Occupational Fraud: Divergent Behavior In The Workplace

Occupational fraud is defined as the use of a person’s job for individual enrichment through the purposeful mishandling or misapplication of his or her employer’s capital or assets (Wells, 2005). Occupational fraud can have a serious impact with far-reaching consequences. In 2004 for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) conducted a survey that provided 508 usable studies of fraud for a total of over $761 million

Internal fraud consists in “a type of fraud that is committed by an individual against an organization. [Furthermore], a perpetrator of fraud engages in activities that are designed to defraud, misappropriate property, or circumvent the regulations, law, or policies of a company”[8]. Not only has the incidence of internal fraud increased in frequency because of the availability of sensitive information such as client details or confidential business documents; moreover, this type of fraud is found in various types of organizations, ranging from corporations, public service institutions and financial institutions. Our analysis will concentrate on the most common and prolific types of internal fraud, namely identity theft, insider trading, loan fraud and wire fraud. Interestingly, PriceWaterhouseCooper conducted a survey that revealed that the “demographics of a typical fraudster are as follows: males (85% of cases), 31-50 years (72% of cases), reached high-school level (50%), Bachelor’s or post graduate degree (50%) and middle or senior management (52%)”[9].

“Abandon all hope ye who enter here” (Alighieri, 1321/1954, p.18) ---- an inscription that is found on the gates of Inferno which foreshadows the fate of the soul of the sinner as said in “Inferno” by Dante Alighieri. The book tackles different natures of sins that individuals have committed and the corresponding punishment that they will receive in different circles of Hell (Ciardi, 1954). Alighieri (1321/1954) notes that although incontinence and violence are serious sins, fraud is considered as the worst type of sin because it betrays a whole community of people and breaks the trust of one’s kin.

Throughout most sources, though, it is clear to see that employer fraud is the most prevalent and costly type of fraud. Employer fraud includes a number of schemes used by employers to reduce the number of workers' compensation insurance premiums by underreporting payroll, misclassifying employees' occupations and misrepresenting their claims experience. According to the National Council on Compensation, the most common frauds include:

Fraud is defined as a deliberate misrepresentation that causes a person or business to suffer damages, often in the form of monetary losses through deception or concealment. And Occupational Fraud as defined by the ACFE is the use of one’s occupation for personal enrichment through the deliberate misuse or misapplication of the employing organization’s resources or assets. Traditional fraud triangle theory by Donald Cressey explains that propensity of fraud occurring in an organization lies on three critical elements which are Pressure, Opportunity, and Rationalization.

Fraud is a false representation that is used to gain advantage or secure personal gains. While there are many different schemes used in committing fraud, the most commonly used fraud schemes are billing schemes, expense reimbursements, check tampering schemes, payroll schemes, and register disbursements. Billing schemes are the most common and are used in conjunction with fake or altered invoices for fictitious goods or services or personal activities. Check tampering is the scheme that carries the highest median loss and is committed by acquiring the funds of the organization and using them for personal activities. Payroll schemes involve falsifying compensation requests, such as timecards for fictitious or terminated employees and collecting

Yes. Occupational fraud and abuse is the use of one's occupation for personal enrichment through the dileberate misuse or misapplication of the employing organizations resources or assets. Since this jacket belonged to them that means I took one of their assets which, as mentioned above, is key to committing occupational fraud and abuse. This jacket was owned by the people at the summer camp therefore taking the jacket means I broke this law.

5.6.1 There are several factors that can contribute to fraudulent activity. Firstly, the presence of the motivation for an employee to commit fraudulent action, such as being under financial pressure, having unmanageable debt or an addiction. Secondly, an opportunity to carry out fraudulent activities, such as poor internal controls implementation or wrong segregation of duties, coupled with a lack of physical security measures like CCTV cameras, locked money tins and boxes. Low ethical and moral standards of managers can lead to employees following the same pattern. Also, a lack of effective communication within the organisation, so that employees do not feel appreciated, or that their work is not valued. Common types of fraud are: illegal

Among the biggest issues of theft that will cost a business money is that of workers' compensation fraud. Sometimes an employee is faking an injury, while at other times an employee may be exaggerating an injury. It is also the case that the injury is real, but it simply occurred while away from work. An employee may also have been injured on the job, but because of the circumstances of the injury, he or she is not entitled to workers' compensation. No matter the circumstances, if the claim is fraudulent, it will cost you money in the form of higher premiums. The following are three tips to protect your business from insurance fraud.

offered at their providers’ office that they may have never received. Healthcare organizations work strictly with health care provides to provide optimum care. Because health care organizations work so thoroughly with primary care practices, it allows health care organizations an insight on how they function. Complications that may contradict the program include falsifying patient signatures to unearned incentives. This termed is widely known as health care fraud, further detailed by study as “the basis of the scheme or artifice to defraud in a mail or wire fraud conviction, including billing for services not rendered, false descriptions of services rendered, and false representations that services were medically necessary” (McGuire,2007).

I agree health care fraud is a major issue and determining how to handle that can be difficult especially because of HIPPA. When it comes to gaining information from health care industry many of these companies become extremely concern about violating patient’s person identity. As you stated having a fraud investigator take the lead during an investigation is a better approach to obtaining all the necessary information to better resolve the case.

The perfect fraud storm occurred between the years 2000 and 2002 involving two of the largest energy and telecom corporations in the United States: Enron and WorldCom. It was determined that both organizations fraudulently overstated assets, created assets from expenses or overstated revenues, costing investors billions of dollars and resulting in both organizations declaring bankruptcy (Albrecht, Albrecht, Albrecht & Zimbelman, 2012). Nine factors contributed to fraud triangle creating this perfect fraud storm, and assisting management in concealing the fraud until exposed and rectified.

According to Langton & Piquero (2007), there has been much debate on the definition of white-collar crime and also the types of crime that should be labeled “white-collar.” Although some scholars have argued that crime should be committed by someone in high power, others have also argued that crime must be committed by the person during the course of that person’s occupation. Most recently, “white-collar crime” has been defined as any financial offenses committed through the use of some combinations of fraud, dishonesty, or conspiracy. According to Sutherland (1940), white-collar criminality is expressed in all corporations. In business, it is more frequent in the form of manipulation such as stock exchange, misrepresentation in financial

Multiple studies have been conducted on the topics dealing with financial fraud. The same can be said about business ethics and

David O. Friedrichs provided more accurate definition of occupational deviance because the term seems to be applied to activities drifted away from the original meaning of White Collar crime. It’s blended with the term conventional crime. Edwin Sutherland introduced the concept of white-collar crime in 1939. There were conceptual confusions with the term occupational crime, occupational deviance, and workplace crime because these terms are combined with white-collar crime. Friedrichs (2002) defined occupational deviances as “characterized as activity undertaken for one’s own gain, or to cope with workplace stress, and not for the benefit of one’s employer or organization” (p.249).