Fraud Analytics | RUSHMORE FORENSIC

Card counters ace fraudsters, consumers are investigating fraud more quickly

12 December 2012 By Rushmore Forensic

Forensic Accountants frequently analyse credit card data as part of a fraud investigation

For years scammers have been swiping ever-increasing fortunes from unsuspecting consumers.

But technology finally appears to be catching up with the fraudsters that prey on Australians with debit and credit cards.

Industry figures indicate the amount Australians are losing to card fraud has slipped this year as measures to fight overseas online swindles take effect.

According to the Australian Payments Clearing Association, fraud accounted for 15.6c in every $1000 of spending last financial year.

This was down from 16.3c for the 2011 calendar year.

While the number of fraud transactions increased slightly to 1.2 million in the year to June – up from 1.15 million in the year to last December – the total value of the transactions fell.

Fraudulent transactions totalled $284.5 million in the year to June, down from $301.6 million in the period to last December.

Fraud investigation rates peaked in the six months to last December after a spike in overseas fraudsters targeting Australian card data.

“Counter-measures have been in place for more than six months and we can see this coming through in this financial year data” association chief Chris Hamilton said. “We have actually seen a decline in card fraud in the first half of 2012.”

The figures showed cheque fraud rates continue to fall and now account for less than 1c in every $1000 paid by cheque.

Fraud on proprietary debit cards – where a PIN is required at a till – was flat at 4.9c in every $1000 worth of payments. Fraud on scheme credit, debit and charge-cards – where a signature is permitted or the card is used remotely – fell from 96c to 87.7c.

Australian Bankers Association chief executive Steven Munchenberg welcomed the trend, saying consumers were increasingly aware of the risks and banks were now quicker to respond to suspicious transactions.

(Source: Jane Harper, Herald Sun, 12 December 2012)

Further Information – Forensic Accountant

Forensic Accountants frequently analyse credit card data as part of fraud investigations

If you would like further information about using our forensic accounting services for a financial investigation or other expert witness matter, then please contact us on (02) 8019 7262 for an obligation free discussion.

We provide services to corporations, law firms and individuals in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and across Australia.

Filed Under: Discovering a Fraud, Fraud Analytics, Fraud Investigation Tagged With: Credit Card Fraud, Fraud Investigation

Accused Queensland Health fraudster Joel Morehu-Barlow lived it up with $11m lifestyle

16 December 2011 By Rushmore Forensic

WHILE accused fraudster Joel Morehu-Barlow sits in a solitary jail cell at Wacol prison an entertainment package worth nearly $100,000 is en route from Europe for him.

Accused Fraudster Queensland Health

Only days before the accused fraudster became the state’s most-wanted man and was eventually charged with defrauding $11 million, he was having the time of his life, enjoying a lavish spending spree.

The 36-year-old purchased an opulent $5.65 million River House in the new Pietra development at Moray St, New Farm, and paid for it in full.

But the spending didn’t stop there – his extravagant lifestyle was just beginning.

Court documents reveal Morehu-Barlow went on to purchase items including a top-of-the-range 2.15m 3D TV described as one of “the most expensive sets ever produced”.

He purchased the TV and associated accessories for $95,070 from Bang and Olufsen’s Fortitude Valley store. But little did he know the exclusive entertainment package which was sent from Denmark was due to arrive in Australia when he would behind bars.

The goods will be seized once they arrive in Australia.

During his short-lived spree he also purchased a luxury Mercedes-Benz and two top-of-the-range jet skis.

He also bought an elaborate, grey, 2009 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG sedan for $135,214.

He then went on to buy two Sea-Doo jet skis at Brisbane Jet Skis at Zillmere on Brisbane’s northside.

One was a luxury performance model and the other a sports model, together costing more $42,000.

But he had little time to use his new plush toys, he would be arrested by police only eight days after he bought them. Documents show the self-proclaimed Tahitian prince was known by various names including Hohepa Morehu-Barlow, Joel Barlow, Joseph Barlow and Joel Hikairo Morehu-Barlow.

In the documents it reveals he held eight bank accounts with more than $1.5 million in them and another account in his company’s name which had a healthy balance of $2.91 million.

He also owned another two luxury cars – a grey, 2009 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG sedan and a 2004, silver BMW 530i sedan.

Morehu-Barlow was also interested in music and art and had a selection of paintings and a baby grand piano.

(The Courier-Mail, Sophie Elsworth, 16/12/2011)

Filed Under: Discovering a Fraud, Finding Assets, Forensic Acccountant, Fraud Analytics, Investigation, Preventing Fraud, Warning Signs Tagged With: forensic accounting, Fraud, Investigation

Rushmore Forensic migrates to Sentinel Visualizer

25 November 2011 By Rushmore Forensic

Rushmore Forensic has now migrated to Sentinel Visualizer for all data visualisation and link analysis charts.

SV empowers the needs of intelligence analysts, law enforcement, investigators, and information workers. Sentinel Visualizer has quickly become the next generation data visualization and analysis solution.

Using Sentinel Visualizer, Rushmore Forensic provides its clients with insight into patterns and trends hidden in complex data. Its database driven data visualization platform allows us to quickly see multi-level links among entities and model different relationship types. Advanced drawing and redrawing features generate optimized views to highlight the most important entities.

If you require advanced data analysis and data visualisation, then Rushmore Forensic has the tools and expertise to assist you with your matter.

For more information about how Rushmore Forensic and Sentinel Visualizer can assist you, then please contact us.

Filed Under: Forensic Technology, Fraud Analytics Tagged With: data analysis, data mining, Data Visualization, Link Analysis Charts, Sentinel Visualizer

New fraud prevention routine to detect false suppliers

13 December 2010 By Rushmore Forensic

Using data mining routines to detect fraud in corporate accounts payable data is a great way for organisations to protect themselves against fraud.

