Fraud Crimes

Types of Fraud crimes

Depending on the circumstances under which the crime was committed, fraud criminal charges may be issued at a federal or state level. This offense is considered white collar even if in some cases, individuals could get physically or financially harmed. The information targeted by a fraud perpetrator is often financial so that they can have some monetary gain from the action.

There exist different types of crimes involving varying means that can get prosecuted as fraud crimes in California. Regardless of the kind of fraud committed, the penalties and consequences could be severe. However, different penalties apply to individual types of fraud offenses. Some of the most common categories of fraud crimes include:

Identity Theft and Forgery

Falsifying any document is a criminal fraud offense. Since most forgeries are made in the attempt to change one's identification for personal gain, these actions violate both California’s fraud and forgery laws. Under the California Penal Code Section 530.5, it is an offense to:

• Acquire or even retain identification documents of another person with the intention to commit fraud without their consent
• Willfully obtain the personal identification documents or information of another person and use them without the owner's knowledge
• Transfer, sell or give away a person’s identifying information with prior experience that the information might be used for fraud

Identity fraud can be committed in various ways including posing as someone else with the purpose of getting financial benefits, signing another person’s documents with the intent to harm them, or even pretending to be someone else and using their social media accounts for your gain. Forging someone’s documents or stealing their identity is taken very seriously, therefore, if you are charged with this crime, it would be wise to seek the services of an attorney with experience in dealing with these types of situations.

Under the Penal Code Section 530.5 of California law, theft of identity could get treated as either a misdemeanor or a felony. This will depend on the circumstances under which the crime was committed, your criminal history, and monetary value involved as a result of the fraud.

As a misdemeanor, the defendant is likely to pay up to $1000 worth of fines and spend a minimum of 12 months in county jail. Since a felony conviction is more severe than a misdemeanor, the accused could spend up to three years in state prison and would be required to pay fines of up to $10,000.

Check Fraud

You are considered to have committed check fraud if you are found in possession, using or an attempt to use a check to defraud the payee and presenting a fake check as genuine. Under section 476 of the California penal code, it is a criminal offense to endorse a check with someone else’s name or other identifying details without their knowledge. In such a case, the check may be genuine, but when signed under fictions and unauthorized name, it becomes false and illegal.

In these type of cases, a prosecutor will study the facts and circumstances surrounding the action before charging you. To get convicted of check fraud, the prosecutor is required to prove without a reasonable doubt that you made, possessed, or attempted to use a falsified check in payment of money or acquiring an item. There should also be proof that you were aware of the nature of the falsified document but you still went ahead to use it with the intentions of committing fraud and gaining some financial benefits.

In the case where the falsified documents were passed to someone else to carry out the transaction, the court will also require evidence that the defendant had ill intentions. Since check fraud is often as a result of forgery, the penalties of copying are added to those of the check fraud when sentencing. If you are accused of this crime, you are likely to spend up to three years in prison. However, early intervention of a skilled criminal defense attorney could help to reduce the case to a misdemeanor charge, and hence you spend one year in jail.

Insurance Fraud

It is considered insurance fraud when someone attempts to obtain or recover insurance benefits which they are not otherwise entitled to. The California fraud laws are after punishing individuals who present false claims intended to acquire payment from insurance companies. You can commit insurance fraud based on the false presentation of claims or deliberate exaggeration of the fees to be made.

State laws of California define different types of claims to get treated as insurance fraud crimes such as health insurance, automobile insurance, workers compensation, and property insurance claims. Generally, the prosecutor for an insurance fraud crime will require proof of the defendant’s intention to carry out the fraud. He/she should show that you made claims that you were not entitled to or you knowingly exaggerated the amount you had a right to get from an insurance company. Alternatively, they can show that you made a misleading statement which could change the outcome of the claim and gain you more insurance benefits.

The punishment for insurance fraud convictions varies depending on the category of insurance fraud committed. As a misdemeanor insurance fraud in California, insurance fraud may result in a $10000, up to one year in jail, or both. General insurance fraud crime could cost you a maximum of five years in prison and $50000 depending on the amount of money involved.

