Home Types

Types

What to Do If Your Accused of Fraud

What to Do If Your Accused of Fraud

If a person is accused of fraudulent activity they are also being accused for committing a white collar crime. When a person has been accused of fraud it is important to first seek legal advice and support. A legal professional will then help the person being accused of the fraudulent activity in winning the case. The lawyer will advise individuals to pull documents that will help prove that they did not act in a fraudulent way.

 
Some documents that may be necessary are bank statements, credit card reports, and paychecks.  When a person is being accused of fraud they may be asked to appear in court to state their case. Fraudulent crimes are considered a federal crime and therefore the court case would appear in federal court. Fraud accusations can be damaging to an individual’s reputation and therefore should be acted on accordingly and in a timely manner. 

Understanding Health Insurance Fraud

Understanding Health Insurance Fraud

Health insurance fraud is one of the forms of insurance fraud that most often becomes romanticized in fictional representations, because of the potential for helping others that seems to be present in health insurance fraud. Much health insurance fraud is perpetrated by physicians themselves, and this romanticized version of health insurance fraud presents the idea that doctors consistently violate insurance policies in order to best serve their patients.
While this type of medical insurance fraud does, undoubtedly, occur, it is not the only type of health insurance fraud, as health insurance fraud is just as likely to be oriented towards financial gain as all other areas.
Doctors seeking to provide the best possible care for their patients will perpetrate medical insurance fraud simply because of the nature of the current American system. Some patients who very much need expensive treatments simply cannot afford those treatments, and may not have the health insurance necessary to alleviate the costs of those treatments.
As a result, the only way for those patients to receive such treatments is to perpetrate health insurance fraud. Doctors will then perform one operation on patients, the operation that the patients actually need, and will report an entirely different operation to the insurance company, ensuring that the reported operation is either one that the patients’ insurance covers, or one that is nowhere near as costly as the actual operation.
This type of health insurance fraud is often cited as a reaction to the poor system of American healthcare, in which the poor cannot have access to the medical care that they need. Indeed, in general, Americans are significantly more accepting towards health insurance fraud of this nature, as it is considered fundamentally more noble and morally just.
But the other forms of health insurance fraud, which are indeed significantly more focused on profit for the perpetrating doctors, are considered just as reprehensible as any other kind of fraud, and with good reason. Medical insurance fraud for profit’s sake often involves doctors performing unnecessary prescriptions and referrals, simply to generate further profits for the doctors in question. While this does not initially seem to qualify as health insurance fraud, it becomes more clearly so when you examine it more closely.
A patient who is unnecessarily assigned a new prescription will use his or her health insurance to help pay for the prescription. This means that the group really shouldering the cost of the prescription is not the patient, but is instead the health insurance company. As a result, physicians prescribing unnecessary medical care is clearly an instance of health insurance fraud.
Health insurance fraud can also involve more blatant lies on the part of the physician. For instance, a physician might perpetrate health insurance fraud by billing for treatments he simply did not perform, instead of simply billing for unnecessary treatments. A doctor might bill people who were not actually receiving any form of health care, but who were there with the patient, such as family members of the patient.
These practices are generally much more obvious than assigning unnecessary procedures, but can still be difficult to root out. If each claim is also not of a great enough value, the insurance company might choose to simply pay the claim, instead of worrying about trying to investigate the possibility of health insurance fraud.

