20 to 50 percent of the resumes that employers receive contain intentionally false information.
 

Fraud In Other Words™
Professional Jargon and Uncensored Street Slang
by Larry C. Adams, CFE, CPA, CIA, CISA

 

Resume Fraud
Headhunters estimate that 20 to 50 percent of the resumes that employers receive contain intentionally false information. A person may put similar false information on an employment application. To hide past problems or to gain employment, an applicant may list college degrees they never obtained or professional licenses that have been suspended or were never earned. Some people purchase degrees from “diploma mills,” which are not accredited and provide few, if any, actual courses. The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that 500,000 people in the United States claim college degrees that they didn’t have. Applicants may list phony employment dates, nonexistent employers, or incorrect job titles. To avoid hiring an unqualified candidate, a prudent employer should verify important facts before adding the person to their payroll. To verify education credentials, contact the school’s registrar. Consider obtaining a credit history from a credit bureau, for applicants for accounting, security, or executive positions.

 

 Go Scot-free
A scot is an old term for a tax or an assessment. Around 1066 A.D., the date of the Magna Carta, scot-free meant a person was exempted from tax payment. The phrase later was extended to describe other obligations that were waived. Today when a person goes scot-free, they are let off without paying their share of an obligation, or they are let off without penalty or punishment.

 

 Phrenology
A concept used to analyze a person’s psychological characteristics, including any criminal tendencies. It was based on the theory that the mind could be divided into faculties and functions, which were related to the shape of the person’s skull. A person’s abilities and character could be determined by examining the bumps on their head and the bones of their skull. Gypsies use phrenology as part of their fortune telling scams. Alphonse Bertillon developed the practical values of phrenology while he was the Director of the Bureau of Identification of the Paris police department in 1892. Bertillon measured the cranium diameters of criminals and recorded other body measurements on a card system. Despite their fake beards, disguises, and aliases, Bertillon identified 800 suspects in three years and won criminal convictions. Police departments around the world used the Bertillon system until fingerprint identification was adopted. Phrenology was popular from 1850 to 1900.
Photo 1: Phrenology booth at a 1940s street fair, www.skeptiseum.org/
exhibits/psychic%20phenomena/phrenologybooth.html.
Image 2: Discovery Online, Dead Inventor's Corner, 1998, www.dia.unisa.it/~ads/corso-security/www/CORSO-9900/biometria/Discovery.htm.

 

Maple Syrup Diplomacy
Plain old compromise and negotiation. In New England, where maple syrup trees grow, and in other small communities, the citizens may exhibit a very independent, small town attitude. Any changes or intrusions need to be made with the advice and consent of the self-reliant natives. More one-on-one contact may be needed with the local citizens to obtain detailed information in an investigation or to obtain resources from law enforcement.


 

Autograph
A scam in which the victim’s natural signature is obtained. The signature is obtained on a petition, in an autograph book, on a delivery receipt, or by some other innocent method. The victim’s signature is used later in the forging of checks or other documents. (The top image is a forgery. The lower image is Abraham Lincoln's natural signature.)
Photo: www.bookthink.com/ 0010/10sig.htm

 

 Obituary Fraud
A fraudster swindles the survivors of a dead person. The fraudster reads the obituary notices in the newspapers to find the names of the survivors, their relationships, and the city where they live. Some of this information also is obtained from public records of probate courts. The con artist may use scams to sell overpriced bibles, caskets, and cemetery monuments, or to solicit contributions in honor of the deceased to nonexistent charitable causes. The fraudster may prey on the survivors’ sorrow and entice them to sell assets of the deceased person at far less than the fair value.
Photo: www.wtv-zone.com/ ruexperienced/intro.html

 

Crazy Glue Fuming
A process which uses adhesive agents to develop latent fingerprints on difficult surfaces, such as plastic bags or plastic tape. In a laboratory, the plastic evidence is placed in a glass fuming chamber, about the size of a ten gallon fish tank. The sealed chamber contains a light bulb, a dish of water, and part of a tube of super glue. The process uses the heat from the light bulb, the humidity from the water, and the cyanoacrylate ester from the glue to make fingerprints appear with a white ridge detail. The print becomes visible within 5 to 15 minutes.
Charles R. Swanson, Neil C. Chamelin, and Leonard Territo, Criminal Investigation, Fourth Edition, McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, 1988, p. 81, 82.
Photo: Lawrence Chow, "Lifting Fingerprints with Powders and Chemicals," Bronx Science, http://www2.bxscience.edu/publications/
forensicbio/articles/fingerprinting/images/superglue.jpg, 2001.

 

Larry C. Adams, CFE, CPA, CIA, CISA, teaches fraud examination at the Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Arizona. He publishes the book and online editions of “Fraud In Other Words.” His Web site is www.larry-adams.com. His e-mail address is fraudwritr@aol.com.

 

ã Copyright 1994 Larry C. Adams. All rights reserved.
“Fraud In Other Words” is a trademark of Larry C. Adams.
 

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