Fraud 101- When Lies Become a Crime

Lying to someone is not a crime. Lying in order to take something you otherwise would not get is.

Yes, people GIVE things to scammers all the time. But their act of giving is invalidated by the deception that caused them to do so. The victim’s consent is considered ineffective under the law. A crime, not just a lie, has taken place.

We don’t consider being scammed “changing your mind,” when you discover that a hoax deprived you of your assets, but when the scam is about sex, people seem to think that upon recognition, the victim simply changed their mind about having given their permission. 

Nothing could be further from the truth. Just as in all crimes of fraud, they never gave their knowing consent in the first place.

In 1962, the American Law Institute expressed illegal consent the following way: 

“Consent is ineffective if induced by force, duress, or deception.”

Many states across the country, including the state of NJ, where Assembly Bill #3908 is currently pending, have adopted the terminology expressed by Model Penal Code as the law in their own jurisdiction.

Why is society blind to rape by fraud?

Somehow, when fraud is used as a tool to undermine a person’s self determination over their sexual sanctity, an act of rape or sexual assault when committed by any other means, most of society does not recognize that a crime is occurring.  Drug someone, force someone through coercion or violence…..  we know they were raped. Dupe someone? To many people, it’s just “puffery”.. the business as usual of conducting seduction.

The fact that the offender sexually penetrated the victim by usurping their consent through an illegal means is irrelevant to them. They are people who feel manipulation is their right. When they manipulate you for your money, they’ll go to jail. When they manipulate you to sexually penetrate you, that’s perfectly okay.

It’s not! When they defraud you to sexually penetrate your body, they are sexually assaulting you, not seducing you. And if rape by fraud laws exist in your jurisdiction, whether or not they will go to jail depends on whether or not you can prove that a crime took place.

Here’s the definition of fraud that everyone in law school learns in their very first class on this topic:

1. The offender lies
2. The offender knows they are lying
3. The offender expects the person to rely on their lie
4. The person relies on their lie
5. The offender takes what the person values based on 1-4

As it does every day, fraud figured prominently in today’s headlines.

In Fargo, ND, two farmers, Aaron and Dereck Johnson, defrauded the government by deliberately destroying their potato crop and cashing-in on a federal insurance plan.

 

Even our government leaders seem prone to scamming

In NY, deeply entrenched Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a fixture in the state’s legislature for over 20 years, was recently charged with a fraudulent hoax that put over $4M in his pockets. How can we expect legislators who use their law practice to mask illegal kickbacks to possibly understand the harm in wearing a mask to conduct sex?

Society has lost its moral compass

People are defrauded of sex each and every day. They feel defiled. For many, their lives are shattered because one person felt that their entitlement to get sex, any way they could, was more important than their victim’s self determination over your body. They violated. They don’t give a damn. This needs to stop.