Life Insurance Fraud Explained

Life Insurance Fraud Explained

Life insurance fraud is relatively limited in its forms and variants, if only because life insurance policies are relatively specific in their function. Life insurance policies exist to provide money to those surviving the policy holder, in the event of his or her death. Life insurance fraud, then, can only function in so many ways, as the only possible way to collect money on a life insurance policy is if the holder is officially considered dead by the insurance company issuing the policy.
There are two main types of life insurance fraud, the first of which involves less by way of criminal charges, and is also theoretically the easier form to investigate. One way to pull off life insurance fraud is simply to fake the death of the policy holder. Having that person vanish willingly, while somebody close to him or her then collects on the policy, is a classic life insurance fraud strategy.
Of course, the flaw in such life insurance fraud schemes is that the person is, in fact, still alive, and the only way to get the money earned from the life insurance to the person is to make contact with that person, thereby alerting any fraud investigations that might be looking closely into the affair. Even putting aside the difficulties of a life insurance fraud scheme in terms of getting the money to the person who has faked his or her death, the fact remains that the person will still be in the world. Should he or she ever be discovered, then he or she will be charged with life insurance fraud, amongst other possible charges, and will almost undoubtedly be punished severely for his or her crime.
The other main type of life insurance fraud is significantly more dangerous for all involved parties, and is significantly more serious. In this version of life insurance fraud, one party, usually the beneficiary of the policy, will attempt to murder the life insurance policy holder for the sake of receiving whatever money would come from the policy.
This could be a very plotted out scheme, in which the policy holder does not even necessarily know that a life insurance policy has been taken out on him, or it could be a more spur of the moment crime. But either way, this kind of life insurance fraud is much more serious than the other kind, as it obviously involves criminal murder charges, along with the life insurance fraud. Fraud investigations may actually subside next to criminal investigations, which would likely also discover the fraud, along with the murder.  
Life insurance fraud is one of the less perpetrated forms of fraud, not least because it is so difficult. There is no way to perform soft life insurance fraud, which would simply be an exaggeration of a claim, instead of an outright lie, as the policy holder will either be dead, or alive. This means that the only kind of life insurance fraud is hard fraud, which generally indicates a greater amount of planning or criminal intent.
Furthermore, life insurance fraud being so decidedly in the realm of hard fraud indicates that the people who would likely commit life insurance fraud are the people who would be more likely to commit any kind of criminal act, in general.

What Are The Types Insurance Fraud

What Are The Types Insurance Fraud

 

For every type of insurance, there is a different type of fraud. Each type of insurance obviously deals with a different problem; it's a "bet" based on a different "game." Insurance fraud, then, has to adapt itself to each different type of insurance, in order to fix that "game" appropriately.

There is some overlap between them, but in general each type of insurance fraud has its own practices and its own key characteristics. No type is inherently better or worse than any other, as they are all insurance fraud, but several of the types of fraud can have other, criminal charges attached to the general act of fraud, which thereby make that particular form of fraud a bit more serious. Legal action might take place with the assistance of fraud lawyer.

Auto insurance fraud related to fraud surrounding car accidents. Auto insurance will protect the policy holder from liability in car accidents, and it will help the policy holder to pay for some of the damages resulting from the accident, as well. Auto insurance fraud takes advantage of this, as the fraudster attempts to get more money out of the auto insurance policy than should be allowed. Auto insurance fraud comes in both soft and hard fraud forms. Soft fraud is normally just an exaggeration of the damages, saying that car repairs cost more than they actually did, or claiming that an injury suffered previously was actually due to the car accident.

Such claims are normally for smaller amounts of money, and it is unlikely that an insurance company would fully prosecute such perpetrators. Hard fraud perpetrators of auto insurance fraud, however, have generally performed a significantly more reprehensible action, as the hard fraud forms of auto insurance fraud generally involve staging an accident, or forcing an accident.

Forcing an accident can easily be done by a number of co-conspirators who will essentially set up situations such that an innocent victim has no option but to cause a car accident with one of the fraudsters, thereby allowing the fraudsters to claim exorbitant damages from the victim's insurance. For more information about auto insurance fraud and its forms, follow the link.

Health insurance fraud differs from a lot of other insurance fraud, in that it is not normally perpetrated by the health insurance policy holder him or her self. Normally, health insurance fraud will be perpetrated by the health care provider, instead, whether through fraudulent billing practices or unnecessary prescriptions and referrals.

Health insurance fraud is also problematic in consideration, if only because many doctors often perpetrate health insurance fraud out of a desire to help their patients. They will bill the insurance company for a different operation from the one they did, so that the operation billed will be covered under the patient's health insurance policy, for instance. Such actions are still considered health insurance fraud, even though they are performed with the best of intentions.

But standard personal gain oriented fraud exists in the domain of health insurance, as well, with many versions of fraud that will result in the fraudster physician being able to charge more, by "upgrading" his charges, or by performing unnecessary services. To find out more about health insurance fraud and the ways in which doctors may perpetrate it, click the link.

Life insurance fraud is generally a bit smaller in available methods than most other forms of fraud, as life insurance is centered on so binary a proposition. If the life insurance policy holder dies, then beneficiaries are paid. That is the primary term of the life insurance policy. To perpetrate life insurance fraud, then, would require fraudulently fulfilling that condition, under which the policy holder is deemed dead by the insurance company.

