Prevention

White collar crime has become a widespread dilemma. It has grown to be what seems like an unstoppable and never ending crime. So, how can we prevent any type of white collar crime occurring in our lives? Unfortunately there is no one way to prevent this type of crime from occurring because there are so many different types of white collar crime. Some of the most common white collar crimes that all of us can run into are ponzi schemes, cyber crime, or identity theft.

            According to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, a ponzi scheme is “an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors.” As an investor, you want to make sure that the money you are investing will have a good return. So, how can you prevent fraud as an investor? There are questions that you can ask yourself in order to be sure you are making the correct decision by investing. Before investing, you want to check if the seller is licensed, if the investment is registered, what is the risk and potential returns are if the investment is clear, and lastly who can I ask for help (U.S. Securities Exchange Commission)? If you can’t answer these questions, you most likely do not want to invest in that particular investment.

            Cyber-crimes can be hard to detect when comparing it to street crimes. It is hard to detect because cyber-criminals are becoming more educated. cyber-criminals are learning how to duplicate websites, such as your banking website, in order to collect personal information from people. These days, we all rely on technology and using the internet more often than before. Not to say the internet is not safe, but how can we protect ourselves from being scammed online? To better protect yourself and your computer, you should have preventative steps in order to secure your personal information. Make sure to turn on a pop-up blocker, which will prevent fraudulent e-mails or phishing e-mails from getting  into your e-mail account; have some type of anti-virus software on your computer to help scan for viruses or malware; be sure to use your firewall system that is located in your computer system itself, to prevent hackers; use encryption for important information because it can “eat” your information up if a hacker tries to steal it; if you are an online shopper be sure to only shop at sites that are secured with “https” to help prevent credit card fraud (eHow).

            Cyber-crimes is not the only growing crime. Another crime that is starting to become an issue around the world is identity theft. According to The National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) there are little things that everyone can do in order to prevent identity theft from occurring to them. When we receive mail or even when we send mail, we don’t think that something could happen. Unfortunately, criminals do steal inbound and outbound mail in order to obtain your personal information. How can you be sure your mail is safe? Drop off any outbound mail at your local post office and make sure your mail is safe at the post office if you’re out of town. Another way you can protect your personal information is to shred your mail. As I mentioned earlier, if you are using the internet to do things, such as paying bills or shopping online, remember to check that the site you are using is secured. If it doesn't seem secured, don’t use that site. Other ways you can prevent your identity from being stolen is, keeping your personal information in a safe place. For instance, do not carry your social security number on you and do not give it out to others; keep your insurance card information in a safe spot and not in your car; and have your car registration in a safe place inside your home (NCPC, 2005). These are just some preventative steps that you can take to protect yourself.

Work Cited

Bureau of Justice Assistance, National Crime Prevention Council. (2005). Preventing identity theft: a guide for consumers. Retrieved from website: http://www.ncpc.org/cms-upload/prevent/files/IDtheftrev.pdf

eHow Contributor. (n.d.). How to prevent cybercrime. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/how_4967690_prevent-cyber-crime.html

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, (n.d.). Ponzi schemes – frequently asked questions. Retrieved from website: http://www.sec.gov/answers/ponzi.htm

Most common type of white collar crime

White collar crimes are more serious than what people view it as. Although on the outside, it doesn't seem to hurt people physically it does hurt people financially. No one can run away from being a victim of white collar crime like they can from being a victim of another type of crime. White collar crime is a large category that can be broken down into different sub-categories. The most common types of white collar crime are fraud and schemes/scams.  These white collar crimes are affecting America today. White collar crime is costing the United States about $300 billion dollars annually (Cornell University Law School, 2010). In order to prevent white collar crime from taking place, we need to learn about the most common types of white collar crimes.

Fraud is one of the most common type of white collar crime, because there are different types of fraud., Such as, health care fraud, corporate fraud, and debit card fraud. People in the United States cannot afford health care but yet there are health care providers or hospitals that are willing to lie. They will defraud people, like you and me, in various ways like charging more for services, billing you for services that you never had, or upcoding you for services (FBI, 2011). Recently, federal agents uncovered the largest health care fraud in history. There were false billings to over 100 people for about $450 million dollars. The people being charged for falsifying bills are all over the United States going from Los Angeles, California to Miami, Florida (Freiden, 2012). Now, is this any fair to you or to me that health care providers or hospitals would do this? Are they that desperate for extra money? 

Small businesses or corporations are no better than health care providers or hospitals. They too can defraud people, which are considered a corporate fraud. Corporate fraud is done through the means of falsifying accounting entries, corporate insiders leaking proprietary information, misuse of corporate property, kickbacks, etc (FBI, 2011). An example would be the Galleon group hedge fund in New York. The founder, Raj Rajaratnam, was convicted in May 2011 for his insider trading activities (FBI, 2011).

Debit card fraud can happen to anyone and done by anyway. Skimming cards and selling the information on the web is not new news. Waiters and waitresses are the ones who can do this easily without anyone finding out until victims like you and me, check our statement or card activity via online. Ken Stalcup, a certified fraud examiner (CFE) shared his story with investipedia.com. Ken gave a waitress his debit card, while eating out at a restaurant, and she just so happened to be out of his sight. While Ken was waiting for her to come back with the credit card slip to sign, she had already copied his card and later would either sell or use his card online. Ken was unaware of this happening until he got a call from his bank (Fontinelle, 2012).

There are various different types of schemes, but one of the most common is the Nigerian scheme, also known as the “advance fee fraud” scheme (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 2010). Emails or letters are sent to people to help fund officials of a government. The email or letter will tell a story to sway you into helping out. By doing so you would give a fee upfront and you are promised a certain amount of money in the end, which obviously never happens (Mikkleson, 2010).

References:

Cornell Univeristy Law School. White collar crime. (2010, August 19). Retrieved from http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/white-collar_crime

Federal Bureau of Investigations , (2011). Financial crimes report to the public. Retrieved from website: http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/financial-crimes-report-2010-2011

Fontinelle, A. (2012, May 07). The most common types of consumer fraud. Investopedia, Retrieved from http://finance.yahoo.com/news/most-common-types-consumer-fraud-185647511.html

Frieden, T. (2012, May 2). 107 charged in health care fraud bust. CNN. Retrieved from http://articles.cnn.com/2012-05-02/justice/justice_health-care-fraud_1_health-care-largest-bust-community-mental-health-centers?_s=PM:JUSTICE

Mikkleson, B. (2010, February 01). Nigerian scam. Retrieved from http://www.snopes.com/fraud/advancefee/nigeria.asp

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, (2010). "advance fee fraud" schemes. Retrieved from website: http://www.sec.gov/answers/nigeria.htm