Fraud is common term that is generally understood as dishonesty. A dishonest person man is often called a fraud. The Legal system has classified fraud as a serious offense with some certain requirement or features. Under the legal system, before someone can be label as a fraud the following element must be fulfilled: - A false statement of a material fact - A knowledge on the part of the defendant that the statement is untrue - The Intent on the part of the defendant to deceive the alleged victim - A justifiable reliance by the alleged victim on the statement - Damage caused to the alleged victim as the result of the fraud Fraud is called an independent criminal offense to say the least, but with a different hat. And this is because the act of Fraud could and in often times used to gain legal advantage over a situation or used to achieve a specific crime. A simple example of fraud could be a little as providing a false statement on a graduate school application in order to get an admission. A person who did so and is found get convicted for falsifying a statement and is called fraud. Federal and state criminal statutes provides for the punishment of anyone convicted of committing fraud. Any fraud that is interstate and the federal government are separated for federal prosecution. One of the major places fraud examiner works is the IRS and Audit firms and that is because of tax and financial fraud. Numbers are hidden inside words and statements. Tax fraud is a fraud that can be committed by individual or cooperation and this is a federal crime any attempt to evade, defeat on taxes is a fraud against the Federal government (I.R.C. §7201). Depending on the intent of the fraud, a tax fraud could result in a either a civil penalties or criminal charges. In civil offense the penalties could amount to 75 percent of the underpayment while a criminal punishment could be a big fine or imprisonment. Still on the matter of frau