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The Office for Fair Trading (2006) research illustrates that in many of the frauds relatively small sums of money are lost – frequently less than £100.  The tactic of the fraudster is to secure such a sum of money that the victim will be less bothered to report the fraud{{Multiple issues|
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==Characteristics and Classification==
==Characteristics and Classification==
Such scams or consumer frauds generally fall into four categories <ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/118469/fraud-typologies.pdf|title = Fraud typologies and victims of fraud|date = |access-date = 2016-02-23|website = |publisher = National Fraud Authority|last = |first = }}</ref> :
Such scams or consumer frauds generally fall into four categories :
# Pretending to sell something you do not have, and taking the money
# Pretending to sell something you do not have, and taking the money
# Supplying goods or services which are of lower quality than those paid for, or failing to supply the goods and services sought.
# Supplying goods or services which are of lower quality than those paid for, or failing to supply the goods and services sought.
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Mass marketing fraud schemes are predominantly transnational / interstate in nature. Perpetrators operate from multiple foreign countries and utilize the financial infrastructure of one or more countries to transfer and launder funds.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/white_collar/mass-marketing-fraud |title=FBI — Mass Marketing Fraud |website=Fbi.gov |date= |accessdate=2016-02-18}}</ref> Law enforcement investigations have exposed that such schemes operating not only in multiple countries in North America, Europe, and Africa, but in other countries and jurisdictions as diverse as Brazil, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, India, Israel, the Philippines, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.<ref name="auto1"/>
Mass marketing fraud schemes are predominantly transnational / interstate in nature. Perpetrators operate from multiple foreign countries and utilize the financial infrastructure of one or more countries to transfer and launder funds.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/white_collar/mass-marketing-fraud |title=FBI — Mass Marketing Fraud |website=Fbi.gov |date= |accessdate=2016-02-18}}</ref> Law enforcement investigations have exposed that such schemes operating not only in multiple countries in North America, Europe, and Africa, but in other countries and jurisdictions as diverse as Brazil, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, India, Israel, the Philippines, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.<ref name="auto1"/>


Many of the frauds perpetrated online, work on the principle of large number of victims losing relatively small sums of money. The Office for Fair Trading (2006) research illustrates that in many of the frauds relatively small sums of money are lost – frequently less than £100.  The tactic of the fraudster is to secure such a sum of money that the victim will be less bothered to report the fraud. <ref>{{Cite web|title = Mass Marketing Frauds in the garb of Mobile Towers in India: Evolving a Framework to handle it|url = https://www.researchgate.net/publication/294219016_Mass_Marketing_Frauds_in_the_garb_of_Mobile_Towers_in_India_Evolving_a_Framework_to_handle_it|website = ResearchGate|access-date = 2016-02-23|doi = 10.13140/RG.2.1.4630.2480}}</ref>
⚫
Mass-marketing fraud – whether committed via the Internet, telemarketing “boiler rooms,” the mail, television or radio advertising, mass meetings, or even one-on-one talks over people’s kitchen tables , has two elements in common. First, the criminals who conduct any mass-marketing fraud scheme aim to defraud multiple individuals or businesses to maximize their criminal revenues. Second, the schemes invariably depend on persuading victims to transfer money or funds to the criminals based on promises of valuable goods, services, or benefits, and then never delivering the promised goods, services, or benefits to the victims.<ref name="auto1"/>

⚫
Mass-marketing fraud – whether committed via the Internet, telemarketing “boiler rooms,” the mail, television or radio advertising, mass meetings, or even one-on-one talks over people’s kitchen tables , has two elements in common. First, the criminals who conduct any mass-marketing fraud scheme aim to defraud multiple individuals or businesses to maximize their criminal revenues. Second, the schemes invariably depend on persuading victims to transfer money or funds to the criminals based on promises of valuable goods, services, or benefits, and then never delivering the promised goods, services, or benefits to the victims.<ref name="auto1" />


