Iowa’s Consumer Protection Division Is Accepting Complaints and Offering Fraud Prevention Events

A fraudulent act is one in which a person deliberately deceives another person with the goal of either providing the perpetrator with an illicit gain or denying a right to the victim. 

Tax fraud, credit card fraud, wire fraud, securities fraud, and bankruptcy fraud are all examples of different types of fraud. An individual, a group of individuals, or an entire company can be responsible for fraudulent activities. Fraud can take many different forms. Fraud is the intentional misrepresentation of facts, which can take the form of either the deliberate withholding of relevant information or the making of false representations to a third person with the objective of obtaining something that might not have been available without the use of deception.

The person who commits fraud frequently has access to knowledge that the victim of the scam does not, which enables the person who committed the fraud to con the victim successfully. When an individual or business commits fraud, they are, at their core, taking advantage of an information imbalance. More specifically, they are taking advantage of the fact that the resource cost of reviewing and verifying that information can be significant enough to create a disincentive to fully invest in fraud prevention.

Fraud is a violation of the law in every state as well as at the federal level; nevertheless, fraudulent activities do not necessarily result in a criminal prosecution in every case. Prosecutors working for the government typically have a significant amount of leeway when it comes to deciding whether or not a case should be tried in court; alternatively, they may opt to pursue a settlement instead of going to trial if doing so will result in a resolution that is reached more quickly and at a lower cost In the event that a case of fraud is brought to trial, the offender may be found guilty and sentenced to jail time.

Even if the government believes that a case of fraud may be resolved without resorting to criminal procedures, private parties who believe they have been harmed may nonetheless file a claim for damages in a civil court. The people who have been defrauded have the option of filing a lawsuit against the person who committed the fraud in order to get their money back or, if there was no monetary loss, in order to get their rights back.

For there to be evidence that fraud has been perpetrated, the offender needs to have engaged in certain activities. The culprit must first provide a false statement as a material fact in order for the crime to be considered committed. Second, the offender must have had prior knowledge that the assertion was not accurate. 

Third, the criminal must have had the intent to deceive the victim in order for the crime to have been committed. The fourth step requires the victim to provide evidence that they relied on the erroneous statement. And fifth, the victim must have suffered damages as a direct result of acting on the willfully false statement in order for the defendant to be liable for those damages.