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The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings and implications associated with the millions of financial and other fraud complaints that are reported to the Federal Trade Commission and published in the Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book each year since 2002. Based on the three dimensions, namely, the number of complaints, growth rates and geographic locations of those crimes, this study found similar as well as unique trends that are new and are critical for addressing the rise of cybercrimes in the USA. The trends and patterns identified may also have implications for addressing cybercrimes in other parts of the world.

This research is a cross-sectional time-series study that covers frauds and cybercrimes in the USA from 2002 to 2015. The observed cases included the number of total complaints, complaints categories and payment amount or loss incurred both at the national and state levels. First, aggregate fraud totals, categories, payments and payment methods were analyzed and ranked. Second, state data for fraud categories, payments and filing rate per capita were organized into panel data for analysis, comparison and ranking. This cross-sectional and longitudinal approach of the different dimensions of financial and other frauds generate new rankings and more robust results.

The key findings are related to the long-term occurrences and trends of financial and online frauds in the USA. While some general trends are consistent with prior studies, the cross-sectional and longitudinal panel analysis produced some unique results. States that reported the most complaints do not necessarily rank high when examined with their growth per capital or their rates of growth. Their rankings could change dramatically due to other factors. In addition, eight of the top ten crime categories are the same both at the national and state levels, indicating that law enforcement could target the same crime categories.

The panel data analysis is new (first attempt at using this technique on the data set) and robust because it allows cross-sectional and longitudinally analysis of the various financial and online fraud crimes, in aggregate and by state, for a more comprehensive and comparative examination of the fraud behavioral trends. This research can be viewed as an improvement over earlier studies because the panel analysis identifies what fraud trends, scam types and payment amount exist on the national and state levels. The rate of fraud growth in the respective states provides a better understanding about future development of this problem.

Every year, millions of consumers around the world become victims of credit card fraud. These individuals have to appeal to their credit card companies to reverse unauthorized charges. This study aims to profile the American consumers’ experience when complaints to their credit card companies about unauthorized charges fail to produce a resolution. Using a large database of consumer complaint filings with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the characteristics of these consumer complaints are identified, and the drivers of consumer financial hardship resulting from credit card fraud are determined.

A random sample of consumer complaints about their credit card companies’ perceived mishandling of cases, filed with the CFPB, is used to conduct content analysis. The resulting content analysis categories are used in a predictive model to determine the drivers of consumer hardship.

In nearly one-quarter of all complaint filings, the credit card company had blamed the complainant as the party responsible for the fraudulent charges or refused to open a fraud investigation altogether. Nearly 60% of complaint reports contain expressions of emotional distress and many mention financial hardship. Nearly half of all complainants consider the fraud department operations of their credit card company as lacking in service quality, many reporting inability to reach the department or to receive a returned call. Even after CFPB intermediation, only 15% of complainants receive some form of financial relief from their credit card company. The majority of the complainants report a lack of willingness by the credit card company to reverse unauathorized charges, leaving the complainant financially responsible for them.

This study focused on data collected from consumers. Future research can expand the scope of inquiry by surveying the staff and executives in the fraud investigation departments of credit card companies to determine the norms of fraud investigation used within the industry.

This study sheds light on the financial hardship and emotional pains that consumers victimized by credit card fraud experience in dealing with their credit card companies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to empirically examine American consumers’ complaints about the fraud investigation operations of their credit card companies. Using data captured through the complaint filing system of a federal bureau (CFPB), the findings have implications for policymakers, regulators and credit card companies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact the US Supreme Court's Tellabs decision has had on Section 10 (b) cases generally and on cases related to subprime mortgage‐backed securities.

The paper provides background including provisions of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (PSLRA) of 1995. Analyzes the decision in Tellabs, Inc. v. Makor Issue & Rights, Ltd, recent decisions since Tellabs by the the Second, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits, and decisions in two recent subprime securities cases in which defendants moved to dismiss pursuant to Tellabs; and draws preliminary conclusions from cases that have applied Tellabs so far.

