Identity Theft and Financial Frauds
Introduction
White collar crime has been a topic of discussion around parts of Arizona State and extensively in most areas of the United States. White - collar crime explains offenses which are purposefully intended for enhancing illegitimate monetary benefits. It is a common malpractice in the business world that majorly involves the respectable figures in the community. The most prominent crimes in the business world include offenses such as; but not limited money laundering, business fraud and bribery (Williams, 2006). Nevertheless, White collar offenses are ordinarily associated with business scams. Business scams regards to dishonest schemes including ponzi and pyramid schemes focused to contract money or any other element of value from potential casualties. In most instances, business scams affect private individuals including consumers although some may be targeted to large businesses institutions. Even so, the contemporary world encounters quite a number of business crimes and also dishonest business schemes such as Jury Duty schemes which affect both prominent and regular individuals in the business world.
Overview
Jury misconduct is an element of prominent cases such as identity theft in Arizona. Jury misconducts are usually evidenced in instances whereby fraudsters use jurors’ responsibilities to fake their identities in order to conduct different forms of frauds suggestible, financial frauds in business. The cheat process involves instances from which honest people are confronted by scammers who claim to be representatives of respectable institutions such as Justice Systems or other business institutions like banks through different channels of communication such as phone calls. This form of scam is associated with elements of intimidation and panics in order to influence its success in various business environments. For instance, the malpractice commences when scammers calls potential victims to criticize them for avoidance of jury duties. Scammers use mechanisms of inducing fear such as false declaration of arrest warrants to victims in order to fasten the con process. The first intent of the crime is to create fear among the victims so that victims can declare to have not been informed about jury duties. An impersonator then asks for personal details such as birth date, credit card identifications from victims for verifications. Issuing of personal information to impersonators enhances occurrence of the scum since scammers use the already provided details to falsify related identification documentations and in turn them to conduct business transactions such as withdraw of money from bank accounts. This form of crime is mostly evidenced in our environments due to the simplicity of its working processes. To be certain, victims with business scams such as financial thefts are caught unexpectedly by cases of identity falsification in their business environments since impersonators use convincing strategies focused at conning unsuspecting people. The process therefore causes panics to victims’ as a result false prospects from impersonators declaring potentiality of being arrested. As a result, victims end up being frank of their personal information for the sake of protecting their reputation in the society by curbing chances of facing criminal charges.
Motives
Jury Duty misconducts are primarily guided by motives of sourcing elements of value from either individuals or business institutions through unethical processes. For that reason, impersonation is basically purposed to intimidate people through fabrication of virtual crimes so that they can reveal personal identifications such as Social Security and Credit Card numbers and other personal confidential data that can be used to conduct illegitimate monetary gains. Identity thefts are as well associated with the motives of taking advantage of weakness characterized in various technologies and other information systems. In such cases, fraudsters alters stolen credit cards or either counterfeit cards with identity information of the victims and uses them to access their desired fields such as financial records. Identity them is also guided by motives of enhancing other crimes such as financing terrorism.
Background Information
Identity theft is a complex crime that in most cases takes in a variety of different crimes with which most of such crimes are familiar many in our community. The most familiar crimes that join together with identity theft in our community include; but not limited card or even check frauds, financial crimes, internet scams auto thefts as a result of presentation of fraudulent documentations and impersonating. It involves counterfeiting of images and forgery of identification documents in various institutions. It is evident that crimes linked to identity theft are not emerging crimes but they instead define familiar crimes in the community which are enhanced by fabrication of victim’s personal information Huff, 2010). Identity theft is critiqued to have gained superiority back in 1990s prior which victims of the crime were time after time persecuted without their realization. Publicity of identity theft paved the way for the embracement of Identity Theft Act in 1998 due to increased cases of victims’ failures to convince institutions of their responsibilities for false issuing of cards (Hammond, 2003).
Identity theft as a result of identification fabrication brings about affluent complexities in various institutions since it defines a number of significant facts that hardens its recognition. Firstly, identity theft slows low enforcement processes of determining who to be responsible between card issuers and victims in instances such as; financial loss due to fabrication of credit cards. Secondly, crimes associated with identity theft are not unpredictable and so, they can take place a long period of time before confiscating offenders. Unpredictability and inconsistency of such offenses as well indicates repeated victimization that in due course results to depletion of utilities. Nevertheless, most individuals realize accrued victimization after occurrence of crimes thus contradicting investigation processes.
