Fraud- when a lie becomes a criminal offence

Image from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264464/

Building on the theme of lying, i was interested to explore beyond the innocent white lie and look at lies that get people in trouble with the law. Fraud is a deception made for personal gain with defrauding people of money the most common type of fraud, but there have also been many fraudulent "discoveries" in art, archaeology, and science http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraud.

Fraud covers such things as conmen, imposters, falsifying documents, investment frauds etc. It is any kind of falsification or deception that is knowingly carried out in order to get material gain-usually of a financial nature. Famous fraudsters include Frank Abagnale Jr. who passed himself off as respected professionals such as doctors etc and inspired the film "Catch me if you can", Nick Leeson who single handedly brought down Barings Bank and Peter Popoff who was a Televangelist who made money from his claims that he could cure people of their ills through faith healing.

So, what inspires fraud and why does it work?

The first thing that comes to mind is simple GREED. That may sound harsh but i believe all fraudsters have something in common, they are greedy for what they can gain. Some say that large fraud starts off small and this could possibly be said of all crime. It starts as an idea or act of desperation to make some sort of gain but when successful it can trigger further attempts and so on. The person's own greed carries them on. In the case of Nick Gleeson, i do feel a little sorry for him as he seemed a nice bloke that made a mistake and it grew ever larger in his attempts to make it right. Having watched the documentary on his life i would still say greed comes into it. He wanted to make large profits and show his worth and so he took large risks- he made errors which cost money and rather than owning up to it he tried to cover his tracks by "stealing" funds to try and make up what he'd lost, with disasterous results, it could have paid off but it was always a huge risk.

So why do people get taken in? Well, i would like to say naivety, and in a small minority that could be true...yet, no, i still think GREED. A con trick or fraud is successfull because the victims often think they are going to benefit in some way from the fantastic deal that is on offer, and that is exactly what the tricksters want them to think. People really want to believe that they are the lucky, chosen ones who are being offered the half price villa or the business deal of the century etc. and that makes them willing to part with their cash, because in their minds they are going to gain a whole lot more.

On a more sinister note, those who claim to heal relatives through faith healing, crystals etc. are praying on an emotional weakness in their victim. They are promising to cure loved ones and so people hand over money because they want to believe a lie and because they don't want to put a value on someone's life.

Whether it is lying, fraud, deception etc. It works because one party is prepared to lie to get whatever they want and the other party wants to believe the lie because it satisfies some need in them.