what is wire fraud 
wire fraud is a type of fraud that involves the use of some form of telecommunications or the internet these can include a phone call a fax an email a text or social media messaging among many other forms wire fraud is punishable by prison and or fines understanding wire fraudthe u s department of justice criminal resource manual section 941 18 u s c 1343 cites these as the key elements of wire fraud wire fraud is a federal crime that carries a sentence of up to 20 years imprisonment and fines of up to 250 000 for individuals and 500 000 for organizations the statute of limitations to bring a charge is five years unless the wire fraud targeted a financial institution in which case the statute of limitations is 10 years if the wire fraud is related to special circumstances such as a presidentially declared state of emergency or targets a financial institution it can carry a prison sentence of up to 30 years and a fine of up to 1 million a person need not have actually defrauded someone or personally sent a fraudulent communication to be convicted of wire fraud it is sufficient to prove the intent to defraud or acting with knowledge of fraudulent communications being sent 23not long ago in order to perpetrate a scheme fraudsters had to rely on the telephone and make hundreds of calls to try to hook a hapless gullible retiree or lonely heart the old fashioned phone call is still useful as a means to contact prey but today with the power of the internet to find potential victims a fraudster s work can be done online with a few fake postings of pictures a tale of woe and a promise of untold riches or everlasting love and all of this can be written with bad grammar and spelling if you get messages or solicitations to send money to a stranger delete them right away you can also report them to the fbi s internet crime complaint center 4example of wire frauda common example of wire fraud is the nigerian prince scam in this scam the scammer sends an email claiming to be a nigerian prince who is down on his luck in some way usually exiled and can t access the fortune in his nigerian bank account he claims to need the target to hold his millions for him and promises to give the target a handsome sum in return the goal of the scam is to obtain the target s financial information which the scammer will use to access the target s money although it s one of the oldest internet scams in the book there are still consumers who fall for this rip off or some variation of it no matter what the circumstances whether you receive an email from a wealthy traveler who needs your help getting back to the u s or your long lost cousin who claims to be in an emergency situation never wire money to a stranger once you wire cash especially overseas it s virtually impossible to reverse the transaction or trace the money if you re worried about your cousin check separately they ll probably be safe at home and you can alert them that their email s been hacked one of these nigerian princes was detained and charged on dec 28 2017 he turned out to be a 67 year old man from louisiana 5 this particular brand of the scheme first popped up in the 1980s and americans have lost millions of dollars to the scam 6