To Be a Fraud Fighter

Fraud can happen at any time and to any company. Do you know the ways to protect yourself and your business? Every couple of years, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) publishes its Report to the Nations, the most recent in 2022, illustrating the key trends in fraud worldwide and providing lessons for us on the front lines to help reduce the risk of fraud. This report builds awareness of how you can prevent and detect fraud.

Implementing anti-fraud controls can prevent some people from committing fraud, help to detect fraud quicker, and reduce financial losses.

People who want to prepare for fraud-fighting careers generally choose courses that will provide the skills that will make them a successful fraud fighter. The following are some of the most important skills for a fraud-fighting professional to have:

• Analytical skills: Fraud detection and investigation are analytical processes where investigators identify the kinds of fraud that could occur, the kinds of symptoms and indicators those frauds would generate, and ways in which to examine and follow up on symptoms that are discovered. Being a fraud investigator is very much like being a doctor (MD): it requires significant amounts of diagnostic and exploratory work to discover what is really happening.

It is impossible to be a good fraud examiner without having great analytical skills.

• Communication skills: Fraud examiners spend considerable amounts of time interviewing witnesses and suspects and communicating those findings to witnesses, courts, and others. A good communicator will know how to push for evidence and confessions, how to structure questions and interviews, and how to write reports that are valued by courts, lawyers, and others. It is impossible to be a good fraud examiner without refined communication skills.
• Technological skills: In the past, fraud detection and investigation involved more luck than anything else. However, with the technological advances of the last 20 years, we can now proactively search for fraud symptoms and fraud perpetrators and build both fraud-free and fraudulent profiles. Technology allows fraud examiners to analyse huge databases very efficiently.

Computers and other forms of technology provide some of the best evidence to determine if someone is guilty of fraud. Real-time and even post-hoc fraud detection and investigation in the future will involve the use of technology.

While the three skills addressed here are critical and most important, other skills that will be extremely useful for future fraud examiners are as follows:

• Understanding the business. One of the major differences between fraud and other types of crime is the always present concealment attempts to hide the fraud. Usually, concealment attempts involve altering accounting records and documents. Fraud examiners who understand accounting and business will be highly valued in the future.
• A knowledge of civil and criminal laws, criminology, privacy issues, employee rights, fraud statutes, and other legal fraud-related issues.

Investigating and resolving frauds always involves legal questions such as “should this case be pursued in the criminal or civil courts, are certain evidence-gathering techniques legal, and when should law enforcement be involved?”

The ability to speak and write in a foreign language. With developments in travel, communication, and technology, many frauds today involve individuals in multiple countries. Cross-border investigations are possible. Because of that knowing a foreign language is important.

A knowledge of human behaviour, including why and how people rationalise dishonesty, how they react when caught, and what is the most effective way to deter individuals from committing fraud. These kinds of skills are usually learned in behavioural courses such as psychology, social psychology, or sociology.