Profiling The Fraudster: Removing the Mask to Prevent and Detect Fraud

Chapter 12Profiling the Fraudster's Position and Department

FRAUD WILL MOST LIKELY OCCUR in organizations where highly people-oriented processes are used to control and monitor the flow of funds, particularly cash. While people are the key element of any organization, it is essential that organizations do not overlook the fact that employees are human and that care must be taken not to provide them with unfair or excessive temptation. If you leave a piece of steak on the kitchen table and instruct a dog not to touch it, I think we all know what happens when we leave the room. While we may not view it as such, many of us break the law multiple times each day just in commuting in our cars. Speeding is illegal, but many of us commit this act frequently, giving the following justifications or rationalizations:

1. We are often pressed for time. This is the motive.
2. Most cars are powerful enough to break the speed limit. This is the opportunity.
3. We feel it is justified to reach our destination earlier and the perceived penalty is low. This is the rationalization.

If, however, our cars were electronically programmed not to exceed the speed limit, the ability to break the law would not exist, in much the same way that it is essential that organizations remove the opportunity for fraud from people-oriented processes to ensure that frauds cannot occur or at least are limited.

Participants in the ACFE's 2012 report were asked to supply several pieces of demographic information about the ...