When prosecuted as a felony, an insurance fraud crime may result in an increased fine of up to $ 150000 and two years of prison time will be added with every previous felony conviction for the same offense. The court may also ask you to compensate the victim for the losses they incurred due to your action.

Foreclosure Fraud

The foreclosure fraud is one of the most commonly prosecuted crimes in California concerning real estate. Foreclosure fraud occurs when an individual who is a known foreclosure consultant postpones a foreclosure without a valid reason. You can also get accused of this crime when you are part of a fraudulent activity dealing with closed homes or those in the process of closure.

Under section 2945.4 of California civil laws, it would be unlawful for an individual with the responsibility to postpone foreclosure sales to:

• Collect compensation without completion of the services they agreed upon with a homeowner,
• Take any security collateral on the property in question or take any interest to allow the sale of a foreclosed property,
• Charge exaggerated fees for their services,
• Acquire the powers of an attorney or attempt to coerce the owner of the property to sign contracts that don’t comply with the rules and regulations, or
• Accept money from a third party and alter the nature of the services made with the homeowner without their knowledge or consent.

Foreclosure fraud is a wobbler crime, and depending on your case, the judge will charge it as a misdemeanor or a felony. A misdemeanor will attract a one year sentence and $10,000 of fines while a felony sentence may vary from 16 months to three years in prison.

Besides, a foreclosure fraud crime may result in additional penalties under various circumstances. In the case where you have two or more prior convictions for fraud, and the victim suffered a loss totaling to $100,000 or more, a maximum of four years and $500,000 fine will be added to your sentence.

If a property owner happens to suffer a loss of $65,000, the foreclosure agent will have to serve between one and four years as an additional sentence. They are also required to compensate the victim.

Credit Card Fraud

You are considered to have committed a credit card fraud when you use or attempt to use a debit or credit card for personal gain on the expense of someone else. You will only get proven guilty if the action was intentional and your sole aim was to defraud another person or company.

Section 484 of California credit card laws seek to punish individuals who forge documents, alter signatures, which are the actions that result in credit card fraud. Everyday activities regarded as credit card fraud offenses include using someone else’s credit card details without their consent, using your credit card to make transactions with prior knowledge that it is expired or doesn’t have sufficient funds, and using a stole card to acquire goods or services.

The nature of the violation is likely to be a critical factor in the determination of the penalties you get if you are facing credit card charges. The crime may be punished as petty theft where a low amount of money (a maximum of 950 dollars) is involved. Petty theft is a misdemeanor, and you can spend a maximum of six months in jail and incur a fine of $1,000. However, under circumstances where the victim lost large sums of money, the credit card fraud will be punished as grand theft, which is a felony. These charges are likely to cost you up to three years imprisonment and a fine of $10,000.

Securities Fraud

In the business context, securities are business arrangements where one gets a percentage of ownership rights to the entity or the rights to debt repayment. Situations that can cause an occurrence of securities fraud are:

• Selling of securities that violate the qualification terms,
• Providing false, misleading, or exaggerated information on the value and market of a given security,
• Selling securities that are not qualified according to section 25110 of California corporations code, and
• Buying or selling securities with information not disclosed to other members of the public as a result of personal relationships with an entity.

Individuals likely to get caught up in security fraud cases are accountants, company shareholders, and stock exchange traders. The penalties for this offense are likely to be higher compared to those of other fraud crimes since they involve a high monetary value.

Under California’s Corporations Code section 25540(a), an individual who is caught engaging in market manipulation, making misleading or false statements for the sake of security transactions, will be punished by serving a maximum of five years in prison and fined a maximum of $10 million. Additionally, engaging in sales of securities without compliance with the qualifications and as a result, violating these terms is punishable by spending up to three years in state prison and paying a fine of $1 million.

In addition to serving time in jail, paying fines and compensating the victim, if you get convicted for any fraud crime, you risk losing your professional license and the rights to continue practicing in your field of expertise.