Essays on Scam

What is a 'Ponzi Scheme', how it Works and How does it Collapse?

A Ponzi scheme represents a fraudulent investment trick where the promoter pays return on investment to previous investors from the money invested by new investors instead of the money earned through profit or gain. Customers are promised to receive higher investment returns, compared to market averages, with no risk at all since they will be paid from the money provided by new clients. This investment scam requires an ample flow of clientele for powering the whole fraudulent system. A Ponzi scheme comes into existence when the promoter is able to cllect initial investment funds from a person. This scheme ...

Abstract

The Madoff Securities scandal was one of the biggest Ponzi schemes to hit America. This essay would examine the Madoff scandal from an audit perspective since it was the complacency (or collusion) of the auditors that encouraged the perpetrator of this scam. While the scam that was pulled by Bernie Madoff, was both large and difficult to spot, its detection also helped expose a crucial flaw that existed in corporate America at the time. This was the lack of regulatory oversight in the Securities business. While one could lay the blame for this scandal on the Regulator, another important ...

Educational affiliation

Abstract Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics The paper analyses the role of the ethics and corporate state responsibility in the terms of the automotive industry. The study is to evaluate the role of the local ethics and the Corporate Social Responsibility in the process of the international development of the automotive industry. The key objectives are to evaluate the roles of these two concepts, find out the role of the customers’ awareness of the unethical behavior, and describe the patterns of change. The study validates why the car industry should focus on the ethical considerations and the CSR. This ...

The Madoff Securities case was a phenomenal one, in terms of the sheer size of the funds involved, the duration over which the scam took place as well as the stature of the victims affected. In most comparable schemes, the victims are usually those who have a very limited understanding of financial products and such schemes mostly do not last very long. This paper will review the case by determining the regulatory oversight in place at the time of the scandal and reasons why this scheme was not discovered as well as delve into other aspects of the case.

Regulatory Oversight of the SEC

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In the court systems, various felonies are penalized following the court's guidelines. There are a variety of particulars that go into a sentencing pronouncement. An individual who commits a financial fraud may go to jail for a longer period, compared to someone who commits murder, as is the case of Bernard Madoff, who went to jail for 150 years for committing financial crime and Karla Homolka was sentenced to 12 years in prison for murder. It is, however, clear that an extensive range of verdicts are not necessarily rational to the victims or the scam culprits. This paper looks ...

The fall of Enron

What went wrong and why? Answer. The wrong done in the case of Enron and the reason for the wrong can be described on the basis of the following aspects of their business: Enron’s core business was initially focused on natural gas pipeline and they made exceptional growth in the business. By the end of the 1990s they decided to diversify their business to the newly emerging business of asset management, construction, and Internet operations. Enron entered into foreign markets of Latin America, Asia, and UK with fresh subsidiaries focusing on development of asset management, construction, and internet ...

Volkswagen Scandal

Dear XYZ, In response to the work assigned for preparing a report on Volkswagen emission controversy, please find enclosed the detailed internal report containing my findings and recommendations pertaining to the issue. As I found, the company is going through the tough time when it is facing actions from the regulators and other agencies for violating the emission norms of the different countries. Also, there is a big blow to credibility in the eyes of customers. Concerted efforts of all the stakeholders are required to tide over the crisis. Based on the sources I referred to, the report goes ...

Because Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun takes its title from Langston Hughes’ poem about the dangers of deferring dreams due to racism, many people assume that the primary theme of the play is the corrosive effects of racism on the souls of African Americans. Indeed, this play is about a family of African American extraction who runs into racism as they try to move from the inner city projects of Chicago to the suburb of Clyborn Park. However, there are other themes at work in the play as well, such as the ins and outs ...

‘A Raisin in the Sun’ is about an African American family who struggle against racism and poverty to get out of the ghetto they live in and move into a white suburb. However Hansberry’s play is also filled with other themes such as pride, family, dreams and there are also many characters who dare to dream beyond their current life. The play focuses on racism, but on poverty as well. However, the beauty of the play lies in the fact that the central theme is family bondage. The poverty in their lives affects every member of the Younger ...

