January 1995 Topics
Brownfield Scam, White Intelligence, Safe Water Scam, Front-end Loan Scam, Prime Bank Fraud,
Wireless Cable Scams, Take for a Ride,
EBT, and Sacred Cow
 

Fraudsters fail to disclose the high cost of
environmental cleanup liabilities that may be
inherited by real estate buyers.
 

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

 

Brownfield Scam
A brownfield is an abandoned urban industrial site. A fraudster may offer this vacant real estate at bargain prices to prospective purchasers. The fraudster promises a potential for a quick, high financial return when the property is redeveloped and returned to productive use. However, the fraudster fails to disclose the high cost of the environmental cleanup liabilities that may be inherited by the buyer.
Image:  http://www.state.nj.us/dep/srp/publications/brownfields/
2001/12_phoenix.htm

 

Safe Water Scam
A laboratory used faulty testing equipment and procedures, and reported false test results for analyses performed on municipal drinking water systems. The laboratory tested water systems in Arizona in Glendale, Mesa, and Tempe. The Environmental Protection Agency suspended the laboratory from participating in any future federal government contracts and grants.

 

White Intelligence
Information that can be found from resources all within the public domain, including libraries, general publications, databases, and public records. Information that is not obtained from covert surveillance or illegal access.

 

Front-end Loan Scam
The promoter promises to arrange financing for the victim in return for upfront fees to cover expenses. The fees get paid and the promoter disappears. No loan is ever provided.


 

Prime Bank Fraud
In this investment swindle, the fraudster sells letters of credit and other financial instruments from major banks. The only problem is the bank instruments are fake.

 

EBT
Electronic Benefits Transfer. A federal plan to provide public benefits electronically in all states by 1999. The plan will include welfare payments, food stamps, healthcare benefits, and Veterans Administration benefits. The goals of EBT are to cut the cost and time of mailing millions of checks and to prevent fraudulent use of checks. Plastic identification cards with magnetically encoded stripes, similar to credit cards, will be issued to the recipients of the benefits. The recipients will use the EBT cards to obtain cash from automatic teller machines (ATMs) at banks. EBT cards will be used at a point-of-sale terminal (POS) to pay for merchandise and services. The government will pay the banks a fee for the use of their ATM infrastructure, which is used to administer the programs. The banks are not required to open checking or savings accounts for the recipients. Several states are using EBT pilot programs for state benefit payments.
Image: www.hhs.state.ne.us/ fia/ebt.htm

 

Take for a Ride
To take advantage of someone. To victimize or swindle someone.

 

Wireless Cable Scams
Wireless cable offers television programming services similar to traditional cable television. The programs are transmitted over the airwaves instead of through a cable wire. With less hardware to install, wireless systems should have lower construction costs, lower operating costs, and higher profits. Shady wireless promoters lure investors with promises of fantastic profits on systems that don’t exist yet, while they are raking huge “selling fees” off the top. In Southern California, more than thirty telephone boiler rooms sold suspect wireless cable investments. These marketing operations received about $30 million a month. Some of the fraudsters have previous convictions for securities fraud and ties to organized crime.

 

Sacred Cow
An idea, person, group, or institution considered exempt from questioning or even justified criticism. They may be popular, held in high esteem, or protected for other reasons. However, when an opportunity exists to commit fraud, even a scared cow and its supporters might take advantage of the situation. (In India, Hindus believe cows are sacred and protected. Even among castes that are not vegetarian, beef is not eaten.)
Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Gramercy Books, New York, 1989, p. 1259.

 

Larry C. Adams, CFE, CPA, CIA, CISA, teaches fraud examination at the Keller Graduate School of Management at 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 1995 Larry C. Adams. All rights reserved.
“Fraud In Other Words” is a trademark of Larry C. Adams.
 

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