New York: Cornell University. White, S. and Malloy, J. (compiler) (1995). Sol White’s History of Colored Base Ball, with Other Documents on the Early Black Game 1886 How to cite Baseball and Boxing from Pre-modern to Modern, Papers