Can going to court qualify as fraud?

Fraudulent activities are common these days. Fraud can be proven by collecting evidence, which includes interrogations of witnesses, victims, expert opinions, and physical evidence. Not only our country is fighting fraudsters; the legislation of Ukraine, Kazakhstan and other countries has an indication of the category of crimes in question.

How to prove fraud

Fraud is considered one of the most difficult categories of criminal acts to prove. This is due to the fact that the victim does not have evidence that a crime was committed against him. In this case, the means by which the fraud will be proven are:

1. Testimony of a fraudster. It should be taken into account that criminals rarely agree to cooperate with the investigation. They agree to testify against themselves if there is a benefit for them, which may include a reduction in punishment.
2. Testimony of a crime victim. In this case, it should be taken into account that the protocol of interrogation of the victim must be drawn up clearly and logically. The same rule applies to interrogations of witnesses. Their testimony must coincide with each other, otherwise it is impossible to prove guilt. The data is entered into the protocol by the investigator after a thorough study of the situation.
3. Conclusion of the examination. Refers to those situations where the act was committed with the help of modern technology, or it is necessary to establish whether the presented document is an original or not. With this option, the fact of deception proven in court will be evident.
4. Physical evidence. These include those means that were used in preparation for the commission of a crime. A computer, a typewriter, valuables and money that were taken by the attackers.

Important! It is necessary to provide evidence of intent in the actions of fraudsters. This is necessary so that the court has no doubt that they committed the crime.

Textual evidence

In modern conditions, most correspondence is conducted on social networks or via SMS. Preserving the scammer's messages is necessary for subsequent legal proceedings. It is important that SMS and messages on social networks are sent from the victim’s account. When providing a printout of correspondence in court, he has the right to submit a request to the provider to confirm its authenticity.

It is important to find witnesses to the correspondence. Their testimony in court will be additional confirmation of the fact of communication with the attacker.

There are many professional scammers on the Internet. They operate on dating sites, instant messengers and social networks. There are also frequent cases of fraud on advertisement sites for the sale of goods.

In any transactions or transfer of money on credit, to a friend or stranger, it is necessary to check his passport details, car number and require a receipt certifying the receipt of money and the obligation to return it.

With real estate

You can confirm the fact of fraud in real estate with the help of a professional lawyer.
This advice should be used by those who want to achieve justice faster. It will be difficult to do this on your own, without experience in this field. In the situation under consideration, the presence of elements of an act can be established by examining the documents drawn up during the transaction. You can write an application to the court to recognize a transaction as inconsistent with reality after it has been established that:

• the transaction was not completed according to the rules prescribed by law;
• the data provided by the perpetrators is false;
• persons interested in the outcome of the transaction do not have legal capacity;
• documents of legal significance were not drawn up according to the rules.

Please note that if a person independently signed this agreement, according to which his property is transferred to another person, and after that he is required to return everything back, citing the fact that he did so without thinking about it, the judge will refuse to satisfy the demands.

In this case, you can easily return your property only when there are violations during the execution of the transaction.

Business fraud

The first thing to remember is that if you do not have sufficient knowledge in the field of law and do not know the etiquette of drawing up contracts, it is best to entrust the identification of a crime to professional lawyers. The thing is that the entrepreneurial sphere has distinctive features, namely, concluding transactions through contracts and maintaining accounting. The company's financial and accounting statements are the most important evidence base against fraud.

During the process of collecting evidence, specialists will check the agreement between the victim and the fraudster for compliance with obligations. In order to expose fraud, a legal analysis of the contract will be required. If it turns out that one of the parties deliberately did not want to fulfill the terms of the contract, then in this case it can be proven that she was dishonest in relation to the business partner.

After checking the contract, experts will conduct an analysis of the authenticity of the company’s license, a financial audit (for solvency), and the presence of the subject of the transaction (for example, goods or provision of services). Having identified a violation on one of the parties, it will be easier for specialists to prove a criminal offense under Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

In the online store

Today, a system of online stores has been developed.
It may happen that the buyer receives a defective product. In this case, you need to write a letter in electronic format and send it to the e-mail of the store where you purchased the item. In addition to this, a letter is sent via postal services to the address indicated on the website. In the letter, you can demand that the money paid for the product be returned to you, or an exchange be made. There is no need to explain the reason for your intentions to refuse the item. If the seller has ignored the request, you can file an application with the judicial authorities.

Please note that the application must indicate:

• address of the portal where the purchase was made;
• account number or electronic wallet through which you paid;
• nickname of the criminal;
• email address;
• the cell phone number to which the scammers sent messages.

If the above information is unknown, you should submit a statement to the police, describing in detail what happened. Activities to combat fraudsters who operate on the Internet are carried out by Department “K”, operating under the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

If there is no receipt

In the event that the loan is not repaid, and the debtor claims that he does not owe anything, and there is no receipt, it will be problematic to get his money back.
The fact that there are witnesses does not matter. In this situation, you can try to put psychological pressure on the swindler. This is done by visiting the workplace (a positive result can be when the debtor is an official), home, sending letters, etc. Please note that a recording of negotiations that reflects a peaceful conversation cannot be evidence.

Testimony of witnesses is not taken into account if the amount of debt is less than 10 minimum wages. However, in this case, this does not exclude the possibility of contacting law enforcement agencies. They have a duty to accept the application and conduct an investigation.

If you lend money to someone, do not rely on trust; you should always take a receipt to be on the safe side. A person's intent may initially involve fraud.

General concepts

Fraudsters use a variety of methods to take possession of other people's belongings or other valuables, or to contact their victims.

For these purposes, criminals distort the truth, present false facts, try to create trusting relationships, mislead, commit deceptive acts, carry out psychological manipulation, and so on.