Business with online customers and intellectual properties are using cyber forensic investigators to deal with electronic crimes and employee’s wrongdoing. PayPal scam is one of the cyber crimes that required the knowledge of forensic scientists. Database and Internet investigators played a tremendous role in discovering credit card thieves. PayPal merchants reported being redirected to mock PayPal site. Forensic investigators discovered that the PayPal accounts were opened using the same IP address. The team used Sam Spade, trace route, and freeware network discovery to investigate the matter. Based on the investigation, there is evidence that could be used in ...

‘A Raisin in the Sun’ on the outset is about the Younger family, an African American family who struggle against racism and poverty to get out of the ghetto they live in and move into a white suburb. However Hansberry’s play is also filled with other themes such as pride, family, dreams and full of characters who dare to dream beyond their current life. The beauty of the play lies in the fact that it not only focuses on racism but also on poverty. The poverty in their lives affects every member of the Younger family albeit in ...

In Sean Gallagher’s article “Many new top-level domains have become Internet’s ‘bad neighborhoods’,” the author discusses the dangers of Internet scam artists and fake domain names on the Internet. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) chose to permit a number of top-level domains on the Internet, extending their purview beyond designations for countries and the generic options of .com and .net. As a result, however, security leaders warn that criminals are able to establish websites that look like reputable websites, but are in fact traps with which they could steal user information or rip ...

Introduction

Cybercrime is a crime that is extremely common and it occurs more frequently now that technology is much more advanced and easier to tweak. This means anyone can harass, blackmail, steal from, and hack another individual, even if they are all the way across the world. Cybercrime usually results in many arrests, injuries, and even deaths when things are taken too far. Cybercrime is also rampant because millennials are becoming way too comfortable with sharing too much information on their social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others. The need to brag about their belongings is the ...

Introduction

Contactless payment systems have evolved into a popular method of payment across the United Kingdom and internationally (CPSS 2012). Many merchants, including ExxonMobil, McDonald’s, Burger King, AMT Coffee, Tesco, Subway and other notable members of the hospitality, production, energy and other industries accept this form of payment (Anderson 2015). The most influential members of the international financial community, including MasterCard, Citibank, American Express, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays Bank, Visa and other institutions, involved in banking and financial sector, power the system (Dapp 2012; Chaudhyry 2012). The commentators anticipate that by 2020 every third transaction online and offline will be ...

What is Card Not Present fraud? This is a kind of fraud that involves the unauthorized use of a debit or credit card details to perform a transaction in a non face-to-face setting. This unauthorised activities are usually done without the knowledge of the actual owner of the card. Today, majority of the CNP fraud occurs via the internet while a few occur via call centers operations and through mail. The fact that the merchant doesn’t have the opportunity to inspect the credit or card physically is the reason while it is named “card not present”. Who bears the risk of loss ...

Introduction:

The act of deception of another human being through the use of electronic mail is known as email fraud. The idea of deceiving people online became effective immediately after the introduction of email as a source of communication. As the curiosity of people increased, so did an obsession of hitting the jackpot of luck through the internet by winning a lottery or by winning a vacation, pretty much an idea of anything that could lure people into believing they have won something precious was brought to use.

In the today’s world email frauds have taken a very different and ...

Identification of Crimes and Defenses

Fact Summary: After taking cocaine, Nino and Bill decide they want more. Nino comes up with an idea to “scam” some more from Thomas, the boyfriend of Bill’s sister. On the way to Thomas’ house, Nino explains the details of the scam to Bill. Before arriving however, Nino drops will off and gives him a steak knife and tells him, “I may need protection.” After waiting 45 minutes, Bill walks to Thomas’ house and knocks on the door. Nino rushes out and begins beating him and cursing him for not keeping to the plan. In the process of beating ...

Critically discuss what went wrong with the food supply chains to the supermarkets and manufacturers of processed beef products

In the year 2013, according to the reports of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), horse meat was found in products labelled as 100% beef sold in some UK and Irish supermarkets. Horse-meat was revealed in products which were labelled as 100% beef and sold in Europe, the United Kingdom and France. The existence of DNA of pigs in products was also discovered during the tests in preserving beef products. The products were associated to supplementary of the ABP Food Group, which is one of the leading beef producer with business activities in Poland, Ireland and the UK ...

