August 1995 Topics
Decomposed Writing, Power Theft, Patronage,
Cookware Scam, Document Aging,
Windbag, and Tops and Bottoms
 

Billing systems can detect erratic electricity use,
a symptom of power theft.
 

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

 

Decomposed Writing
A handwriting style where downstrokes and upstrokes are not connected and sometimes are not even completed. The broken pattern is easiest to see on an original paper document, and sometimes is visible in a digitized signature stored in a computer.

 

Power Theft
Theft of electrical power by altering, slowing, resetting, swapping, or disconnecting an electric meter. Theft also may occur by rewiring circuits to avoid an electric meter, or by tapping into another customer’s electrical lines. The fraudster might use devices to program the theft of power only during certain periods of the day or week. A fraudster may rewire their property to illegally use power from cheaper sources of power, or from meters that are billed at lower rates. The fraudster risks electrocution and detection. Field employees of the power company are trained to spot problems that result in persons not being billed for all the electricity they use. Computerized billing systems are designed to detect erratic electricity use.
Frank J. Kroll, Jr., “Electricity Diversion and Other Shocking Frauds,” ACFE Arizona Chapter Meeting, Phoenix, September 10, 1996
Image: www.mid-day.com/news/city/2004/june/85650.htm

 

Patronage
The power to make appointments to government jobs. The power to grant other political favors. The distribution of jobs and favors may be on a political basis, such as to those who supported a particular party or candidate. The grants sometimes are not based on merit, experience, or competence. Patronage often is considered as a perquisite (perk), or a personal right, and may not be in the aspect of a public trust. For example, in Brazil, the state’s inefficient banking system traditionally has been a source of patronage jobs for local governments. The banks make easy profits by playing the float when the inflation rate in Brazil ranges up to 50% per month. The general public becomes the victims.

 

Cookware Scam
A Wisconsin cookware company tells customers that its pans will help them lose weight, look better, and live longer. The Royal Prestige cookware is sold by the Hy Cite Corp. mainly through door-to-door salesmen. The sales in Arizona exceeded $1.3 million. The sales materials confuse customers by telling them the pans will reduce the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, and cancer. The company also inaccurately tells consumers that many government agencies endorse the products, including the U. S. Department of Defense, the State Department, and most scientific and healthcare professionals.

 

Document Aging
The exact age of a specific document is usually very difficult to determine. Occasionally it is possible to establish age within broad limits through an examination of the writing paper, typewriting, ink, writing instrument, and other features. In one case, 33 original letters bearing the letterhead stationery and handwriting of a physician were dated over a 18 month period. The letters pertained to Medicaid patients. If those letters were not actually prepared when dated, they would become evidence of Medicaid fraud. A laboratory examination disclosed that the letters had been recently prepared, steamed, and then baked to give them the appearance of being older than they actually were. It will be far more difficult to determine the age of electronic documents.

 

Windbag
A mystery packet. The contents are worth little more than those of an empty bag.
Partridge’s Concise Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, MacMillan, New York, 1989, p. 503.

 

Tops and Bottoms
In money laundering, drug deals or ransom payments, there may be false exchanges of currency. The bundles of bills will have some genuine currency on the top and bottom. In the middle of the bundles will be sheets of toilet paper, newspaper, or telephone directory pages, with their edges trimmed to match the few genuine bills.

 

ã Copyright 1995 Larry C. Adams. All rights reserved.
 

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