Page 169 - Judgment Enforce Course

Judgment Enforcement – The Step-by-Step Course

PART NINE

SPECIAL NOTES ON FRAUD:

WHAT IS IT? WHAT DOES IT REALLY MEAN?

6 Minutes

I often have people call me with their judgments, and they say the judgment was for
fraud. I say, “What did the person do?” The reply usually is,
“He didn’t pay his bill.” Or, “I lent him money and he didn’t FRAUD
pay me back.” That’s probably not fraud.

Definition: Making a
I tell them that the judgment is likely for simple “breach of promise that you know at
contract,” not fraud. What is fraud? It is making a promise or the time is not true, and
contract with no intention of following through and perform. then the other person
relying on that promise to
✓ It is causing a person to rely on a false promise, which his or her financial
the person knew when he made the promise, and upon detriment.
which the other person relies, to his detriment.

Because fraud is an intent to defraud, this intent dwells in the mind of the defrauder.
And that makes it hard to prove. Sometimes it’s easy to prove, such as when someone says,
“This is my car and I’ll sell it you” but then you learn the car was stolen. The guy was a
thief and a fraud. He stole the car and then intended to deceive you.

But in most cases fraud is not co clear-cut. In those instances, we have to infer the fraud.
For example, if someone says, “Here’s a check, I have $500 in my account,” and there is
no account because he printed the check himself and invented the bank numbers, then he
certainly intended to deceive you.

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