Fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain.
That is the definition you will find on internet.
A few days ago an article in the Athletic stated Topps conducted an audit of their practices and they told the Athletic that the auditor "gave them a clean bill of heath"
The reason for the audit was the concern that on-line breakers were given loaded boxes.
There are 2 issues here.
The Athletic mentioned one - Do card manufacturers identify which boxes have the hottest cards and set them aside for celebrities and breakers? Or does every box and pack have the exact same stated odds of containing a collecting jackpot?
Topps says the auditors confirmed that the cards were independently inserted at random.
O.K. there is another issue here manipulating perception
The on-line breakers who get these rare cards are used to give the average collector the unfair impression that they can get these rare cards (or the golden ticket from Willy Wonka)
Manipulation - exerting shrewd or devious influence especially for ones own advantage.
While the audit assures you that Topps is not committing fraud - there is nothing stating they are not manipulative.
When Topps promotes a new set issues they show you 5 or 7 cards in the promo. One card is a regular base card (which represents 99.9999 percent of the cards you will get) but pictures of the other 4 to 6 cards are the super hits (which represents 0.0001 percent of the cards you get).
You have to ask yourself why does Topps promote the cards you have 0.0001 percent chance to get five times over the cards you have a 99.9999 percent of getting. Makes me think of the movie Casablanca
