Home About the Center for the Study of Economic Crimes About Fraud Update's Monitoring System About RSS Feeds Privacy Terms of Service About Fraud Update's Monitoring System Consumers, businesses and government agencies are exploited by an ever-changing mix of scams, bait and switch tactics, deceptive advertising, identity theft, price fixing and fraud. Perpetrators of such unlawful acts frequently hide behind a maze of corporate identities and move from one jurisdiction to another – and back again. Many seek to capitalize on disastrous events, such as terrorist attacks, an outbreak of disease and hurricanes. Victims often are the most vulnerable amongst us: seniors, the ill, recent immigrants and non-profit institutions. But no one is immune: virtually all families, businesses and government agencies are at risk for victimization by an underworld of con men, thieves and embezzlers who use every available tool – including evolving technology – to enrich themselves at the expense of those unable to detect their deceptions. Charged with protecting the public from this exploitation are a large variety of federal, state and local government enforcement and regulatory agencies. Each operates within its own geographical jurisdiction and sphere of interest, creating a quilt work of enforcement and oversight. Historically, perpetrators have sought to exploit this balkanization, migrating across jurisdictional boundaries and exchanging one area of interest for another immediately upon detection. Recognizing this, enforcement and regulatory agencies at all level of governments are taking steps to increase inter-agency cooperation not only nationally but also overseas. Using newly developed proprietary technology, Fraud Update seeks to promote this inter-agency cooperation by producing an unprecedented stream of timely information to help investigator, analysts and litigators identify emerging cross-jurisdictional fraud and similar activities and detect trends with increasing speed. To produce this information flow, Fraud Update system monitors hundreds of government websites and identifies newly posted investigative, litigation and information news releases and related documents in near real time. Fraud Update users access documents on the websites of the agencies issuing them. Document references are maintained for 12 months. The Fraud Update system was designed primarily to assist government agencies in their efforts to protect consumers, businesses and government itself from fraud and other detrimental actitivites. It is also hoped that this repository of dynmically updated information will serve as a resource for innovative academic research. Fraud Update is a service of the Center for the Study of Economic Crimes, a collaborative project of the Florida State University’s College of Criminology & Criminal Justice in Tallahassee, Florida, and the St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami. Florida State University College of Criminology & Criminal Justice St. Thomas University School of Law (Miami)