Review - Forensic Accounting and Fraud Examination
Ian Messenger
Forensic Accounting and Fraud Examination is a short course created by West Virginia University and offered through Coursera.
It is structured as a 5 week course but it can be completed at a quicker pace if you wish. In total there are around 7 hours of content. As with many Coursera courses, you have the option of taking the course for free with access to the course material or $65 for the assessed version which provides a certificate (above).
The course is delivered through a series of interactive videos.
The course structure includes
Week 1 - The Accidental Fraudster
Who are "accidental" fraudsters? Learn who accidental fraudsters are, the basic elements of fraud, and how devastating the costs of fraud are.
Week 2 - The Predator Fraudster
What is a "predator" fraudster? How do you protect your organization against a preditor fraudster? Learn how internal control concepts and other techniques can help you detect and prevent preditor fraudsters.
Week 3 - Big Data, Benford's Law and Financial Analytics
What is "big data"? Learn how data analysis, Benford analysis and other tools can help you identify fraudulent activities.
Week 4 - Cyber-Crime and Money Laundering: Contemporary Tools and Techniques
This week’s session will introduce you to the objectives and stages of money laundering as well as the basic techniques used.
Week 5 - Whistleblowing
Everything you need to know about whistleblowing. Learn the importance of whistleblowing and the difficulty of being a whistleblower.
This is a great intermediate level course on Fraud Examination and it introduces the student to key Fraud concepts such as the Fraud Triangle, Intent, types of Fraudster and Controls. These are all valuable to compliance officers who are more accustomed to Money Laundering investigations - remember Fraud is a predicate offence!
The key takeaway from this course was that investigating Fraud is not the same as investigating Money Laundering. The “source of funds” and placement concerns found in Money Laundering has no place in a Fraud investigation. Fraud has to be investigated with a different mindset that traditional ML investigations - approaching Fraud with a placement/layering/integration mindset means that fraud / fraud transactions may (will?) be missed or erroneously discounted.
This short course is a valuable addition to the body of knowledge that Compliance Officers need.
Who is it for?
Compliance Officers who do not have the CFE certification or other fraud training.