Fraud’s Finer Points: Accounts Receivable Fraud, Part Five: Other Accounting Manipulations


Interview with Eva Romatzeck. ACFE's European Council on Occupational Fraud and Abuse Takes First Steps
Fraudsters ignore country boundaries. "Fraud is becoming an international crime," says Joseph T. Wells, CFE, CPA, founder and Chairman of the ACFE. "Most Fortune 1000 countries have international subsidiaries, he says. Individual fraud schemes frequently involve the fraud occurring in one country and the proceeds of the crime being hidden in another. Anything that we can do to share information and make laws uniform will help."

ActiveData for Excel: Harness the Power of Excel with the Features of IDEA


Admission-seeking interviews & false confessions
The goal of the fraud examiner is to get to the truth in an investigation. After the perpetrator is identified, getting a confession is the icing on the cake - unless the confession turns out to be false. In this session, you'll learn about some of the research that has been done in this area, how to prevent false confessions, and how to respond to claims that a confession is false.

Advanced Forensic Financial Analysis, Part One
To stay ahead of financial statement fraud, fraud examiners must step up to a new level of analytical comprehension and intellect to uncover the latest devious techniques.

Advanced Forensic Financial Analysis, Part Two
Fraud examiners must hone their financial statement fraud detection methods to overtake the sophisticated crimes of corporate America.

…And Nothing But the Truth: Uncovering Fraudulent Disclosures
Since fraudulent disclosures fall into a number of recognizable patterns, knowing how these schemes work can greatly help the financial statement auditor detect them.

Art fraud forges ahead: Fraud in the collection of fine art
Art fraud and forgeries often are ignored in the world of white-collar crime. However, this small subset of fraud is growing globally as more unsuspecting novice collectors enter a world unfettered by internal controls. Learn how to detect and prevent fraud in this multibillion-dollar industry.

Asset Misappropriations: Taking It Personally.
Tom Westwood could charm the paint off the side of his house. But as the controlling shareholder of a large car dealership he could also find ways to misappropriate company funds to repaint that same house.

Avoiding the pitfalls of protected health information and fraud
Health care fraud is big business, and in more ways than just claims fraud. Protected health information (PHI) is subject to fraud and abuse. And, most people don't realize that the health benefit card is like a credit card vulnerable to thieves who steal it and use it for unlawful gain. Learn how current technology can be used for tracking how PHI is being abused and what you can do to prevent it.

Avoiding Embezzlement Embarrassment Or Worse
An entity can lose twice in an embezzlement case. Consider these 10 actions to avoid even more revenue loss during the fraud examination and litigation.

Baiting the Rat Trap: Recorded statements and 'EUOs'
You can learn how to bait a trap to catch insurance offenders before they claim more money. And the interview skills you'll acquire will help in all other types of fraud examinations.*

Beating fraud through internal auditing: Walkin' & Talkin'
When auditors evaluate internal controls, the most common method used is the "checklist." However, a better way is "Walkin' and Talkin'." This method has often caused some auditors to change their entire approach as they evaluate internal controls by asking questions they have never asked before. And doing so, they just might become more efficient. Learn how.

Beating fraud through internal auditing: A fraud primer for the new internal auditor
When new internal auditors are assigned the task of looking for fraud, many find themselves without the necessary skills to do a proper examination. In this session, you'll get an overview of what the new internal auditor needs to know about fraud in his or her first fraud assignments.

Benford’s Law Made Easy
In the April/May 1994 issue of The White Paper, Mark J. Nigrini, Ph.D., presented a novel analytical method of detecting numerical anomalies that could indicate fraudulent activity.

Billing Schemes, Part 1: Shell Companies That Don't Deliver
A focus on billing schemes that involve shell companies.

Billing Schemes, Part 2: Pass-Throughs
This article's case study shows auditors and CPAs how to recognize the pass-through billing schemes crooked purchasing agents and others sometimes use to illegally line their pockets.

