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This paper examines the role of professional associations, governmental agencies, and international accounting and auditing bodies in promulgating standards to deter and detect fraud, domestically and abroad. Specifically, it focuses on the role played by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), the US Government Accounting Office (GAO), and other national and foreign professional associations, in promulgating auditing standards and procedures to prevent fraud in financial statements and other white‐collar crimes. It also examines several fraud cases and the impact of management and employee fraud on the various business sectors such as insurance, banking, health care, and manufacturing, as well as the role of management, the boards of directors, the audit committees, auditors, and fraud examiners and their liability in the fraud prevention and investigation.

This paper aims to investigate the perceptions of financial accountants and both internal and external auditors regarding the impact of corporate governance (CG) and information technology (IT) on the detection and prevention of fraud within organizations.

Primary data were collected from 250 financial accountants, internal auditors and external auditors through questionnaires. The non-probability snowball sampling technique was used for data collection, with the sample t-test, one-way ANOVA and paired sample t-test applied for analysis.

The results indicate that robust CG practices and IT techniques significantly aid in detecting and reducing fraudulent activities by minimizing opportunities, rationalizations, pressures and capabilities of potential employees to commit fraud. Internal controls also play a significant role in reducing instances of fraud. Notably, ethical officers and ethical training were not perceived as significantly effective in preventing and detecting fraud, leading to a perception that fraudulent practices are prevalent and increasing the risk of future fraudulent activities.

This study recommends the adoption of strong CG practices to identify potential fraud within an organization. Moreover, IT techniques should be tailored to specific needs for effective utilization. Furthermore, the government should increase awareness regarding data provision by departments, organizations and other related personnel. Future research could use secondary data from various regions to expand the literature in this field.

This research uniquely combines three significant factors: CG, IT and forensic accounting in fraud detection and prevention. It contributes to the enhancement of literature about fraud and its preventive and detective measures. The results of this study set the seed for future research, government policymaking and enhanced organizational practices.

Purpose: The study aims to explore the wider acceptance of blockchain technology and growing faith in this technology among all business domains to mitigate the chances of fraud in various sectors.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The authors focus on studies conducted during 2015–2022 using keywords such as blockchain, fraud detection and financial domain for Systematic Literature Review (SLR). The SLR approach entails two databases, namely, Scopus and IEEE Xplore, to seek relevant articles covering the effectiveness of blockchain technology in controlling financial fraud.

Findings: The findings of the research explored different types of business domains using blockchains in detecting fraud. They examined their effectiveness in other sectors such as insurance, banks, online transactions, real estate, credit card usage, etc.

Practical Implications: The results of this research highlight (1) the real-life applications of blockchain technology to secure the gateway for online transactions; (2) people from diverse backgrounds with different business objectives can strongly rely on blockchains to prevent fraud.

Originality/Value: The SLR conducted in this study assists in the identification of future avenues with practical implications, making researchers aware of the work so far carried out for checking the effectiveness of blockchain; however, it does not ignore the possibility of zero to less effectiveness in some businesses which is yet to be explored.

The purpose of this paper is to tackle one of the issues in tax evasion, that is from the perspective of fraudulent financial reporting amongst small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. This study is intended to examine the relationships between certain company attributes, namely, company ownership structure, the size of company and the frequency of tax audits and how they relate to tax evasion practices amongst SMEs in Malaysia.

This paper examined 397 companies which have been audited by the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRBM) during the years 2016 and 2017. A research model was developed and the authors use ordinary least square regression analysis to examine the effect of three prominent independent variables, which are company ownership structure, the size of company and the frequency of tax audits on SMEs’ tax evasion practices in Malaysia.

The authors find that family ownership firms and company size have statistically significant positive relationship with tax evasion practices detected during tax audits. The results also show that the frequency of tax audits conducted positively affect the increase of tax evasion activities amongst SMEs in Malaysia.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study could be the first in Malaysia that uses the actual audited data examining the fraudulent financial reporting cases amongst SMEs, and this could provide important insights to the IRBM to enable this tax authority to improve its policy-making decisions in relation to selecting the right companies for audits in the future and subsequently may assist its collection department in generating additional income for the nation.

This paper aims to investigate the prevalence of asset misappropriation at the workplace and examines the dominant factors that influence individuals to misappropriate assets at the workplace. Relying on the most recent theory on fraud (the stimulus/pressure, capability, opportunity, rationalization and ego (S.C.O.R.E. model) as the theoretical basis, the study examines the effect of pressure, rationalization, capability, opportunity/strength of internal control system and ego on asset misappropriation at the workplace while controlling for the effect of ethical values.

A total of 883 valid responses from individuals working in various organizations in Ghana were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire. The hypothesized relationships of the study were tested by means of a structural model analysis using the partial least square based structural equation modelling technique.

Results from the structural model analysis demonstrate that individuals misappropriate assets at their workplace due to pressures they face, their ability to rationalize their actions as not wrong, their capabilities and their egos. The results, however, indicate that the extent to which an individual will misappropriate asset depends, to a large extent, on the person’s perception of the strength of internal control mechanisms at the workplace. The findings of the study make significant contributions to the fraud discourse.

