Threats, Extortion, and Fake Charities - Assignment Example

Threats and extortion Extortion is the criminal offense of acquiring money or even property from a person or an organization through the means of coercion. In addition, it is sometimes also known as the protection racket because the racketeers usually phrase their own demands so as to make them payment of the protection from various threats from other parties which are not specified. Moreover, extortion in most cases is usually practiced by the crime groups which are well organized and law enforcement against the citizens to stimulate the local economies which are under servitude or even protection (Payne, 2010). However, the original obtainment of the property or money does not actually require an offense to be committed. Threats are created in terms of violence in need for the payment of either money or property in order to prevent the future violence is actually enough for an offense to be committed. Extortion is quite different from the term robbery. On the side of robbery, regardless of whether the offender is armed or not, the offender grabs the victim`s property or money by using the immediate force. Extortion is not actually limited to taking away property from the victim but also it involves the instillation of fear through threats either verbally or written concerning something that will happen to a victim in case they fail to adhere to the will of the extortionist. Furthermore, during blackmail which usually involves the aspect of extortion, an extortionist gives the victim a threat of revealing the critical information about the victim. Revealing the critical information can be very embarrassing, incriminating or even socially damaging the moment the victim fails to meet the property or money which is required by the offender. However, in sometimes the term extortion is usually used metaphorically when referring to the aspect of usury and also price-gouging (Rose-Ackerman, 2010). Also, it can be used to refer to the daily situations in which an individual feels indebted against a certain will, to another individual so as to evade the legal consequences. In addition, both the extortion as well as the blackmail always involves the criminal act of threats in order to elicit actions, property or even money from the victim. Some of the threats which are used by the offenders to obtain money or property from a victim include; revealing damaging information and also reporting a false criminal offense to the police. Real life example John decided to try an investment opportunity as his funds were not doing well. The investment involved investment professionals where he had a login account that showed his money increasing as the market was improving. This made him believe that the system was working and since he had the confident with the system he invested $200,000. He later realized the investment scheme was just a mere scam the moment the website was closed and he could not access it. After conducting a research he realized that it was a fake company that was not registered. He could do nothing to recover his money ending up losing $200,000. Fake charities The approach of the fake charity usually takes place around the societies and in most cases, the fake charity approaches respond to the real disasters or even emergencies. These disasters emergencies that fake charities pretend to respond can include flooding, the earthquakes and also fire outbreaks among the others. Fake charities in all circumstances make efforts to take the advantage of an individual`s generosity as well as the compassion for those people in need (Hsu, Liang, and Tien, 2005). For instance, the scammers can steal money from an individual by providing a genuine charity. However, apart from these scams costing people money, they also tend to divert a lot of the donations from the legitimate charities. Some of the fake charities can take place in the medical research and also the support pretenders of disease victims. In addition, scammers usually play with the emotions of people by posing a claim that they are assisting the ill children. Furthermore, the fake charities can operate in various ways, where an individual can be approached in the streets by people who are collecting money. Also, the scammers can establish a website which is fake that look similar to the websites which are operated by the real charities with aim of achieving their objective. However, there are some strategies that can be employed in the process of preventing the fake charities. For instance, an individual should never reveal personal information, account details and also details of the credit card to any person who you do not know or even trust. In case a street collector approaches you, try to ask them about their identification, and if at all you have doubts in them, then do not contribute to them. However, it can be challenging to establish the charities that are fake hence in case of any doubts ignoring can be the best option (Charbonneau, 2009). Also, in case a street collector approaches you, ask the individual to provide you with the charity details which include their full names, the purpose of their collection and also their personal address. If the street collector tends to be defensive and is unable to answer your questions then hang up. It is crucial to avoid in all circumstances making arrangement for payment with a stranger through the money order, international funds transfer and also wire transfer of cash since it is quite difficult to recover the cash which has been sent through these methods. Real life example Steve was a victim of the fake charities where he was approached by two gentlemen who were seeking his help. They introduced a charity that was aimed at helping the people suffering from hunger and requested his contributions towards helping the victims of hunger. The scammers even showed Steve the contributions that were made by other people to help in saving a life. He had all the reasons to believe that it was a real charity and out of his generous heart he was convinced to give his contributions. He later realized it was fake charity when he saw the news warning people about the charity program. Attempts to gain your personal information The identity theft usually takes place when a criminal gets access to the individual informational which include the details of the bank accounts, address and also name and then making use of the information to steal money or even accrue other kinds of benefits. Moreover, criminals can make use of the personal informational of another individual in order to forge fake identity documents. Criminals can put efforts in attempting to obtain the personal information of an individual by using various techniques that include the provision of the personal