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
The topics of fraud and white collar crimes are both becoming much more popular and with the advancement in the internet is only making things more difficult to police and try to stop. I think that with the frequency of these types of crimes are helping bring to light how serious and detrimental these crimes can be to people and although most people know about white collar crime and different types of fraud, it still happens all the time. I think that more education about the different threats and how one can prevent against them for example I had never considered the waiter or waitress taking credit card numbers, but it probably happens more often than most think. I think that being more aware and careful will help people prevent against this, but prevention won't stop criminals from committing their crimes and forces like the FBI and other agencies help fight it. White collar crime is something that most write off as a threat, but do not realize how cripling crimes like this are to those who must endure them.
ReplyDeleteYes it is getting increasingly worse because of the internet. People can do a variety of white collar crime with the internet and our policing styles just can't keep up with it. I do believe that more awareness and information on how to protect yourself will definitely help with people being more careful about certain things they do. Such as, shopping online or simply getting gas at a gas station.
DeleteThere are plenty of other white collar crimes that occur more often than others may think. Unfortunately there really is no way for us to stop it from continually happening because criminals will be criminals and we can't all live in fear.
I haven't thought much about what type of punishment should be in place, but it should be harsher than what they are now. They have a huge impact on other people's lives and they can essentially walk away "untouched." I do think that they should give money back to the victims in order to help give back their life and the horrible experience of being a victim of a white collar crime.
This information is very interesting because I was almost scammed twice. Once, I got an email from my bank saying i needed to provide all my information because something had happened but this email was sent from an email i did not provide to my bank so I knew something was not right. Another time, I was trying to purchase a car on craigslist and the seller was not who they said they were and I saw many other posting from them with different information but the same car. This is a very big problem that need to be stopped!
ReplyDeleteIt is crazy how many people are scammed or are affected by white collar crime everyday. Something similar has happened to me too and having people aware could help stop more crimes of occurring. Good thing you were aware of the situation and didn't get taken advantage of it.
DeleteI didn't realize there were so many different types of white collar crimes. I think it is sad that you can't really trust people anymore. Are there any ways that a corporation can reduce their risk of having employees who commit fraud? http://www.fabianlaw.com/practice/Government-Investigation-and-Criminal-Defense
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