The impetus for this special issue of The Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice is the continuing growth in the fraud problem internationally. Fraud is one of the largest areas of increasing crime, going against the overall downward trend in crime in the last 30 years. This broad category of offending is increasingly a major topic of academic research, with Criminal Justice Abstracts listing over 5,700 publications in the area, while Google Scholar lists 1.8 million. It also constitutes a major issue of policy concern for governments.