Fraud in the Future: Myth or Mystery

• NCJ Number: 190943
• Author(s): Tim Phillipps
• Date Published: June 2001
• Length: 6 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: Australia
• Note: Paper presented at the 4th National Outlook Syumposium on Crime in Australia, "New Crimes or New Responses," held in Canberra June 21-22, 2001; downloaded October 8, 2001.

Annotation

This paper examines whether frauds in 2001 are essentially different from those perpetrated in earlier decades, such that they require radically new investigative methods to counter them.

Abstract

The only true difference in the fraudulent schemes perpetrated in the cyber age of the 21st century is that the numbers are outrageously larger. There are more victims, and they are more culturally and geographically diverse, but the fundamental scams remain the same. The perpetrators of fraud use cyber-age tools to steal larger amounts of money from more victims in global scams, but the scams themselves still have the same characteristics as the old scams. Fraud investigation teams must collect evidence in accordance with the tools used by fraudsters to commit their crimes. This means that fraud investigation teams must be well resourced and funded, using the combined resources of public and private-sector experts. Computer experts must work alongside seasoned detectives to roam the Internet in targeting familiar scams being perpetrated through new technology. Frauds must always be detected and investigated by those who have the same or even superior skills as the fraudster, who uses new, technologically sophisticated tools to perpetrate age-old ways of stealing people's money.