Fraud and corruption: how to catch a fraudster

By Steven Powell
Director of Forensics at ENSafrica

Every organisation is susceptible to fraud, but some are more susceptible than others. This article provides an overview of the profile of a typical fraudster to help readers identify fraudsters operating in a business.

Organisations that are more susceptible to fraud are those with weak accounting and financial skills: they delegate control over the procurement and accounts payable functions to secretarial and accounting personnel; they rely heavily on trusted individuals; there is poor or non-existent segregation of duties, or a complete absence of independent review over accounts and reconciliations.

This makes it easy for dishonest personnel to not only misappropriate funds, but to also cover their tracks and avoid detection.

The profile of a fraudster
Research has shown that most fraudsters are older than 30, have generally worked for an organisation for five years or more, come from stable family homes, are well educated and are often the very last people that management would suspect.

Continue reading this article on Smart Procurement Review.