Mail Fraud Statue – Assignment 1
Copy Corporation sells copier toner over the telephone in bulk. A-Copy’s sales representatives solicit mail orders from targets through random sales calls that include frequent overt misrepresentations. Dan advised that he uses this device to get by those gatekeepers who answer the phone at these target companies and cold calling is really hard. Dan feels that his products are the best in the industry and he always discusses price terms in a straightforward manner before he mails out the orders. During one of these sales calls to the target’s purchasing manager, Dan, an A-Copy sales representative, had stated he was good friends with the target company’s office manager, Kathy, who had asked him to call. It turned out that Dan was not told to call and that he did not even know Kathy, the office manager. During the conversation, Dan also said that, due to an error at their vendor’s plant in Hong Kong, A-Copy had received excess supplies of premium copier toner that it needed to sell at a deep discount in a hurry. This statement was also not the case. Do these sales practices constitute fraud under the mail fraud statute? What happened in Hawkey?
Please cite applicable federal regulations, statutes or cases in support of your analysis.
The case mentioned is United States v. Hawkey 148F 3d 920, 922, 1988 US app. Lexis 13384, *1 82 A. F. T R 2d (RIA) 98-5058
