[quote name='gareman']I believe that the key to something being a fraud is deception. If all party involved know all information and everyone involved is still "ok" with the transaction there is no deception.
I would like to discuss return fraud regarding Wal-mart "lax" return policy. While I am not advacating returning things you bought somewhere to wal-mart, I am wondering if it is fraud to Wal-Mart. According to wikipedia; (the best concise definition I could find) "In the broadest sense, a
fraud is a
deception made for personal gain."
However; Wal-Mart allows people to return items without reciepts, and they have to be well aware that there is potenial for items not purchased from Wal-Mart. I am almost certain Wal-Mart knows this happens, I highly doubt a corporation like Wal-Mart would ever depend on a costumer honor system to protect any profit or assets.
Sure they have the "only 3 receiptless returns every 6 months" policy, but in every article and explanation on the website, Wal-Mart only gives the reason for the policy is to protect against massive stolen material return.
While this is in no way an explicit nod to allow people to return items to Wal-mart not purchased from them. I decided to go a little deeper.....
I purchased a 15 dollar ps2 game, and then left the store. I shopped at the mall and target among other places then returned. Of course I "forgot" my reciept in the car. The customer service was long, so while I was waiting I read the posted return policies. I did not see anything, although I could have missed it, that said anything about not returning non-wal-mart items. The closest thing I saw was that an item without a reciept must be in Wal-mart inventory.
I got up to the counter, and said I had gotten the game for Christmas in the mail from my grandparents. The clerk took the game out of my hand and scanned it......I felt guilty and interested so I started to explain," Yea, I already have the game, and I heard you guys do receiptless...I have no way of knowing that it has come from Wal-mart."
Did not matter. Before I barely got out my story she was handing me the giftcard and moving on the to the next costumer.
My friend told me that when he worked at Wal-Mart that "brand-new" products that had not been opened or serverly damaged were put right back on the shelf and sold at the normal price.
a
fraud is a
deception made for personal gain. There was no deception in my return story. The clerk knew full well that I had no receipt and that I had no clue whether it was from Wal-Mart or not. Of course it was from Wal-Mart, but no one there seem to care about the product other than whether it was in the system.
There was no deception involved. In fact, I made known on my on accord any information that might seen as deception. It was not for personal gain, but it could have just as easily been.
It would be return fraud, if you said I don't think this is from Wal-mart will you return it. Yes here's xx.xx giftcard. Is that how much you paid for it, and you lie and say yes even when you paid a lot less. That is deception for personal gain.[/QUOTE]
Sorry, but I'm calling bullshit. If you can't see how everything you mentioned was purely deceptive and for personal gain, then you have no sense of ethics or morality. I'm going to break this down for you legally. You knowingly commit fraud/larceny under false pretenses when you return a non-Walmart item to Walmart. How and why?
First and foremost, you knew the item you were returning was not purchased from that store. You can try to tell yourself that's fine because the clerk assumed it was but that's irrelevant. The law only cares about your state of mind and your knowledge and, here, you knew the item you were returning wasn't from that store AND you intended to return it to receive additional money.
Second, you outright fabricated a story to get the clerk to take the item back and give you title (meaning full possession) of the extra money you had no right to. Even if you didn't fabricate the story, you still approached the clerk with the hopes that you would be able to pass off the item as one bought from Walmart. Explicit language you know the item didn't come from that store is not required. Again, this goes to YOUR knowledge and intent.
Three, the return policy is irrelevant unless it explicitly says we will accept returns from other stores, which it doesn't. You may think that Walmart taking back things without asking questions justifies your actions but it doesn't. The very definition of the word return is to give or bring back an item to its original location. You're not doing that here. You're buying an item from a separate store and then "selling" it to Walmart at a higher price under the guise of a return. The money you received, both covering your original purchase and any profit afterwards, is stolen, plain and simple.
Try to rationalize it anyway you want but you're committing fraud under false pretenses and that is a crime. And before you ask, yes, I'm an attorney.
you're trying to argue so you at least make sense.[/quote] 
