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An advance-fee scam is a form of fraud and is one of the most common types of confidence tricks. The scam typically involves promising the victim a significant share of a large sum of money, in return for a small up-front payment, which the fraudster claims will be used to obtain the large sum. If a victim makes the payment, the fraudster either invents a series of further fees for the victim to pay or simply disappears.
In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law or criminal law, or it may cause no loss of money, property, or legal right but still be an element of another civil or criminal wrong. The purpose of fraud may be monetary gain or other benefits, for example by obtaining a passport, travel document, or driver's license, or mortgage fraud, where the perpetrator may attempt to qualify for a mortgage by way of false statements.
Law enforcement in the United Kingdom is organised separately in each of the legal systems of the United Kingdom: England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Most law enforcement duties are carried out by those who hold the office of police constable of a territorial police force.
The City of London Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the City of London, England, including the Middle and Inner Temples. The force responsible for law enforcement within the remainder of the London region, outside the city, is the much larger Metropolitan Police, a separate organisation. The City of London, which is now primarily a financial business district with a small resident population but a large commuting workforce, is the historic core of London, and has an administrative history distinct from that of the rest of the metropolis, of which its separate police force is one manifestation.
HM Revenue and Customs is a non-ministerial department of the UK Government responsible for the collection of taxes, the payment of some forms of state support, the administration of other regulatory regimes including the national minimum wage and the issuance of national insurance numbers. HMRC was formed by the merger of the Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise, which took effect on 18 April 2005. The department's logo is the St Edward's Crown enclosed within a circle.
Insurance fraud is any act committed to defraud an insurance process. It occurs when a claimant attempts to obtain some benefit or advantage they are not entitled to, or when an insurer knowingly denies some benefit that is due. According to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, the most common schemes include premium diversion, fee churning, asset diversion, and workers compensation fraud. Perpetrators in the schemes can be insurance company employees or claimants. False insurance claims are insurance claims filed with the fraudulent intention towards an insurance provider.
The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) regulates insurers and other companies that conduct insurance business in Texas, and assists Texas-based insurance consumers. TDI was founded in 1876 as the Department of Insurance, Statistics and History.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is a Nigerian law enforcement agency that investigates financial crimes such as advance fee fraud and money laundering. The EFCC was established in 2003, partially in response to pressure from the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), which named Nigeria as one of 23 countries non-cooperative in the international community's efforts to fight money laundering. The agency has its head office in Abuja, Nigeria.
Sholam Weiss is an American convicted fraudster.
Organised crime in Nigeria includes activities by fraudsters, bandits, drug traffickers and racketeers, which have spread across Western Africa. Nigerian criminal gangs rose to prominence in the 1980s, owing much to the globalisation of the world's economies and the high level of lawlessness and corruption in the country.
John Edward Palmer was an English criminal, former market trader and gold dealer, involved in various criminal activities including mortgage and timeshare fraud.
Established by the legislature in 1976, The Division of Insurance Fraud is the law enforcement arm of the Department of Financial Services and is responsible for investigating insurance fraud; crimes associated with claim fraud, insurance premium fraud, workers' compensation claim fraud, workers’ compensation premium avoidance and diversions, insurer insolvency fraud, unauthorized insurance entity fraud and insurance agent crimes. The law enforcement detectives of the Division of Insurance Fraud also investigate viatical settlement application fraud, defalcations of escrow funds held in trust by title insurance firms, and non-Medicaid related health care fraud.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) is a national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom. It is the UK's lead agency against organised crime; human, weapon and drug trafficking; cybercrime; and economic crime that goes across regional and international borders; but it can be tasked to investigate any crime. The NCA has a strategic role as part of which it looks at serious crime in aggregate across the UK, especially analysing how organised criminals are operating and how they can be disrupted. To do this, it works closely with regional organised crime units (ROCUs), local police forces, and other government departments and agencies.
The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud is a coalition of insurance organizations, consumers, government agencies and legislative bodies working to enact anti-fraud legislation, educate the public, and provide anti-fraud advice. They are also a resource where consumers can find scam warnings, learn where to report fraud, and how to protect themselves.
The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) is a unit of the City of London Police, the national lead force for fraud. It was established in 2013 with the responsibility to investigate and deter serious and organised intellectual property crime in the United Kingdom.
Zamira Shirali qizi Hajiyeva is an Azerbaijani expatriate in the United Kingdom. She is married to Jahangir Hajiyev, a former chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan who has since been jailed there for financial crimes. In 2018 she became the first recipient of an unexplained wealth order under a new UK anti-corruption law. She was known as "Mrs A" during the legal proceedings before her identity was revealed.
Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, commonly known as Hushpuppi, Hush, or Ray Hushpuppi is a Nigerian former Instagram influencer and convicted felon. He was sentenced in the United States to 11 years for conspiracy to launder money obtained from business email compromise frauds and other scams, including schemes that defrauded a US law firm out of approximately $40 million, illegally transferred $14.7 million from a foreign financial institution, and targeted to steal $124 million from an English Premier League club.
The Fraud Advisory Panel is a UK charitable organisation. Incorporated in 2001, the Panel focuses on offering advice and education to the general public on how to mitigate and avoid fraud. Panel members have provided evidence to the House of Commons Tresury Select Committee and frequently participate in government consultations and commentary on the television, radio, and newspapers.
References
- ↑ "Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department". www.cityoflondon.police.uk.
- ↑ "About IFED". www.cityoflondon.police.uk.
- ↑ O’Dwyer, Peter (2018-07-04). "Insurers back specialist fraud unit". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460 . Retrieved 2018-07-30.
- ↑ "Q&A: DCI Andy Fyfe, Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department - Insurance Post". Insurance Post. 2018-02-14. Retrieved 2018-07-30.
- ↑ "DCI Dave Wood, Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department". Strategic Risk Europe. Retrieved 2018-07-30.
- ↑ admin (2012-01-26). "Flurry of arrests mark Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department launch". Action Fraud. Retrieved 2018-07-30.
- ↑ Barrett, David; Mendick, Robert (5 February 2012). "Private firms give UK police forces millions of pounds to investigate crimes". The Telegraph. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
- ↑ "Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department officers to feature in BBC documentary". cityoflondon.police.uk. 15 February 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
- ↑ "Claimed and Shamed Series 8 - Orange Smarty" . Retrieved 30 July 2018.
Back for another series Claimed and Shamed looks at exposing even more insurance fraudsters lying on the phone or caught out on camera. We follow the Met Police and the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department on a number of early morning raids, as they hunt down, arrest and convict suspected insurance fraudsters.
