There are a variety of fraud charges that someone can face. From credit card to bad check fraud cases, these offenses can have long-term impacts on someone’s career and employment status. A Virginia fraud lawyer can help you distinguish between fraud in the crime scene and then fraud in civil law cases. The result of civil fraud, which is a separate legal action altogether, is invoked frequently in business law types of deals, contracts, and liability cases.
As soon as the person is being investigated for fraud or is being charged with it, they need to contact somebody right away to help them figure out what is going on and to speak on their behalf to law enforcement. This is particularly important because a person can make a statement that could be used against them.There are criminal charges associated with fraud and they depend on the medium or how the fraud was executed. Consult a professional attorney if you are experiencing issues with fraud.
Fraud is a false representation regarding a claim that pertains to a present or material fact with the intent to defraud. The intent to defraud is what distinguishes the criminal charges from the civil charges. What is punished is intending to harm a person by trying to gain an advantage over them. A case looks for representation, an assertion of fact that is not true that pertains to a material fact. Most fraud claims are punished as a Class 1 misdemeanor, but there are aggravating factors that bring the level of punishment up to a felony.
There are many different types of fraud, but the most common ones that come up are credit card fraud cases. There is also bad check fraud cases. This occurs when a person issues a bad check, knowing that there are insufficient funds. Bad checks have two kinds of categories: the first one is writing a check where they know that there are insufficient funds and the second type is forging someone’s signature. There is also another type of fraud crime, which is false pretenses, that is obtaining any property or advantage with a false pretense. There are also forgery charges that would include forging someone’s signature on a check. Contact a Virginia fraud lawyer for more types.
False pretenses do not include stealing an identity or misrepresenting an identity. It is asserting that a person is at a certain status or they holds a certain position and by that they are trying to gain approval on a deal or approval on a contract or sale of a home or making certain statements on the criminal history form in order to be approved for a gun permit. That is a false pretense as well.
A person should contact a Virginia fraud lawyer as soon as there is any type of charge or an investigation. As soon as a person knows that they are being investigated, they should contact a lawyer. It is helpful to engage the help of a Virginia fraud attorney right away so they can communicate with law enforcement, and they can represent the person in the investigation with the hopes of preventing any criminal charges.
Northern Virginia Criminal Defense Group