Breaking Tradition in the Auditing Profession
Established auditing approaches cannot adequately detect financial statement fraud. The ACFE proposes a Model Organizational Fraud Deterrence Program as an alternate, more effective strategy for both auditors and investors.

Capturing computer screens and crooks: Ctrl Print Screen: an effective tool
Learn how to use the Print Screen function on your personal computer keyboard to save evidence and prepare it for court presentation.

Case in Point: Financial statement fraud. An acquisition in wonderland?
Just like Alice in her Wonderland, the acquiring company didn't anticipate the tricks of the Mad Hatter and March Hare. But eventually the purchasers discovered the nightmare of an $18-million fraud in the company they had bought.

Cashing Out: Solving Frauds in the Cash Economy
Like street criminals, white-collar fraudsters often believe that if they deal primarily in cash, their crimes are undetectable.

Comparing Best Software for Fraud Examinations
Fraud examiners now have a wide choice of data interrogation tools they can use themselves without bothering the IT department. Here's a comparison of the features of the five most popular products.

Fighting fraud with technology: Computer forensics -- how not to destroy evidence
Most likely the evidence you need to prove your case will be found in the computer and in some cases, that is the only place where the evidence is. Since fraudsters also know that, some will attempt to destroy, hide or password-protect the evidence.

Computer forensics: Sanitizing Old Computers
In an age when government agencies and private companies are striving to keep up with current technology, old computers are being sold or recycled to recoup some of the cost associated with upgrading. Does your office "clean" the hard drives before the systems are recycled? How effective is the process they use?

Conducting international investigations: Issues & Solutions
As corporate entities become more global, so will investigations. However, how you conduct investigations in your country may differ widely from investigations in another country. Learn the issues that you need to know in order to protect you from risk as well as solutions to these problems that you are sure to encounter.

Fraud and the Law: Confidential informants: The good, the bad and the ugly
Confidential informants, also known as CI's, can be the best thing that ever happened to you and your case. They can also lie, deceive, and ruin your fraud examination. This session explores how to develop and properly use them and avoid the common pitfalls.

Construction Fraud: Beware the ‘Outside Facilitator’
Crafty manipulators will use weak employees at construction job sites to defraud companies for many months – long before the home office smells any problems.

Corruption and Fraud Stunt Third-world Growth
Corrupt officials burden developing countries with unfinished projects and crushing debt - conditions that lead to economic decline and international terrorism.

Corruption: Causes and Cures
Auditors can help detect and deter bribery and kickbacks.

Effective solutions for combating employee theft: Creative employee theft schemes & how to detect them
Just when you think that you've seen every way an employee can steal from you, a new one comes along. Employees are always coming up with creative ways of making you part with your money. In this session you'll learn some of these ways and especially how you can detect them, the first step in stopping them.

‘Damaged’ Fingers? Minimized Employee Accident Report Forms Lead to $600,000 in Fines and Penalties
Investigators found that the company had intentionally downplayed a number of serious injuries, which resulted in the company receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in government rebate money.

Fighting fraud with technology: Data mining: a tool for all fraud examiners
You don't have to be an expert data analyst to successfully detect fraud with the software that is available to most fraud examiners. In this session you'll learn how easy it is to transform virtually any data into interactive reports using either Microsoft Access or Crystal Reports. Real-world data and scenarios will be used to demonstrate the potential to detect fraud and abuse and how it relates to your organization.

Delving Deep into Suspects' Computers: Learn Some Techniques to Find Digital Evidence
You may not take the lead in a computer forensic investigation, but knowledge of binary files and metadata will help you understand some methods of catching fraudsters.

Detecting Fraud in the Data, Part One
Automatic intervention detection – an advanced computer-based tool – can be used to distinguish companies with fraudulent data from those with no indication of fraudulent reports.

Detecting Fraud in the Data Using AID, Part Two
In Part One, we examined the basics of automatic intervention detection – an advanced computer-based tool. Here we describe the methodology of a research study conducted to explore the effectiveness of AID.

