ABSTRACT
This chapter provides telemarketing fraud as deceptive or misleading use of telecommunications services for commercial, investment or charitable solicitation. Telemarketing fraud, in both its contemporary and emerging manifestations, poses substantial risks to society. The occurrence of telemarketing fraud is conventionally explained in terms of greed and callousness on the part of the fraudster, and greed and gullibility on the part of the victim. The logistics of traditional telemarketing fraud are basic. Organised telemarketing fraudsters establish temporary telephone banks, commonly termed "boiler room" operations. The development of telecommunications technology enables telemarketing fraud to be perpetrated from across the world. Cost considerations, which tended to confine telemarketing fraud to a relatively proximate location, are no longer prohibitive. Estimating the cost of telemarketing fraud may be as fruitful as estimating the number of angels which can fit on the head of a pin, because the most effective frauds are never detected.