One way to do this is to fake the death of the policy holder; the other way is to actually kill the policy holder, likely while the killer, or the person who hired the killer, is in the position of beneficiary for the life insurance policy. In either case, the actions required to commit life insurance fraud are often dangerously criminal in and of themselves, and as a result, life insurance fraud takes on a very serious dimension not necessarily present in other types of insurance fraud. For more information on life insurance fraud, its flaws, and its consequences, follow the link.

Property insurance fraud is generally a type of fraud which involves crimes and damage perpetrated against one's own property, for the sake of then collecting the money from the insurance policy the perpetrator had placed on that destroyed property. Often, property insurance fraud takes the form of arson, committed against buildings with heavy insurance policies upon them.

The owner of the building might burn it down himself, or might hire others to do it, but arson, as a means of destruction for the property, seems very appealing, because it generally consumes any evidence that might have pointed investigative agencies towards the perpetrator while in the process of burning. Arson is also criminal, and highly dangerous; though property insurance fraud rarely, if ever, involves intentional harm to a human being, it can easily involve accidental harm.

Other forms of property insurance fraud include staged thefts and faked vandalism, both of which would allow the "victim" to claim insurance polices on any objects destroyed or stolen, and thereby likely make a fair amount of money. For more information on property insurance fraud and its common targets, click the link.

Your Guide To Auto Insurance Fraud

Your Guide To Auto Insurance Fraud

Auto insurance fraud is a major problem for insurance companies, as car accidents, which are the primary source of auto insurance claims, open up holes for any number of fraudulent statements. A victim of a car accident could claim injuries that were not related to the accident, or could report greater costs for repairs to the car than were actually billed.  
 
 
Most auto insurance fraud is soft fraud, meaning that it is generally not premeditated, and involves an untruthful exaggeration of facts and figures, as opposed to a blatant lie. This is primarily because relatively few perpetrators plan out accidents in advance; most simply wind up attempting to perpetrate car insurance fraud for an accident they fell into by random chance.
 
 
This is not to say, of course, that hard fraud does not encompass some auto insurance fraud. Hard car insurance fraud can involve pre-planned accidents of numerous kinds, as organized crime rings have often come up with specific maneuvers and schemes for causing accidents with hapless, innocent victims, such that the victims and the victims' insurance companies have to pay for the criminals' medical bills, which will often then be exaggerated even more from the hospital.
 
 
Car insurance fraud also covers other areas, beyond just accidents, as some people attempt to defraud insurance companies by getting their auto insurance in other locations, or by getting the insurance with another individual listed as the primary driver for the car.
 
 
The former is primarily done when getting insurance for one particular place will result in much higher costs than getting it somewhere else nearby. For instance, many cars in Brooklyn have Pennsylvania license plates, so as to ensure that the insurance costs for those cars are not the Brooklyn, New York costs, but are instead the lower Pennsylvania costs. The latter is often done between parents and children, when parents want to avoid the increased insurance costs for new drivers. As a result, they will perpetrate auto insurance fraud by listing themselves as the primary drivers of vehicles actually being given to their kids.
 
 
According to research done for 1996, 21 to 36% of all auto insurance claims had some kind of suspicious or fraudulent element to them. The unfortunate problem, of course, is that most auto insurance fraud is soft fraud, and therefore is very difficult to detect, prove, and eliminate.
 
 
Some oft-used car insurance fraud schemes include owner give-ups, in which the owner knows exactly where his or her car is, and simply lies to the insurance company the hopes of collecting money from the reported thief; this type of auto insurance fraud is quite common, and difficult to prove without searching for the real car.
 
 
Another example is 30-day specials, a kind of auto insurance fraud scam under which the owners of a vehicle will similarly report their vehicle stolen, and will then hide it for 30 days, until the claim is settled, at which point they will find their car again. Export fraud, too, is a common type of car insurance fraud, in which the perpetrator buys a vehicle with a loan from a bank, and then takes out an insurance policy on the vehicle. The owner would then report the vehicle stolen, and give it up to a foreign black market to be sold illegally, while collecting profits from the stolen vehicle report.

