In the broadest sense, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudule. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation. Defrauding people or entities of money or valuables is a common purpose of fraud, but there have also been fraudulent "discoveries", e.g. in science, to gain prestige rather than immediate monetary gain. A hoax also involves deception, but without the intention of gain, or of damaging or depriving the victim; the intention is often humorous.
Fraud can be committed through many media, including mail, wire, phone, and the Internet (computer crime and Internet fraud). The international dimensions of the web and ease with which users can hide their location, the difficulty of checking identity and legitimacy online, and the simplicity with which hackers can divert browsers to dishonest sites and steal credit card details have all contributed to the very rapid growth of Internet fraud.
Types of criminal fraud include:
- bait and switch
- bankruptcy fraud
- benefit fraud, committing fraud to get government benefits
- counterfeiting of currency, documents or valuable goods
- charlatanism
- confidence tricks such as the 419 fraud and Spanish Prisoner
- creation of false companies or " long firms"
- embezzlement, taking money which one has been entrusted with on behalf of another party
- false advertising
- false billing
- false insurance claims
- forgery of documents or signatures,
- health fraud, for example selling of products known not to be effective, such as quack medicines,
- identity theft
- investment frauds, such as Ponzi schemes and Pyramid schemes
- Moving scam
- religious fraud
- marriage fraud to obtain immigration rights without entitlement
- rigged gambling games such as the shell game
- securities frauds such as pump and dump
- tax fraud, not reporting revenue or illegally avoiding taxes. In some countries, tax fraud is also prosecuted under false billing or tax forgery [1]
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