While opening her May credit card statement, Jennifer Sax, abiological sciences junior ‘s eyes opened wide and her jaw nearlyhit the floor.
Instead of her usual charges of a few restaurant meals and alittle shopping, more than $4,000 in industrial equipment fromAustralia sent her balance over its limit.
Sax said she believes the thief obtained her credit card numberoff an unsecured website where she purchased some items.
After noticing the charges on her statement, Sax said shecontacted the credit card company and they removed the chargeswithout hassle.
“They were really nice about it,” Sax said. “They didn’t hold meresponsible for anything.”
And even if Sax had been held liable for the purchases, federallaw only allows the credit card company to charge fraud victims $50at the most.
The Credit Card Loss or Fraudulent Charges law says as long ascardholders report the unauthorized charges within 60 days ofreceiving the incorrect bill, cardholders are not responsible.
Sax said despite the incident, she will not stop shopping onlinecompletely.
“I haven’t bought anything lately, but I think I stay will stickwith all the familiar, well-known Web sites, ” she said.
The Federal Trade Commission Web site provides recommendationson how to avoid credit card fraud.
The FTC advises cardholders to always sign the back of a creditcard when it arrives in the mail. It also says to keep an eye onthe card during all transactions and get it back as soon aspossible.
The FTC also suggests never to give a card number out over thephone or Internet, unless the cardholder is sure the company isreputable. When unsure about a company or business, the FTCrecommends calling the Better Business Bureau to find out moreabout the company’s reputation.
But credit card fraud is not the only kind that affects society.White-collar crime and fraud costs the government billions ofdollars every year. Various types of white-collar crime can includemoney laundering, racketeering, tax fraud and embezzlement.
Accounting Professor Larry Crumbley has been studying fraudsince the late 1980s, and said fraud costs the United States morethan $600 billion annually.
Crumbley recently spoke at the National Association of CertifiedValuation Analysts conference about forensic accounting techniquesto tackle fraud.
While attending the conference, Crumbley also met famous fraudexpert Frank W. Abagnale. Abagnale, whose personal story was madefamous in the 2002 film “Catch Me If You Can,” spent years escapingFBI charges of fraud and forgery.
When the FBI finally caught Abagnale they decided his skillswould better suited for work in the bureau, instead of behind bars.He now investigates identity theft and forgery for the FBI.
Crumbley said white-collar crime generally is divided into threecategories — “cooking the books,” stealing assets andcorruption.
Crumbley said “cooking the books” is when a company falsifiestheir records to make it seem like they are more profitable thanthey really are.
Crumbley said Enron is an example of a corporation who has beenaccused of falsifying their accounting records.
Stealing assets can be anything from an employee surfing theInternet instead of working, to outright stealing of funds from thecompany, Crumbley said.
Crumbley said corruption makes up 13 percent of all fraud, andit can include taking bribes and laundering money.
Louisiana is no stranger to white-collar crime, especially whenit concerns public officials.
Former Gov. Edwin Edwards is serving a 10-year prison sentencefor extorting payoffs for riverboat gambling licenses.
Former insurance commissioner Doug Green is serving a 25-yearsentence for accepting illegal campaign contributions from aninsurance company, and his predecessor, Sherman Bernard served 30months in prison after taking bribes disguised as campaigncontributions.
To tackle public corruption with full force, the FBI recentlyannounced it will open a Baton Rouge office August 1 solely toinvestigate public corruption and white-collar crime.
Crumbley said while white-collar criminals are getting higherprison sentences, but there is not enough prosecution forfraudulent activity within government.
“We may be cleaning up corporations, but there is a huge amountof fraud in federal, state and local government,” Crumbleysaid.
At LSU, Crumbley said the University needs to do more to uncoverfraudulent activity within the University.
Crumbley said the University should have ethical training foremployees and administrators, as well as some sort of fraud hotlineor suggestion boxes for fraud tips.
“About 50 percent of fraud is discovered by tips,” Crumbley.
Bringing the issue to campus, this weekend the Department ofAccounting is hosting a fraud and forensic accounting conference atPennington Biomedical Research Center. The conference is designedto increase awareness of fraud in the business community.