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Fraud Never Takes a Holiday in Indiana

These latest headlines should remind companies about the risk of Fraud and the importance of implementing and verifying adequate segregation of duties.  In these stories, embezzlers use their position, their employer’s misplaced trust, and inadequate fraud risk management to defraud organizations. July 29, 2016 Indianapolis woman to be sentenced in $5M embezzlement schemeAugust 16, 2016 Former utility CEO charged with embezzling $500K August 29, 2016 Former local United Steelworkers president sentenced for embezzlementSeptember 13, 2016 “It was done in little bits, little pieces:” Woman accused of embezzlementIn each of these cases, the fraud could have been prevented had the companies implemented a system of internal controls, including adequate segregation of duties.  Segregation of duties is a key internal control intended to minimize the occurrence of errors or fraud by ensuring that no employee has the ability to both commit and conceal errors of fraud in the normal course of their duties.

Stolen Identity Refund Fraud and LexisNexis TRIS Analytics

Stolen Identity Refund Fraud (SIRF) is a relatively new phenomenon in Indiana and across the US — an unfortunate fallout from the intended convenience of electronic tax filing with quick electronic refunds.  As Forensic Accountants and Data Mining Specialist headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, we are considered experts in this niche field.  We also fully understand the difficulty of investigating these matters and identifying those who are committing the crime.  In this article, we will explain what SIRF is and a new ingenious tool states are using to combat this financial crime.

Data Mining for Fraud

Data mining may be the most valuable tool for organizations who may suspect fraud, waste, or abuse.  Data mining is my go-to analysis tool because I feel like it provides the most efficient “bang for the buck.”  Here are a few of my favorite reasons to use data mining. You aren’t limited by system interfaces. How many organizations have you been in where the employees rave about how great their system is, and that it has every report and capability they could ever want in the exact format they want it in?  Probably none.  Systems are necessary and serve a great purpose to standardize data and make it usable to clerks, technicians, and the like.  However, their interface screens are limited in what you can accomplish and ways you can look at the information.  Data mining can cut all of that out.  All systems are built on top of data … Continued

10 Tips to Prevent and Deter Fraud and Identify Theft

Here at Certified Fraud & Forensic Investigations (CFFI), an Indiana licensed CPA and Private Investigative firm, we fully understand the challenge to reduce risk of cyber-criminals stealing your identity and causing havoc in your business or personal life so we have developed 10 Tips to Prevent and Deter Fraud and Identify Theft that should be easy to follow in order to maximize your business security plan and for your personal protection. As I’m sure you know identify theft is the fastest growing crime in America if not the world. And once someone gains access to those pieces of Personally Identifiable Information (PII); for example social security number, date of birth, address, passwords, user ID’s, etc… It can become a nightmare when it comes to filing your taxes, controlling your bank accounts, emails, photos, cloud account, just to name a few. So with that in mind, here are the top 10 best practice steps … Continued

Discovering Hidden Assets

We are Certified Fraud & Forensic Investigations (CFFI), an Indianapolis Forensic Accounting firm that has a passion for discovering hidden assets.  Our company standard is to look under every stone, into every bank account and examine every document in order to provide the best service to our clients.  Our goal is to provide a true and fair basis through our findings and expert testimony for the separation of assets during a divorce, child support modification or inheritance matter.  Our findings are crucial when determining how assets should be divided on a fair and equitable basis.  We have had several soon-to-be divorced client who have a reason to believe that their once-trusted spouse was hiding, concealing, stealing or flat-out committing fraud while married. Recently we were engaged in a child support modification case that involved our client and former spouse we’ll call Chris.  There were many moving parts in this case, which … Continued

Forensic Accounting and Data Mining

Data mining used in forensic accounting is the art of taking a volume of data (bank transactions, accounting transactions, or other data), and applying certain filters to the data to isolate specific transactions of interest. Data mining techniques can be applied in so many of the cases that we receive to help our clients focus in on areas of concern. Take some recent Indiana case examples:

Tax Refund Fraud and Identity Theft

As a private investigator and forensic accountant in the heartland of Indianapolis, Indiana it seems every day I hear about the “average Joe” getting their identity stolen; perhaps through a hacker who infiltrated a company’s server like JP Morgan Chase, Home Depot, Target, etc., through stolen credit card information from an e-commerce or online purchase, or through a “social engineering specialist” fraudster who steals personal information by cold calling you on the phone and using their powers of persuasion to collect your personally identifiable information (PII).   Wikipedia defines PII as “information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context.”   NIST defines PII as “any information about an individual maintained by an agency, including

Forensic Accounting Observations

In today’s era of computer espionage and high-tech theft, all businesses, government agencies, and private citizens should be aware that there may be bad people after private information. As a private investigator and forensic accountant in Indianapolis, Certified Fraud & Forensic Investigations knows that once your sensitive and private information is discovered by a fraudster, your life and business will become very difficult. If you don’t have proper safeguards and internal controls in place, read on…

Hire Private Investigators in Indianapolis

You’ve spent countless hours branding, marketing, and working in your Indianapolis business, but have you been proactive about protecting your company from fraud? Unfortunately, preventing fraud isn’t normally on someone’s mind—until they realize that thousands of dollars in revenue is missing. The forensic and private investigation services from Certified Fraud & Forensic Investigations can help you protect your company’s revenue and reputation from occupational fraudsters—employees that take advantage of their position to steal revenue. Contact us today if you think your company may already be a victim of fraud, or to learn more about how fraud can affect your organization.

Help Locate Missing Persons, Friends, and Relatives

There are many reasons you could need help to locate missing persons: You’re adopted and have always wanted to meet your biological parent(s).  Your childhood sweetheart moved away and you’ve always wondered whether it could have worked. Your wayward sibling left the house on bad terms and never made another contact. You lost a parent at a young age, and never met your aunts, uncles, or cousins. If you’re in any of these or other similar situations where you need help to locate missing persons, you’ve probably searched Facebook to no avail and asked everyone in your circle what they know about the person you’re looking for.