Identity theft in the contemporary society is critiqued as the most prominent and most efficient crime in Arizona. Arguably, its prominence and efficiency is linked to the emergence of digital technologies included in devices such as computers, tablets and Smartphones in the business world. It is evident that most of commerce practices are contemporarily done through online platforms and so, impersonators take electronic systems as an advantage of conducting illegitimate intentions in the sector of commerce. Nevertheless, impersonators take advantage of people’s wellness in response to information acquired from information platforms to offer convincing deals and other charity cons.
Technological advancement has availed cheap services including spoofing which enable impersonators to stage-manage phone numbers to present desirable intent in various environments. Additionally, offenders are able to influence even caller’s identity that shows on the victim’s caller’s display enabling offenders to identify themselves as representatives of legitimate companies including banks, credit card corporations and even as court officials. Nevertheless, Spoof card provides impersonators the ability to transform voices in response to the normal conditions that the victims is used to. For instance, perpetrators can change a male voice to a female voice through spoof card that highly enhances identity thefts. Spoofing services are as well known by many in the society to be used by legitimate parties such as private investigators, lawyers and other officials in the justice system. As a result of such services, unsuspecting victims end up revealing their private information to impersonators by assuming that the calls are from legitimate sources.
Banks and Financial frauds
It is evident that most perpetrators of identity theft target respectable citizens from prominent institutions in the society. The basic objective of perpetrators is to get hold of monetary from other people’s bank accounts with efficiency since most involve single to multiple transactions. It is important to note that perpetrators of this crime use different ways of selecting victims such as telephone surveys and evaluation of obituary notices on matters pertaining business scams in order to critique potential victims. Perpetrators include various methods of convincing victims that they are representatives of legal enforcement or even bank personnel’s. A potential victim is confronted by perpetrators through different forms communication preferably telephone calls claiming to be an officer of law enforcement or a bank personnel. The victim is then told that there are problems in bank accounts after being convinced that the call is from bank personnel. In most occurrences, a victim is informed about irregularities in banks and so the impersonator asks the victim to deliver personal details so that accounts can be checked for eligibility in order to enhance extraction of evidences for legal enforcement. For multiple transactions that details long processes in banks, the victim is informed about investigation progress and for this reason further details are required to success the process of capturing staffs tempering with bank accounts. Financial crimes define a series of frauds which can be conducted in various financial institutions. Personal information acquired through forged identification documents is used to commit various business scams especially of financial frauds in financial institutions such as banks. To start with, personal information enables fraudsters to take over financial accounts that were previously owned by other people. For instance, a fraudster uses forged personal identifications to control a victim’s bank account and so, the fraudster efficiently withdraws available money at a glance before being detected.
Financial institutions evidence registration of new financial accounts which are created in another person’s real information. For example, offenders use a victim’s private information to register for new accounts in banks, new credit accounts and apply for convenient loans. Stolen information is in turn used by fraudsters to create new billing address to conceal likelihood of being detected by the victim. In such cases, victims realize the crime after being confronted by collector agencies or after being denied to hold credit requests.
Identity them is at times used to enhance mortgage fraud in financial institutions. Mortgage fraud refers to an instance whereby a fraudster settles for a mortgage financing under forged identifications. This form of scenario is enhanced by presentation of falsified identification, income statements and also employment records. As a result, a victim’s names as well as credits are used to own properties from which a fraudster can use the same identities to either sell the illegally acquired properties before being recognized.
Medical fraud is an element of identity theft which takes place when falsifies a victim’s identifications including health cards and in turn uses forged information to either claim or even access medical services. The major implication of medical scam is that it puts a victim’s life at immediate risks since it contradicts consistency of service provision as far as medical care is concerned.
Additionally, identity theft characterizes notions of tax fraud in different business environments. For example, a particular business institution may use another institution’s financial records and addresses to register for tax incomes with a general motive of receiving tax refunds of its consequent institution (Hedayati, 2012).
