Fraud on the Rise

They're like modern-day true twists on the Ocean's Eleven saga: gambling-related fraud stories. A story recently made headlines about a casino scam in France: a man marked a deck with invisible ink and three other men played cards with that deck while wearing special lenses that enabled them to see the ink. These men were arrested for scamming casinos up to $88,000 in American conversion. The men could face up to ten years in jail.

Another story in Texas involved an illegal gaming business. The business generated more than $1 million a year and yet its owner concealed the operation by placing assets in the name of third persons, destroying business transactions and paying employees in cash.

The biggest growing gambling fraud however involves online gambling. Websites brag about their "tried and true" system, but when visitors pay a fee to receive their system, it either never gets sent to them or it doesn't work. Furthermore, many people involved in these sites aren't just looking for your money: they're looking for your personal information.

According to a report by ABC News, 2011 was the worst year of suspected financial crimes on record. Besides casino fraud, cases of money laundering, consumer loan fraud, debit card fraud and mortgage loan fraud reached an all-time high.

According to experts, criminals weren't the only ones tempted to commit fraud crimes last year: the financially difficult times encouraged even reputable, average citizens to cut corners as well. In the words of one fraud and forensics consultant, "You have [a] well-educated person in a position of trust and influence high up in an organization and all of a sudden [they] have this motivation because they are caught between a rock and a hard place, and you can imagine what they do." In four short years (2007-2011), fraud cases increased by 74%.

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