Fraud through the roof during recession
By Jason Buckland, Sympatico / MSN Finance
About four-fifths of the way into Boogie Nights, Dirk Diggler officially bottoms out.
Derailed by a nasty coke habit, the former (fictional) porn star tries to rip off a drug dealer and ends up getting chased down the street by that same junkie, who’s now wielding a shotgun.
It’s at this moment you think back to the start of the movie, when Marky Mark was just a good-natured kid from the L.A. ‘burbs with a larger-than-normal appendage. But when he snorted up all his money, he had to turn to crime as a matter of necessity. It was the only place he could go.
What does this arbitrary late-90s movie reference have to do with anything? Fair question. The answer is, I couldn’t help but think about the parallels between Diggler and the people caught up with this story, an – until now – not yet reported black cloud hanging in complement to the recession’s misery.
A study from the U.K. revealed this week that fraud has shot to its highest level in 21 years as desperate people apparently do more for cash than we’d like to think.
While bills pile up, many now find themselves – according to The Mirror – more likely to fall for schemes or cons they “should know are too good to be true.”
Investors have been ripped-off of about $580 million already in the first half of 2009 and mortgage and property scams appear to have skyrocketed in frequency.
“Hard times mean more people are driven to fraud by personal pressures,” says a U.K. official. “And more investors are sucked into schemes they should know are really too good to be true.”
It might not shock you to hear inside job fraud is on the up-and-up, too. Just counting cases brought to court, the study alleges managers in the U.K. swiped about $270 million from their companies, while employees took $44 million in the first six months of the year alone.
And if you recall, the spikes in fraud lately aren’t centralized to the corporate world, either. ATM scams in Ontario, for example, are a huge problem right now. I can count more than 10 people I know personally who have had their chequing accounts raided in the past two months.
It may be unfair to pin all this mess on the shattered economy, but it sure seems like it’s the probable candidate, doesn’t it?
It’s a sad truth, really, if the link can ever be made conclusively. Layoffs suck, yeah, and no one likes to hear families are getting booted from their homes, sure. But – legitimate excuse or not – if this whole downturn is actually turning good people bad, well, that has to be one of the top stories of the recession.
Posted by: Kahnehjian | Jul 22, 2021 11:13:19 AM
Please pardon the composition police moment, Mr. Buckland, but fraud *cannot* "be on the up-and-up", since that colloquialism means "legitimate" or "legal", usually in reference to a business transaction. Perhaps you were shooting for "fraud in on the rise" or "incidence of fraud is up"?
Posted by: Sir Richard | Jul 22, 2021 11:17:25 AM
This is a cautionary warning to all of whom receive an unexpected telephone call advising you to act immediately or you may lose your car warranty. This call is in the form of a voice generated script and may give you pause to think about the status of your car warranty.
Be careful here. This is a telemarketing scheme or even a scam.
I followed the instructions to speak with a representative simply to satify my curiosity, nothing else.
The live person came to the phone, he appeared to me at least, to be stressed out, was rude and boorish. When I asked him who was he and what is he calling me for, he said my car warranty extension would be lost if I did not act now and re-apply through him. (You cannot trick a salesman with some 40 years experience dealing with the public). I knew right away this had the odour of a scam.
I then stated I had three cars and asked him which of the three would he want to know about. He bellowed at me, 'all three'......
When I told him I smelt a scam, he promptly hung-up.
So, those of you receiciving such a call, hang up. Inform any and all senior family members and friends to do the same. You have no evidence these calls are above board. Once you give out private information about yourself, your car and your financial history, you may expect to become a victim of some devious scheme. Be careful.
Posted by: Mike Litoris | Jul 22, 2021 11:44:20 AM
The reason for the rise in scams has absolutely nothing whaysoever to do with the meltdown of the financial system and absolutely everything to do with two other factors: 1) the rise of incivility, which stems from immoral, amoral and essentially heartless corporate behaviour rationalised by the nonsense ethic of "but we have to be globally competitive!" and 2) a complete abdication on the part of lawmakers and judges to enforce punishments that have actual meaning. Take a fraudster, be he Bernard Madoff or an ATM card hacker, line him/her up against the wall and execute on live television. Do this 3 to 4 times and the problem of fraudulent behaviour suddenly shrinks to microscopic proportions. Oh how I wish we had Franco in this decaying Babel of a nation.
Posted by: philippe | Jul 22, 2021 11:48:15 AM
The governement is amused looking at the middle class as 'chickens'... it makes programs such as the tax free saving account and the middle class moves in that like a bunch of chickens... The governement is happy to offer them that tax relief but the middle class still finds it has an unfair burden.
There are honnest and more complicated ways to save money such as financing your own house with your own Retirement Saving Plan... but the trustable Big Banks do not make as much money on this set-up and do not promote it.
