March 1996 Topics
Jeito, Beige Box, Qui Tam, Lemon Laundering, Dactylography (Dactyloscopy),
Visible Prints, Plastic Prints, and Latent Prints

 

Fingerprints are unique and do not change
throughout a person’s lifetime.
Even identical twins have different fingerprints.

 

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

 

Jeito
When Charles Kuralt, writer and broadcaster, worked in Brazil, he learned that things could not be speeded up or straightened out in Brazil, and red tape could not be cut. Everything, however, could be, with patience, sidestepped. Brazilians have a word “jeito” which is untranslatable into English, which has no such word or concept. Jeito combines the meanings of a favor, or a boon, a detour around difficulty, a solution for the insoluble. A jeito may involve a bribe, but it is more likely to consist of a kindness. Whenever he needed products of services from anyone, such as a telephone installer, a lawyer, or a customs broker, each of them came to Kuralt’s office and explained that they were seeking, and surely would find, a jeito before anything could proceed.
Charles Kuralt, A Life on the Road, Putnam, New York, 1990, p. 80.

 

Beige Box
A homemade version of a telephone lineman’s handset, which is a phone that can be attached to the telephone line outside of another person’s house. Phone phreaks use beige boxes to eavesdrop on phone conversations; to make static-free long distance calls; to direct dial to Alliance Teleconferencing; or to call 976 prefix toll charge numbers. Beige boxes are used in other schemes to harass the phone company, to harass the homeowner, and to run up thousands of dollars in phone charges that get charged to the homeowner. On the Internet there are detailed postings which describe how to build a beige box, how to connect a beige box to outdoor phone lines, and how to reduce the risk of being detected while using a beige box.
Photo: www.monsieur.mimoune.free.fr/indexnoflash.php3?page=
phreaking, April 25, 2005.

 

Qui Tam
Latin for “He sues on behalf of the king as well as for himself.” A qui tam provision of the Federal Civil False Claims Act allows a private citizen to file suit in the name of the U. S. Government charging fraud by government contractors and other entities who receive or use  government funds. The informer or private citizen may share in any money recovered.

 

Lemon Laundering
A fraudulent practice in which auto manufacturers or dealerships repurchase defective cars (lemons) and later put them back into the stream of commerce with no disclosure of their previous lemon status.

 

Dactylography (Dactyloscopy)
The study of fingerprints for the purpose of identifying all human beings, criminals included. The scientific premise is that fingerprints are unique and do not change throughout a person’s lifetime. Even identical twins have different fingerprints. Prints do not accurately reveal the sex, age, race, or occupation of the person. Fingerprints can show who has been in a given place, or touched a specific document or item. A partial print sometimes is sufficient for identification by an investigator. There are three types of prints - visible prints, plastic prints, and latent prints.
Photo: Pima County Consolidated Justice Court History, Tucson, Arizona,  www.jp.co.pima.az.us/Pages/history/incases.htm, April 25, 2005.

 

Visible Prints
Fingerprints that are made when a hand has been dipped into paint, ink, grease, blood, or another opaque liquid, and then has touched something else.

 

Plastic Prints
Fingerprints that are left when a person touches a semisoft, impressionable substance, such as putty, clay, plastic, dough, or wet plaster.

 

Latent Prints
These prints can be the most difficult fingerprints to detect or observe. If you pick up a glass object, your fingers will leave a residue of perspiration and body oil in the pattern of your fingerprints. A gray white aluminum powder can be dusted to show white prints on a dark object. Finely ground dark carbon powder can be dusted to show dark prints on a light object. The powders are absorbed by the perspiration and oils, leaving an image of each print.
Photo: Faurot Forensics, www.impwebhost.com/~faurot/
index.php?cPath=54, April 25, 2005.

 

ã Copyright 1996 Larry C. Adams. All rights reserved.
 

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