Paper Title
Study of Financing Scam- A New Variety of Advance Scam

Abstract
Confidence schemes have evolved over a period of time from the earliest Spanish prisoner scam to the Nigerian letter scam. These scams target a broad range of customers through emails and letters. This paper investigates a confidence scam named Financing scam, while this scam shares some similarities with the other confidence scams, there are stark differences in the way it is executed. In this scam the con artist poses as a loan facilitator and collects money from the victims for facilitating a loan against property. When compared with the other scams the victim profile in this scam is more homogenous. The method of operation is more through cultivating personal relationships than online. Over a period of 3 years we have studied several such cases in the south Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka by interacting with several victims, alleged con artists, law enforcement officials and legal experts. Employing field research we have identified the modus operand of this scam and reconstructed the target victim profile. In this paper we will discuss in detail the factors that make the victims to believe the con artist and the techniques employed by the con artist in successfully pulling of this con. After verifying the accounts of the victims through third party sources we have estimated that on average the victim is conned over a period of 15 months for an average amount of Rs.45 Lakhs. The duration of the scam and the average amount scammed are higher than the other reported confidence scams and advance scams. This paper also presents the loop holes in the legal system that these con artists utilise in executing the scam. This paper presents a checklist for readers to identify this scam so that they can stay clear of these con artists. Keywords - Confidence Scam, Advance Scam, financial crimes, White collar crime.