What Do You Need to Know About Property Insurance Fraud

What Do You Need to Know About Property Insurance Fraud

Property insurance fraud is essentially fraud committed with the intent to destroy insured property in order to collect insurance on that property. One of the most common examples of property insurance fraud is that of the arsonist who burns down an insured building because it is worth more for the insurance than it is worth as a building.
 
 
Indeed, this is one of the most common examples for a reason: Alfred Manes, writer of the article, "Insurance Crimes," in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, claims that most property insurance fraud involves arson, simply because arson is so destructive. Fires started with arson will generally eliminate any evidence of how they were started over the course of burning, and as a result, arson seems like the perfect method for disposing of property without getting caught.
 
 
Property insurance fraud spans more than just burning down insured buildings, however. Any act of intentionally destroying or removing property for the sake of then being able to file an insurance claim on the object falls under the domain of property insurance fraud. Taking such action towards your own home can also be referred to as homeowners' insurance fraud, or home insurance fraud, assuming that your home is insured.
 
 
Vandalizing one's own home is a prime form of property insurance fraud. The perpetrators could stage a break in, during which, supposedly, a number of insured objects were destroyed. The homeowner could then make a claim for the property insurance on those objects, thereby likely making fair sums of money, as the destroyed objects were likely of very little value to begin with
 
 
Similarly, the perpetrators could pretend that such objects had been stolen. One culprit would break in, steal the objects, and then store them elsewhere, while the other culprit, the one who took out the insurance policies on those objects, would then be able to collect on those policies.
 
 
As an example of property insurance fraud, take the actions of Helen Tidwell. She had an insurance policy on her restaurant, Gram's Country Kitchen. She wanted to collect, so she paid two teens to burn the place to the ground, but in the process of doing so, the gasoline that the teens were using ignited and exploded. One of them died, and the other was permanently scarred, while Tidewell was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
 
 
This highlights one of the more important problems of property insurance fraud, which is that it often involves dangerous or criminal elements above and beyond the insurance fraud. Arson is a charge all on its own, as is vandalism, and combining these charges with any charges for property insurance fraud is sure to leave a perpetrator with a heavy sentence coming down the pipes towards him or her.
 
 
Another less injurious example of property insurance fraud involved a man named Irwin Bransky, who owned a business in California which became saddled with a large supply of "useless merchandise." When, in 1994, the Northridge earthquake hit California, Bransky had his employees break and bend the software packages, so that he could then claim that it had all been lost in the earthquake. He was paid $840,000 on a $5 million claim before an employee alerted the proper authorities, resulting in a sentence of 51 months in prison for Bransky.

Multiple Filings Overview

Multiple Filings Overview

Multiple filings is a type of bankruptcy fraud that is generally more innocuous than petition mills, while being possibly more serious than concealment of assets. This is because multiple filings cannot be made without direct intent of the filing party, and therefore cannot be accidents, as concealment of assets can be, but simultaneously, multiple filings are often not blatantly illegal in and of themselves, so much as they are used for fraudulent purposes and may therefore violate provisions of bankruptcy law.
A party filing for bankruptcy 
The objective of multiple filings like this is not to, in and of themselves, obtain a wrongful benefit. But multiple filings will slow down the overall processing of a bankruptcy claim, and will prevent liquidation of assets from occurring sooner. Generally, then, multiple filings will be used as a kind of mask, or a block to provide more time for concealment of assets. They confuse the bankruptcy system, without necessarily setting off any fraud alerts.
Of course, savvy fraud investigators would know to begin a fraud investigation when they see evidence of such multiple filings. While the multiple filings would slow down the actual functioning of the court, and the processing of bankruptcy, they would also tip off a fraud investigation that it’s likely there is another type of bankruptcy fraud going on. In their own way, then, multiple filings actually act as fraud alerts, assuming they can be successfully connected with the same party.
The problem is exactly that, connecting multiple filings with a single party, such that a fraud investigation can be launched against that part. While multiple filings can as fraud alerts for investigators, the problem is first determining that multiple filings have been made by the same party. If the person uses his or her same identity twice, then it would seem easy enough to determine that there had been multiple filings.
But the problem is that even so, it would take time to process each claim to such a point that the processing court might “discover” the other claim, and then it would take time to investigate exactly why this had happened. To put it in another light, by filing two claims, the fraudster would essentially be starting two different balls rolling down two different tracks, and they would eventually meet, collide with one another, and slow each other down. By the point that the multiple filings have been detected, the fraudster will likely have completed all necessary concealing of assets.
As earlier mentioned, multiple filings are not in and of themselves illegal or fraudulent, per se, so assuming that the individual did not break any provisions of bankruptcy code, then no fraud investigation could be rightfully launched against such an individual, even though multiple filings generally indicate fraud.

