The Overlooked Crime Robbing the Nation

(ROCK HILL) – Ever since Edwin Sutherland coined the term white-collar crime in 1939, there have been criminologists devoted to research on the topic. According to Sutherland, white-collar crime is an offense committed by a respectable person of high social status in the course of his or her occupation.

However, the definition of this branch of crime has expanded with an ever-changing society and a rapid advancement of technology.

According to Dr. Brad Tripp, a criminology professor at Winthrop University, all digital crimes fall in the white-collar category. This includes credit card fraud, identity theft, extortion, and more.

White-collar crimes are the ones that often go unnoticed by the general public even though the average citizen is much more likely to experience this form of offense than street or violent crimes.

Although society often perceives violent and property crimes as the more serious offenses, white-collar crimes are the ones that are much more prevalent and costlier according to Tripp.

“We do judge people that engage in property crimes more harshly than we do white-collar crimes, right?” said Tripp. “Because with property crimes you have this vision of someone breaking into your home and stealing something, and we feel kind of violated because they are in our home. But the truth is when someone does the same to you in a digital way, it’s in a lot of ways the same thing.”

According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, in 2017 elderly citizens over the age of 60 were the number one group to be targeted for Internet-related white-collar crimes and file complaints to the agency. The total losses of this age group were over $342 million.

Toni McElvain, a 69-year-old Arizona resident, knows first-hand the dangers of white-collar crime and said that she has been a victim of identity theft, credit card fraud, and check fraud all within the last couple of years.

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According to McElvain, the beginning of her two-year battle with white-collar criminals began when she got home from vacation with her husband to find a new credit card for a women’s clothing store opened under her name in the mail. McElvain said she immediately called the store to find out what had happened.

“I said well how could they open a credit card in my name and use it to charge clothing when it came to my house. To my address. And they said it was all done online,” said McElvain. “Internet is making it easier because years ago you had to provide some sort of photo ID or something. You had to come in and sign a piece of paper to get the whole thing rolling. You don’t have to do that anymore.”

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McElvain said she believes this all started when someone stole her identity September 2016 after she filled out a written application for in-house financing on a credit card for a new Sleep Number bed. She said it is possible that another person in the store saw her information written down or the application was not properly destroyed after her credit was run and someone took her identity that way, but what is certain is that a white-collar criminal got her name, address, social security number and much more.

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“From that point on I have spent the next two years dealing with all this,” said McElvain. “I’ve had five credit cards opened in my name. We’ve had our checking account compromised twice where we’ve had to get a new checking account. Everything that they have done to me has been online.”

McElvain said one of the most disappointing things about this is that the offenders will not be caught. When she first spoke with the fraud department McElvain said she was advised to file a police report to ensure she was protected from having to pay the charges. Because the charges made to the fraudulent credit cards were under $250, she said the police will not investigate further and neither will the fraud department.

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“They’re [the fraud departments] not going to go after them. They’re not even going to try; they’re just gonna right it off,” said McElvain. “It’s very sad.”

Because so many white-collar crimes are committed using the Internet, it has become increasingly difficult to track down and prosecute offenders, especially for lower level thefts like the ones McElvain faced.

Tripp explained that white-collar crimes are unique in that many offenders who are caught successfully minimize their jail sentences by paying monetary penalties.

“A lot of famous people and people in positions of power have committed white-collar crimes, and instead of being sentenced to incarceration, they get hit with fines, and if they pay those fines, they don’t have to go to jail,” said Tripp. “You don’t see that for murder. You don’t see that for many property crimes, you see it for some, but you certainly don’t see it for drug crimes.”

According to a study done by sociologists Cedric Michel, John K. Cochran, and Kathleen M. Heide on the public’s knowledge about white-collar crimes, white-collar offenses cost more than street crimes both financially and in terms of physical harm.

They said, “More specifically, traditional property offenses such as burglary and theft cost the public about $18 billion each year. In contrast, annual losses due to large-scale white-collar crime (including various forms of fraud and health costs caused by work-related injuries and illnesses as well as environmental pollution) are way above a trillion dollars.”

In addition to the staggering financial costs of white-collar crime, it is also responsible for approximately 300,000 deaths annually due to situations like corporate malpractice and illegal toxic waste disposal.

As a former employee in the Fraud Department and Auto Claim Unit of State Farm, McElvain said she has seen how organizations handle white-collar thefts and she knows who it hurts.

“You’ve got the banks and the credit card people that are just writing this stuff off, so what happens is that they have to recoup that somewhere,” said McElvain. “So what do they do? They increase their cost to us and we have to pay it.”

There are multiple ways people can go about setting safeguards against white-collar offenses, and according to McElvain, she has already made multiple changes to her lifestyle and her financing since her battle with these criminals began two years ago.

Today she is much more cautious about trusting anyone with her personal information, she changes her passwords regularly on any banking or credit accounts, she checks her credit report at least quarterly, she no longer writes checks, and she has a separate email that is only for her bank account.

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In addition to these safety measures, McElvain got in contact with all three nationwide credit reporting bureaus: TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian.

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“Those three credit bureaus had to be notified so I could put a fraud alert on those credit bureaus,” said McElvain. “And what that means is anyone who is trying to access my credit report to open an account or take out a loan, they can’t do it now without the credit bureau, or whoever they are trying to get the credit from, having to contact me personally.”

According to McElvain, the fraud alert system is valid for seven years from the time it is applied to an account.

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Another option for those who are trying to prevent fraudulent credit or loans from being opened under their names is to put a security freeze on the account. According to Experian.com a credit freeze is freely available for everyone in America, and it prevents anyone from accessing an individual’s credit information until a personal identification number is given to lift the freeze.

“We had a situation where someone took a check we wrote for a contractor who did some work up here in Show Low for us, they got ahold of that check that has your routing number and account number on it, and they were able to go into our checking account through like a debit transaction online and pull $500 out of our checking account.”

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According to McElvain, it is essential to act quickly when you suspect someone may be attempting to steal your information.

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“But the most important thing is if you have any indication at all that you have been compromised, you have to notify them [the fraud department] immediately,” said McElvain. “Once you know that it’s [white-collar crime] out there. It’s really up to you to keep on it, or it can get really ugly.”

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Another tip she had was to not pay a single penny towards a fraudulent purchase no matter what the credit card company may threaten you with. Once you pay part of that debt, she said you have claimed responsibility for it and it lessens your chances of winning if the case goes to court.

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White-collar crime is an epidemic that appears to only be picking up steam as technology continues to advance and the world becomes more of a global market. However, the first step to fighting back against this hidden beast is to learn about it.

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According to Tripp, making it more prevalent in the media and holding politicians accountable when they participate in white-collar crime or accept donations from these offenders are two other ways to work towards reducing these crimes in society.

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“Education, politics, and media,” said Tripp. “I’d say that those would kind of the three angles we could take to help people be more aware and make it. Since it’s such a big part of 21st century life, these are ways that we can kind of address it as a starting point.”

For more information on the different aspects of white-collar crime you can visit the FBI link below.

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https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/white-collar-crime