Criteria for differentiation of criminal liability for fraud committed with the use of electronic payment means

The necessity of legal protection of property relations that are formed through the use of electronic payment systems established by law is due to the rapid development of the digital economy sector. The increase in crimes committed with the use of information and telecommunications technologies, marked in recent years, demonstrates to a greater extent criminal activity in the field of mercenary crimes against property, where fraud occupies a special place. The variety of new forms of fraudulent activity indicates adaptation of this crime to modern socio-legal and economic realities. Fraud has penetrated into the digital economy and poses a serious threat to the financial security of participants in this field. These circumstances have an impact on the criminal law policy of the state, which is forced to respond to emerging threats by means of criminalization and differentiation of criminal responsibility. The article discusses the criteria for differentiating criminal liability for fraud committed with the use of electronic payment methods. The author highlights and describes characteristic of qualifying features as one of the means of differentiating criminal liability for fraud committed with the use of an electronic payment method. The challenge of the research is an attempt to assess the degree of public danger of objective and subjective signs that form the basis of qualifying circumstances, as well as to formulate proposals for clarifying their definition, legal and technical application in the construction of the criminal law norm.

A New Acoustic-Based Approach for Assessing Induced Adulteration in Bovine Milk

Milk is an important dietary requirement for many populations due to its high nutritional value. However, increased demand has also made it prone to fraudulent activity. In this sense, scientists have sought to develop simple, low-cost, and portable techniques to achieve quality control of milk in industry and farms as well. This work proposes a new instrumentation system based on acoustic propagation and advanced signal processing techniques to identify milk adulteration by industrial contaminants. A pair of transmitter-receiver low-cost piezoelectric transducers, configured in a pitch-catch mode, propagated acoustic waves in the bovine milk samples contaminated with 0.5% of sodium bicarbonate, urea, and hydrogen peroxide. Signal processing approaches such as chromatic technique and statistical indexes like the correlation coefficient, Euclidian norm and cross-correlation square difference were applied to identify the contaminants. According to the presented results, CCSD and RMSD metrics presented more effectiveness to perform the identification of milk contaminants. However, CCSD was 2.28 × 105 more sensitivity to distinguish adulteration in relation to RMSD. For chromatic clustering technique, the major selectivity was observed between the contamination performed by sodium bicarbonate and urea. Therefore, results indicate that the proposed approach can be an effective and quick alternative to assess the milk condition and classify its contaminants.

Machine Learning Applied in the Financial Industry

<p>Technological development provides industries and spheres with numerous benefits, particularly availability of new progressive methods that contribute to increase efficiency and enhance performance. Thus, machine learning methods may contribute to financial industry that is involved in processing of a large volume of data. Machine learning methods facilitate to process data faster and efficiently with the minimal intervention of humans. In addition, it helps to</p><div>predict possible risks for financial business and minimize risks related to the fraudulent activity or financial losses. Furthermore, application of machine learning methods contributes to enhance the work with clients and targeted groups, as well as provide them with appropriate services. The major risks of machine learning methods applications within the financial sphere relate to unpredictability and cyber security issues.</div>

Price Gouging During a Pandemic: The Federal Government’s Response

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) characterized the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. Two days later, the US president declared a state of emergency in Proclamation No. 9994. One of the many problems that arise with a public health crisis is the shortage of essential medical supplies like ventilators, masks, and hand sanitizer. When these items become scarce, some businesses or entrepreneurs try to inflate their prices to make a higher profit when they know they can still sell these necessary items. These high costs on goods during disasters or emergencies can seem unfair and make it difficult for those who need them able to afford them. During these stressful times, it’s important for Americans to recognize and report price gouging when they suspect fraudulent activity when purchasing items. Where do people find the authority on anti-price gouging laws? Typically, it is each state’s responsibility, however, in times of crisis, the federal government could also do what is necessary to protect the public interests. This paper will assist people in understanding what price gouging is, how to recognize when price gouging is occurring, and how to report it. Additionally, this paper will address what responsibility the federal government has to protect Americans from price gouging schemes in times of crisis and what it is currently implementing to prevent these fraudulent actions.

NATURE AND METHODS OF COMMITTING FRAUD USING INFORMATION-TELECOMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES

The article is devoted to the consideration of issues relating to the nature and methods of committing fraud using information and telecommunication technologies. The article considers and analyzes official statistics of crimes on the global Internet for 2019, as well as material damage caused by these crimes. The concept of a method of fraud is disclosed and its most important role in the characteristics of Internet fraud is determined. Particular attention is paid to the most popular methods of committing the crime in question, such as: phishing, Nigerian letters, creating a personal business, online stores, magic wallets, free communication, improved MMM; their characteristic features are indicated and promising areas for studying the above topic are highlighted. In order to systematize the data, the author proposes the division of the considered methods into groups. The article also analyzes new, not yet fully explored, methods of fraudulent activity on the Internet, and offers protective measures to prevent the threat of information and telecommunication fraud.

