May 1999 Topics
Boxing (Blue Box, Black Box, Red Box),
Catch Red-handed, Fibber (Fibbie),
Hoarding Scam (Salt Scam), Hoosegow,
Lurker, Slush Fund, and Twisting
 

Hoarding scams create false shortages
of salt in India, the world's fourth largest producer.
 

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

Catch Red Handed
To find someone in the very act of committing a crime or a misdeed. Originally this visual phrase referred to catching a murderer with red blood on his or her hands. The expression was later extended to cover other crimes. It is similar to the Latin phrase in flagrante delicto.
Betty Kirkpatrick, Clichés, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1996, p. 6.
 

Fibber (Fibbie)
An agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
James Patterson, Along Came a Spider, Warner Books, 1992, p. 104.
 

Hoarding Scam (Salt Shortage Scam)
A false shortage is created by factories and traders in India who hoard salt and later sell it for jacked-up prices. Consumers panic after hearing rumors that this essential commodity may disappear because of monsoons and cyclones. Panic-buying causes consumers to buy ten times the quantity of salt that they normally use. This creates more shortages of salt in the marketplaces. Unscrupulous wholesalers raise the price 2,000%. Thousands of angry consumers storm warehouses and shops in search of hidden supplies. India is one of the largest sources of salt in the world. It produces more than 12 million tons each year. Other recent hoarding scams created shortages of onions and potatoes.
Neelesh Misra, “90 Arrested in Salt Scam in India,” Associated Press, AOL News, November 2, 1998.
Photo: BBC News Online, September 15, 2000.
 

Hoosegow
A jail or prison. The word was picked up by outlaws and American cowboys from their Mexican saddlemates in the mid-1880’s. This American and British spelling of hoosegow is derived from a Spanish word jusgado or juzgado or juzgao, which means “court of justice.”
William and Mary Morris, Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, Harper & Row, New York, 1962, p. 43.
 

Lurker
A lurker is someone who reads messages posted on electronic bulletin boards and observes Internet chat room discussions, but does not participate directly. A lurker also is called a “chat bat,” acting like a quiet winged mammal hiding in the shadows. Most investment schemes promoted on-line appear on the surface to involve just those people who are posting messages. In reality, many of the postings about the prospects of the stock are staged conversations designed to excite the unsuspecting lurker - the real market target. A lurker thinks he is observing a private conversation, but the scammers know there is an abundance of lurkers, and they want lurkers to read their deceptive messages. This “keyhole illusion” often convinces a lurker that he is privy to genuinely “inside dope” and he should invest in the stock quickly.
“On-line Investment Schemes,” Arizona Corporation Commission, Phoenix, Arizona.
 

Slush Fund
The first slush funds were found aboard merchant ships of the 18th century. Money raised by the sale of surplus fats (slush in sailors’ jargon) was put into a general fund for the purchase of luxuries the jack-tars (sailors) could not otherwise afford. Later the term became part of political slang, meaning money used for bribery, which in turn provided the person taking the bribe with luxuries he could not otherwise obtain. Slush, in the experience of northeastern U. S. city dwellers, was partly melted snow - liquid, loose, messy, and dirty. The connotations of urban slush carried over to political usage. Slush fund is a term for designating money to be dishonorably employed for buying influence or votes.
William and Mary Morris, Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, Harper & Row, New York, 1962, p. 325.
John T. Noonan, Jr., Bribes, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1984, p. 640, 641.
 

Twisting
An illegal sales practice in which an insurance broker persuades customers to cancel their policies with their current insurance provider and purchase new policies from another insurance provider. The broker’s pitch may include misrepresentation, misstatements of fact, or an incomplete comparison of policy premiums or benefits.
Arizona Fraud Line, Phoenix, February 1994.
 

ã Copyright 1999 Larry C. Adams.
All rights reserved.
 

Order the book - Fraud In Other Words
 Magazine Article Archive
Fraud Dictionary
Free update service