Download These Fraud Investigation Tools to Protect Your Organization Now

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) estimates that organizations lose five percent of their annual revenue to fraud each year, with an average loss of $1.7 million per case. Fraud occurs in every industry, every country, and every size of organization; that’s why your internal fraud controls can’t just focus on prevention.

Knowing how to investigate fraud schemes effectively and quickly can stop the issue from escalating, protecting your organization’s assets. Use the fraud investigation tools below to ensure your investigations are successful.

1. Fraud Investigation Checklist

During a fraud investigation, there’s no time to waste. You need to respond quickly when fraud is discovered to stop the scheme, but you also can’t afford to miss details that could help you identify risks and take preventive action. That’s why a fraud investigation checklist is one of the most essential fraud investigation tools.

Taking the time to plan out your investigative process before diving in ensures consistency, efficiency, and accuracy. While consulting your fraud investigation checklist might seem like it’s taking time away from your investigation, it could actually save you time, money, and stress later if you miss a step or have your processes audited by a regulatory body.

Start outlining your checklist with these five broad stages:

1. Decide to investigate
2. Plan the investigation
3. Conduct interviews
4. Review records & documentation
5. Analyze evidence
6. Write the final investigation report

Then, fill in specific tasks for team member for each stage.

Use a fraud investigation checklist to get your team on the same page, create a consistent process, and ensure you don’t forget any key steps when you’re in the thick of a crisis.

2. Fraud Response Plan

Whether you uncover fraud from a tip or one of your system controls, things move swiftly from there. Your organization’s top priority is to “stop the bleeding” to prevent further losses and catch the person or people responsible, so you need to streamline next steps for quick action.

A fraud response plan removes the guesswork so everyone in the organization knows what to do if a scheme is discovered. This document should describe the following:

• Types of internal fraud schemes with definitions and examples (e.g., embezzlement, theft, data theft, asset misappropriation, corruption)
• Roles and responsibilities for employees, managers, and your fraud response team, if applicable
• Fraud response stages and procedures, such as:
  • Step 1: Preparation
  • Step 2: Detection & Containment
  • Step 3: Investigation
  • Step 4: Remediation
  • Step 5: Recovery
• A fraud response plan checklist to ensure you covered every action item

Make your fraud response plan as clear and concise as possible. That way, everyone in the organization knows why a fast response to fraud is important, as well as exactly what they need to do in both the short and long term when you detect fraud in your workplace.

3. Investigation Report Writing Cheat Sheet

After you’ve conducted your investigation, stakeholders including executives, your board, the accused person, and the whistleblower (if there was one) need to know the outcome. Your findings should be thorough, covering every stage of your investigation, include relevant documentation and evidence, and avoid using jargon or confusing language.

Ensuring your reports have all of that makes it one of the most tedious, time-consuming, and stressful parts of a fraud investigator’s job. It doesn’t matter if you’ve written 10 reports or 1,000 over your career; it’s easy to forget details or make mistakes when you have a lot on your mind and multiple cases on the go.

An investigation report writing cheat sheet can help you remember best practices, or onboard new investigators on your team. The cheat sheet we’ve linked below includes a list of each section you should include in your investigation report and what information should go in each one, plus formatting tips to make your report effective.

You might also want to include general guidelines of what makes a successful final report, such as:

• Easy to read and follow
• Detailed enough so that someone unfamiliar with the case can understand what was done
• Documents the findings and facts of an investigation
• Demonstrates that all allegations were addressed
• Includes recommendations and a follow-up of corrective action taken
• Clearly written, without grammatical, spelling, and factual errors

Don’t leave the investigation report writing cheat sheet out of your arsenal of fraud investigation tools.

How Case IQ Can Help

Case IQ’s modern case management software helps your organization gain control over fraud investigations with powerful intake, management, and reporting tools. Our end-to-end solution helps you detect, investigate, and prevent fraud and theft all on one secure, centralized platform.

Coming soon, you can also write complete, compliant investigation reports with just a few clicks using our new AI-powered Outcome Copilot.

Learn more about how Case IQ can improve your corporate fraud case management here.