Credit Card Fraud Detection in Data Mining using XGBoost Classifier

In today's economy, credit card (CC) plays a major role. It is an inevitable part of a household, business & global business. While using CCs can offer huge advantages if used cautiously and safely, significant credit & financial damage can be incurred by fraudulent activity. Several methods to deal with the rising credit card fraud (CCF) have been suggested. Both such strategies, though, are meant to prevent CCFs; each of them has its own drawbacks, benefits, and functions. CCF has become a significant global concern because of the huge growth of e-commerce and the proliferation of payment online. Machine learning (ML) algo as a data mining technology (DM) was recently very involved in the detection of CCF. There are however several challenges, including the absence of publicly available data sets, high unbalanced size, and different confusing behavior. In this paper, we discuss the state of the art in credit card fraud detection (CCFD), dataset and assessment standards after analyzing issues with the CCFD. Dataset is publicly available in the CCFD data set used in experiments. Here, we compare two ML algos of performance: Logistic Regression (LR) and XGBoost in detecting CCF Transactions Real Life Data. XGBoosthas an inherent ability to handle missing values. When XGBoost encounters node at lost value, it tries to split left & right hands & learn all ways to the highest loss. This is when the test runs on the data. The experimental results show an effective use of the XGBoost classifier. Technique of performance is widely accepted metric based on exclusion: accuracy & recall. Also, the comparison between both approaches displayed based on the ROC curve

Impact of female executives’ fraudulent behaviour on other women employees

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the adverse impact of a female executive’s fraudulent behaviour on other female employees working in the same organisation. Design/methodology/approach This developmental study uses a comprehensive literature review and a set of propositions to identify the consequences of a female’s fraudulent activity on other female employees working in the focal organisation. It develops a conceptual framework for the same. Propositions are further supported by five focus group interviews. Findings Leveraging stigma-by-association theory, the paper asserts that fraud committed by one female executive in an organisation enhances discriminatory practices against other female employees in the organisation. The level of adverse impact is contingent on the seniority of the female executive committing the fraud, severity of the fraud, gender of the other female employees’ managers and diversity in culture in the organisation. Research limitations/implications This paper extends the stigma-by-association theory. In its original spirit, the theory describes how individuals who keep company with stigmatised individuals are also stigmatised. This study asserts that for this effect to take place, especially under fraudulent conditions, mere group affiliation, such as working in the same organisation, may cause an adverse effect on other women. Originality/value The paper is based on a rich conceptual and theoretical discussion that identifies the key consequences of a female executive’s fraudulent activity in an organisation. The study also conceptually establishes the moderating relationship between a female executive’s fraudulent activity and several key organisation-level variables.

Fraud in the NHS

Richard Griffith, Senior Lecturer in Health Law at Swansea University, outlines what constitutes fraud and the measures taken by the NHS to counter fraudulent activity

Fraud in the NHS

Richard Griffith, Senior Lecturer in Health Law at Swansea University, outlines what constitutes fraud and the measures taken by the NHS to counter fraudulent activity

Features of the Commission of Fraud, Coupled with the Failure to Comply with the Provisions of a Civil Contract

The relevance of the study due to the need to consider the composition of a criminal offense in the form of fraud under the laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan. New market relations and insufficient legal regulation of certain aspects have expanded the offenders&#39; ability to use the imperfections of legal norms for their own mercenary purposes. The difficulties arising in practical activities necessitate the clarification of controversial issues and the development of sound recommendations for the correct qualification and delimitation of fraud from other legal relations. Based on the study of practical examples of individual forms of fraud, the need for a differentiated approach to qualifications and the establishment of responsibility for fraud is indicated. The main content of the article is aimed at identifying and disclosing the basic concepts that determine the content of the considered offense and highlighting the main forms of deception that ensure the offender to achieve a criminal result. The objective and subjective characteristics of the composition of fraud are investigated, the features of establishing individual qualifying characteristics are considered. The main method of research used a comparative legal analysis of domestic legislation, used statistical data and the results of a survey of law enforcement officers. The article touches upon the problem of non-fulfillment of contractual obligations as a sign of fraud in the business sphere. Identified and investigated some signs of the objective side of fraudulent activity, in which as a cover for illegal actions, the use of civil law contracts that facilitate the commission of fraud is used. It justifies the conclusion that, taking into account the signs of the objective side, the moment of the end of fraud, coupled with non-fulfillment of contractual obligations, is different from the moment of the end of the usual fraud. Article materials may be valuable for practitioners of pre-trial investigations in terms of scientifically based proposals and recommendations on the qualification of typical fraudulent acts veiled under a civil law transaction.