Dictionary

academic imposter: A specific type of imposter that pretends to have more academic credentials than he or she actually has.

account take-over: A specific type of identity theft wherein a criminal tries to take over another person’s account. This often relies on the criminal calling a credit card company, reporting his card as “lost” and then using the new card once it comes.

advance-fee fraud: A confidence trick in which the target is persuaded to advance relatively small sums of money in the hope of realizing a much larger gain. Spam e-mails and Nigerian letter scams are types of advance-fee fraud.

anxiety: A physiological state characterized by cognitive, somatic, emotional and behavioral components that combine to create feelings such as fear, apprehension or worry.

application fraud: A type of identity theft wherein a criminal uses stolen or fake documents to open an account in someone else’s name.

capgras syndrome: A rare disorder in which a person holds a delusional belief that an acquaintance, usually a spouse or other close family member, has been replaced by an identical looking imposter.

carding: A process to verify the validity of stolen card data.

charlatan: A person practicing quackery or some similar confidence trick in order to obtain money or advantage via some form of pretence or deception.

confidence man: Also referred to as conmen or con artists; the person who attempts to swindle a person or people by gaining their confidence.

confidence trick: Also know as con games, scams and fraud; an attempt to swindle a person that involves gaining his or her confidence.

credit card fraud: The theft and fraud committed using a credit card or any similar payment mechanism as a fraudulent source of funds in a transaction.