CFE Exam Quiz 45

Because fraud examinations move in a linear order, starting with the general and working to the specific, the first interviews should be with those individuals who are least likely to be involved, working toward those individuals who are more likely to be involved.

During routine interviews, closing questions serve the purposes of reconfirming facts, gathering additional facts, and concluding the interview in a manner that maintains goodwill. Closing questions seek to close the interview positively.

If the interviewer has any reason to believe that the respondent is being deceptive, he should begin asking assessment questions. Assessment questions are questions specifically designed to establish the respondent’s credibility.

Admission-seeking questions are questions that are designed to obtain a legal admission of wrongdoing. Admission-seeking questions are reserved specifically for individuals whose culpability is reasonably certain.

Admission-seeking interviews should take place only when all other reasonable investigative steps have been completed and as much information as possible has been developed from other sources. The choice of when to conduct an admission-seeking interview of a suspect is critical and are aimed to achieve at least one of the following:

– To clear an innocent person.
– To encourage the culpable person to confess.
– To convince the confessor to sign a written statement acknowledging the facts.

The introduction is accomplished through questions as opposed to statements. The introductory questions allow the interviewer to assess feedback from the respondent. The interviewer hopes to introduce himself, establish rapport, establish the interview scheme and observe the respondent’s reactions by asking introductory questions.

Proxemic communication is a form of nonverbal communication or body language in which messages are conveyed from one person to another by the changing space that separates them during a conversation. Proxemic communication is the use of interpersonal space to convey meaning.

Those social-psychological forces that make conversations, including interviews, easier to accomplish are referred to as facilitators of communication. These facilitators require a basic understanding of what motivates people.

Facilitators of communication are those social-psychological forces that make conversations, including interviews, easier to accomplish. These facilitators include:

– Fulfilling expectations
– Recognition
– Altruistic appeals
– Sympathetic understanding
– New experience
– Catharsis
– Need for meaning
– Extrinsic rewards

The process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions is known as catharsis. Catharsis is the process by which a person obtains a release from unpleasant emotional tensions by talking about the source of these tensions.

The term “tracing” refers to the search for evidence for the purpose of showing what has happened to the property, identifying the proceeds of the property, and identifying those who have handled or received the property or the proceeds of the property. Fraud examiners are often tasked with tracing illicit transactions and the underlying assets.

Tracing is the search for evidence regarding the identity and disposition of property. A fraud examiner might be engaged to assist in the following cases:

– A victim of fraud who wants a tracing search to aid the recovery of criminal proceeds.
– A potential plaintiff who wants a tracing search to find out if the potential defendant can pay a court-ordered sum if a judgment is ordered.
– A judgment creditor who needs to identify the judgment debtor’s assets.

An actual investigation to trace transactions generally should involve some elements, although the procedures performed during a tracing investigation vary depending on the circumstances. These elements include:

– Collect information.
– Profile the subject.
– Review information for leads and prioritize leads.
– Trace the illicit transactions.

To trace transactions, fraud examiners must collect information about the parties and transactions involved. Not all of the parties or transactions involved are known from the outset of an investigation and might only become known in the course of an investigation. Because of this, the collection of information is an ongoing process.

To begin a tracing search, the fraud examiner needs to compile everything known about the subject. If the subject is an individual, the subject’s legal name and current address are essential to any tracing investigation. Some other relevant items of information include:

– The subject’s date of birth and place of birth.
– The names and birthdates of the subject’s close relatives.
– The subject’s national identification number.
– Relevant telephone numbers.
– Criminal record search results.
– Financial account information.

Once the fraud examiner has basic information about the subject, he can use it to search public records and gain information to trace the transactions. He can gather relevant information from various sources including online sources, government agency databases, public databases, and through the use of other special investigative techniques. Some techniques might not require legal authorization (e.g., physical surveillance or witness interviews), while others might (e.g., electronic surveillance, search and seizure orders, legal orders to produce information, or account monitoring orders).

In trying to gather information on a subject, a fraud examiner can also obtain nonpublic records legally, if available. However, nonpublic records are difficult to obtain unless the subject of the information voluntarily turns the records over, the person to whom the records pertain consents to their release, or the disclosure of such records are required by some type of legal process.

A fraud examiner should begin creating a personal profile of the subject once he has begun collecting information. The personal profile, which is comprised of the financial and behavioral profile, will contain information on the subject’s financial condition.

Fraud examiners and other investigators sometimes submit a copy of a document to a document examiner for examination because they do not want to part with the original. However, document examiners cannot uncover certain types of clues, such as indentations and erasures, from photocopies. Because of this, document examiners might not be able to determine features and reach conclusions from photocopies that could have been made from the original documents.

Backdating is the process whereby an individual posts a date on a document at a time earlier than the document’s actual creation date for purposes of deception.

Alibi documents are documents that suddenly appear “from out of nowhere,” often late in the course of an investigation, inquiry, or trial and they are always favorable to the suspect and contradict previously developed information or evidence that is damaging to the suspect. Often, alibi documents are fabricated.

A long-lost will is a new will that post-dates and supersedes all other wills. It is common occurence for a long-lost will to suddenly appear and favor the person who found it.

The sudden appearance of a new will that post-dates and supersedes all other wills is all too common. Long-lost wills often leave large portions of the testator’s estate to the person who found them, and typically, only a photocopy of the will can be located. Many of these wills have been proven to be fabricated with the cut-and-paste method.

Anachronisms are items located at a time when they could not have existed or occurred. Anachronisms are items belonging or appropriate to a period other than that in which it exists.

Exposing anachronisms in fraudulent historical documents generally requires the expertise of investigators, historical experts, scientific laboratories, and forensic document examiners.

Indented writing is the impression a writing instrument leaves on sheets of paper below the sheet that contains the original writing. This often manifests itself when pads of paper are used or in some record-keeping situations.

Fraud examiners need to be on the alert for the presence of incriminating indented writings or the absence of logical indentations, both of which can be valuable in proving fraud. The absence of corresponding indented writings on the following sheet could provide proof that pages have been altered, removed or substituted.

In most cases, the writings on one sheet of a document should correspond to indentations on the following sheet. The absence of corresponding indented writings on the following sheet, or the presence of indented writings on one sheet that do not correspond with the text of the writings on the preceding sheet, could provide proof that pages have been removed or substituted.

Indented writing is the impression a writing instrument leaves on sheets of paper below the sheet that contains the original writing. The writings on one sheet should correspond to indentations on the following sheet. The presence of corresponding indented writings on the following sheet could indicate that pages have not been removed or substituted.

Alibi documents are documents that suddenly appear often late in the course of an investigation, inquiry, or trial and they are always favorable to the suspect and contradict previously developed information or evidence that is damaging to the suspect. Often, alibi documents are fabricated.