Scene #1: Bad Games in the U.K. According to the BBC, criminal fraud cases in the U.K. are up by 14% in 2008 over 2007. The top crooked games are boiler room scams, credit card fraud, tax cheating and identify theft. The Beeb says the total yearly cost to victims is over 504 billion Euro. Analysis: First of all, it’s a statistic, so there are several ways it can be read. Maybe cheating is up, but it’s just as likely prosecution is up 14% while crime remained steady. Or maybe crime has dropped by 5% but prosecution is up 19%. And this is the crime we know about. Maybe the crime we don’t know about is up 200%. Who can tell? We don’t know about it. My guess, just from what we’re learning daily about the games the financial industry has been playing, is that crime we don’t know about is hockey-sticking. (more…)