One of the major considerations in any decision to prosecute is what harms has been done. In many cases of modest embellishment on a resume, nothing will come of it, because there is no injury; and if the employer discovers the imposture, the employee will simply be summarily fired.Gungnir said:....Just because these laws aren't currently being executed to prosecute those who embellish or exaggerate to get a job, or sell something they own does not mean that they are not a breach of the definition of those laws....
But if the misrepresentation has the effect of convincing an employer that one is qualified to do something when he is not, and if significant injury is caused by that incompetence, that could be another matter entirely.
Note also that the statutes you've cited are couched in terms of "...having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses...." Words like "defraud" and "false pretenses" have well defined and understood meaning in the law. Among other things, an "embellishment" in order to rise to the level of an "artifice to defraud" must be material. Stretching the truth about minor or tangential matters won't create criminal liability (but they'd still get you fired).
Such as?Gungnir said:...Application of these laws for Ponzi schemes, Identity theft etc. is indeed a fact and there are also other statutes that cover those offenses that are more strictly defined,...
In any case it doesn't enhance their careers to squander their limited budgets prosecuting trivial matters.Gungnir said:...Are prosecutors graded by the number of convictions or conviction rate they achieve I wonder...?...
I wonder how many people actually think that telling lies in order to acquire money or property is legal. Wouldn't someone usually understand that if he's selling his car and a possible buyer asks about past problems, he has a legal duty to truthfully disclose known problems, and that if he fails to do so, he has committed fraud.Gungnir said:...Many things that we believe are perfectly legal can be and are felonies...