fraud Hear it!

fraud Definition

fraud (frôd)

noun

    1. deceit; trickery; cheating
    2. Law intentional deception to cause a person to give up property or some lawful right
  2. something said or done to deceive; trick; artifice
  3. a person who deceives or who is not what he or she pretends to be; impostor; cheat

Etymology: ME fraude < OFr < L fraus (gen. fraudis) < IE base *dhwer-, to trick > Sans dhvárati, (he) injures

fraud Synonyms

fraud

n.

  1. Deceit

    trickery, duplicity, cheating, sharp practice; see deception 1.

  2. An act of deception or trickery

    swindle, hoax, scam*; see trick 1.

  3. An impostor

    pretender, sham, charlatan, quack; see cheat 1, impostor. See syn. study at deception.

fraud Finance Definition
A legal term that refers to the intentional misrepresentation or concealment of the truth in order to manipulate or deceive a company or individual. When companies undergo severe financial problems and end up in bankruptcy, fraud by senior management may be involved.
fraud Law Definition

n

An intentional misrepresentation uttered to cause another to rely on it to his detriment.
constructive fraud
A misrepresentation deemed by the law to be fraud even though unintentional.
fraud in the factum
The nature of a legal document is misrepresented to a party who is induced to sign it based on an incorrect understanding of its nature.
fraud in the inducement
A party is induced to sign a contract by misrepresentation, not of the terms of the contract itself, but of the level of risk or the surrounding circumstances.
mail fraud
A fraudulent act involving misrepresentations made through the United States Postal Service for financial benefit.
wire fraud
A fraudulent act involving misrepresentations made via telephone or other form of electronic communications.
Fraud Hacker Definition

(legal term)

Generally defined in law as an intentional misrepresentation of facts made by one person to another person, knowing that such misrepresentation is false but will induce the other person “to act”—resulting in injury or damage to him or her.

Fraud may include an omission of facts or an intended failure to state all the facts. Knowledge of the latter would have been needed to make the other statements nonmisleading. In cyber terms, spam is often sent in an effort to defraud another person by getting him or her to purchase something he or she has no intention of purchasing.

Recently in the United States, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOA) was passed as a reaction to the accounting misdeeds of companies such as WorldCom and Enron. With the vast amounts of personal information stored on company computers, fraud opportunities abound for cyber criminals. A major problem prompting the passage of this Act was that companies storing huge amounts of information have tended to give little thought to what is being stored, or how securely it is being shared. Consequently, occasional occurrences of fraud or alterations of data by crackers have often gone undetected.

Experts have argued that rather than spend large amounts of money to store data in accordance with the Act, companies should allocate some money to determine exactly what kinds of information need to be stored and for how long. Many companies have policies, for example, dictating that data be stored for periods lasting from six to nine months, but this timeline may not be realistic. Such confusion over this important information storage issue may be a primary reason that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act deadline for companies based in European countries has been pushed back another year. Originally, the controversial Section 404 of the SOA outlined the requirement for companies to archive information by July 15, 2005.

See Also: Accountability; Spam; Spammers.

lectlaw.com. The ’Lectric Law Library’s Lexicon On Fraud. [Online, 2004.] ’Lectric Law Library Website. http://www.lectlaw.com/def/f079.htm; Sturgeon, W. CNETNews.com. Hidden Fraud Risk in Sarbanes-Oxley? [Online, March 7, 2005.] CNET Networks, Inc. Website. http://news.com.com/Hidden+fraud+riswk+in+Sarbanes-Oxley/ 2100-1002_3-5602776.html.
fraud Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • perpetrate: The damage that he seeks to recover must have flowed directly from the fraud perpetrated upon him.
  • commit: These details are then used to commit a credit card fraud, bank fraud or identity theft.
  • combat: Back to top What can I do to combat fraud?
  • detect: Gedling Boro Council will seek to prevent, deter and detect fraud wherever possible.
  • suspect: The National Benefit Fraud Hotline receives more than 4000 calls every week from members of the public who suspect benefit fraud.
  • deter: Spending Review 2000 SDA targets 8. The SFO seeks to deter fraud.

Adjective modifier

  • suspected: Back to top How can I report suspected benefit fraud?
  • electoral: First Judicial Review Attempt " We have lost a battle, but the war against electoral fraud continues " - John Hemming.
  • attempted: Any and all attempted credit card fraud is reported to the UK authorities for investigation.
  • alleged: The address at which the alleged fraud may be taking place.
  • postal: Government accused of ignoring warnings on postal vote fraud.
  • outright: Top insurance carriers political risk policy for outright fraud.

Modifies a noun

  • prevention: We may check your details with fraud prevention agencies.
  • detection: The solution takes a self-learning approach to fraud detection, adapting to customer usage habits unique to that individual.
  • investigator: For example, we must give information to authorized benefit fraud investigators where fraudulent benefit claims are suspected.
  • hotline: And we recommend that companies establish a fraud detection hotline as a deterrent.

Noun used with modifier

  • carousel: The fraud is therefore known as carousel fraud or missing trader fraud.
  • identity: Identity fraud is a growing problem in the UK.
  • paternity: This got reported as " paternity fraud is an urban myth " , which is silly.
  • VAT: More resources needed to tackle VAT fraud, says Baker Tilly Press release Read more.. .
fraud Quotes

O loss of sight, of thee I most complain! Blind among enemies,O worse than chains, Dungeon, or beggary, or decrepit age! Light the prime work of God to me is extinct, And all her various objects of delight Annull'd, which might in part my grief have eas'd, Inferior to the vilest now become Of man or worm; the vilest here excel me, They creep, yet see, I dark in light expos'd To daily fraud, contempt, abuse and wrong, 586 Within doors, or without, still as a fool, In power of others, never in my own; Scarce half I seem to live, dead more than half.

—Milton,John

It is a fraud of the Christian system to call the sciences human invention; it is only theapplication of themthat is human. Every science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and unalterable asthose by whichthe universe is regulated and governed. Man cannot make principles, he can only discover them.

—Paine,Thomas

De dois ff se compo‹  e Esta cidade a meu ver: Um furtar, outro foder. Of two f's, as I see it, is this city composed: one fraud, the other fornication.

—Matos, Grego¤  rio de

Style is a fraud. I always felt the Greeks were hiding behind their columns.

—de Kooning,Willem