CFE-Financial-Transactions-and-Fraud-Schemes Exam Dumps - Certified Fraud Examiner - Financial Transactions and Fraud Schemes Exam

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer: Conducting vendor background checks before adding them to the master file is a strong preventive control against shell companies, conflicts of interest, and vendor collusion. It helps ensure vendor legitimacy before business begins.

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

B – Too broad; monitoring should focus on practical red flags, not “all schemes.”

C – Violates segregation of duties, increasing fraud risk.

D – Monitoring should be ongoing, not limited to once a year.

Key Concept: Procurement fraud prevention through vendor due diligence and segregation of duties.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:Insider cyberfraud thrives in environments where monitoring is weak. If access logs are not reviewed, malicious activity can go undetected, enabling fraud.

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

B. Programs run during business day – Normal IT operations, not a fraud risk.

C. Restricted access – This is a preventive control, not a facilitator.

D. Separation of duties – Strong control, prevents insider fraud.

Key Concept: Conditions facilitating insider cyberfraud.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:Technical security controls include software- and hardware-based measures such as application security, firewalls, and encryption. Application security protects against vulnerabilities in the programs employees use.

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

B. Human audits – Administrative control, not technical.

C. Penetration testing – A detective measure/test, not a control itself.

D. Data security – A broad goal, not a specific technical control.

Key Concept: Technical security controls for preventing cyberfraud.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer: Misuse of noncash assets occurs when employees use company assets for personal purposes without authorization. Even though the vehicle was returned undamaged, unauthorized use and concealment by false statements makes it a fraud scheme under asset misappropriation.

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

A – Incorrect; unauthorized use with deception constitutes fraud.

B – Expense reimbursement involves falsified claims for travel/expenses, not vehicle misuse.

D – Financial statement fraud involves misstating accounting entries, unrelated here.

Key Concept: Misuse of company assets (noncash) as part of asset misappropriation.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:A false balance occurs when incorrect totals are intentionally carried forward from the journal to the ledger or from the ledger to the financial statements. This is often used as a concealment technique in fraud to make the books appear balanced while hiding irregularities.

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

A. Forced Balance – Involves adding fictitious entries to force accounts into balance.

B. Out-of-balance – Results when entries don’t match, but not specifically from carried totals.

D. None of all – Incorrect since “false balance” is the precise term.

Key Concept:False balance entries as concealment techniques in fraudulent bookkeeping.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer: Skimming is the theft of incoming cash before it is recorded in the books. Since the payment is never recorded, no audit trail exists, making it an “off-book” scheme.

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

A – Incorrect; skimming can involve both sales and receivable payments.

C – Incorrect; skimming is off-book, not on-book.

D – Incorrect; skimming is typically harder to detect than larceny, since there is no record.

Key Concept: Skimming vs. larceny – off-book theft of cash receipts.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:This statement is True. Statistical sampling allows fraud examiners to make inferences about an entire population based on a representative sample. By calculating occurrence rates, they can estimate error rates and assess the likelihood of fraud in the larger dataset.

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

B. False – Incorrect because statistical sampling is explicitly designed to estimate population-level characteristics.

Key Concept:Sampling in fraud examination — predicting occurrence and error rates.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:A ghost employee scheme occurs when fictitious or former employees remain on payroll. Detecting duplicate addresses, Social Security/Government ID numbers, or other anomalies between HR and payroll records is a classic detection method for ghost employees.

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

A. Fraudulent commissions scheme – Relates to sales manipulation, not duplicate personnel records.

B. Falsified hours and salary scheme – Involves timekeeping, not fictitious employees.

C. Expense reimbursement scheme – Concerns fraudulent expense claims, unrelated to payroll records.

Key Concept: Payroll fraud — Ghost Employee scheme.