informational through the internet (Smith and Budd, 2009). Also, hacking into the online accounts of other individuals. They can retrieve the personal information of various individuals through the social media. It involves illegal access of the personal information for the individuals which is stored in a business database. There are usually various ways in which the personal information of various individuals is used by the criminals. these ways used can include tracking an individual`s bank institution in order to give them an access to the money which is in your account. Second, opening new accounts and also creating debts by using your name thus destroying your credit rating. Third, taking control of an individual`s accounts such as changing the credit card address in order to make an individual not able to receive statements of his or her account. Fourth, opening internet accounts by using the personal information of other individuals. Lastly, committing various criminal activities by using another individual`s name. Moreover, the identity theft can actually be financially stressing and also emotionally stressing for the victims. For instance, once an individual`s identity gets stolen, it is quite hard to recover the identity. In case one suspects to be a victim of the identity theft, it is quite important to take quick actions in order to reduce the fraudulent utilization of the identity by taking various measures. These measures that can be taken can include immediately reporting to the police for the necessary action to be taken. In this case, any issue of identity theft should be immediately reported to the nearest police station (Whitty, 2015). In addition, the victim of the identity theft should also make a request to the police to be given a police report since the financial institutions such as the banks and also the government agencies might request it. Also, the theft or loss of the identity credentials needs to be reported to the organization that issued the credentials. It can involve contacting the organization which gave you the identity credential in case you lose it. Besides, in case you find yourself being a victim of the identity theft, you are supposed to contact the credit reporting agency in order to check whether there is any transaction which is not authorized. Real life example An American network technology company was once faced with the employees` fraudulent requests from the outside entity. They were actually targeting the finance department of this company. Consequently, the fraud resulted in the company losing 46.7 million dollars through spear phishing e-mail. Unexpected money It is a scam that provides an individual with a false promise of inheritance in order to trick a person to share out his or her bank details. In addition, a scammer can try to convince a person to claim a huge inheritance from a wealthy benefactor. A scammer can contact an individual through a phone call, social networking message or even via a text message (Levi, 2008). In sometimes, a scammer may pose a claim that the wealthy person died without writing a will and therefore an individual is able to inherit the wealth through legal trickery since the individual may be sharing the last name which is similar. However, in case an individual makes a mistake of paying the scammers, the individual will not actually receive the inheritance money as per the promise neither will they get the money which they had paid back and above all they may leave themselves open to the identity theft. There are some signs that can make one realize the scam. This includes being conducted by a scammer pretending to be a lawyer or even a banker who is providing large inheritance from a wealthy individual. The offers from the scammers will seem to be convincing and may have an official-like letterhead but will always have spelling mistakes as well as grammatical errors. The promised inheritance may be in large quantities and in most of the times are usually quoted in terms of the foreign currency. Provision of fake statements of the bank accounts and also birth certificates among the other documents in case you try to question about legitimacy (Button, Nicholls, Kerr and Owen, 2014). Protection from the scam can involve avoiding payment arrangement through a money order, international transfer of funds, wire transfer or even through money order because it is quite hard to recover money which is sent through these ways. Consulting an independent professional such as the accountant, financial planner or even a lawyer in case you are in doubts. Searching for the internet email of the scammer by using the names because the majority of the scams can get identified through this way. Failing to respond to the scammer since the majority of the scammers make use of the personal touch in order to play about with an individuals` emotions to obtain what they are in need of. Real Life example Michael came from a low-income family which was living in the basement apartment which was quite small. However, there was no happiness in their family because his parents were used to fight frequently hence after high school, Michael distanced himself from his parents and became an actor. One day Michael was called over by the bank and he was informed by the teller that he was actually the beneficiary of the life insurance policy of his father. However, during the summer theater festival, Michael was used to having dinner with his friends, but unfortunately, it was when the summer season came to an end when he realized that all his money had gone. References Button, M., Nicholls, C. M., Kerr, J., & Owen, R. (2014). Online frauds: Learning from victims why they fall for these scams. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 47(3), 391-408. Charbonneau, J. (2009). Charities and tax abuse. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD Observer, (273), 27. Hsu, J. L., Liang, G. Y., & Tien, C. P. (2005). Social concerns and willingness to support charities. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 33(2), 189-200. Levi, M. (2008). The phantom capitalists: The organization and control of long-firm fraud. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. Payne, R. A. (2010). Rebuilding the prevent defense: why unethical agents continue to score and what can be done to change the game. Vand. J. Ent. & Tech. L., 13, 657. Rose-Ackerman, S. (2010). The law and economics of bribery and extortion. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 6, 217-238. Smith, R. G., & Budd, C. (2009). Consumer fraud in Australia: costs, rates and awareness of the risks in 2008. Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, (382), 1. Whitty, M. T. (2015). Mass-marketing fraud: a growing concern. IEEE Security & Privacy, 13(4), 84-87. Read More