Commit fraud, go to prison (sometimes)

As a fraud fighter in real life, I only wish it was this easy. Commit fraud... go to prison... others see the example that's been made of you... fraud goes down.

It's not nearly this easy. Fraud is a crime that doesn't result in as many prison sentences as violent crimes, because our society has decided that violent crimes should be the law enforcement priority. If you look at crimes in terms of how many people are impacted negatively, you'd probably see that the effects of fraud are far more wide-reaching than violent crime.

But fraud isn't as shocking as violent crimes, so fraud takes a back seat. Usually only the most egregious crimes are prosecuted, and prison terms aren't terribly long unless the fraud was huge. Victims of smaller frauds can be hurt just as badly, but they can't really rely on our criminal justice system to lock up the bad guys.