NSU | Office Of Internal Audit

Fraud encompasses an array of irregularities and illegal acts characterized by intentional deception. It usually involves the deliberate concealment of facts. Fraud can be defined in a number of ways, including the following:

Fraud is the intentional misrepresentation or concealment of a material fact that results in financial or other damages to another party.

Fraud is the use of deception, false suggestions, suppression of the truth, or other unfair means, which is believed and relied upon to deprive another of property or money, resulting in a loss to the party that believed and relied upon such.

Fraud is ...



Fraud is an illegal act characterized by deceit, concealment or violation of trust committed by individuals and organizations to obtain money, property or services, avoid payment or loss of services, or to secure personal or business advantage.

Fraud is the intentional deception perpetrated by individuals or organizations, either internal or external to the organization, which could benefit themselves, others, or the organization or which could cause detriment to others or the organization, including falsifying financial or other records to cover up the theft of money or other assets.

Regardless of the definition used, certain characteristics are common to fraud, including

Misrepresentation of a material fact

Made knowingly and with the intent to deceive

Reliance on the misrepresentation by the victim

Resulting in injury or damage from such reliance

The perpetrator's intent to deceive is usually the hardest element of a fraud to prove. The following are examples which have been used to prove an intent to deceive:

Admissions

Alteration of documents

Concealment of evidence

Confessions

Destruction of evidence

False statements (lies)

Obstruction of justice

Pattern of conduct (repetition of behavior)

Personal gain

Testimony of a co-conspirator

"Ordinary" people commit frauds. Typically, the "ordinary" person has a "pressure" in his life (e.g. financial crisis, large gambling debts, or high medical bills). Then, he seizes a perceived "opportunity" to alleviate the pressure (e.g. the combination is taped to safe's door, or no one ever reviews my work). Afterwards, he rationalizes the fraud he committed (e.g. they don't pay me enough, I'll pay it back, or I deserve a raise).

Examples of fraud include the following:

Altering documents (changing an actual document), including cash receipts, checks, expense reports, and time sheets

Alumni Affairs / Development

Keeping gifts

Overstating amounts of gifts received

Athletics

Athlete eligibility

Camps

NCAA compliance

Ticket sales

Travel

Bribery

Conspiracy

Disbursements

Create fake vendors to receive payments

Inflate check amounts to payees

Kickbacks

Embezzlement

Equipment

Improper sale of

Personal use of

Theft

Falsifying documents (creating a fictitious document), including cash receipts, checks, expense reports, and time sheets

Forging signatures on documents, including cash receipts, checks, expense reports, and time sheets

Grants and Research

Improper charges to

Keeping research checks

Intellectual Property (creations of the mind, such as patents, copyrights, and trademarks)

Conflict of interest

Improper sale of

Theft

Inventory

Theft of inventory items

Theft of scrap or surplus

Misappropriation of assets, including cash, equipment, property, and supplies

Outsourced Activities

Understating sales

Gifts to management and other personnel

Overstating inventory

False accounting records

Payroll

Creating fictitious employees

Inflating hours worked (padding the payroll)

Keeping former employees on the payroll

Theft of time

Purchasing

Bid rigging

Kickbacks

Purchase of inferior products

Purchase of personal items

Theft of assets, including cash, equipment, property, and supplies

Use of State property for personal gain



Fraud can be very expensive in terms of monetary losses, loss of public trust, negative publicity, and potential litigation. It is very difficult to quantify the monetary losses associated with fraud, because not all fraud is known about. As such, it is imperative that all employees strive toward the prevention of fraud at the University.

The 2004 Report to the Nation - Occupational Fraud and Abuse, published by the Association of Fraud Examiners, provides a detailed view of how occupational fraud affects organizations.

Certain areas and transaction types are more susceptible to fraud than others, having an above average potential for fraud to exist. Examples of such areas and transaction types are as follows:

Asset acquisitions

Cash handling and collection points

Computer and telecommunication access

Construction

Consultants

Credit card usage

Decentralized organization

Disbursements / payables

Employee loans

Employee payroll

Freight

Inventory

Purchasing

Remote locations

Revenue recognition

Student loans

Student payroll

Surplus or scrap material

Suspense accounts

Temporary or casual employees

Third party contracts

Ticket sales

Travel

Vendor relationships

Fraud Related Terms

Asset misappropriations - The theft or misuse of an organization's assets

Bribe - A payment made to influence someone to do something that should not be done or to omit to do something that should be done under the rules governing the procurement

Check tampering - A disbursement fraud scheme whereby an individual either prepares a fraudulent check for his own benefit or intercepts and cashes a check intended for a third party

Collusion - A secret agreement between two or more parties for fraud or deceit

Conspiracy - Is an agreement by two or more individuals to commit an unlawful act, or to commit a lawful act for unlawful purposes or by unlawful means

Corruption - A fraud in which perpetrators wrongfully use their influence in a business transaction in order to obtain some benefit for themselves or another person, including kickbacks, other gifts and gratuities, or engaging in conflicts of interest

Embezzlement - To take assets in violation of trust

Forgery - The false making or altering, with the intent to defraud, of any signature to, or any part of, any writing purporting to have legal efficacy; Issuing or transferring, with the intent to defraud, a forged writing, known by the offender to be a forged writing, shall also constitute forgery

Kickbacks - Any money, fee, commission, credit, gift, gratuity, thing of value, or compensation of any kind that is provided for the purpose of improperly obtaining or rewarding favorable treatment in connection with a contract. This prohibition extends to members of the employee's immediate family.

Kiting - Drawing a bank check on insufficient funds to take advantage of the time interval required for collection

Lapping - A scheme to cover an embezzlement by using payments made by one customer to reduce the account balance of another customer, i.e. recording a payment on a customer's account sometime after the payment has been received

Larceny - The intentional taking away of an employer's cash (currency and checks) without the consent and against the will of the employer, involving the theft of money that has already appeared on a company's books, i.e. "on-book" fraud

Skimming - The process by which cash is removed from the company before it enters the accounting system, including unrecorded sales, understated sales, theft of incoming checks, and swapping checks for cash, i.e. is an "off-book" scheme because the receipt of cash is never reported to the company

Theft - The misappropriation or taking of anything of value which belongs to another, either without the consent of the other to the misappropriation or taking, or by means of fraudulent conduct, practices, or representations (an intent to deprive the other permanently of whatever that was misappropriated or taken is essential)

Northwestern State University is a member of the University of Louisiana System