The PSLRA raised the bar for pleading scienter by requiring a “strong inference”, but the courts of appeals have differed in applying the standard. The Tellabs decision asserted that the PSLRA requires consideration of competing inferences in determination of whether scienter is adequately pleaded. The Supreme Court's “prescription” said the inference of scienter must be more than merely “reasonable” or “permissible”; it must seem to a reasonable person to be at least as cogent and compelling as any opposing inference. One lesson of Tellabs and the Seventh Circuit's decision on remand is that the “plausibility” of scienter allegations requires a fact‐specific inquiry. The Ninth Circuit court found that “deliberate recklessness” is sufficient to allege scienter. In one of the subprime cases, In re 2007 Novastar Financial, Inc., a district court found that a deterioration of a company's business was not evidence of wrongdoing. It is difficult – and premature – to draw firm conclusions from cases that have applied Tellabs so far, but requiring courts to consider competing inferences, requiring the pleadings in question to satisfy more “adjectives”, and requiring the “weighing” of inferences at the pleadings stage would all appear to help defendants. However, Tellabs could help plaintiffs by reversing previous practice in which a “tie” between competing inferences automatically resulted in a victory for the defendant.

The paper offers practical guidance by experienced securities lawyers.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the growing problem of cross‐border fraud, assess the structures that have emerged to deal with it, identify weaknesses and make the case for a new international body to lead the fight against cross‐border fraud.

This paper reviews various primary and secondary resources drawn from around the world to assess the current infrastructure for addressing cross‐border fraud.

The paper finds various gaps as well as examples of good practice in the fight against cross‐border fraud. However, to have a meaningful impact it is concluded a new international body is required.

The paper is largely focused upon the English speaking world and the European Union and does not explore the nature and response to the problem beyond these areas, other than in current international led responses.

The findings have implications for national and international bodies in considering appropriate ways forward in creating stronger infrastructures to counter cross‐border fraud.

This paper will be useful to policy‐makers and the law enforcement community in considering options for the future and is the first to advocate a new international capacity to fight cross‐border fraud.

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings and lessons learned from a case study that is based on Alibaba's business‐to‐business (B2B) fraud in China. The influence of such incidents and post‐hoc solutions are research worthy in today's booming digital business world.

The paper uses a case study approach and practice‐driven method that rely on user behaviors, corporate policies, and financial data. The taxonomic framework of online fraud and corresponding countermeasures arise from digital forensic reports, policy reviews, data analysis, and a literature review.

The key findings are indigenous to the Chinese B2B landscape, yet they help international stakeholders understand and address fraudulent issues. The paper finds beside the traditional customer‐based account signature, internal employees must be assigned their own signature systems to track malicious activities. Meanwhile, digital signature systems can be enhanced by reducing the record inter‐arrival time. Policy revisions are proposed to (e.g. offshore companies) lead to the decrease in the number of fraudulent incidents.

The paper extends existing understanding of online fraud by studying a Chinese case. The findings are timely and based on real world experience. Actual practices are discussed and evaluated. A range of fraudulent activities is reviewed in a comprehensive framework. The findings are important due to the public exposure and wide implications of such an incident. Also, this study reveals that fraud protection is an on‐going effort requiring a triangulation of technical artifacts, policy management, and operations management.

In order to ensure the continuing expansion and success of electronic commerce, the issue of how to assess product quality of items sold over the Internet must be addressed. The formal literature of microeconomics presents a conceptual framework for this assessment that is applied in the case study presented in this paper. The type of transaction studied is online auction transactions conducted through the popular web site, eBay. Quality issues, as well as other sources of buyer dissatisfaction with electronic purchases, are addressed on eBay through a bulletin board style feedback system by which members of the eBay community may report on various aspects of their eBay transactions. eBay publishes the feedback ratings of each seller as a part of its listing of any item for sale and also disciplines sellers that accumulate too much negative feedback. This would seem to provide buyers with some degree of protection from sellers who are unscrupulous in their claims regarding product quality. The empirical work presented here examines the effectiveness of this system using logistic and ordinary least squares regression, and concludes that at least key aspects of the system offer adequate incentives to sellers to provide accurate representations to buyers regarding the quality of their merchandise.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings and lessons that were learned from the many cases of internet fraud complaints that are gathered by the Federal Trade Commission in the USA. The implications that are contained in the behavior of the complaints and trends identified are critical for addressing all types of online criminal activities in the increasing world of cybercrimes.

