Fraud Division

Fraud Division
Abbreviation	FD
Organizational structure
Part of	Los Angeles Police Department Office of Operations Detective Bureau
Headquarters	Police Administration Building, 100 West 1st Street, Los Angeles
Command staff
Commanding Officer	Captain II

The Fraud Division (FD) of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is responsible for investigating financial crimes, computer crimes, forgery, fraud and identity theft crimes.

Investigative responsibilities of FD

Cyber Crimes Section

The Cyber Crimes Section is responsible for investigating unlawful computer access, hacking, theft of data, network intrusion and denial of service attacks, complex and/or high dollar value internet fraud cases (with reported losses are over $10,000), and any crime committed using computer-stored information, or sabotage to computer-stored information.

The Cyber Crimes Section has two major functions:

• Forensics: responsible for conducting forensic analysis of computer media for department personnel
• Investigations: conducts investigations city, state, and nationwide wherein computers are the target of illicit activity, including the handling of complex internet-related or high technology-related crimes.

Fraud Section

The Fraud Section is responsible for the following investigations:

• auto repair frauds
• complex Grand Thefts (Ponzi and Pyramid schemes on a case by case basis)
• consumer fraud violations
• corporate Security Act violations
• elder persons estate abuse when the reported loss is over $300,000
• financial crimes involving high profile victim(s) and/or suspect(s)
• offers of bribes or theft cases involving City employees or public officials
• the manufacture, distribution, or wholesaling of illicit pharmaceuticals and pirated/counterfeit goods including sound and video recordings

The Fraud Section is comprised of the following units: Auto Fraud Unit, Bunco Unit, Elder Persons Estate Unit, Trademark Infringement Crimes Unit, and the White-Collar Crime Unit.

Bunco Unit

Upon the direction of the Chief of Detectives, the Bunco Unit of the Fraud Section shall accept responsibility for investigating the following categories of bunco crimes normally handled by Geographic Area Detective Divisions:

• complex crimes requiring investigations by investigating officers possessing specialized knowledge,
• a series of associated crimes occurring in two or more geographic areas, and/or
• crimes requiring prolonged investigations and/or investigative manpower exceeding geographic division resources.

Bunco crimes in the above three categories include (but are not limited to):

• blackmail
• business opportunity misrepresentations including apartment houses and motels, punchboards, restaurants, service stations, vending machines, fraudulent gold mines, oil wells, and hidden treasures
• embezzlement
• extortions by use of nonviolent threats
• fake solicitors including charities, magazines, photographs, and hosiery
• false advertisement
• fraud by means of the "pigeon drop"
• fraudulent business royalties
• fraudulent oil leases
• impersonation of an officer
• miscellaneous business buncos, including phony sales and purchases of merchandise, water softeners, television repairs, furniture, and bonds
• poison pen letters
• real estate frauds
• retail sales of pirated sound and video recordings
• theft by "borrowing racket", "marriage bunks", coin matching (smacks), miscellaneous bunco schemes, including crooked gambling games, strap games, money-making machines, wild-cat transportation, social and pyramid clubs, fake auctions, fake schools, fake inheritances, fake accidents, sales and conversion of mortgaged property, switches, including diamonds, envelopes, handkerchiefs, bundles, or letters, "rent rackets"
• theft or embezzlement from elders or dependent adults by caretakers

Forgery Sections

The Metropolitan Forgery Section, Valley Forgery Section, and West Los Angeles Forgery Unit are collectively responsible for investigating the following crimes in their geographical area of responsibility:

• burglary and theft where airline tickets or airline-ticket validators are the primary targets of attack
• burglary and theft where blank checks and/or checkwriting equipment are the primary targets of attack
• embezzlements where forgery is an element of the crime
• forged airline tickets
• forged prescriptions
• fraud cases by means of an ATM card
• frauds by means of worthless checks, credit cards, or forgeries
• fraudulently printed checks
• identity theft
• real estate fraud investigations wherein the title was forged and recorded with the County Recorder's Office, and complex fraudulent loan modification cases involving multiple victims

Known personnel

Sherry Hickman is a former Detective of the Fraud Division.

Notes

The Fraud Division is a fictional division which has been created solely for the Major Crimes Universe.(“Hindsight, Part 5”)(“Bad Blood”)

In the real world, the investigative responsibilities outlined above are found in the Commercial Crimes Division, and the organization of the Fraud Division is modeled after the (relevant portions) of the Commercial Crimes Division. The Fraud Division seems to be based on the old Bunco-Forgery Division which existed between (at least) 1978 and 1996. The Bunco-Forgery Division was renamed as the Financial Crimes Division in 1997, and, in 2003, it was merged with the Burglary-Auto Theft Division to create the Commercial Crimes Division. It's not known why this separation has been made, as the consolidated Commercial Crimes Division is known to exist in the Major Crimes Universe, rather than it still being the Burglary-Auto Theft Division, which could have explained the separate Fraud Division.

In “Off the Hook” it was mentioned that the Fraud Division has their offices right below Major Crimes', and their remotes have been known to control electronics in the Major Crimes squad room.

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