Fraud prevention: the latest techniques. Developing and auditing loss prevention policies and procedures, Part 1
Sweeping changes continue to reshape the workplace. The role of the loss prevention director has found his role dramatically changing from the primary role of protecting the organization's assets. This session provides an in-depth look at the essential elements of developing an effective loss prevention program. Also discussed will be guidance in auditing policies and procedures.

Fraud prevention: the latest techniques. Developing and auditing loss prevention policies and procedures, Part 2
Sweeping changes continue to reshape the workplace. The role of the loss prevention director has found his role dramatically changing from the primary role of protecting the organization's assets. This session provides an in-depth look at the essential elements of developing an effective loss prevention program. Also discussed will be guidance in auditing policies and procedures.

Data mining: a tool for all fraud examiners. Digging for golden evidence
Fraud examiners need only basic computer skills and the help of systems administrators to mine for gold and find vital evidence for fraud examinations.

Don't Search That Computer!
Electronic data can contain valuable evidence of wrongdoing that can put a fraudster behind bars faster than you can say, 'delete it.'

Draw Me a Diagram: Finding Fraud with the ‘ Common-size Diagram’
Use this simple tool to discover anomalies on both sides of the balance sheet.

Electronic Imaging: How to Avoid a Paper Avalanche when Managing Complex Cases
Electronic imaging technology provides organizations with the tools required to quickly categorize, filter, customize, analyze, store, and retrieve enormous amounts of information residing on multiple media.

Fast, Free, and Traceless Computer Forensics
Sophisticated computer forensics programs could be a bit pricey for your examinations. Knoppix, a free offspring of the open-source Linux operating system, may be just what you need.

FBI Combats Financial Fraud with CFEs
Brian Lamkin, chief of the FBI's Financial Crimes Section, directs his team of agents and analysts to tackle fraud while working toward additional recognition for CFEs.

Fear Not The Software: Fraud Fighting With Data Analysis Tools. Fear not the data either, part two: Importing data files
While the last column focused mainly on requesting data (steps 1 and 2), this column will focus on the actual importing of that data (step 3). To import data though, we need to focus on the types of data files and how to import each one into a data analysis package.

Fear Not the Software: Fraud Fighting with Data Analysis. Digging Even Deeper: Find the uncommon frauds with deductive tools
Most data analysis for fraud is specifically focused on precise red flags of fraud. The tools used are therefore query-based, which allows the fraud examiner to extract records that meet a certain criteria such as invoices paid to a vendor who has the same address as an employee. The process is inductive in nature and while it'll find much of the fraud it also misses the uncommon schemes that could sink an organization.

Fear Not The Software: Scattergraphing. Quickly finding needles in the haystack
Sometimes a fraud examination appears daunting because of an extensive amount of data that needs to be sifted to identify exceptions. In one instance, a company was at risk for overreporting revenue on its financial statements.

Fear Not The Software: Fraud Fighting With Detection Systems. Top THREE best practices when automating proactive fraud detection systems
To stay on track, you might heed some of the best practices borne out of extensive research for the "2005 Buyer's Guide to Audit, Anti-Fraud, and Assurance Software." Below are the top three best practices excerpted from this book, which focus mainly on implementing data analysis software to detect fraud.

Fear Not The Software: Fourth Quarter Revenue Trending: Customer dimension for financial statement fraud testing
As the 2005 year-end approaches, fraud examiners need to remember the impact of revenue mistatements. While financial statement fraud only represents 7.9 percent of the number of fraud cases (per the ACFE's 2004 Report to the Nation), in dollar terms the median loss is $1 million per incident. Of these misstatements, fictitious and improperly timed sales are popular favorites as many company health stats are based on their ability to maintain and grow revenue.

Fear Not the Software: Detecting fraud risk with strong methodology
During a recent meeting, I was looking at a whiteboard on which an accounting malpractice attorney had mapped out a defense case for an auditor who had failed to detect a large billing scheme fraud.