Financial frauds influenced by identity theft results to massive impacts especially among the victims and also to the society at large. Financial fraud leads to the emergence of various factors that are socially harmful and for this reason affecting social development in terms of business diversification. Mortgage fraud for example causes psychological stress to victims of either private individuals or business institutions thus hindering social developments. Business scams composed into financial frauds causes a variety of negative social consequences such as anger, guilt and mistrusts in business environments which slows down developmental motives. For instance, victims’ take long period of time and considerable amount of resources to recover contradicted identifications in financial institutions as well as transform damaged histories in credit accounts.
On the other hand, business scams of financial frauds entail significant harms to economic the economy leading to unrespectable inflation. In addition, complexity of corruption conducted by professionals in the economic sector is arguably pricey as well as time consuming hence facilitating quite a number of economic constraints. Evidently, business scams including tax frauds causes a rise in prices of different products and services in the markets. Increases in prices due to random inflation hinders processes of market control and regulation thus impacting detection of overrated products and services in response to fraudulently purposed strategies in the markets.
Critique the crime scene investigation including ethical evidence detection, development, collection, and preservation, including the chain of custody
Investigation of identity theft in Banks
Investigation of identity theft includes definite strategies such as FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network”, task forces and other coordinating bodies which are usually aimed at coordinating investigations in law enforcement processes (Hoffman & McGinley, 2010). Task forces are the most applied methodology used by law enforcement bureaus to investigate identity theft characterizing multiple jurisdictions. Task forces are used to simplify the complexity of identity theft by exploiting of resources such as information and expertise availed by relevant authorities. Task forces strengths and basis consistency of investigation processes in various processes of criminal justice. They as well eliminate chances of investigation duplication by controlling the entire process. The process involves different levels of authorities including federal, local as well as state agencies in investigations of identity theft since its effects poses significant threats not only in state levels but also to the notional conformity. Private sectors including banks play an important role in the investigatory process since they are key sources of relevant information regarding illegitimacy transactions. It is important to note that the success of the entire process is dependent to victim advocacy. For instance, victim advocacy stands as the basis of tracking legitimate and illegitimate transactions. Cooperative efforts emphasized by tasks forces as well include the “Coalition on Online Identity Theft” in the investigatory processes. Companies incorporated in the coalition include; but not limited Microsoft Corp, Network Associates Inc. and also Cyveillance Inc. which have the responsibility of evaluating identity theft in the online platforms.
Importantly, different security procedures and also internal control systems in financial institutions are included in investigation in order to evaluate legitimacy of staff and managerial teams. This stage commonly applies interviews and examination of related documents to prevent information bias by establishing notions of confidentiality. Investigation of financial frauds is specifically conducted by Forensic scientists. Forensic accountants stand plays the responsibility of analyzing financial accounts to evaluate disputable facts before the case is presented in courts (Pearson & Singleton, 2008).
Evidence detection
Detection of identity theft involves a series of mechanisms that calls for victim’s participation and cooperation. Detection requires regular checking of credit reports in order to determine any unfamiliar transactions in ones accounts. It is important for people to closely examine and compare bank as well as credit card reports after every transaction since statements provides comprehensive information in response to prior transactions. Authorities have over long been emphasizing the need to keep on checking personal criminal records as a mechanism of detecting identity theft. Arguably, it is easy to detect illegitimate behaviors by checking criminal records from the authorities since Identity theft is unusually associated with different forms of crimes. Generally, detection of identity theft necessitates personal commitment and willingness to regularly check individual accounts so as to critique unfamiliar deviances (Goldmann, 2010).
Initial detection of identity theft frauds is of importance as far as limitation of fraudulent events is concerned. It is important to note that initial checking of one’s accounts and criminal records creates a basis for signaling red flags in cases of irregularities. A red flag is based as a significant beginning of fraud detection since it sends immediate notifications of increased warnings to responsive authorities about victim’s complaints. Frauds are regularly detected by chance whereby people affected by the frauds raise immediate concerns in their organizations. As a result, institutions such as banks embrace various efforts of detecting fraud including establishment of hotlines via which people and employees can report about an emerging crime. Additionally, institutions as well establish proactive precautions through technological developments meant to hold efficient review of databases so as to any form of red flags.
