ACFE CFE-Investigation - Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) - Investigation

Best practices for admission-seeking interviews emphasize building rapport, presenting a morally acceptable reason, and maintaining empathy to encourage a confession. The manual states examiners should “present a morally acceptable reason for the suspect’s behavior” and avoid creating hostility . Minimizing empathy is counterproductive andnot recommended.

Websites ending in “.onion” are only accessible via specialized browsers (e.g., Tor). The Fraud Examiner prep materials note:

“.onion sites are part of the dark web, which is distinct from the surface web and deep web. Accessing requires specialized browsers” (CFE Prep – Investigations).Thus, Jade must use a dark web browser.

Pretexting is defined asimpersonating someone else or making false/misleading statements to obtain information. Many jurisdictions specifically prohibitpretexting against financial institutions, which includes pretending to be a customer to access their bank account information.

Observing signs of wealth (sports car, home remodeling) may raise suspicion, but by itself it doesnot provide sufficient predicationto accuse or notify management of fraud. The proper next step is to conduct discreet inquiries to determine if further evidence exists before escalating.

From the2014 International Fraud Examiners Manual, under the section related to tracing financial transactions, specifically tracing the disposition of loan proceeds, the following objectives of tracing activities are explicitly outlined:

“Tracing the disposition of loan proceeds can help fraud examiners:

Determine whether loan proceeds were deposited into hidden or unknown accounts

Determine whether loan proceeds were used to pay off other loans

Identify the involvement of previously unknown individuals (potential witnesses)

Determine whether payments were made from hidden accounts

Identify undisclosed related-party transactions”

There isno mentionthat tracing loan proceeds can uncoverprevious civil offensescommitted by the subject. Civil offenses refer to non-criminal violations (e.g., breach of contract, torts), which tracing offinancial transactions like loan proceedsis not directly designed to uncover.

This isnot a recognized purposeof tracing as taught in the CFE Investigation section. The core objectives revolve around uncovering hidden assets, hidden accounts, payments, and potential witnesses —not prior legal infractions.

Therefore, thecorrect answer is A, as it is the only option that isNOT trueaccording to official CFE investigation materials.

Benford’s Law applies to naturally occurring sets of numbers such asinvoice amounts, expense reports, and transaction data. The Fraud Examiners Manual shows Benford’s Law tests applied to vendor payments to detect anomalies like duplicate or inflated invoices. Telephone numbers, employee IDs, and bank account numbers areassigned numbersand do not follow Benford’s distribution, so they are unsuitable for this test.

“Once a denial is uttered, it becomes extremely difficult for the accused to change his response, because doing so would be an admission that he lied. Therefore, the interviewer must prevent an outright denial, thereby making it easier for the subject to confess”.

“One of the most effective techniques to stop or interrupt a denial is through a delaying tactic… the interviewer should attempt to delay the outright denial; he should not argue with the accused”.

Thus, Charles should interrupt with a delaying tactic.

TheCFE Prep – Investigationsstates:

“If a fraud examiner gets a verbal confession from the fraudster, it does not matter whether the fraudster claims his conduct was an accident. The following items of information should be obtained … admission that the accused knew the conduct was wrong, facts known only to the confessor, the accused’s motive, approximate dates, involvement of others, physical evidence, and disposition of illicit income.”

Thus, the examiner doesnotneed a statement about accident.

“Introductory questions should be designed to establish rapport… Interviewers usually establish rapport by spending a few minutes with the respondent in an informal dialogue”.

Jason’s small talk about sports and compliments is clearly rapport building

Court records are frequently used in fraud investigations. Both the Prep Guide and the Manual agree thatthe court clerk’s office (court authorities) is the original and most reliable sourceof certified and accurate records.

Although commercial services and online databases exist, the manuals emphasize that reliability and certification are best ensured by going directly to the court where the case was filed.

Thus, the statement isTrue.