Fear Not the Software: Proactively Detecting Occupational Fraud Using Computer Audit Reports
Data analysis provides many benefits in the prevention, detection, and prosecution of fraud.

Follow the MAPP: Develop an Aggressive Way to Fight Money Laundering
These four steps can help you MAPP out a plan to fight money laundering within your organization.

Current Issues. Forensic Document Analysis: DNA and Beyond
There may be more to your evidence than just the piece of payment that's in your case file. It may be what's on the piece of paper that seals your case rather than just the information that's in it. Find out what's important and what's not.

Protecting the public interest: Fraud in the government, Lessons learned while building an investigative procurement fraud detection program
It’s a fraud that affects both the public and private sector — procurement fraud. It’s also a fraud that is difficult to detect. In this session, you’ll learn how to build a proactive investigative procurement fraud detection program and how to avoid making some mistakes that could be costly and program counter-productive. Also discussed will be procurement fraud risk analysis, financial system data-mining, and the need for procurement fraud referrals.

Fraud Bytes. Root kits: Digital evidence collection of volatile data
Admittedly, some of the information presented here is on the advanced side of the curve. However, for those who understand the growing need for digital forensics in fraud examination, the latest evolution in the field involves new forensic tools and methods for gathering evidence from live systems. I'll continue to bring you developments when I think that they may have an impact on the way we do fraud examinations of digital evidence.

Fraud Case Preparation: Know Your Goal, Know Your Role - PART ONE
Non-sworn fraud examiners can optimize their chances for prosecution of white-collar crimes by avoiding things that law enforcement officers just hate.

Fear Not the Software: Fraud Fighting With Data Analysis Tools


Fear Not the Software - FRAUD FIGHTING WITH DATA ANALYSIS TOOLS: Fear Not the Data Either
Obtaining data is one of the main hurdles to using proactive fraud data analysis. But it doesn’t need to be that way. By using a simple process anyone can obtain data files without an advanced computer degree.

From The President: The Value of the CFE Credential is High and Growing
The value of the CFE credential is high and growing

From the Naked Eye to DNA, Part One: Documents Contain More Evidence Than You Think
Evidence is everywhere in any investigation but much of it is hidden from view. The key first step to finding critical evidence is to be aware of the possibilities of today's forensic technology.

From the Naked Eye to DNA, Part Two: Document Examination Beyond Handwriting
Modern document examiners not only determine authorship and authenticity but they use the latest technology to detect changes, resurrect evidence, recover entire documents, and analyze DNA.

Get M.A.D. with the Numbers! Moving Benford’s Law from Art to Science
This article describes how to use commonly available spreadsheet software to quantify data from a digital frequency analysis and distill it down to a single meaningful number.

Protecting the public interest: Fraud in government. Grant/Contract fraud in the public sector
Not all fraud involves the theft of assets, but rather some involve the misuse of assets. Every year, Federal, State and Local Governments award thousands of dollars in grant/contracts to vendors. However, the grant money is not always prudently managed. This session focuses on the ways and manner in which government grants are misapplied or misused, oftentimes to the benefit of the program administrator.

Hanging Global Money Launderers Out to Dry, Part One
Global money laundering has ballooned - some estimates range as high as $500 billion a year worldwide. But overt and covert methods can trace the funds, find the evidence, and make the fraudsters pay.

Hanging Global Money Launderers Out to Dry, Part Two
In Part One, we described the typical sources of illicit funds formoney laundering, money laundering methods, and how to detect illicit financial transactions. Here we describe how to use the information to make the case.

FRAUDBASICS: How to Properly Seek an Admission of Guilt
This is an excerpt from the Association’s Fraud Examiners Manual, Third Edition. This article covers the discussion on Interview Theory and Application, pages 3.201 to 3.273.

Preventing and detecting financial statement fraud: Identifying fraudulent financial transactions
One of the most difficult tasks that an auditor has is to identify fraudulent transactions. In this session you'll not only learn what the schemes are, but develop a framework for detecting fraud. Of particular emphasis is a type of financial statement fraud that is not often discussed - inadequate disclosures. You'll get tips for finding the frauds but also how to prevent the fraud.

Protecting the public interest: Fraud in the government. Identifying and investigating financial reporting fraud of non-profit entities
Non-profit organizations may have different financial objectives, but when it comes to fraud, they are not immune. In this session, you'll learn the many methods of fraudulent financial reporting and the motives behind each. Also discussed will be how to investigate non-profit organizations and how to detect fraud.

Identity Theft: Hunting Down and Nabbing the Thieves - Part 1
Catching identity thieves requires solid cooperation and hard-hitting procedures among fraud examiners, auditors, law enforcement, postal inspectors, the courts, banks, credit card companies, business owners, government, and many others.

Effective solutions for combating employee theft. Ignoring indicators equals fraud: a case study
Financial statement audit failures contribute to the untimely discovery and prevention of fraud. How and why does this happen? The appropriate use of Generally Accepted Auditing Standards can identify fraud risk resulting in deterrence and discovery. In this session, GAAS will be discussed and common deficiencies in work will be highlighted together with the disastrous fraud schemes that were discovered too late.

Inside the Interview: We receive questions on questioning
Participants in our interviewing courses have lots of questions. Here are some of the most frequently asked.

Inside Job: A Guide to U.S. Insider Trading
U.S. insider trading is relatively easy to commit but extremely difficult to prove. Here is a primer for fraud examiners explaining the problem, how to tell if a trade is illegal, and what can be done to detect and prevent this popular crime.

Internal Auditing: What internal auditors need to know about fraud
As internal auditors continue to play a significant role in fraud, they find themselves not always prepared to take on this sometimes complicated task. In this session, you'll learn what the relevant issues are, casework and new tools in forensic accounting that internal auditors will need to address fraud.

Interviewing: Achieving Rapport, Part One
By identifying a subject's dominant mode of expression – visual, auditory, or sensation – (and when he or she deviates from it) you can mirror the subject and begin to achieve rapport.

Interviewing: Part Two The Process of Deception
Determining deception in an interview requires the fraud examiner’s abilities to detect subtle change, limit disbelief in the subject, and suppress emotional responses.

FRAUD BASICS: Interview Preparation, Part Two: Anatomy of a Conversation
Concentrate on those human social-psychological forces that make conversations work. If you do, you’ll formulate effective interview questions.

Rapid reformer: An interview with Eliot Spitzer, New York state attorney general
Fraud examiners need only basic computer skills and the help of systems administrators to mine for gold and find vital evidence for fraud examinations.

FRAUDBASICS: Interview Preparation: Before you Ask the First Question…
Many interviews are doomed before the subject and interviewer meet together. Learn how to prepare and avoid the common pitfalls.

Identity Theft: Interviewing and Prosecuting Suspects, Part 2
Examining identity theft suspects requires systematic, methodical techniques designed to yield evidence for possible prosecution.

FRAUDBASICS: Interviewing the Big Dogs
In fraudulent financial statement cases, the fraud examiner must competently interview the CEO and CFO for one reason - they probably committed the crime.

Inventory & Vendor Fraud. Spotting Inflated Inventory
When someone is cooking the books, one of the areas taken advantage of is in the inventory account. After all, inflating the inventory numbers is just a journal entry away. However, there are techniques that the fraud examiner uses to spot them. Learn how.

Healthcare and insurance fraud: Investigating provider fraud: A case study
Provider fraud can be the most difficult fraud case to investigate and prove. But it is done and done successfully. Using auditing techniques to identify suspicious billing trends, the fraud was first identified and then proved. In this case, this doctor stole from many different insurance carriers and is now paying the price.

Investigating by Computer: Levering technology. Using technology to lighten the load, part one
No matter what type of organization you work in, technology is moving forward at a blinding pace. Do you know what technology is available or the best combination of electronic tools to use in your fraud investigations? This session will help you evaluate technology solutions that best suit your needs using actual demonstrations.

