Most organized crime income comes from narcotics distribution, loan sharking, and prostitution. However, billions of dollars are gained from white-collar crime, gambling, theft rings, pornography, and other illegal enterprises. The common law definition of larceny is the taking and carrying away of the personal property of another with the intent to steal. Today, common larceny crimes include shoplifting, auto theft, passing bad checks, and other offenses that do not involve forcible entry. The offenses are divided into petty larceny for small items and grand larceny for more serious thefts.
Larceny is probably the most common criminal offense.
The law of false pretenses and the law of fraud are generally interchangeable terms. Fraud involves misrepresenting a fact to cause a victim to willingly give his property to the wrongdoer, who keeps it. Some states retain the crime of false pretenses, while others have combined it with larceny into a general theft category. For a person to be guilty of passing bad checks, the bank the check is drawn on must refuse payment and the check cashier must fail to make the check good within a certain period of time, commonly ten days. There are two common types of bad check passers.