Curlie

Fraud

In law, fraud is intentional deception to cause a person to give up property or some lawful right. Fraud as more generally defined is deceit, trickery or cheating. This category is intended more for the legal description of fraud but may involve human rights or other issues which may or may not have any monetary or economic concerns.

This is not a category for service providers. To locate or submit service provider sites, please see:
Attorneys and Law Firms
Business: Investing
Personal Finance: Investing

For legal information, please see Consumer Protection Information and Securities Information.

Advance Fee Fraud

The scheme usually works as follows:

* An individual or company receives a letter or fax from an alleged "official" representing a foreign government or agency;

* An offer is made to transfer millions of dollars in "over invoiced contract" funds into your personal bank account;

* You are encouraged to travel overseas to complete the transaction;

* You are requested to provide blank company letterhead forms, banking account information, telephone/fax numbers; You receive numerous documents with official looking stamps, seals and logo testifying to the authenticity of the proposal;

* Eventually you must provide up-front or advance fees for various taxes, attorney fees, transaction fees or bribes.

The leading host nation for this form of fraud at present is Nigeria.

Internet

Please do not submit sites to this category unless they educate people on how to avoid being defrauded, the history of this and similar pyramid scheme frauds, or the possible consequences of passing one on.

Investment

Investment frauds include every kind of fraud or misconduct related to stocks, bonds, commodities, limited partnerships, real estate, and other investments. This category collects sites that are of interest to people who want to avoid being cheated, to learn about the most common types of investment frauds, and to explore controversies surrounding investment schemes and scams.

This is not a category for service providers. To locate or submit service provider sites, please see:

For legal information, please see Consumer Protection Information and Securities Information.