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BIFRANCHISE
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A confidence trick or confidence game (also known as a bunko, con, flim flam, gaffle, grift, hustle, scam, scheme, swindle or bamboozle) is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence.
The victim is known as the mark, the trickster is called a confidence man, con man, confidence trickster, grifter, or con artist, and any accomplices are known as plants. Confidence men or women exploit characteristics of the human psyche such as greed, both dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility, naïveté, and the thought of trying to get something of value for nothing or for something far less valuable.
Confidence men or women have victimized individuals from all walks of life. | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_trick |
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BIFRANCHISE
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Consumer Fraud - is "the act, use, or employment by any person of any deceptive act or practice, fraud, false pretense, false promise, or misrepresentation, with the intent to rely thereon in connection with the sale or advertisement or any merchandise." The term "merchandise" includes services. "Intent" does not mean only that the seller intended to defraud, but rather that the seller intended the buyer to rely on the practice, misrepresentation, false statement, etc. There are several schemes (also called “confidence games”) that are used by organization and professional “con artists” against their victims:
1. Advance Fee Cons – obtaining an illegal gain by falsely promising the delivery of a product or a service and requiring the consumer to pay a processing or other advance fee. After the victim pays the fee, the con artist disappears.
2. Directory Advertising Cons – selling advertising in a non-existent magazine or directory. A fake or even a real directory is shown to the potential victim who contracts and pays for display or classified advertising that is to appear some months in the future.
3. Merchandising Cons – advertising one item and, after receipt of the payment, delivering to the consumer the item of lesser quality.
4. Diploma Mills – selling a “diploma” from inexistent or unaccredited school/college/university and claiming that the fee is for “processing” the application and/or for verifying the experience necessary for the degree to be awarded.
5. Modeling “Schools” – claiming having connections to famous people in movie or fashion industry and maintaining that the “school” has been instrumental in starting the careers of successful models, then charging an inflated price for the pictures to be sent to potential customers who may employ the victim as a model.
6. Direct Debit from Checking Account – unauthorized withdrawals from the victim’s account after the victim has been lured to divulge his bank’s name and his checking account number.
7. Equity-Skimming Cons – convincing the victim to borrow against the equity of their homes.
8. Fundraising, Nonprofits, and Religious Cons – convincing the victim to give donations to a legitimate cause (like AIDS, Poor African Kids, Cancer, etc.) by pretending to be a legitimate charitable organization.
9. Home-Based Businesses – marketing home-based businesses that require the victim to buy materials for assembly-at-home products. The victim is promised that the company will purchase the completed products, and when it does not, the victim is left with a bad investment and a stock of cheap, worthless goods.
10. Home Improvements – one of the most common swindles involving phony repair people selling their services door-to-door. After paying them to fix a roof, window, or other item, the consumer is left with unfinished repair work and no workers.
11. Money Manager or Financial Planner – convincing victims to “invest” in low-risk, high-return opportunities. However, consumers who invest in this type of opportunity see no returns at all.
12. Phone Card Cons – claiming to be with the victims’ long distance company and asking to confirm their card number
13. Scavenger or Revenge Cons – this consists of two steps: firstly, some company or individual cons the victim; secondly, using a different company’s name, the outfit contacts the consumer again and asks if he would like (for a small, one-time up-front fee) to help put the unethical company out of business and get his money back.
14. There are also several cons that have their own distinctive names:
• “Block Hustle” – so-called because purveyors of cheap and usually stolen stereo equipment, jewelry and watches usually hawk their goods on street corners or at traffic lights.
• “Pigeon Drop” – pretending to find a wallet full of money, the con men convince their victim that they should divide the “discovered” money. As a show of good faith, each should withdraw a sum of money from their bank and turn it over to a lawyer or another third party for safekeeping. They agree to place an ad in a newspaper for the lost wallet. If it is not claimed within a certain amount of time, they will split the money. Naturally, when the designated time expires, the victim will find that the lawyer was part of the scam and that her money has vanished.
• “Bank Examiner” – impersonating a bank examiner investigating the bank and asking the victim to withdraw a certain amount of cash from the account, place it in an envelope, and allow the “examiner” to inspect the bills for counterfeits.
• “Jamaican Handkerchief” – putting con artist’s money into an envelope with the victim’s money and then unobtrusively trading this parcel for another that looks like the same thing but is instead bulked up with worthless paper.
• “Obituary Hustle” – capitalizing on a bereaved person’s grief, the con man, culling information from an obituary, poses as a delivery person collecting money for a package or other order the deceased supposedly made.
• “Three-Card Monte” – card game that involves two people who fleece an unsuspecting onlooker into a rigged game.
• “Poker Bunco” – can involve poker, dice, pool, and other games. The con man is of course an expert and “hustles” the victim.
• “Missing-Heir” – con man poses as a probate investigator or other genealogist, charging fees to distribute the inheritance.
• “Gold Mine” – con man claims to own a productive mine but requires money to start operation.
• “Spanish Prisoner” – sending to a businessman a letter purportedly from a hostage held prisoner in some foreign land that needs money to bribe his captors or pay a ransom. As collateral, a treasure map or other “valuable papers” are often enclosed.
• “Murphy Game” (a.k.a. “Miss Murphy”, “paddy hustle”, or “carpet game”) – con artist plays a pimp but never delivers the prostitute.
• “Badger Game” – version of “Miss Murphy”, but in this con, the con woman or prostitute is in on the swindle. The con artist robs the mark of his wallet through simple theft or pretence of blackmail.
• “Goat Pasture” – calling a victim and pretending to be from an oil and gas service that is sponsoring a lottery on mineral rights. If the victim invests a certain tax deductible sum, they can receive a percentage of the income in royalty payments.
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