October 29, 2005
Can a Science of Social Influence Be Used to Stop Economic Fraud Crimes?
Published in APA Psychological Science Agenda, 19(9), October 2005
An article by Anthony R. Pratkanis, based on testimony given before the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging on July 27, 2005.
Every year Americans lose over $100 billion in telemarketing, investment, and charity fraud. [...] For the last 50 plus years, researchers have been investigating experimentally the nature of social influence (Cialdini, 2001; Pratkanis, in press; Pratkanis & Aronson, 2001). Can this research be put to use to prevent economic fraud? Fortunately, the answer is a resounding yes.
Posted by Emma at 03:27 PM | Comments (0)
June 05, 2005
Don't try pulling the wool over the eyes of these lie detectives
Reporter MAHEESHA KOTTEGODA takes a lesson from lie detectives at fraud detection company, Absolute, to discover how to spot dishonesty by clever questioning and listening intently. [...] Desk detectives at Wood Street are trained to pick up on the tell-tale signs of dishonesty on behalf of insurance giants like esure and Legal and General, as well as credit card companies. Within the space of a phone call or two, call handlers can judge whether claimants are genuine by using forensic psychology and specialised interviewing techniques. Essentially, in its simplest form, it boils down to the way a story is told, the language used and the level of emotion expressed.
[Thank you to the LIE-DETECTION list for highlighting this one]
Posted by Emma at 08:47 AM | Comments (0)
May 28, 2005
New offence to clarify and strengthen fraud law (UK)
Home Office Press Release 26 May 2005
A new offence of fraud, designed to strengthen the existing law and ease the prosecution process, is the main feature of the Government?s Fraud Bill, which is published today.
The new offence, which would carry a maximum sentence of ten years, can be committed in three ways:
By false representation.
By failing to disclose information.
By abuse of position.
Details:
By false representation. An example of the type of act covered by this offence would include ?phishing?; or the act of disseminating an email to large groups of people falsely representing to be a legitimate financial institution in order to can gain access to others' personal financial information.
By failing to disclose information. For example, a solicitor who fails to share vital information with a client within the context of their work relationship, in order to make a gain from his client, would be committing an offence.
By abuse of position. This offence would cover a situation where a person employed to care for the elderly or disabled, takes advantage of his position of access to their accounts in order to remove money.
The aim of the Bill is to clarify the current statutory offences, which are very specific and overlapping. This means it is not always clear which offence should be charged, and defendants have successfully argued that their particular deceptive behaviourdid not fit the definition of the offence with which they had been charged.
The Fraud Bill will also introduce the new offences of:
Obtaining services dishonestly. For example, a person who tenders an improperly obtained credit card to obtain services from the Internet would be committing a crime under this offence.
Possessing articles or use in frauds. This would make it an offence to possess, manufacture or supply equipment, such as a computer programme that can generate genuine credit card numbers, to be used to commit or facilitate fraud.
Participating in fraudulent business. This offence extends the existing offence of fraudulent trading by incorporated bodies to businesses other than companies."
Posted by Emma at 09:40 AM | Comments (0)