The Examiner – Insights on Fighting Financial Fraud

Fraud is a risk to every organization that most business executives choose to ignore. Even those who understand the risk of fraud often feel too busy to make fraud fighting a priority. This is a problem because fraud impacts the organization’s culture and drains resources. While the actual losses caused by fraud can be significant, the emotional burden can also be overwhelming. It is unwise to fail to make fraud prevention and detection a priority.

Forrest Gump famously said, “Life is like a box of chocolates—you never know what you’re gonna get.” Each chocolate represents a moment in our lives. There are ups and downs, and sometimes there are unexpected twists and turns.

Every fraudster uses lies to hide the truth. Most are comfortable with lying because they have rationalized their behavior. Over the past several weeks, I have been writing about lies—from the five truths about lying to the reasons people lie. These blog posts provide a foundational knowledge to help you evaluate a person’s willingness to lie, an important skill in identifying and investigating fraud.

Everyone lies. Most of us lie several times a day. Our lies are so common that we rarely think twice about them. We are good people doing the right thing. Do we really lie without knowing it?

Lies are the fraudster’s tools of deceit. They come in many forms, but there are three primary ways they are communicated. Being aware of the different types of lies and how to spot them can help you uncover a fraudster’s scheme more quickly. I will use an actual embezzlement case that was reported earlier this year to illustrate these different ways one can lie.

This past Saturday, April Fool’s Day, my daughter was excited about telling a few lies. She started by placing black tape over the front of the remote control which made it seem as if the TV didn’t work when my wife tried to turn it on. This was an innocent and fun lie that caused very little emotional distress. For her next lie, she created a bit more drama.

This Saturday is April Fool’s Day—the one day that we support and even encourage the act of lying. People are preparing their lies to fool their family and friends. There will also be companies that try to pull fast ones. Remember when Taco Bell ran ads announcing that it had purchased the Liberty Bell to “reduce the country’s debt” and renamed it the “Taco Liberty Bell?” Of course, this was not true, but it was the subject of a lot of discussions on April 1, 1996.

As mentioned in last week’s post, there are numerous similarities when fighting fraud and cybercrime. This week we will highlight a HORNE Cyber blog post that covers five ways to secure your data. Within this blog, cybersecurity advisor Mike Skinner covers areas such as performing a risk assessment, testing vulnerabilities and increasing employee awareness—all areas that can also help business owners and executives fight fraud. Read about all five ways to secure your data in HORNE’s Cyber blog below. 

The Examiner blog is a tool developed to help fight fraud by reminding people that fraud is a risk and providing useful tips to help prevent, discover, and investigate it. HORNE also has the HORNE Cyber blog. Fighting fraud and cybercrime have numerous similarities, some of which are included below:

Next week I will be presenting at a conference to a group who fight fraud every day. They focus on evaluating insurance claims for potential fraud. This conference provides them the opportunity to sharpen their saws and collaborate with others.