The “Catch me if you can” movie is one of the most outstanding movies built on a true story. This movie revolves around Frank Abagnale, junior who genuinely adores his parents. Frank’s father is a conman, with several victims in different scam instances. As Frank grew up, he is aware of the existence of scam business. At the age of 16, Frank’s parents get choose to divorce, and Frank is requested to make the one he would leave with after the divorce. This becomes a terribly hard decision for him, and he runs away from any of the parents. ...

Cyber scam is similar to the real life scam, however there is one difference; the cybercriminals use a totally different medium in their path to achieve their goal to deceive others. The cybercriminals can be the hackers, insiders, fraudsters, or the stalkers. The various mediums that are majorly used by the cybercriminals to deceive others are the electronic mail, chat rooms, social networking sites, bulletin boards, newsgroups, and list servs. The number of cyber scams has increased in the recent years due to the easy availability of internet in every corner of the world. The fraudsters can operate in any ...

Following the American Psychological Association’s Guidelines

Introduction Humans are always communicating. Unfortunately, they are not always communicating in the most savory of ways. While some communication efforts start violent or verbally abusive exchanges, some communication begins what are known as scams. Scams take place over many medias, including the internet and telephone. When a scam happens, an individual is typically tricked into giving up personal information without their knowledge. Often one uses intimidations tactics, though varieties of strategies are available. Specifically, when individuals use tech support as a screen, the innocent public is forced into trusting criminals lest they allow their computers to be left open ...

One of the problems which beset many governments today is corruption. With the era of globalization, countries are finding ways on how to eradicate corruption in order to be globally competitive. Investors will definitely not invest in countries whose governments are known to be corrupt. The question that bugs us now is whether corruption can be eradicated or at least be prevented. This essay hopes to argue that corruption can be prevented and can be removed. Corruption figures worldwide are horrendous. According to the Tax Justice Network, almost $30 trillion have been embezzled in the last 15 years ...

Discussion on Ethical and Cultural Aspects of Global Companies

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Introduction

As the world is getting globalized, businesses face more challenges in handling cultural variations. Handling customers, employees, and partners from different backgrounds needs a balancing and an essential understanding of various cultures and beliefs. Additionally, ethical dilemmas are also on the increase for organizations as the focus is more on working conditions, customers' satisfaction, business social responsibility, environmental regard, and the like. This essay discusses challenges of cultural and ethical issues that global organizations face in their regular commercial activities. The author has referred to examples of global companies including Wal-Mart, and Mc ...

Abstract

The 2008 financial crisis provides several examples that can now be cited to illustrate the entire financial system’s vulnerabilities and ample room for improvement. This paper uses the Satyam fraud case to illustrate the ruses and machinations utilized both internally and externally by those publically entrusted to easily perpetrate fraud on a grand scale. The paper cites the methods used to carry out the fraud and the major events leading to the fraud being revealed followed by the monetary, commercial, and public damage the scandal caused. The paper will show how top management with both internal and external auditors ...

Businessman Randy Treadwell violated several principle of good business, and showed no responsibility to his investors. He showed no responsibility to anyone but his partner, Rick Sluter. Both Sluter and Treadwell lacked principles such as integrity, truthfulness, fairness, human dignity, participation, social responsibility, and love. To simplify matters, Treadwell will be the focus of this essay, as he was the leader of the scam. First, Treadwell lied to his investors, telling them that they would receive enormous returns on their investments. Eventually, Treadwell was able to con people out of a total of 65 million dollars. Treadwell was dishonest ...

Introduction & Background

The Management Consultancy industry was estimated to be worth upwards of £44 billion annually by the close of August 2014, and is expected to grow by a further 2.6% over the next year. It comprises more than 121,801 businesses that employ 333,020 people, with services that range from IT consulting, marketing, organizational and strategic planning, business process planning and human resources . The industry, which seeks to create value by solving problems, optimizing growth and improving business performance, traces its roots to the beginning of the 20th century. It emerged in the wake of the Wall Street crash, which ...

Introduction

Sony Corporation is one of the leading manufacturers of electronic products with headquarters located in Konan Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The company evolved as Sony in 1958, when its first product, the TR-55 radio transistor was launched under this brand name. Ever since its inception, the company has been a leading name in the electronics industry and caters for consumer as well as professional markets. According to the 2012 list of Fortune Global 500, the company ranked at the 87th position. The Sony Corporation has four major business units which are divided as follows; Sony Electronics, Sony Motion pictures, and Sony ...

Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility should work in harmony in a corporate world. These are key traits defined for maintaining good business morals, hiring employees with personal ethical values, and behave ethically and sensitively towards the society, economy and environment as a whole. We will discuss four theories in the context of Bernie Madoff and Enron two of the top financial scandals in the history of America. Profit Maximization Theory - This ethical theory requires decision makers to maximize the profits of their business within the limits of the law. According to the theory the role of government and lawmaking ...

Madoff

Madoff was an American who was found guilty of fraud. He was in charge of a Ponzi scheme in the United States. The scheme is known to be one of the biggest financial fraud that ever happened in the United States of America. Madoff through his firm, Madoff Investment Securities, which bypassed other firms through making orders directly over the counter by making use of its retail brokers. Those that assisted him in the fraud crimes included his close relations who he employed at his firm, Madoff Investment securities. He employed his brother and two sons as well as ...

Our daily lives have been immensely transformed by digital technologies and the cyberspace. However, the greater interconnection and dependency attributed to internet pose much greater peril. It has created new and unimaginable opportunities for both financially and ill motivated cyber criminals and those who intend to harm vulnerable members of our community. Well-structured criminal gangs are increasingly using this avenue to commit both conventional crimes such as theft and fraud and also new crimes enabled by progressing innovations. In a nutshell, cybercrime entails the utilization of computer know-how to abet commission of offences. Generally, cybercrimes are categorized into three ...

Union Corruption in US Labour Movement

Introduction Union corruption has been a major issue in the Labour movement, in the USA. The term Labour Movement is indeed a very distinguished term which defines the complete growth of the union & the organizations of the working people (Leonnig, 2004). Beginning of the Labour Movement started at the time when industrial revolution was at its peak in the USA, when jobs related to the agricultural sector started declining, and at the same time the need of employment increased abruptly. In 1864 started the first attempt towards this movement in London, following this in 1871 labourers, in France rebelled which ...

Analysis of the News of the World Case

Introduction The News of the World was one of the big selling newspapers in UK. It was also one of the old newspapers sold in million copies in UK from 1843 to 2011. Owned by the well-reputed media firm News Limited in which Rupert Murdoch, the famous Media tycoon of America, was a managing director, the News of the World was mostly famous for publishing celebrity oriented scandals and populist scoops. Over the years, the newspaper exposed many national as well as local celebrities' sinful sexual acts, drug abuse, and criminal activities by setting up journalists in various disguises ...

Executive summary

The ubiquitous computers use as well as other electronic devises is essentially creating a swiftly rising wave of firsthand as well as stored digital information. Roughly, 90 percent of the corporate information presently is in digital form. Corporations produce nearly 17.5 trillion documents that are in electronic form in every year. The additional types of electronic data come from online banking, internet-based electronic data, and stock trading among others. The information risks that are related with these data are numerous due to the rapid increase in online crimes and especially computer and credit card crimes. The methods of collecting ...

Book Review No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller

Summary of the Book Harry Markopolos introduces the book to the reader on the accounted date of December 11, 2008. December 11, 2008 was a crucial day Bernie Madoff was arrested. Madoff was arrested for creating and running a Ponzi scheme. The Ponzi scheme was the largest in history of United States. Markopolos makes sure that the reader comprehends the revelations by incorporating a short story of a man in a plane. The man is shocked by the streaming exposures on the CNBC. The man reveals to his wife that they have lost millions of dollars they had invested with Madoff. However, the ...

Certain theories explain the causes, nature, and extent of crime; for example, the theory of rational choice explains that individuals commit crime to fulfill their pleasures (Reynald, 2011, p. 23). According to this theory, individuals choose to do wrong if it results to rewards and fun rather than pain. The theory of trait argues that individuals are born with certain characteristics that make them engage in criminal activities. The social structure hypothesis argues that the surrounding influences the behavior of people. According to this theory, a person becomes a criminal if he or she lives with criminals (Walker, 2011, p.59). The ...

Letter of Transmittal

[Professor’s Designation] [Institute Address] Dear Mr. /Mrs. /Ms. []: Enclosed herewith please find the requisite formal report on the topic of “Identity theft happening to our children” duly completed in all aspects as per laid down requirements. [Writer’s Name]

Executive Summary

This report describes a specific type of identity theft which is related to children. This report is organized in such a manner that a brief introduction is followed by various signs of identity theft happening and then a comprehensive discussion about the impacts of identity theft on children. There are three exemplary situations are given ...