Investment-bond Fraud: Smiling Faces Asking for Your Retirement Money
David Namer had the perfect place for your retirement money: mid-yield corporate bonds – Private Placement Memorandums – backed by insurance from a top-rated company. It was perfect until the pyramid collapsed. Learn how this convicted former banker took thousands of small investors for almost $35 million.

Irrational Ratios
By standing far enough back from the numbers to get a good picture of the client's business, auditors frequently can detect signs of financial statement frauds.

It is Not What We Say, but How We Say It
New insights have shown that deceivers can now be identified by how they say things and not just by what they say.

Keep Ghosts Off the Payroll
Strong internal controls and well-trained, attentive auditors can prevent phony-employee schemes.

Fraud Case Preparation: Know Your Goal, Know Your Role, Part Two
After you’ve prepared your report and you have law enforcement’s attention, demonstrate that you’re an asset to their process.

Fraud preventions: The latest techniques. Developing a strategy to fight fraud
Does your organization have a strategy to fight fraud? It's not enough just to detect and investigate fraud, but a well-rounded anti-fraud program will also have taken measures that will prevent fraud. Once this is implemented, everything else will fall into place. Learn how you can develop strategies that will work for you.

Law and Much Order
This U.S. federal prosecutor will help you review the courtroom requirements for presenting evidence and testimony, attorney-client privilege and how it affects fraud examiners, the work product doctrine, and other necessary law topics.

Using the law to fight fraud: Legal and practical issues related to fraud examinations
In every fraud examination, inevitably, legal issues will find their way into your case and usually at the worst possible time. In this session you'll learn some of the legal issues that you might come across in a fraud examination, and more importantly, how to resolve them before they become a serious problem.

Let Them Know Someone’s Watching
Those who perceive they will be caught engaging in fraud are less likely to commit it.

Make the Best of a Bad Situation! Recover Those Fraud Losses Through Insurance
Here's how to ensure you have an adequate fidelity policy and a professional fraud recovery team.

Money Laundering: Ring Around the White Collar
In money laundering the fraudster disguises the existence, nature, source, ownership, location and disposition of property derived from criminal activity.

New Canadian Privacy Act: Canadian Law Affects Fraud Examinations
The Personal Information Protection and Electronics Documents Act, which went into full force Jan. 1 for all entities involved in Canadian commercial activity, seriously affects the collection and disclosure of personal information including due diligence on prospective and current employees and internal fraud examinations.

No Confession, No Evidence, No Case?
Fraud examiners often have to use time-honored techniques to parse the words of alleged fraudsters during an interrogation. But sometimes the absence of a suspect's deception can help make the case.

Note to Self: `Use Check Lists!` Background Investigation Check Lists Keep Clients Smiling
Background investigation check lists can ensure that you’ll complete the appropriate searches and quickly collect the right data the first time.

Partners in (Fighting) Crime
We decided to create a partnership between our campus police and internal audit departments to alleviate some of the work load in the internal audit department.

Pilfering in the Pews: What One Cagey Church Treasurer Taught Me
When the offering plate is passed in church on Sundays, most of us assume that our donations are going to be spent wisely.

Practical solutions to current fraud issues: Producing electronic evidence
In recent financial statement scandals, much of the publicity centered around shredded documents and deleted e-mails. While this might not be a common occurrence, nevertheless, if this happened in your organization, what would you do? Learn how you might handle this situation if you are confronted with situation as well as some good tips on protecting information that might make a difference in litigation.

Preventing and detecting financial statement fraud: Investigation alter ego companies
Scams involving alter ego companies include diverting assets, hiding income and ownership, are common in bankruptcy fraud, organized crime, tax evasion, and employee embezzlements. This session will focus on discussing how to tie companies together to prove that they are, in fact, one company. Learn how.