Data for this paper are extracted from the Consumer Sentinel Network Data Handbook covering a period of 13 years. Using the raw data, the occurrences were plotted and trends (number of cycles, time between cycles, and leading state and lagging states) were identified. Descriptive statistics covering the 13 years were examined and discussed. Using 20002 as the base year, the rate of growth of each of the states were ranked annually and were tested for stability and predictability using non-parametric approaches.

The key findings are indigenous to the occurrences of online fraud complaints in the USA. However, as the leading nation with the best database on fraud complaints, the findings are mission critical to fraud prevention across the globe. Specifically, this study found that since 2002, there have been four distinct cycles. Each cycle is clearly noticeable because there is a rapid growth in the number of crime complaints in the beginning half of the period followed by a slowing down period. However, the speed of change from one cycle to the next is steeper and the time gap is faster. While it is true that from the perspective of all the 50 states, the ranks appear to change every year and thus are not stable. However, the majority of the changes are relatively small so their relative positions by rank are still predictable.

The paper extends existing understanding of online fraud occurrences in the USA. The findings are timely and based on longitudinal data that span over a decade. The four new cycles identified are critical to the body of knowledge. The observed change in time from one cycle to another and its changes from a mathematic to a geometric one are also new. The findings are invaluable to persons working in law enforcement related occupations (auditors, lawyers, forensic experts, among others) and who must deal with the increasing problem of online fraud and cybercrimes.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the reporting of cybercrime in Australia, specifically the reporting of fraud.

Using an evaluation of the (former) Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN), this paper provides a commentary on the report findings, including both positive and negative aspects of the reporting mechanism.

The paper focuses on three key challenges that were identified in the evaluation: victim satisfaction; quality of data; and unintended consequences. Each of these topics is outlined and located within a broader context to better understand the evaluation findings.

This viewpoint paper is a commentary based upon an evaluation of ACORN which itself has several limitations of its methodology. Despite this, the evaluation provides important insights into the challenges that currently exist with the online reporting of fraud offences both in Australia, and worldwide.

This paper emphasises the structural and systemic issues that exist for the reporting of fraud in Australia. It therefore warns against placing blame exclusively on police agencies as responsible for these results. Instead, it advocates the need for society to take a more coordinated and collaborative approach to the policing of fraud, which includes law enforcement, government and industry partners.

The paper documents some of the underlying reasons for additional trauma and harm experienced by victims of fraud in their efforts to report their incident and receive what they perceive to be an appropriate criminal justice response. These must be acknowledged in order to make the required change.

This paper is a commentary and reflection on the current way in which fraud is reported in Australia. It points to a need to rethink this approach in some key areas. It highlights the critical need for an education campaign to dispel some of the myths that exist in relation to realistic police responses to fraud, and also calls for the need to consider alternatives to the exclusively online system currently in operation, as well as larger questions about notions of justice and appropriate responses to fraud victims.

Whistle‐blowing can play an important role in the internal control environment of an organization, and internal auditors are its natural outlets. This study examines whistle‐blowing complaints received by internal auditors based on survey responses from 129 chief internal auditors of US manufacturing companies. Within the past two years, 71 percent of chief internal auditors received whistle‐blowing complaints, 65 percent of which were found to be true upon investigation. The receipt of whistle‐blowing complaints was positively associated with involvement of internal auditing in monitoring compliance with the corporate code of conduct, and with audit committee support of internal auditing (as evidenced by audit committee involvement in decisions to dismiss the chief internal auditor). These results are consistent with recent calls by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations and others for public companies to maintain and enforce a code of conduct, and by the Blue Ribbon Committee and others about the need for audit committees to deal proactively with internal and external auditors.