Bernard, or “Bernie” Madoff is now an infamous figure in the American media, but before he became one of the most famous villains of all time, he was a well-known and well-respected investment advisor and stockbroker. He worked in the financial sector for many years, even working as the non-executive Chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange for a time (“The Madoff Scam: Meet The Liquidator,” 2010). Madoff formed his own company in 1960, a firm he called Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities. It is rare for individuals who are so powerful in the American financial sector to become embroiled in such ...

Abstract

Deception has been considered by law enforcement officers as effective compared to other methods of crime detection. It is a better way of eliciting vital information and evidences that could capture suspected criminals rather than the use of physical means. In fact, it has gain approval of the courts as a legal way of drawing out a confession. However, it is sad to know that at times, the law officers employ malicious detection strategies like hoaxes in order to catch criminals which can affect the credibility of the justice system. Hence, the use of deception to detect a crime is viewed as a paradox ...

According to Robert K. Merton of the Harvard University, there are “certain phases of social structures [that] generate circumstances in which infringement o social codes constitute a normal response.”(Meryton 1) Two parts of social structures have been identified: (a) the culturally defined goals, purposes, and interests (i.e. the “ends”), and (b) the acceptable modes or regulations of achieving these goals (i.e. the “means). Differences on the perception of importance of each part constitute ranges of behaviours that greatly identify one social group from the other, which can sometimes result to deviant behaviours from members of the group. Social groups offer ...

Application of Framework of COSO and Enterprise Risk Management to Petters Group Worldwide/Petters Company Inc. case

Petters Group Worldwide / Petters Company Inc. was a fraudulent Minnesotan investment company that was transformed to one of the greatest Ponzi schemes by its then C.E.O, Tom Petters. The scandal cost about $3.65 billion. This was mainly conducted through the sales of promissory notes to willing investors. In 1988 the company began a general brokerage business which traded, with outrageous discounts, close out and bankrupt company merchandises. The company would sell these merchandises to dominant retailers in the market like Wall Mart. The payments were made to a lock box account with a requirement for manufacturers or the source of goods to ...

E-business refers to electronic business usually conducted through the internet. Since the development of the World Wide Web, the commercial usage of the internet has increased over the years, and business has been made conveniently possible over the internet. However, there are many security risks involved during the E-commerce execution, and some pose serious threats to businesses. With the sweeping current developments of technology, there have been concerns that users and business people do not understand system architectures and software that they use. This increases the vulnerability of various security breaches that can cause immense losses to the business ...

Ponzi Scams

Ponzi scam can be defined as a fraudulent operation based on investment, which pays returns to its investors from the money they pay themselves, or paid by the other investors. It is thus different from the profit that is earned by organization or individual that is running the described operation. Charles Ponzi gave his name to the scheme, because was the first to become notorious for using it back in 1920 (Wilkins, Acuff & Hermanson, 2012). Although he wasn’t an inventor, his scheme attracted so many investments that it became well-known throughout the USA. The traditional scheme of the ...

Protection of Customers’ Interests under the Terms of the Competition Act 1998

Introduction Effective competition is considered to be the crucial factor both for protection of consumers’ interests and for business sector development. Protection of consumers’ interests is the key issue for the development of effective competition policy. Maintenance of effective competition in the UK markets is important to achieve necessary balance between prices and supply of goods. The first part of this essay is devoted to the competition issues, detailed analysis of practical implications of the Competition Law 1998, protection of consumers’ interests, and analysis of the lawsuits with regard to the Act. The second part of ...

ETHICAL AND LEGAL ISSUES

i) Bernard Lawrence Madoff was a well known and respected entrepreneur, investor and stockbroker. He also was the non-executive chairman of NASDAQ up until the uncovering of his fraudulent activities that he had carried out since the early 1990s. Madoff established his investment firm in 1960 with which he used his influence and trust to con people of their hard earned money promising a good return on their investments at a better rate than the prevailing stock market and bank rates. However this was a huge scam, what is known as a Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi scheme is a type of securities fraud where the ...