Concept in Definition ABC

The term stelionate is used in legal terminology and is commonly used as a synonym for deception or fraud. The word comes from Latin, specifically from stellionatus, which could be translated as deceptive person.

The use of the term in the legal context

Generally, this word is used to refer to scams. In this way, whoever sells something that is not his property or selling an asset that is seized is committing a stelionate crime. This crime is an attack on property and in legal terminology it is considered a patrimonial fraud or a crime against the heritage alien. In any case, it is a specific form of deception.

Clarifications that can be observed and highlighted

Stelionate is similar to theft but it is not of the same nature. In the case of theft, there is no consent of the victim, while in stelionate the legitimate owner of a property gives up an asset because it has been deceived or manipulated.

In a strict sense it is not an act of falsehood, since the documents used for the scam are valid and the falsification is psychological but not material.

Stellionate is not properly considered as a abuse from confidence, since it does not act against Will of the rightful owner.

Consequently, the crime of stelionate is based on the intention to deceive and on the deceptive devices used to act against someone's property.

Stelionate is one of the crimes against property

In addition to stelination, there are other crimes against property, such as theft, robbery, extortion, usury or fraud.

Theft is the subtraction fraudulent and without violence of a thing that belongs to another person.

Robbery is an aggravated crime of theft, as it involves violence in fraudulent abduction.

Extortion consists of forcing someone through threats to act contrary to his will (in this crime there is also a profit motive).

As for usury, it consists of charging interest related to a loan in a disproportionate way.

The scam involves deceiving someone through some manipulation in order to appropriate someone else's property. In the language Stelionate is a specific type of scam.

The different crimes against property have a common denominator, since in all of them the legal asset to be protected is property in any of its forms.

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