What Are Bankruptcy Fraud Types

What Are Bankruptcy Fraud Types

Bankruptcy fraud can come in any number of different specific forms, as the exact practices of every individual bankruptcy fraud scheme can differ slightly. But on the whole, there are three primary types of bankruptcy fraud which are either perpetrated more often than any others, or are at the core of any given incident of bankruptcy fraud.
 
 
For instance, a bankruptcy fraud might involve both multiple filings and concealment of assets, along with any of a number of other possible practices that might define that particular incident more specifically. But understanding these three primary forms of bankruptcy fraud is critical to understanding the overall problem and nature of this kind of fraud.
 
 
This is the most common type of bankruptcy fraud in America, not least because it is so simple and obvious, and often constitutes an important element of other forms of bankruptcy fraud. When filing for bankruptcy, the claimant is required to submit a list of all his or her assets, so that the processing court can accurately judge what assets the claimant has, and where those assets should be allocated, in terms of the claimant's creditors.
 
 
But if the claimant hides any of his or her assets from the processing court, then obviously those assets will not be considered when determining the overall distribution of the claimant's resources, and after the bankruptcy proceedings are all said and done, the claimant would still have those hidden assets available to him or her, which would then undermine the purpose of a bankruptcy proceeding entirely.
 
 
Assets can be concealed in any number of ways, from storing them in a different account off shore, to giving them as gifts to friends and family and then retrieving them once the bankruptcy proceedings are over. But the worst element of concealment of assets is that periodically, individuals can commit this type of bankruptcy fraud without intending to, and can find themselves being charged with fraud which they never actually committed.
 
 
Petition mills are different from most forms of bankruptcy fraud, because instead of being attempts by the bankruptcy claimant to somehow profit from the bankruptcy proceedings, they are elaborate, manipulate plots by a completely separate party to essentially force others to file for bankruptcy without know it, while profiting off them greatly. Petition mills involve small companies offering up a service, generally to low-income or immigrant urban neighborhoods.
 
 
Under the terms of this service, the fraudsters claim that they will eliminate the debt of clients, or that they will prevent any foreclosures or evictions, and so on. The people of the neighborhood think it's a wonderful thing, and will gladly pay the fraudsters the large sums of money they request in order to obtain this service. In actuality, all the fraudsters do is file for bankruptcy in the names of their clients, successfully preventing any further dept, or foreclosure, or eviction, while the bankruptcy is being processed.
 
 
The fraudsters will also sometimes use their power over their clients to force property transfers to themselves, or to further complicate and slow down bankruptcy proceedings by essentially perpetrating bankruptcy fraud on their clients', or victims', behalf. To find out more about this particularly insidious and deceptive form of bankruptcy fraud, click the link.
 
 
Multiple filings is a type of bankruptcy fraud that is most often used in conjunction with another kind of bankruptcy fraud. It involves simply filing multiple bankruptcy claims in different states, under either the same or different identities, but generally listing the same assets on both claims. Both asset lists, however, will be incomplete. The entire point of multiple filings is not to accomplish any direct goal, or gain any direct profit, but is instead to slow down the proceedings of a bankruptcy claim.
 
 
The claimant is hoping to force the bankruptcy processing courts to take a longer amount of time when they realize that there are multiple claims, and that those claims interfere with one another. Most often, this is done specifically so that the claimant will have more time to conceal assets, ensuring that by the time the claims are actually processed, the claimant has concealed whatever assets he or she wanted to.
 
 
Multiple filings are usually a red flag that some other kind of fraud is going on, but the unfortunate truth is that multiple filings are not illegal or fraudulent in and of themselves, and as a result, fraud investigations cannot be launched simply based on the presence of multiple filings, unless those multiple filings clearly violated a provision of bankruptcy law. Follow the link for more information on multiple filings and their purpose. 

What Are Petition Mills

What Are Petition Mills

What Are Petition Mills?
 
