Prepare for the unknown

At its core, the fraud examination profession isn't dangerous. However, fraud examiners can take precautions to lessen possibilities that potential fraudsters might become angry or aggressive during interviews. Here are steps fraud examiners can take to be safer when conducting examinations domestically and abroad.

Any list of dangerous occupations would at the least contain firefighters, construction workers and police officers. However, just about any career can lead to a potentially hazardous situation, and this doesn't exclude the fraud examination, auditing and investigative professions.

In November 2013, a U.S. government audit found that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) failed to perform required security assessments at more than a dozen of its facilities, which placed employees at risk. (See Audit finds IRS put employees at risk of attacks, by Josh Hicks, Daily Times, Nov. 18, 2013.) According to a report released by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), threats of violence against IRS workers and facilities have increased "during a time of continued financial hardship," and the agency is a "target for those who are angry at the tax system or the government."