You might be thinking, "What's this column all about? What possible benefit can I get out of this for my fraud examinations?" No matter your language, you probably haven't consciously thought much about its rules since you were in high school. But here I'll review areas in which incorrect spelling and punctuation could be helpful tools in your fraud examinations to identify a perpetrator from a group of possible suspects.
SPELLING QUIRKS
Of course, adults are creatures of habit --ì both good and bad -- and that applies to spelling habits. We should have been taught how to spell correctly at an early age, but we often develop peculiar spelling habits that don't conform to generally accepted rules. Consider the following examples I encountered as a special agent for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.
The first involved the theft of $2,000 from a grocery store's night deposit to its bank. The theft was discovered by the bank tellers the next morning when the deposits were counted. There were no clues, but it could have been one or more of the grocery store employees who had prepared the deposit or one of two tellers who counted the night deposit receipts.
The morning after the robbery, the tellers found in the bank night deposit an envelope containing $1,000 and a typewritten note. The note's author wrote that he or she was returning part of the money taken the night before because his or her conscience was troubled. However, the author actually wrote "conscious" instead of "conscience." The note writer also included the in-house word, "strap," the paper ribbon that bankers wrap around a bundle of bills.
The bank called me and I traveled to the branch. The manager identified the two tellers who counted the night deposit. The male teller and I talked about a number of things including the ways he spent his money, his relationship to his girlfriend, and the upcoming Christmas holidays. After a long discussion, I asked him to write "conscience" on a blank piece of paper; I was careful to carefully enunciate the word. He wrote "conscious." I looked at him and told him he was my guy. I explained how the wrong word was used in the note found in the night deposit. We stared at each other for a full minute. Then the tears came, and he admitted he'd stolen the money to buy a Christmas gift for his girlfriend.
The second case also involved a bank teller who knew that a local used-car dealer habitually deposited his receipts to the bank through the drive-up window. On two separate days, a week apart, immediately after the used-car dealer had left the drive-up window she used the bank's typewriter to forge a blank counter check on the dealership's account but poorly signed the dealer's name. Fortunately for the dealership owner, he had arranged for the bank to send electronic facsimiles of checks written on the account to the dealership with the bank statements. The dealership's secretary reviewed the electronic facsimiles and found two checks totaling $18,000 that didn't appear to be signed by the owner.
The bank operations manager called me. Both checks were written for "eighty five hundred and no/100 dollars." However, "hundred" was spelled "hunderd." We identified a potential suspect teller because she had misspelled hundred in the same way on the checks in her personal account. I discovered that she had used some of the money to buy a used car (from a different dealership!) in cash. We confronted her, but she denied everything. She was eventually indicted and convicted. Though she was placed on supervised probation, she later violated that and was sent to the federal penitentiary.
Many of us carry these spelling quirks with us throughout our lives. I know a law enforcement agent who continuously, even after reminders from others, misspells the abbreviation for "et cetera" in the same way. He's a good listener, but it's just an entrenched habit.
These peculiar spelling errors obviously don't exclude all other possible suspects in the same way as fingerprints or DNA identifications. However, it can narrow the field and help you focus on a particular individual.
SCANNING FOR COUNTERFEITS
Often we can find potential counterfeit documents by scanning them not only for misspellings but words that don't conform to the rules of language.
In my work with the Kansas State Gaming Agency, I've seen many creative counterfeit checks. They aren't stolen or forged but checks that are phony from the beginning. Counterfeiters frequently print them on computer forms that they purchased at an office supply store or on the Internet.
We see a number of cashed checks on which the first and last names of the payor printed on the checks aren't capitalized. This is a magnificent clue! And we also see many others on which, believe it or not, Topeka (our state's capital) is misspelled. Again a great clue! On others, the spelling of the payor's name printed on the checks doesn't match the signature, and others on which the name of the issuing bank printed on the check is spelled incorrectly.
I wouldn't expect this to be confined to counterfeit checks alone. I wouldn't be surprised to find cases in which phony billings contain misspelled words. I haven't yet seen a legitimate company bill that contained misspellings. So, of course, I suggest that misspellings in any document should arouse suspicion that it might not be authentic.
IMPECCABLE INVESTIGATION REPORTS
I'll now divert from my main theme to stress the importance of using proper rules of language in written fraud investigation reports. Here's an experience I had early in life, which forever affected my opinion of written reports.
I was a freshman in college and had witnessed an offense in the town in which I grew up. A state trooper wrote me a letter to ask me to return to my hometown on a particular date to testify about the offense. The handwritten letter began with a capital letter and ended in a period. There was no punctuation and several misspelled words. I was appalled by the mistakes. I couldn't believe that someone who held such an important position could have such a poor command of the language. His letter taught me how a poorly written document can affect the writer's credibility.
As the manager of a law enforcement agency, I insist that our employees religiously re-check their spelling and punctuation on all reports and correspondence. A prosecutor can refuse to take a case and defense counsel can decide to go to trial rather than plead if one of our reports convinces them that we aren't serious professionals.
So how important are the rules of language in fraud examinations? Sometimes they can help identify a perpetrator from a group of suspects or flag a counterfeit document. And they can help you bolster your credibility before those who'll review your work.
(This occasional column reviews basic tenets of fraud examination for the practitioner regardless of age or experience. Send potential material to FraudMagazine@ACFE.com.)
John E. McElroy, CFE, J.D., executive director of the Kansas State Gaming Agency, wants to remind readers that misspellings and language rule violations in documents can be fraud red flags.
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