Mail Fraud

THE FEDERAL MAIL fraud statute is codified under 18 USC §1341, and has two essential elements: 1) use of the United States mail; 2) use that is in furtherance of defrauding someone. The law has been utilized in diverse cases by federal prosecutors in pursuing everything from simple confidence games to bribery of public officials. §1341 has been used against virtually every new method of fraud, and sometimes has been the only way to prosecute and adequately punish sophisticated fraudsters. Despite the broad application and peculiar elements that give §1341 great prosecutorial power, those characteristics also place it in jeopardy of inappropriate and abusive usages.

Its offspring statute, wire fraud (18 USC §1343), is in almost all cases interpreted similarly to §1341. Mail fraud encompasses the use of the mails, either inter- or intrastate, whereas wire fraud outlaws the interstate use of wires for fraudulent purposes. Federal jurisdiction of both mail and wire fraud originate in the Constitution under Article 1, Section 8. However, mail fraud is based on Congress's control of the postal authorities and wire fraud is based on Congress's right to make laws affecting interstate and foreign commerce.

Mail fraud may be seen as more specific to the federal jurisdiction than wire fraud because its overt act is any use of the mails, which are owned and operated by the government, as a necessary means to complete the fraud scheme. Wire fraud, on the other hand, involves wires owned by entities other than the federal government, so federal jurisdiction is, like many federal offenses, based only on the Commerce Clause.