Fraud is a type of criminal activity, defined as:
'abuse of position, or false representation, or prejudicing someone's rights for personal gain'.
Put simply, fraud is an act of deception intended for personal gain or to cause a loss to another party.
The general criminal offence of fraud can include:
deception whereby someone knowingly makes false representation
or they fail to disclose information
or they abuse a position.
Fraudsters are always finding new ways to trick you out of your money. You could find yourself targeted through emails, phone calls, letters, social networking sites or even chat rooms. For a greater understanding of the types of fraud and how they are classified please see our taxonomy of fraud.