According to the Nationnal Check Fraud Center, there are several types of white collar crimes and schemes. Some of the most common are:
Bank Fraud: which is an activity set out to illegally obtain funds from a bank.
Blackmail: which is a threat to do bodily harm, to injure property, to accuse of a crime, or to expose secrets unless money is paid.
Bribery: which is offering money, goods, services, information or anything else of value in an attempt to influence the actions, opinions, or decisions of the person being paid. You may be charged with bribery whether you offer the bribe or accept it.
Cellular Phone Fraud: which is the unauthorized use, tampering, or manipulation of a cellular phone or service. Such as using a stolen phone, or signing up for service under false identification.
Computer fraud: is when a person steals information contained on computers.
Counterfeiting: is the name given to the crime committed when someone copies or imitates an item without having been authorized to do so and passes the copy off as genuine or original.
Credit Card Fraud: which is defined as the unauthorized use of a credit card to obtain goods of value.
Currency Schemes: which is the practice of speculating on the future value of currencies.
Embezz1ement: which is the crime charged when a person who has been entrusted with money or property appropriates it for his or her own use and benefit.
Environmental Schemes: are schemes that involve the fraud committed by corporations which purport to clean up the environment.
Extortion: this crime occurs when one person illegally obtains property from another by actual or threatened force, fear, or violence.
Forgery: which is the crime committed when a person passes a false or worthless instrument such as a check with the intent to defraud the recipient.
Health Care Fraud: is defined as an unlicensed health care provider giving services under the guise of being licensed and obtains monetary benefit for the service.
Insider Trading: is a crime associated with stocks. It occurs when a person uses inside, confidential, or advance information to trade in shares of publicly held corporations in exchange for some type of monetary gain.
Insurance Fraud: is the crime of lying to an insurance company to get benefits.
Investment Schemes: occur when a victim is contacted by a person who promises to provide a large return on a small investment.
Money Laundering: is the investment or transfer of money from racketeering, drug transactions or other embezzlement through different sources in order to make the money appear legitimate.
Racketeering: is the operation of an illegal business for personal profit.
Securities Fraud: is the act of artificially inflating the price of stocks by brokers so that buyers can purchase a stock on the rise.
Tax Evasion: this crime occurs when a person commits fraud in filing or paying taxes.
Telemarketing Fraud: which is the crime committed when people place telephone calls to residences and corporations requesting donations to a fraudulent charitable organization.
Welfare Fraud: is where someone lies in order to obtaining benefits such as food stamps or welfare from the government
Check Kiting: this crime is charged when a bank account is opened with good funds. Then the person deposits a series of bad checks. But prior to the bank discovering the checks are bad, the person withdraws funds from the bank.
Home Improvement: which is when a person approaches a home owner with a very low estimate for a repair or improvement. Inferior or incomplete work is performed. Once the repairs are completed, actor intimidates the victim to pay a price much greater than the original estimate.
Land Fraud: which occurs when one person convinces another to purchase tracks of land in some type of retirement development which does not exist.
Ponzi: This is the type of crime committed by Bernie Madoff. This is an investment scheme where the actor solicits investors in a business venture, promising extremely high financial returns or dividends in a very short period of time. The actor never invests the money, however, does pay dividends. The dividends consist of the newest investors funds. The first investors, pleased to receive dividends, encourage new investors to invest. This scheme falls apart when the actor no longer has sufficient new investors to distribute dividends to the old investors or the actor simply takes all the funds and leaves the area.
Pyramid: this involves an investment fraud in which an individual is offered a distributorship or franchise to market a particular product. The promoter of the pyramid represents that although marketing of the product will result in profits, larger profits will be earned by the sale of franchises. Many times, there are no products involved in the franchise, simply just the exchange of money.
West African Investment Scams: this is often associated with the e-mails from the Nigerian prince who states he wants to send you money to hold for him in exchange for paying you a percentage. These schemes target businesses and people in order to obtain bank account information from which all funds are later withdrawn.
There are other types of white collar crimes, but these are the most common. Officially a white collar crime can be anything that involves financial fraud.
Posted in: White Collar Crimes
