The U.S. Secret Service

During the time of the Civil War, as much as one-third to one-half of U.S. currency was counterfeit. The situation was overwhelming when Secretary of the Treasury Hugh McCulloch approached President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. McCulloch has permission to do something to combat the bogus bills, and Lincoln agreed. That was the day the that the Secret Service came into being--ironically, that was also the day that John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln. However, as yet, presidents were not protected by the Secret Service. That would come later (Moments 4).

The Secret Service Division of the Treasury began on July 5, 1865, as Chief William P. Wood was sworn in by Hugh McCulloch. In a year's time, operatives captured more than 200 counterfeiters, and they destroyed many counterfeit plants. The Service also established national headquarters in Washington, D.C. and field offices in 11 cities (Moments 4).

In its history, the Service has undertaken many different types of assignments which were outside of t

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ng the Secret Service new investigative powers. Two laws from that act are commonly referred to as the Credit Card Fraud Act and the Computer Fraud Act. These laws made it a federal violation to use credit and debit cards and "access devices" fraudulently. The Service also investigates certain types of fraud and related actions involving computers (Moments 34). The first major case came in 1985. Two separate credit card rings were operating in New York City and were making Visa and MasterCards that were exceptionally well executed. They also had the potential of manufacturing counterfeit American Express cards. Secret Service agents arrested 16 people and confiscated 100,000 credit cards with a street value of more than $500,000,000 (Moments 34). In another case in early 1989, individuals in Los Angeles were fraudulently programming cellular telephones. They were circumventing the billing process and selling the phones. Losses in this case were well over $1,000,000. Also in that year, in Washington, D.C., eight Nigerians were arrested for being part of a national crime network that involved credit card applications fraud and insurance fraud. In 1989, fraud cases constituted one-third of the Service's investigative ma
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Approximate Word count = 2216
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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