 
This is bankruptcy fraud of a particularly damaging nature, because most of the time, the clients/victims of the fraudsters will not know better; they will believe the fraudsters, and will gladly pay fees and give over any and all information that the fraudsters request. The fraudsters seem to fulfill their ridiculous promises for a time, at least, as they file for bankruptcy in the victims' names.
 
 
This will cause those debts, foreclosures, and evictions from being processed until the bankruptcy claim is either denied or accepted. The clients will believe that the fraudsters are making good on their promises, and will continue to pay the fraudsters' exorbitant fees, until eventually the fraudsters will disappear, leaving the victims to their bankruptcy.
 
 
Most of the time, perpetrators of this type of bankruptcy fraud will purposely target people who are in severe financial trouble, who often come from immigrant or poor populations. They aim for people who aren't as well educated, so that they can take advantage of their victims without worrying about being caught in their bankruptcy fraud by a victim who figured it out.
 
 
A petition mill form of bankruptcy fraud very much takes advantage of the complexity and difficulty inherent in understanding the bankruptcy systems of America, and turns it against those who do not have the necessary knowledge to realize that they are being defrauded.
 
 
It is a doubly fraudulent type of bankruptcy fraud because fraudsters will first be filing bankruptcy fraudulently for their clients, and then will often attempt to complicate those filings with fraudulent actions, so as to drag out the bankruptcy processing and prevent anything from happening to the client. While doing so, then, the client will believe that he is being helped, and will not think at all that he is being duped into often appearing as a party to bankruptcy fraud.
 
 
A bankruptcy attorney of good character is vital to fighting against or undoing the damage of a petition mill. Such a bankruptcy attorney would be able to assist the victims of petition mill bankruptcy fraud, most likely by helping them to clean up the bankruptcy filings submitted falsely by fraudsters, and perhaps even proving to the legal system the filings were made fraudulently to begin with.
 
 
The danger of the situation lies in the fact that many of the victims of this type of bankruptcy fraud will not at all be able to afford a bankruptcy attorney to help them, and will instead remain entirely victimized by the actions of the fraudsters. 

Quick Guide to Understanding Concealment of Assets

Quick Guide to Understanding Concealment of Assets

Out of the three main types of bankruptcy fraud, concealment of assets is the most common, because it is the simplest to do, and also the easiest to do accidentally.  In any bankruptcy proceeding, the party declaring bankruptcy must list all assets available to him, her, or it, such that the bankruptcy proceedings can accurately judge how best to deal with those assets.
In chapter 7 bankruptcy, for example, all assets of the party declaring bankruptcy are liquidated in order to pay off debts as best as possible. As a result, the bankruptcy proceeding needs a clear and full set of financial statements from the bankruptcy claimant, as well as just a general listing of all assets that the bankruptcy claimant might have. To hold anything back from these lists would break fraud laws.
But many do try to conceal their assets, anyway. Close to 70% of fraudulent bankruptcy 
Beyond simply misrepresenting information, a bankruptcy fraudster who commits concealment of assets can also hide assets. Moving funds into off-shore accounts is the classic example, and doing so most assuredly violates fraud laws. But doing so would also hide such assets from any sort of declaration process, not least because it would remove those assets from the reporting individual’s financial statements.
The bankruptcy claimant could also attempt to give his or her funds to family members or friends, so that those individuals could hold onto those assets until the bankruptcy claim has completed, and then the claimant could receive those assets back from his friends or family.
In order for someone who is legitimately trying to apply for bankruptcy to avoid any possible infraction against fraud laws, he or she must make certain to report every last bit of information about his or her assets. Even items which may not seem to have any value need to be reported, as one of the primary rules of bankruptcy procedures is that the debtor does not get to determine the value of the assets being liquidated or reorganized.
The creditors have final say on those matters, and as a result, every item that could possibly be considered to hold value must be reported as an asset. All financial statements must be divulged to the proceedings, along with any other important information, such as assets you may not have yet, but may be expecting.
In the end, concealment of assets is such a commonplace form of bankruptcy fraud that it would also seem to be the type of fraud investigators have best learned to root out and eliminate. All that an investigator needs to do is find the hidden assets, or find some form of financial statement that will prove that the assets still exist, and the fraud will be proven.
The perpetrator will then be charged fully for his violations of fraud laws. Regardless, then, of the prevalence of this form of fraud, it remains fairly clear that the risk of penalty is far too great to make the hope of gain worthwhile.