Future Trends That Will Change the Fraud Fighting Environment

This blog is the third in the series, Fighting Fraud Requires Anticipatory Skills.

I sought a great quote about predicting the future, but had difficulty finding the right one. Then I remembered back to my childhood days and the movie series, Back to the Future. The following quote was from the end of the first movie that foreshadowed the sequel:

“Hey, Doc, we better back up. We don’t have enough road to get up to 88.”

“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”

In the second movie in the series, Back to the Future II, originally released in 1989, the main characters traveled into the future to October 21, 2015. The movie paints a futuristic view of 2015 with flying cars, hover boards, self-lacing shoes, wall-mounted televisions, video conferencing, and numerous other exciting things. Some have become a reality, while others are still in our future.

It must have been fun for the people who developed these ideas about the future. I also think it could have been terrifying if they considered what we, the people in the future, might think about their crazy ideas, like the double neck tie. I have felt this same fear as I have written this series.

I have compiled the following list of futuristic ideas for you to consider, some of which may be intuitive and others that may be “out there.”

• As more companies connect additional devices to gather more data, they may force employees to utilize wearables to monitor their activities throughout the day. These wearables could record conversations and other employee actions. This could eliminate the need for interviewing actual people because we would be able to rewind to the point when the events in question took place. We are beginning to see more police departments using this type of technology. Now, imagine if a fraudster could manipulate these recordings and alter the evidence.
• Bitcoin or blockchain technology could become commonplace. There are very few businesses embracing this technology, but if larger companies begin using it, many others might follow. This type of technology could provide third parties with 100% assurance as to the accuracy of the transaction without the need for an audit. I find it highly unlikely, and I believe there will be fraudsters who will figure out ways to commit fraud in this new environment.
• There could be a significant increase in the number of small companies because numerous barriers have been removed to allow small companies to compete with much larger companies. For example, there is no need to spend millions of dollars on marketing if you can create short, clever commercials on YouTube (e.g., Dollar Shave Club). Another example relates to quick, easy access to capital through websites like kickstarter.com. This should increase the risk of fraud because smaller companies have less sophisticated processes and controls. The challenge will be convincing the owners that this fraud risk exists.
• Finally, a developer could create a software that catches all fraud before it happens, which stops fraudsters in their tracks. Envision this amazing technology that can detect a person’s intent and identify fraudsters before they make their first move. If an employee starts to think about committing fraud, the company can fire them. This would be similar to the movie, Minority Report, where police could arrest people before they committed a crime.

This list only hints at what we might see in the future. I hope these provide you with a starting point to fantasize about the future business world and how we will need to position ourselves to fight fraud. Imagine the tools and skills we will need to develop to investigate in this future world.

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