If I tell you to go to a big bank and organise like that... I do not make money, so many financial consultant package the deals so that they can take their cut.
The same way that you can finance your home with your RSP, you could finance your own corporation with a canadian owned foreign investment...
I do not know today but a few years ago there was an 'interesting' opportunity in the income law... you did not have to pay income tax on an foreign interest income coming from your non-resident fiducy...
The idea was to set-up a fiducy in Bermudas that would own your canadian business and its profits would fly there and disappear because of the interest the fiducy was paying you... A State constructed ponzi sheme somehow...
The rich CEOs and financial consultant and lawyers who operate these sheme do not built value for Canadians, they have fat lives. They are a burden because they keep the income tax law complicated for their self service.
The middle class want its bite, but they do not really have a shot at it.
I think that it is the lack of justice that brings the recession... people are starting to understand that small time share holders do not get their share... management eats away the profits in good times...
People do not trust the governement that have fat unproductive lives... when Sheila Fraser looks at a departement, they stress and wait she has moved-on to an other departement...
People do not trust Judges and the legal system where it is the justice of the rich. They like to abuse their monopoly in dispute management to consume all assets, and are used as a threat against the middle class rather than a reference on what is fair or unfair.
The autor suggest fraud is the result of the recession, I suggest that it is also the other way around... people think that the system is unfair and participate less...
I think that the system is unfair and I want to change it...
Some people think it is unfair and want to take advantage... some people win at it, some loose... I think the big winner is China that will own Canada soon.
Posted by: Michael Atlas, CA | Jul 22, 2021 1:22:20 PM
I think people are going off on all sorts of tangents here, and missing one key point.
In many cases, the "financial meltdown" is not the CAUSE of the frauds, but the reason why the frauds are being UNCOVERED now.
Madoff had been getting away with his scheme for many years, but the meltdown caused more investors to ask for their money back (because they needed it for other things as a result of meltdown). Because he could not meet those demands, that is when the whole-thing collapsed and came to light.
Posted by: I.Wootton | Jul 22, 2021 1:37:35 PM
Fraud??? Even Renovators are Bad!!! I just lost my home from A Bad Renovator who has done this twice before. He has all the protection. He even laid a charged on me - saying I was harassing and threatning him. NOT!!! It took this asshole 2 yrs just to get maybe 1/3rd done. Stupid me paid for all the materials up front. Guess what it ended up with the sale of the house and I am out by $15,000.00. Never trust a so called company by the name 3 R Reno in Newmarket under the name Robin Peddle. Even the fraud squad in York Region is too swamped to help me out. For almost 2 yrs they have pushed me in circles giving me all the wrong info.I had a contract-all purchase papers and etc. and still am not going into the right direction..forget about small claims court-the asshole changes everything of his to someone else's name for his protection. In the mean time he is doing it to someone else..just butters them up....and then charges them if you wake him up too early.10 am?????? Lazy Bastard.......what goes around ....will certainly come around on you Peddle!!!!
Posted by: Shawn M | Jul 22, 2021 2:09:22 PM
I agree with Mike Litoris. We have been seeing theft and corruption from the so-called leaders of
society for awhile now. Even the head of the RCMP stole from the RCMP pension fund. Does anyone
trust any politician any more? no! Corporations are putting public health and the environment in danger all the time, all for profit. These execs and investors have been ripping off their clients and companies for along time. The average person is thinking why not me too, then.
They think, if I am being ripped off ,why not do it too, eye for someone else eye.
People are naturally greedy, self centered, and vain; this is why a capitalism economy works better than other types of economies. People want as much money as possible ;for doing as little as possible. Society looks up to people for what they have and not who they are.
This corruption has caused the bad economy; not the economy causing the corruption.
Makes me wonder where we are headed as a society and a species.
Posted by: daytimdolphin | Jul 22, 2021 4:11:18 PM
The reason fraudster are getting what they want is because we let them.Everyone wants to make a quick buck well there is no such thing as a quick buck. I had a call from someone who said that they were from goggle, yes the search engine. So I asked why they want to talk with my husband and they said that it was about some software that he was having a problem with. Well being a suspious person I actually phoned GOGGLE and they said that no one from this company would call and that is what I thought. So my gut was right it was a scam. As for car warrenty companies calling here well that would be a joke. Because our warrenty ran out months ago, and can'nt afford any other warrenty for the car. So people would rather not go with there gut and give out there information. As for the ATM scams we have not been affected because my hubby takes all of it out of the bank account so if someone scims our card they would see that there is no money to take. So lesson to be learn on this whole fraud thing is beware of who you deal with and who you do buy from. Don't use your credit card or debt card use cash.
Posted by: loser | Jul 22, 2021 4:55:35 PM
u wanna c fraud? get into the insurance restoration business as a mere employee and sit back and watch the magnitude of the fraud being committed on a daily basis AND NOT BY THE HOMEOWNER!