At Rushmore Forensic we have hundreds of data mining routines that can be implemented and we commonly run around 20 to 25 routines for each client.

Recently we added a new routine, which identifies all vendors that have been incorporated by ASIC for less than 2 years. Yes it’s that simple. The idea being that most companies our clients trade with would have been in existence for many years even if they had not been trading with our client directly.

A company that has only been recently created presents a much higher risk profile that the vendor is false. The forensic data mining routine uses the vendors name and ABN number from the Vendor Master File and compares this with the incorporation date from the ASIC website. Whilst this data mining routine hasn’t detected a clear cut case of fraud to date it has raised some potential conflict of interest and process issues.

Most of Rushmore Forensic’s engagements use custom developed databases, programming and other techniques to analyse corporate data. We have a suite of over 200 data mining and analysis routines. These routines can scan 100% of accounts payable, payroll, exployee expense reimbursement and other applicable data sources. This type of analysis commonly detects fraud, breaches of company policy and other anomalies. The reviews are regularly conducted for some of Australia’s largest companies.

About Rushmore Forensic

Andrew Firth is a Director of Rushmore Forensic. Andrew Firth specialises at using advanced data mining to detect fraudulent transactions and other improvements in an organisations processes. He is a forensic accountant based in Sydney.

Filed Under: Forensic Account Activities, Fraud Analytics, Investigation, Payroll Fraud, Preventing Fraud Tagged With: data mining, False Suppliers

Sick Leave Fraud – Spike in leave before and after weekends and holidays

13 December 2010 By Rushmore Forensic

Public servants, especially those living along the coast, take more sick leave than employees in the private sector, with a spike in days off before and after weekends and holidays, a report has found.

The NSW Auditor-General, Peter Achterstraat, has found that, despite efforts to reduce the high level of sick leave, there has been a drop of only 1.84 hours, or just one-quarter of a day, since 2004/5.

This was much less than the target of a reduction of one day over this period, which would have saved taxpayers $45 million, he said.

“Abuse of sick leave needs to be addressed properly” he said.

On average, public servants take just over eight days’ sick leave annually, he said.

The highest sick leave taken was recorded by the NSW Fire Brigades at 95.3 hours, which is significantly more than the next highest group, Ambulance NSW, at 79.8 hours and Juvenile Justice at 78.6 hours.

The report also found that the more public servants are paid, the less sick leave they take and that sick leave increased with age and with length of service.

The higher the sick leave entitlement, the more sick leave was taken, the report noted.

Mr Achterstraat called for supervisors to more actively monitor and manage staff suspected of abusing sick leave and to have clear rules for managing absence.

“The key barriers in reducing sick leave were an ageing workforce, an industrial environment which slows workplace reform, and an entitlement culture where staff think they must ‘use it or lose it’” the report noted.

The director general of the Department of Premier and Cabinet said programs were being pursued to reduce sick leave to 45.06 hours per employee, as part of recent wages agreements.

The Auditor-General has called for a “name and shame” list to be published by the government, which is likely to occur next year.

(Source: “Sickies by the seaside: report points the finger”, SMH 8/12/10, Brian Robins)

About Rushmore Forensic

Andrew Firth is a Director of Rushmore Forensic. He specialises at using advanced data mining routines to detect payroll fraud. He is a forensic accountant based in Sydney, and is a regular speaker on payroll and other forensic accounting issues.

Filed Under: Fraud Analytics, Payroll Fraud Tagged With: data analysis, data mining, forensic accounting, Payroll Fraud

Flying Under the Radar: Detecting Employee Expense Claim Fraud

30 November 2010 By Rushmore Forensic

When I’m asked what is the easiest fraud to detect in a business? – Expense Claim Fraud is always the answer. The use of keyword databases, random audits and automated alerts can quickly uncover employee abuse.

Many business managers think that employee expense claims represent a small percentage of their total spend and believe that there is only a small risk to their business. However on closer examination, many businesses find that over 10% of their total expenditure is processed through employee reimbursements and some employees are being reimbursed more than $10,000 per month.

Expense claim anomalies generally fall into 1 of 2 categories. The first is a breach in the company’s policies. This can range from an employee failing to sign the expense claim cover sheet to more serious issues such as breaches in the organisations delegation of authority. It is common for employees to also claim for expense types that are prohibited by the company. This can include use of limousines; hire cars; charter flights and expenditure at adult entertainment venues.

The second category of expense claim anomalies that we encounter is fraud and personal expenses. Recently we have discovered employees claiming iTune song downloads, DVDs, local restaurants, and other electronic purchases.

Whilst it is a relatively straight forward process to detect employee expense fraud, organisations need to ensure that their policies and procedures comply with relevant statutory and common law requirements. We recommend that a Workplace Relations Specialist is consulted from the outset. We also recommend that organisations implement a process to ensure that fraudulent claims are recovered from the individuals concerned.

Some of the high risk categories that we use to categorise potential employee fraud in a keywords database include:

Clubs
Cash Withdrawal
Donations
Duty Free
Internet site
Limousines & Hire Cars
Memberships
Seminars
Restaurants
Weekend Transactions
Overseas (e.g. Thailand, Chonburi etc)
Large values (e.g. over $2,000)
Resorts
Fashion & Exclusive Stores

My final piece of advice to finance and other managers in organisations is to find where the expense claims are being filed and at random intervals spend a couple of hours reviewing the claims in detail. I guarantee that the time invested in reviewing the claims will be well spent.

Filed Under: Expense Claim Fraud, Fraud Analytics