Fraud
has been an issue in business for as long as currency has been in use – and
with increasing levels of businesses reliant on modern technology for
everything from transactions to accounting and online banking, it should come
as no surprise that business fraud is on the increase. There are tens of
thousands of private and public fraud investigations in Texas alone each year.
If you’re a business owner, it’s important for you to be able to recognize when
fraud occurs, to understand how it is perpetrated and know what you can do to
put a stop to it.
What is fraud?
Corporate fraud, in the simplest possible terms,
is the removal of funds or assets from a business without authorisation. The
two key elements of fraud are deception (deceiving the victim) and deprival
(removing funds from the victim). This could involve anything from an employee
claiming unnecessary expenses (such as money for fuel or food) to embezzling
large amounts of company funds into bogus accounts.
Unfortunately, with modern technology it can be
all to easy to cover the tracks of deception and deprival, which is where a
team with expertise in fraud investigations in Dallas can be useful.
How does a private fraud investigation work?
Computer forensics can be used
to perform an investigative analysis of a computer hard drive and
related external peripherals for the purposes of obtaining legal evidence. This
could uncover when employees are stealing trade secrets, illegally transferring
company funds or passing sensitive information to a third party for personal
gain – all of which is pertinent during fraud investigations in Forth Worth or
wider Texas.
As part of our fraud investigation measures, the
ICFECI team can:
• Create a back-up of a hard drive, so suspected
employees will be unaware they are being investigated.
• Extract hidden or password-protected files.
• Rebuild email or messaging service
transcripts.
• Identify a history of visited websites.
• Identify when data has been accessed, and by
whom.
If you suspect wrongdoing or impropriety in your
business, why not implement your own fraud investigations in Texas via the
ICFFECI computer forensics specialists? Please do not hesitate to contact us
for further information.