==Common examples==
==Common examples==

Revision as of 04:14, 23 February 2016

The Office for Fair Trading (2006) research illustrates that in many of the frauds relatively small sums of money are lost – frequently less than £100.  The tactic of the fraudster is to secure such a sum of money that the victim will be less bothered to report the fraud

Mass-marketing fraud (or mass market fraud) is a scheme that use mass-communications media – including telephones, the Internet, mass mailings, television, radio, and personal contact – to contact, solicit, and obtain money, funds, or other items of value from multiple victims in one or more jurisdictions. The frauds where victims part with their money by promising cash, prizes, and services and high returns on investment are part of Mass Market Fraud.[1][2]

Characteristics and Classification

Such scams or consumer frauds generally fall into four categories [3] :

  1. Pretending to sell something you do not have, and taking the money
  2. Supplying goods or services which are of lower quality than those paid for, or failing to supply the goods and services sought.
  3. Persuading customers to buy something they do not really want through oppressive marketing techniques.
  4. Disguising one-s identity in order to perpetrate a fraud

Alternatively the Mass Market Frauds may also be classified as follows :

  1. On basis of communication mechanism : ‘Internet Fraud‘, ‘Mail Fraud’ and ‘tele-marketing fraud’
  2. On basis of Scheme central to fraud : ‘lottery fraud’ , ‘Insurance fraud’ ,’loan fraud’.

Victim reporting reveals that Internet-based solicitations are among the most common: in the United States, web sites and e-mails accounted for 60 percent of reported contacts in 2009, and Canada noted a 46 percent spike in Internet-related complaints from 2008 to 2009.[4]

As per United States Department of Justice the mass-marketing fraud schemes generally fall into three main categories: (i) advance-fee fraud schemes; (ii) bank and financial account schemes; and (iii) investment opportunities. Advance fee fraud schemes are most popular. This type of scheme is based on the concept that a victim will be promised a substantial benefit – such as a million-dollar prize, lottery winnings, a substantial inheritance, or some other item of value – but must pay in advance some purported fee or series of fees before the victim can receive that benefit.[1]

The mobile phones, internet and electronic media have given following distinct advantages to the mass market fraudsters:

  • Low Setup Cost and mass scale reach
  • Fraud at a distance [5]
  • Ease in Financial Transaction

Nature

Mass marketing fraud schemes are predominantly transnational / interstate in nature. Perpetrators operate from multiple foreign countries and utilize the financial infrastructure of one or more countries to transfer and launder funds.[6] Law enforcement investigations have exposed that such schemes operating not only in multiple countries in North America, Europe, and Africa, but in other countries and jurisdictions as diverse as Brazil, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, India, Israel, the Philippines, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.[2]

Many of the frauds perpetrated online, work on the principle of large number of victims losing relatively small sums of money. The Office for Fair Trading (2006) research illustrates that in many of the frauds relatively small sums of money are lost – frequently less than £100.  The tactic of the fraudster is to secure such a sum of money that the victim will be less bothered to report the fraud. [7]

Mass-marketing fraud – whether committed via the Internet, telemarketing “boiler rooms,” the mail, television or radio advertising, mass meetings, or even one-on-one talks over people’s kitchen tables , has two elements in common. First, the criminals who conduct any mass-marketing fraud scheme aim to defraud multiple individuals or businesses to maximize their criminal revenues. Second, the schemes invariably depend on persuading victims to transfer money or funds to the criminals based on promises of valuable goods, services, or benefits, and then never delivering the promised goods, services, or benefits to the victims.[2]

