Fraud and compliance risks are among the most significant challenges organizations face today. As businesses grow and regulatory landscapes evolve, it becomes increasingly crucial to establish robust frameworks that proactively manage fraud risks while ensuring compliance with laws and regulations. Leveraging the fraud resources referenced in this blog post provides organizations with actionable insights and tools to foster a risk-aware culture and enhance compliance capabilities.

1. Fraud Policy

Discover our Fraud Policy that promotes openness, probity and accountability, and report and manage fraud and corruption with confidence.

Our Fraud Policy provides a detailed framework for preventing, detecting and responding to fraudulent activities within an organization. This tool underscores the company's commitment to transparency, accountability and integrity while fostering a culture of honesty and intolerance toward fraud and corruption. This policy defines fraud and corruption, offering examples such as financial misappropriation, misuse of company resources and unethical behavior. It establishes procedures for reporting suspicions, ensuring that employees and external parties can voice concerns through secure channels. It emphasizes confidentiality with measures in place to protect whistleblowers and prevent reputational harm to individuals wrongly accused. This document also outlines the responsibilities of various parties, including the HR and legal director, audit committee, and board of directors, in investigating and addressing fraud.

2. Fraud Prevention and Detection Audit Work Program

Enhance your fraud detection and prevention strategies to protect your organization and ensure compliance with fraud policies.

This audit work program will help you evaluate the effectiveness of your organization’s fraud prevention and detection compliance program. It provides a structured framework that can be used directly or transformed into questionnaires for management, facilitating a comprehensive understanding of the current fraud prevention and detection activities. The document emphasizes the importance of an ethical workplace culture that encourages employees to report potential issues, thereby helping to prevent major frauds. 

3. Fraud Prevention Process: Debit and Credit Card Transactions Audit Work Program

Identify, evaluate and report on the efficiency and effectiveness of your company's fraud prevention process for debit and credit card transactions.

Organizations can use this work program sample to evaluate the effectiveness of their debit and credit card service provider's fraud prevention process. It outlines the audit objectives, planning phase, fieldwork and report issuance stages, detailing specific tasks like conducting meetings, preparing memos and reviewing policies. The document emphasizes understanding the audit area and incorporating best practices. In the fieldwork stage, it can be used to observe and document the process for monitoring fraudulent activity, including system settings, flagging of transactions, client communication methods and review procedures.

4. Educating the Audit Committee About Fraud Guide

Use this guide to educate your organization’s audit committee on fraud intricacies, detection and prevention methods, compliance with standards, and the role of internal controls.

Use this guide to educate your organization’s audit committees on fraud intricacies, detection and prevention methods, compliance with standards, and the role of internal controls. According to this guide, both personal and corporate pressures increase the likelihood of fraud. Some examples include manipulating stock price/value and concealing illegal acts. 

5. Fraud Detection Guide

This tool includes three guides that provide standards and steps organizations can use for effective fraud detection.

Auditing for fraud is more of an intuitive process than a formal, analytic methodology. Skills depend on the right mindset and practice. One seeks relevant information, organizes it in some meaningful way and then sees the pattern it creates. Every fraud has its unique aspects, and all thieves do not think alike. They tend to be opportunists. Given a set of circumstances that allow them to steal, they take the easiest way.

6. Common Fraud Scenarios Guide

This tool contains three guides that can be used by auditors to identify and mitigate common fraud schemes.

This tool contains three guides that can be used by auditors to identify and mitigate common fraud schemes. In these samples, we provide a common understanding of the potential fraud schemes and scenarios that a company has included in its entity-level fraud risk assessment. Each of these schemes/scenarios should be examined by the internal audit group and senior management from each of the functional areas within the company.

7. Intellectual Property Fraud Risk Questionnaire

The questions included in this tool should be addressed when handling intellectual property theft.

Organizations should address the questions included in this tool when dealing with intellectual property theft. Sample questions include: Is the asset protected? What is the form of protection? Were all necessary filings made (e.g., state, federal and foreign)? Have the registrations been properly maintained? (If annual maintenance fees apply, were they paid? If an agency requires intermittent filings or affidavits of use, were they completed?) If a copyrighted work was first registered before (Insert Date), has its copyright been renewed? Were all transfer of rights and license agreements filed with the proper state and federal authorities?

8. Credit Card Fraud Risk Questionnaire

Focus on these questions to learn more about the organization’s management and monitoring of credit card fraud risk.

Fraud can be defined as the intentional perversion of truth to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right. In the business community, the ultimate goal of fraud is to gain money. There are numerous fraud scenarios within the business world and, unfortunately, many have transitioned into the internet community. Focus on the following questions to learn more about your organization’s management and monitoring of credit card fraud risk. 

Browse our Fraud topic page to see all of the related tools and publications we have published.