Exposing Fraud

Foreword

Fighting fraud is hard work. I have been fighting fraud and crime for over 40 years. As I write this, I have just returned from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners’ global fraud conference. There were nearly 3,000 people there with a single purpose: to detect and prevent fraudulent conduct.

As I stood on the stage and looked at the sea of faces in the audience, I found myself wondering why someone would want to do this work. It is certainly not glamorous. Fraud examiners are not celebrities. The work is often tedious, and a complex case can take a year or more to investigate and present to prosecutors.

So why then do people want to do this for a living?

I can’t speak for everyone, but I can say that for many people, it is the satisfaction that comes from the work. The types of fraud schemes are limited only by the human imagination – so there is always an opportunity to learn something new.

Likewise, each fraud case is different – different people, industries, amounts, methods. And although a good investigator follows a well-conceived plan, that plan is constantly changing as new facts and information are found.

But as complex as things get, as many late hours as you put in, you feel good at the end of the day because you have prevented someone from stealing the hard-earned assets of your client or organisation. Running a successful business is hard. No one can afford to lose money or assets to thieves and fraudsters. There is no greater reward than helping ...