International Law

Fraud News You Can Use

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Ed Dickson, writing at his blog Fraud, Phishing and Financial Misdeed, discovers gambling in a casino.

"A story of an undercover investigation by the BBC shows how dishonest employees at call centers -- who collect plastic payment card details on clients -- might be making a little extra pocket change by selling them."

ABC New is reporting that there is an SBA Bailout, something sure to increase small but unprosecuted fraud in the franchise industry.

"Small business owners who have watched banks and automakers get assistance from the government can now receive some help too.

The government is making it easier for companies to get loans from the Small Business Administration. It's eliminating fees on its most popular loans, known as 7a loans, and guaranteeing a larger portion of the amount borrowed. It's also eliminating fees on what are called CDC/504 loans.

Small businesses will also benefit from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, that's been used to bail out banks. The government will use $15 billion in TARP money to buy already issued small business loans in what's known as the secondary market."

Franchises who don't do serious due diligence pay mightly.

"Thorough due diligence is critical to ensure prospective franchisees choose the right business, says franchise lawyer Chris Bradley.

The investigation, he said, would evaluate strengths and weaknesses, identify potential risks and unknown areas of activity and minimise post-settlement surprises.

"And due diligence can highlight areas in the business where improvement is required," Mr Bradley said.  "This allows the buyer to make changes quickly and hit the ground running."

Franchisees who failed to get proper legal advice, but affirmed that they lose fraud claim.

"The franchise industry will welcome this Court of Appeal Judgment (David and UAR Limited v TFAC Limited & Ors [2009] NZCA 44), delivered on 2 March 2009, which contains much awaited clarification of the effect of disclaimer and acknowledgment clauses and the application of the Fair Trading Act Court's decision includes: The Franchisor's repeated notifications to the [prospective] franchisee to obtain specialist legal, accountancy and financial advice were effective."

Aaron Wall, writing at his blog at Seobook.com, complains about Google Adsense fraud.

"As Google's "spam team" grows more subjective with the definition of spam (hey I know him it's not spam, never heard of him it's spam, etc.) the web loses out on its diversity. Meanwhile how about you view some great fraudulent government grant ads through AdWords."

"Why do certain individuals commit fraudulent acts--in this case repeatedly downloading their own working papers from the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) repository to increase the papers' reported download counts?

HBS professors Benjamin G. Edelman and Ian I. Larkin study the relative importance of demographic, economic, and psychological factors leading individuals to commit this kind of gaming.

Authors engage in deceptive self-downloading to improve a paper's visibility on SSRN, to obtain more favorable assessments of paper quality, and to obtain possible benefits for promotion and tenure decisions at those schools that consider download counts in tenure decisions."

Full post as published by Misleading Advertising Law on March 25, 2009 (boomark / email).