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.

Lying with integrity

Lying, right or wrong? Difficult one really. Ideally i would like to conclude that all lying is wrong and one should never do it, however since i have told lies that seems a hypocritical stance. So, i would say that if one can avoid it then it is always better not to lie, however i accept that there are circumstances when one may have to lie, for survival perhaps.

So how do we determine what to do? I think personally circumstances count and i also believe that as humans we are more likely to accept or forgive some lies over others. For example, there are probably very few people who can say they have never lied, it is generally accepted that from time to time we all lie, what i believe makes the difference is the length and depth of the lie and also the motive. As empathic souls, we are likely to forgive someone who lied as a knee jerk reaction or through stupidity, naievety etc but then immediately felt bad for what they had done and owned up, apologising. We would, i believe, weigh up the circumstances, accept the person's mistake and forgive them, probably still believing them to be a basically honest person that made an error of judgement. I would be less likely to forgive someone who continued the deciept or lied further to conceal their mistake. I would also be more likely to forgive someone who had lied to protect someone rather than for selfish reasons.

Immanual Kant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lying prohibited lying as he believed it to lead to a breakdown in trust and therefore felt it was never acceptable to lie. I disagree that it can't ever be acceptable to lie- i believe it is evolutionary and therefore necessary to our survival; whether physically, as in the lies told by soldiers during wars, or emotionally as in the use of denial, projection and rationalisation as defence mechanisms that serve to conceal the truth, from others but also from ourselves. Agreeably, the use of defences aren't good long term but are sometimes a short term necessity to help us come to terms with traumatic experiences in our own time.

I do however, agree that lying breaks down trust and that if we all consistently lied then society would break down. We would not be able to form relationships because we wouldn't be able to believe or trust people around us. The judicial system would collapse because we would not be able to trust that people were telling the truth when on oath.

As Wallace http://www.spectacle.org/0500/lies.html puts it "I hate being lied to. Short of violence, it is the worst thing you can do to me. Not because of God, or the Ten Commandments, or any universal moral precepts. The reason that I hate lies is because, like you, I wish to navigate carefully through life, and to do so I must be able to calculate my true position. When you lie to me, you know your position but you have given me false data which obscures mine". I think this is a poignant way of looking at it. When you lie you effectively knock someone off course.

I have lied in the past and i can't put my hand on my heart and say i'll never lie again because i don't know what circumstances are around the corner. I have modified my behaviour over the years because i have regretfully hurt others with my actions and learnt some painful and valuable life lessons! On that note i would agree with Kevin...if you're going to lie, think very, very carefully about it. A good maxim may be "Do that which will do the least harm and the greatest good".