Fraud prevention: The latest techniques. Proactive fraud risk reviews: Page 1
In order to combat the modern day fraudster, you need to stay one step ahead of the game. Management must realize that they are not immune to fraud and abuse and must be willing to root out the causes and address their concerns head on. To be successful in the fight against fraud you need a game plan that addresses all opportunities for fraud and abuse and details a plan of action. Learn what the best practices are and what you can use to perform a fraud risk review within your organization.

Fraud prevention: The latest techniques. Proactive fraud risk reviews: Page 2
In order to combat the modern day fraudster, you need to stay one step ahead of the game. Management must realize that they are not immune to fraud and abuse and must be willing to root out the causes and address their concerns head on. To be successful in the fight against fraud you need a game plan that addresses all opportunities for fraud and abuse and details a plan of action. Learn what the best practices are and what you can use to perform a fraud risk review within your organization.

Fear Not the Software: The Pros and Cons of Microsoft Access as a Fraud-busting Tool


Beating fraud through internal auditing: Red flags and sources of information for internal audit
Studies show that most fraud against businesses originates from within. In this presentation, you'll learn some of the red flags that may indicate potential financial and ethical problems within an organization and sources of information that the internal auditor can use to proactively detect these vulnerabilities.

Restaurant Skimming: Taking a little cream off the top
With a little cash register magic, restaurant employees and owners can slyly skim receipts and decrease taxes. Here's how to catch them at their game.

Rules for the Written Record
Documenting the case is every bit as important as investigating it. This article looks at how to record the results so end users receive the information they need and, equally essential, the report stands up in court.

Preventing and detecting financial statement fraud: Sarbanes-Oxley Update
When Sarbanes-Oxley was passed, it had a profound effect on CPA's everywhere. Now that it has had a chance to settle in, has it had the impact that was intended by its passage? Get an update on what has happened in the last year and what is expected to come in the future years. You'll also learn the potential opportunities available for your practice and the pitfalls for your clients.

Sherlock Holmes, CPA, Part 1
The first step in uncovering fraud in the auditor’s bailiwick: analyzing financial information.

Sherlock Holmes, CPA, Part 2
There is an art to conducting admission-seeking interviews.

SOX becoming timesaver for fraud examiners: Using the new Sarbanes-Oxley documentation
The new documentation required under sections 302 and 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act helps fraud examiners by quickening the creation of deterrence programs and simplifying investigations.

Practical solutions to current fraud issues: Steganography detection: finding evidence in plain sight
Steganography has been used in many forms for centuries. It has now moved into the digital realm offering a rich environment for hiding virtually unlimited types of data in audio, video, and image files. Although it has a number of legitimate uses, it can and is being misused. This session will discuss the origins and background of steganography and research into the ability to detect its presence in seemingly innocuous digital carriers.

The Suspense Could Kill You: Fraud Committed Through General Ledger Suspense Accounts
Devise a logical examination process to find fraud committed through general ledger suspense accounts.

Taking a Byte out of Crime: Canada's first 'electronic courtroom'
Canada's first 'electronic courtroom' put two criminals behind bars and provided invaluable insights for the fraud examiners on the case.

Tech Corner Reviews: Backup hardware and software. Are you protecting your work?
This column reviews hardware and software products available to the fraud examiner. Most reviewed items have a street price of less than $300 and in many instances, there will be reviews of software applications which are free.

Tech Corner Reviews: Monarch V8 increases power of fraud examiners to mine and analyze data without IT help
In this column, the author reviews hardware and software products that could aid the fraud examiner.

Ten Steps to a Top-Notch Interview
For practitioners who want to improve their interviewing skills, this article will emphasize what not to do or say to uncover wrongdoing.

Timing is of the Essence
When companies get desperate to show earnings or reduce losses, sometimes they resort to fraudulent timing differences to show phony profits.

Traveling the World in Style on the Company's Nickel
Don't ignore travel and entertainment expense reporting records. Small infractions can add up to thousands in losses and lead to greater frauds.