Evidence development
Identity theft is notably a result of evidenced information regardless the fact that the business frauds and other illegitimacies intrigued through the crime are well known in the society. Therefore, evidence development of cases engaging components of identity frauds encompasses exposure of existing opportunity structure in order to determine the major intents of availed frauds. For that reason, the first step of evidence development comprises efforts of distinction of the comprehensive concept of identity theft into definite acts. In some other cases distinction is focused at analyzing occurrence of evidenced frauds into sequential patterns in order to enhance evidence reliability. In addition, evidence development focuses at determining the guiding motives of financial frauds in response to opportunities available in the up to date business environments as a result of information transformation (Cheney, 2005).
According to Lang (2011), frauds committed through identity theft can be termed as addictive since most of them characterize habitual trends. For instance, once a fraudster commits financial frauds he or she continues to hold similar transactions over a period of time. Therefore, investigation analyzes sequential trends of committed frauds in order to strengthen acquired evidence.
Evidence Collection
Evidence collection is conducted in portions of crime portions instead of comprehensive collection of information. For instance, every fraud registers differing impacts in response to the crime’s extent hence data collection is categorized in accordance to the losses it has influenced either to an individual or a business organization (Newman & McNally, 2005)
Preservation of identity theft
Fraudsters use strategic methods of attaining other people’s personal information including through manipulative methods. Therefore, this case defines various options of techniques that individuals can embrace to effectively preserve identity theft. Impersonators in the contemporary world have shown significant capabilities of acquiring personal information through telephone calls and internet. This exemplifies that people should not assume legitimacy of inquires made through phone calls and hence they should not reveal personal information before consultations with law enforcement and importantly with financial institutions (Office of the Federal Register (U S), 2012). Periodic checking of credit reports is an effective mechanism of preventing identity theft in different business orientations. It is important for individuals to cross check reports from banks and creditors from which can report irregularities to relevant authorities.
Surveillance methods
Electronic surveillance is the commonly used method of observing the suspects trends in various environments. Business competitors, law enforcement, banks, hospitals, shopping centers and other business institutions embrace various forms of electronic eavesdropping as surveillance methods of observing possible suspects of identity frauds. Electronic surveillance in business environments defines various types of study which include bugging, videotaping as well as wire tapping. The three types of electronic theft indicate convenience in the observation of identity thefts since the fraud utmost is conducted through telephone calls, physical appearances and other forms of communication such as telegraph messaging. Application of wire tapping involves interception of both telephone calls by tampering wire circuitry (Gardener, & Anderson, 2015). Therefore, investigators ‘taps’ telephone wires and even telegraphs wires within the suspected localities. Bugging involves similar intentions with wire tapping but instead bugging does not necessarily include tampering of wire circuitry. Bugging instead is commonly accomplished by the placement of an unrecognizable microphone and other different recording devices in a definite location which are purposely meant to record and transmit conversions of suspect perpetrators to a specific investigatory station (Emanuel, 2009). . On the other hand, video observation is usually meant to conduct suspect observation through identification of monotonous and unusual physical appearances. Therefore, business institutions including banks install conspicuous or even veiled cameras to record and pass on visual figures to storage devices. Stored data either watched concurrently during observation processes or can be used for reference purposes during prosecution.
Other that observation of potential suspects of identity theft, electronic surveillance plays an important role of regulating occurrence of illegitimate activities in various environments including banks and creditors organizations. It is an effective method of securing bank and other financial accounts by limiting incidences of impermissible activities.
Natural surveillance is as well applied in the detection of financial fraud as a result of identity theft. Natural surveillance is usually meant to keep intruders under regular observation specifically through facial reorganization (Siljander & Fredrickson, 2016). Therefore, staffs in the financial institutions are emphasized to take a close to provided information in order to determine if they match with the card holders.
The chain of custody
Sentencing of offenders involved in identity theft is reliant on provided information in different stages of crime recognition including crime investigation, evidence detection, development and collection. Offenders are thus put in custody in response to the nature of crimes committed through falsified personification and their core impacts in form of financial losses those crimes have caused in the economic environments. Sentences of offenders are varied in terms of the years to be served in custody and also in terms of confinement locations. For instance, Newman & McNally (2005) critiques that identity theft can face a maximum imprisonment of fifteen years and a minimum of ten to sixteen months in accordance to accrued financial impacts.
References
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