Common examples

Common Mass marketing Scam prevailing in Australia, Canada, USA, UK and other western countries includes Foreign lotteries and sweepstakes, traditional West African Fraud Schemes & 419 letter scams, Charity scams, Romance scams, Boiler room or share sale fraud , Credit Card Interest Reduction Schemes, Auction and Retail Website Schemes, Investment Schemes, Counterfeit Check Fraud Schemes (Including Schemes Targeting Attorneys), Emergency Assistance Schemes, Merchandise Purchase / Product Misrepresentation Schemes, Psychic/Clairvoyant Schemes, Bank and Financial Account Schemes, Recovery Schemes, Sale of Merchandise / Overpayment Schemes, Service Schemes. , Bank and Financial Account Schemes not only involve fraud but also identity theft through phishing and vishing. In developing countries including India the lottery scam through e-mails & SMSs and other unsolicited messages, ‘Nigerian Letter Fraud’, Phishing and Pyramid Scams are popular. Recently the Mass Fraud Quiz Competition normally known as “Chehra pechano” (identify the Face of Actor / Actress) are being run fraudster using communication mechanism as Print Media (daily newspaper), Televisions and through internet website , have also become popular. The fraudsters run a quiz campaign in classified / business columns in daily news paper , also air Live TV programs on popular Indian channels Sony TV , Sahara One , B4U, Mahua , Manoranajan TV , Houseful, Cinema TV and Maha Movie Channel etc , and through online websites.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]

At present there is no authoritative statistical data available on financial loss due to mass market Frauds. However year 2006 United Kingdom Office of Fair Trading (OFT) study estimated that each year 3.2 million United Kingdom adults (6.5 percent of the adult population) fall victim to mass-marketing schemes, collectively losing £3.5 billion and similarly June 2008 study by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) found 453,100 of those victims (56.2 percent) reportedly lost AU $977 million (US $905.7 million as of June 27, 2008) in selected schemes such as lottery, pyramid, and phishing schemes. In India there is no single agency to estimate the loss due to such Mass market Fraud.[16][17] As per IMMFWG, there are strong indications that the order of magnitude of global mass-marketing fraud losses is in the tens of billions of dollars per year.

References

  1. ^ a b "Fraud Section MASS MARKETING FRAUD". US Department of Justice.
  2. ^ a b c "International Mass-Marketing Fraud Working Group" (PDF). Mass-Marketing Fraud: A Threat Assessment.
  3. ^ "Fraud typologies and victims of fraud" (PDF). National Fraud Authority. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  4. ^ [1][dead link]
  5. ^ Button, Mark; McNaughton, Carol; Kerr, Kerr; Owen, Rachael (2014). "Online frauds: Learning from victims why they fall for these scams". Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology. Vol. 47(3): 391–408. {{cite journal}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
  6. ^ "FBI — Mass Marketing Fraud". Fbi.gov. Retrieved 2016-02-18.
  7. ^ "Mass Marketing Frauds in the garb of Mobile Towers in India: Evolving a Framework to handle it". ResearchGate. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.4630.2480. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  8. ^ "Security deposit fraud for winning a prize money from a channel-punjabplus channel". iComplaints.in. Retrieved 2016-02-18.
  9. ^ "Chehra pehchano inaam pao". Cpip.mobie.in. Retrieved 2016-02-18.
  10. ^ "Home | Welcome To Chehra Pehchano". Chehrapehchano.com. Retrieved 2016-02-18.
  11. ^ "WELCOME TO CHEHRA PEHCHANO 00923014516662". Chehrapechano.blogspot.in. Retrieved 2016-02-18.
  12. ^ "Chehra pehchano fraud contest". Grahak Seva. Retrieved 2016-02-18.
  13. ^ [2][dead link]
  14. ^ "Tata Motors ( Chehra Pehchano Contest ) Complaints". Complaintboard.in. Retrieved 2016-02-18.
  15. ^ "Sahara One Hindi Channel Reviews & Complaints : - Fraud - Chehra Pehchaano Contest BokaroSteelCity". Bookcomplaints.com. Retrieved 2016-02-18.
  16. ^ "Australian Bureau of Statistics". Abs.gov.au. Retrieved 2016-02-18.
  17. ^ "Research on impact of mass marketed scams" (PDF). Icfs.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-02-18.
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