Trends in tech fraud schemes: Part One. Let's (not) do the twist
Here are the technological twists fraud examiners are now up against: crafty phishing e-mails, new online classified scams; and risk of intellectual property loss from MP3 players, music downloading programs, and (yes) lava lamps.

Conducting Investigations. Truth or Deception: Analyzing what people say
Identifying deception and identifying truthful information is a crucial component of any audit or investigation. This session will change the way you interpret what others say. You will gain an understanding of how statement analysis can be used in any information-gathering situation.

Healthcare and Insurance fraud: Using technology to detect healthcare fraud
Even though strides have been made to defeat health care fraud, it continues to be alive and healthy. Where fraud examiners used to have to wait for tips, technology has provided better ways of detecting fraud. And, you don't have to be a technology expert to find it. Using software that most likely you already have, you'll learn how to research and run queries to find aberrant billing patterns that have a higher probability for fraud.

Developing your fraud examination skills: Using Microsoft Excel and Access to detect fraud
There are many software applications that are available for you to detect fraud. Unfortunately, some of these programs are outside of many fraud examiners' budgets. However, most fraud examiners have Microsoft's Excel and Access right on their desktop, not realizing the potential as a powerful anti-fraud tool. Learn, first hand, some of the practical fraud-busting reports that you can generate using these products.

Using Stress: Kinesic Interview Techniques Can Uncover the Truth
This type of interview is different than traditional methods because the interviewer isn't necessarily looking for information nor a confession from the interview subject; instead, the interviewer is attempting to assess whether the subject is telling the

FraudBasics: When Employees GO BAD. Conducting internal investigations, part one.
This FraudBasics article is adapted from part of the ACFE course, "Conducting Internal Investigations." For more information on this and other courses, visit CFEnet.com/events/seminars.asp.

Fraud Basics: When employees GO BAD. Conducting internal investigations, part two: internal document collection and analysis.
In any fraud examination, you'll amass evidence. Don't compromise the case - use only the best practices of internal document collection and analysis.

When Employees Count Too Much: Spotting Overstated Inventory
Because inventory fraud is often more difficult to prevent and detect than other asset thefts, fraud examiners need to understand the mechanics of inventory accounting and the signs of overstated inventory schemes.

“Why Ask?” You Ask
A vital part of discovering fraud concerns the auditor's ability to ask questions and the implications of not asking them. Since most auditors have had no formal interview training, this article focuses on the basics: how to approach the fraud issue with

FRAUDBASICS: Winning the Case With a Strong Written Report, Part Two
The savvy fraud examiner includes signed statements, visual aids, summaries of witnesses' statements, and the engagement contract in the written case report.

Winning the Case with a Strong Written Report
The written case report, often the only evidence of investigative work, forces the fraud examiner to consider his or her actions.

Conducting Investigations. Workplace Surveillance: How covert methods can work for you
You know you have a fraud, but you can't prove it with documents or interviews. You may find that the best way to prove the case is thorough covert methods. Learn how workplace surveillance may be not only your best option but you only option to prove that fraud has occurred and who is doing it.

Preventing and detecting financial statement fraud: Worldcom bankruptcy: A fraud examiner's perspective
The WorldCom scandal has taught the financial world many things. It's also a classic study of what not to do in the corporate world when it comes to financial records and how to avoid disaster. In this session you'll learn about WorldCom's bankruptcy and how fraud fits in the picture. It wasn't pretty, but there are many lessons that can be learned to help prevent this from happening again.

Wrap it Up Packaging Your Case for Prosecution
When you decide to prosecute a fraud suspect, don't expect a prosecutor to accept your case unless you bring a professional package to the referral meeting.

This article is for ACFE members only. Click here for information about membership.

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners assumes sole copyright of any article published in Fraud Magazine. Fraud Magazine follows a policy of exclusive publication. Permission of the publisher is required before an article can be copied or reproduced. Requests for reprinting an article in any form must be e-mailed to: FraudMagazine@ACFE.com.