Theoretically, the study is among the first to provide empirical support for the applicability of the S.C.O.R.E. model in the fraud literature. Again, this study extends knowledge on occupational fraud literature by examining an area that has received the least research attention: asset misappropriation. The study also highlights the important role of internal controls in reducing the occurrence of asset misappropriation at the workplace.

First-party fraud in which retail consumers commit fraud against retailers is a growing problem. However, to date studies on retail crime have focused almost entirely on fraudulent consumer behaviours in physical stores. With the growth of e-commerce, the losses to retailers from this fraud are growing so there is strong need to research this problem from multiple perspectives. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The authors conducted three case studies and a total of 24 semi-structured interviews with retail managers, and evaluated their existing prevention-related documentation. Fraud management lifecycle theory was used to organise and discuss the findings.

The authors found that many retailers are treating this problem as just a cost of doing business online and have no detailed plans for dealing with this problem or any reporting to law enforcement agencies. However, they have begun working with delivery companies for delivery accuracy. Use of convenience stores as collection points is also showing early improvements.

The small number of cases and interviews used is a limitation of this study. However, the authors believe that the findings are useful for advancing knowledge in this emerging research area.

This study provides insight into existing management practices in this domain, and makes recommendations on how to improve the management of first-party fraud. The study also makes a case for increased managerial interest and involvement in reducing first-party fraud. The study also helps bridge a glaring gap in existing literature and provides useful leads for further research.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the existing practices employed to manage first-party fraud in e-retail.

This paper aims to investigate the use of the bias ratio as a possible early indicator of financial fraud – specifically in the reporting of hedge fund returns. In the wake of the 2008-2009 financial crisis, numerous hedge funds were liquidated and several cases of financial fraud exposed.

Risk-adjusted return metrics such as the Sharpe ratio and Value at Risk were used to raise suspicion for fraud. These metrics, however, assume distributional normality and thus have had limited success with hedge fund returns (a characteristic of which is highly skewed, non-normal return distributions).

Results indicate that potential fraud would have been detected in the early stages of the scheme’s life. Having demonstrated the credibility of the bias ratio, it was then applied to several indices and (anonymous) South African hedge funds. The results were used to demonstrate the ratio’s scope and robustness and draw attention to other metrics which could be used in conjunction with it. Results from these multiple sources could be used to justify further investigation.

The traditional metrics for performance evaluation (such as the Sharpe ratio), assume distributional normality and thus have had limited success with hedge fund returns (a characteristic of which is highly skewed, non-normal return distributions). The bias ratio, which does not rely on normally distributed returns, was applied to a known fraud case (Madoff’s Ponzi scheme).

The effectiveness of the bias ratio in demonstrating potential suspicious financial activity has been demonstrated.

The financial market has come under heightened scrutiny in the past decade (2005 – 2015) as a result of the fragile and uncertain economic milieu that still (2015) persists. Numerous risk and return measures have been used to evaluate hedge funds’ risk-adjusted performance, but many fail to account for non-normal return distributions exhibited by hedge funds. The bias ratio, however, has been demonstrated to effectively flag potentially fraudulent funds.

Fraud is a global economic menace which threatens the survival of individuals, firms, industries and economies, and the mobile money service is no exception. This paper aims to explore the main causes of fraud in the mobile money services in Ghana and the measures to combat the menace by the key stakeholders connected to the mobile money services. The paper is motivated by recent reports of numerous fraudulent transactions on the mobile money platform, and the need to clamp down these nefarious transactions with effective and practical measures to sustain the service.

A thorough review of existing studies on fraud risk relating to mobile money services was done revealing a paucity of literature on the subject. Primary data were gathered using an interview guide to explore the magnitude of the problem based on the views of employees of mobile money operators, mobile money agents, banking supervisors from Bank of Ghana, employees of partnering banks, employees of National Communications Authority and mobile money subscribers.

The study revealed that fraud in mobile money services is caused by weak internal controls and systems, lack of sophisticated information technology tools to detect the menace, inadequate education and training and the poor remuneration of employees. These factors disrupt the growth, and the smooth-running of the services. To curb this menace, a detailed legal code and internal fraud policy should be developed and used by mobile money operators and partner banks. Adequate training for mobile money agents should be encouraged coupled with public awareness campaigns to educate stakeholders especially the mobile money subscribers on the tricks of the fraudsters.

With the chosen research methodology and limited sample size, the findings may not reflect the views of all the stakeholders connected to the mobile money services. Therefore, future studies on this subject are entreated to use research methods which embrace larger samples to get more details about this menace.

The study will assist in tackling the mobile money fraud to sustain the service in the foreseeable future.

This paper contributes to scanty literature on fraud relating to the mobile money services by drawing lessons from a middle-income country.

The emergence of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has threatened physical and mental health, and changed the behaviour and decision-making processes of individuals, organisations, and institutions worldwide. As many services move online due to the pandemic, COVID-19-themed cyber fraud is also growing. This article explores cyber fraud victimization and cyber security threats during COVID-19 using psychological and traditional criminological theories. It also provides a COVID-19-themed cyber fraud typology using empirical evidence from institutional and agency reports. Through organizing COVID-19-themed cyber fraud into four different categorizations, we aim to offer classification insights to researchers and industry professionals so that stakeholders can effectively manage emerging cyber fraud risks in our current pandemic.

The approach the study take for this conceptual paper is typology.