18 U.S.C. § 712
Misuse of names, words, emblems, or insignia
Whoever, in the course of collecting or aiding in the collection of private debts or obligations, or being engaged in furnishing private police, investigation, or other private detective services, uses or employs in any communication, correspondence, notice, advertisement, or circular the words “national”, “Federal”, or “United States”, the initials “U.S.”, or any emblem, insignia, or name, for the purpose of conveying and in a manner reasonably calculated to convey the false impression that such communication is from a department, agency, bureau, or instrumentality of the United States or in any manner represents the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 4
cases, 1961–1972 · leading case: Wacksman v. United States
Wacksman v. United States (1961)
“• Following a lengthy trial (producing a transcript 1,600 pages long as well as an exceptionally large number of exhibits), a jury found appellant guilty of violating 18 U.S.C.A. § 712 , which makes it unlawful for a debt collection agency to employ misleading words or symbols…”
United States v. Boneparth (1971)
“Defendants are charged in a ninety-count indictment with violations of 18 U.S.C. § 712 . The government contends that defendants unlawfully engaged in the business of collecting private debts by forwarding communications to delinquent debtor-customers which were calculated to…”
United States v. Zovluck (1967)
“S”, 18 U.S.C. § 712 , and conspiracy to violate the mail fraud statute, 18 U.”
United States v. Shepard Boneparth and J. S. Boneparth & Sons, Inc. (1972)
“The company and Shepard Boneparth were convicted of violating 18 U.S.C. § 712 , which prohibits anyone “engaged in the business of collecting or aiding in the collection of private debts” from using the initials “U.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.