APRI Highlights - Autumn 2003

Sean Morgan

Program Manager and Senior Attorney, White Collar Crime Program

Telecommunications fraud is a multi-billion dollar “growth industry” for criminals. Telecommunications fraud is the use of voice or data technology to obtain money or property through false pretenses or with the intent to defraud.

In June 2003, APRI’s White Collar Crime Program (WCCP) convened an advisory group to assess the challenges prosecutors face in protecting citizens from fraud, particularly by those who are using the anonymity of the Internet and the telephone to perpetrate their scams. One product is Wired to Fight Fraud, a new training course launched in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 12-14, 2003. This course provides prosecutors with an overview of how telecommunications fraud scams are being perpetrated, approaches to the physical and legal acquisition of electronic and digital evidence, and techniques for working with victims. The WCCP will offer the course two more times in spring 2004.

The WCCP also continues to offer training on prosecuting telecommunications fraud for the National District Attorneys Association at the National Advocacy Center in Columbia, South Carolina. The Cybersleuth I course provides prosecutors with an understanding of basic computer forensic concepts, and search and seizure of electronic and digital evidence. The Cybersleuth II course provides prosecutors with an opportunity to hone their trial advocacy skills in presenting electronic and digital evidence. The Identity Theft course educates prosecutors about current identity theft scams, search and seizure of electronic and digital evidence, and the perspectives of leading private industry representatives.

The WCCP seeks to make information available in a variety of ways. Secure Lines CD-ROM is a compilation of materials from past WCCP courses. Included are presentations and draft pleadings relating to prosecution of telecommunications fraud cases, victims’ assistance, search and seizure of electronic evidence, and other pertinent issues. WCCP also publishes and distributes Telemarketing Fraud Prevention and Prosecution: The Experience of Five Demonstration Sites. This monograph discusses the successes and challenges of telemarketing fraud projects in five states: Vermont, North Carolina, California, Georgia and Florida.

Abuse, neglect and exploitation of the elderly are topics in which WCCP is expanding prosecutors’ resources. In July 2003, WCCP published two monographs, 51 Experiments in Combating Elder Abuse: A Survey of State Laws Relating to Elder Abuse and Mandatory Reporting and Prosecution of Elder Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation: Criminal Liability, Due Process, and Hearsay. The 51 Experiments monograph is a narrative accompanied by tables that digest criminal elder abuse, neglect, exploitation and mandatory reporting statutes. Prosecution of Elder Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation is based upon a comprehensive review of three pre-eminent issues in elder abuse criminal case law: criminal liability, due process, and hearsay.

These publications are available online at www.ndaa-apri.org. For more information about APRI’s White Collar Crime Program’s trainings and publications, please contact whitecollar@ndaa-apri.org or call (703) 549-4253.