Several conditions must be met for the court itself to recognize the fact of fraud and allow the initiation of a criminal case:

• Deception was used to take or remove property from the victim.
• The criminals took not only things, but also documents confirming ownership of them.
• The scammer deceived the victim because he planned in advance to take possession of other people's things.
• There were no threats of violence, but the offender managed to deceive or mislead the victim.

In a particularly large size

The legislation stipulates that an especially large amount of damage, in relation to Article 159 of the Criminal Code, is an amount equal to 1 million rubles. In this case, it will be possible to prove fraudulent actions if you have supporting documentation. This applies to the situation where funds were transferred using bank transfer.

In this case, you also need to contact law enforcement agencies with a corresponding statement. When you write a statement, indicate the circumstances that may serve as evidence that a crime has been committed against you.

About offenses and legislation

Arrest of a fraudster
No citizen is immune from encounters with criminals.

You don’t even have to be gullible and naive to do this.

Often actions of this nature are aimed at those who are going to pay for a large purchase or own material assets with a large value.

And I am ready to make transactions without thinking too much about the purity of the seller.

There are the following types of criminal activities, which in any case are equivalent to offenses:

• Sale of products and drugs related to alternative medicine.
• Creating a trusting relationship to receive a loan, without plans to return the money.
• Refusal to supply goods or services even though advance payment has already been made.
• Conducting false advertising campaigns.
• Creating information that is distributed via the Internet and is not true.
• Getting loans just to make money. No chance of getting money back.
• Fortune telling and spiritual practices that are used only to obtain funds from the population.
• Illegal transactions with transport and real estate, securities and bills.
• Purchasing goods through online stores.
• Involvement in casinos and gambling, holding auctions.

As you can see, there are quite a lot of similar actions. Therefore, every citizen should know how to protect himself.

The Legislation has as many as six parts that are devoted specifically to issues of fraud. They are included in Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. These parts contain a detailed description of both the damage caused and possible compensation and punishment.

Only the court retains the right to recognize one person or an entire group as fraudsters. The preventive measure is chosen depending on how the criminals act in a particular case.

Procedure for going to court

If a situation arises in which it was not possible to repay the debt by contacting the police, file a claim in court. The document must contain:

• the address where the victim lives;
• place of work;
• Family status;
• income received per month;
• contact type data;
• a detailed description of the circumstances as a result of which the debt arose.

When writing a claim, you should draw up a statement aimed at seizing the fraudster. To do this, you can send a request, the results of which will reveal whether the culprit has property registered in his name. You can voice the obtained data during the trial. An argument in favor of the fact that the petition should be granted at the trial stage may be your concerns about the sale of things before the end of the trial.

If there are recordings of conversations with the fraudster, as well as correspondence, it should be provided to the court as evidence. Along with it, transcripts of recordings, data from mobile operators about who owns the phone number, etc. are provided. If a registered letter was sent to the debtor with a request to repay the debt, and you received notification that it was received, you must use a notarized copy of this letter during the meeting.

Witness testimony may be used as evidence of indirect significance. Information confirming the fact that at the time of the loan the debtor had funds, and he disposed of them at his own discretion.

When submitting an application, you must have with you a document that verifies your identity, as well as a receipt indicating payment of the state fee. These expenses can be recovered from the fraudster if the outcome of the case is positive. If you are unable to pay the fee, you can write an application for deferred payment. The one who loses will have to pay.

Who initiates criminal cases of fraud?

It all depends on which part of the relevant article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation the act falls under. If we are talking about Part 1 of Art. 159-159.6, then the powers of the proceedings are vested in the investigators. In all other cases, the work is carried out by police investigators (Article 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation).

is also important . In accordance with Art. 152 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, as a general rule, the investigation is conducted in the area where the crime was committed.

However, if the fraud is started in one place and completed in another, the territory where the criminal plan is completed is decisive. If we are talking about a criminal group that has several episodes in different places on its record, then the investigation can be carried out on the territory of the majority of crimes or the most serious of them.

We recommend! Causing harm while apprehending a criminal

What is the punishment?

Fraud is reflected in the Criminal Code in six different articles; responsibility for each act is provided in accordance with the gravity of the offense. Penalty measures of an administrative nature include a fine, the amount of which varies from 120 thousand to 1 million rubles. Instead of a set amount, the court may order that income be withheld for a certain period of time. Imprisonment reaches a term of 10 years. The qualification of the offense is based on the data specified in the application and the results of the inspection.

What should I do if a fraud report was filed against me?

A police report about committing a fraudulent crime may also be filed against you. In this case, a simple sequence of actions is used. You need to go to the police after you are called there. But if the invitation has arrived, but no criminal case has been initiated, it can be ignored. But if you receive a summons, you must appear, since it indicates the existence of a criminal case. Of course, there are good reasons when you can’t show up. For example:

• Health status;
• Natural disasters;
• Caring for a seriously ill relative.

A statement about a committed crime sent to you may be ignored if it arrives late (later than the day of the invitation). But for reinsurance you need to hire a lawyer. He will get acquainted with the case, give advice on further actions, and also suggest further tactics of behavior. It is not recommended to testify without the services of a specialist.

It is worth considering that a fraud report may contain false information. In such a situation, you should turn to the law on accusations that are knowingly false. He assumes that if the person who wrote the statement knew that the accusations were false, under Art. 306 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation he will be punished:

• They will be fined 120 thousand rubles (maximum amount);
• They will be fined an amount equal to their annual salary;
• They will be forced to work 480 hours in compulsory work;
• 2 years of correctional labor;
• Arrest for 6 months or imprisonment for up to two years.

But all of these penalties will be imposed on a person who files a fraud claim knowing that he is unfairly accusing another person.