Curbing Fraud Through Risk Assessments

Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the psychology behind why people commit fraud and how a risk assessment can be used to mitigate fraud and risk towards a given organization. The risk assessments portion of the paper will discuss areas such as a process for an effective fraud risk assessment which includes defining a risk scope, risk treatments (acceptance, avoidance, transfer, mitigate, or a combination approach), and most importantly risk monitoring and review through controls. The paper then discusses in detail the importance of proper risk modeling then finished with an analysis on an actual fraudulent activity around the abuses with SNAP benefits.

Risk Assessments:
Merriam-Webster defines fraud as the “intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right.” Some type of fraud scheme or business exploit is in the news headlines every day. Anything from employees stealing money out of cash register to multibillion dollar pyramid schemes is seeming becoming a common segment on the news right next to this week’s weather forecast. The opportunity for a common person or company to fall victim to fraud is paramount. Often times a business simply doesn’t know where their most susceptible operations reside. This limitation causes billions of dollars of fraud to commence every year, and often times the company won’t know they aren’t being scammed until it’s too late. A good defense against fraud is often times a deep and proactive offense. Understanding the psychology of how good people become criminals; in addition to performing proper risk assessments and risk modeling will provide valuable vulnerability and remediation data to any business to prevent themselves from becoming just another headline on the news.
Fraud is seemingly everywhere