{ "model": { "rank": 3142, "code": "thing-q28813", "model_id": "vr.tr.fraud", "name": "fraud", "purpose": "Let an agent help people recognise, prevent and report fraud, support victims with practical next steps, and decline any help committing fraud.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Activities and processes", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "ACT", "domain": "ACT.ACT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q28813/", "tier": 2, "score": 90, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "marriage swindler", "counterfeit medicines online", "exit scam", "false flag", "Tsugaru election", "rogueware", "pyramid scheme", "junk science", "blessing loom", "airplane game", "franchise fraud", "journalistic fraud", "raising funds by means of fraud", "tvesala", "pretendian", "computer fraud", "manure fraud", "scam center", "click fraud", "saodake shoho", "infogypsyism", "streaming fraud", "paternity fraud", "financial fraud", "qualified fraud", "Qualified fraud in attempted form", "bait-and-switch", "cheque fraud", "vehicle manufacturer fraud", "claim fraud", "economic or financial fraud", "immigration fraud", "ATM fraud", "mail fraud", "wire fraud", "escroquerie", "credential fraud", "fraudulent inducement", "email fraud", "odometer fraud" ], "aliasCount": 143, "merged": 143, "knownIn": 90, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.fraud", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q28813", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q28813", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T13:33:51Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q28813", "registryId": "vr.tr.fraud", "name": "fraud", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "ACT.ACT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q28813/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.fraud", "name": "fraud", "purpose": "Let an agent help people recognise, prevent and report fraud, support victims with practical next steps, and decline any help committing fraud.", "definition": "Intentional deception to secure unlawful or unfair gain or to cause loss to another, such as investment and romance scams, phishing, identity fraud, invoice fraud, counterfeit medicines sold online, exit scams and election fraud; fraud is a crime in most jurisdictions.", "what_it_is_for": "A crime and risk relevant to consumers, businesses and institutions.", "affordances": [ "recognise warning signs of common scams", "take immediate steps after fraud", "report fraud to the right bodies", "find victim support" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Intentional deception", "Aims at gain or causing loss", "Often uses impersonation", "Criminal offence" ], "appearance": "Deceptive messages, fake websites, forged documents and misleading offers.", "visual_identification": [ "Urgency, secrecy and unusual payment requests", "Impersonation of banks, police or officials", "Honest mistakes are not fraud" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "investment and crypto scams", "romance and impersonation scams", "phishing and identity fraud", "business and invoice fraud", "counterfeit goods and medicines" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "deception", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is a", "target": "crime", "why": "legal status" }, { "relation": "includes", "target": "phishing", "why": "example" }, { "relation": "is reported to", "target": "police and fraud reporting centres", "why": "authority" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "National fraud offences", "Payment services rules on reimbursing fraud victims", "Consumer protection law" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Victims sending more money to recovery scams", "Shame preventing reporting", "Facilitating fraud" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "now", "name": "Now", "description": "Immediate steps.", "rationale": "Act quickly.", "layers": [ { "id": "paid", "name": "Paid", "description": "Money sent.", "findings": [ { "id": "paid-finding", "name": "Paid", "description": "Money already sent.", "questions": [ { "text": "Has someone already paid or shared bank details with a suspected fraudster?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Should they contact their bank immediately using a trusted number?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "report", "name": "Report", "description": "Reporting.", "findings": [ { "id": "report-finding", "name": "Report", "description": "Reporting fraud.", "questions": [ { "text": "Where should this fraud be reported here, such as police or a fraud reporting centre?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What evidence should be kept?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "recognise", "name": "Recognise", "description": "Warning signs.", "rationale": "Signs repeat.", "layers": [ { "id": "signs", "name": "Signs", "description": "Red flags.", "findings": [ { "id": "signs-finding", "name": "Signs", "description": "Warning signs.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does this message show common signs of a scam, such as urgency or unusual payment methods?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Which official scam guidance describes it?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "verify", "name": "Verify", "description": "Checking.", "findings": [ { "id": "verify-finding", "name": "Verify", "description": "Verification.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can the claimed organisation be contacted independently to verify?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Is the company registered with the regulator?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "support", "name": "Support", "description": "Victims.", "rationale": "Victims deserve support.", "layers": [ { "id": "victims", "name": "Victims", "description": "Support services.", "findings": [ { "id": "victims-finding", "name": "Victims", "description": "Victim support.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which victim support services help people affected by fraud?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the person distressed or at risk?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "recovery", "name": "Recovery", "description": "Recovery scams.", "findings": [ { "id": "recovery-finding", "name": "Recovery", "description": "Recovery scams.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is someone offering to recover lost money for a fee?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Why is this often a second scam?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "limits", "name": "Limits", "description": "Agent conduct.", "rationale": "No facilitation.", "layers": [ { "id": "decline", "name": "Decline", "description": "No help to defraud.", "findings": [ { "id": "decline-finding", "name": "Decline", "description": "Fraud limits.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does the request seek to deceive others for gain?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "How should the agent decline?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "business", "name": "Business", "description": "Prevention in organisations.", "findings": [ { "id": "business-finding", "name": "Business", "description": "Organisational prevention.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which controls prevent invoice and payment fraud in organisations?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How should staff be trained?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should fraud types be separate entries?", "How should reporting routes be localised?", "How should scam warnings be linked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a fraud, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent help people recognise, prevent and report fraud, support victims with practical next steps, and decline any help committing fraud.", "characteristics": { "substance": "activity", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: marriage swindler, counterfeit medicines online, exit scam, false flag, Tsugaru election, rogueware, pyramid scheme, junk science, blessing loom, airplane game, franchise fraud, journalistic fraud.", "143 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 90 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a fraud, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "something that happens over time", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "marriage swindler", "counterfeit medicines online", "exit scam", "false flag", "Tsugaru election", "rogueware", "pyramid scheme", "junk science", "blessing loom", "airplane game", "franchise fraud", "journalistic fraud" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 90 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 143 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one fraud from another, and a fraud from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a fraud, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a fraud, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a fraud is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a fraud, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a fraud, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a fraud is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a fraud sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a fraud, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a fraud, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a fraud is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a fraud from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a fraud, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a fraud, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a fraud is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a fraud passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a fraud between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a fraud, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a fraud, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a fraud is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a fraud, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a fraud is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a fraud, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a fraud, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a fraud is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "process-and-outcome", "name": "Process, inputs and outcome", "description": "How a fraud proceeds, what it needs and what it leaves behind.", "rationale": "An activity is known by its steps and its results, and both have to be recordable while it is still running.", "layers": [ { "id": "steps-and-sequence", "name": "Steps and sequence", "description": "The steps of a fraud, their order and what may run in parallel.", "findings": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions", "name": "Steps, preconditions and completion", "description": "What has to be true before each step of a fraud and what marks it done.", "questions": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a step of a fraud, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a step of a fraud, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a step of a fraud is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-results", "name": "Inputs, resources and results", "description": "What a fraud consumes and what it produces.", "findings": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs", "name": "Inputs, outputs and side effects", "description": "The resources a fraud takes and the results it leaves, wanted or not.", "questions": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the inputs and results of a fraud, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the inputs and results of a fraud, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the inputs and results of a fraud is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What fraud is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of fraud are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is fraud operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of fraud and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of fraud?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as fraud?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a fraud came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a fraud and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a fraud, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a fraud, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a fraud is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a fraud is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a fraud, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a fraud, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a fraud is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }