• Forensic Accounting: A New Twist on Bean Counting

    Written by Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, CFF Wisconsin Law Journal Reprinted in the Kansas City Daily Record Traditional accountants and auditors have long been referred to as “bean counters.” Some may take offense at the phrase, but if they’re being […]

  • Fraud alerts and identity theft

    Those who have been the victims of identity theft have the option of putting a fraud alert on their credit reports from the 3 credit bureaus. Is it worth the hassle? In all honesty, a fraud alert on a credit […]

  • Click Fraud

    Entrepreneur Magazine‘s December issue includes a short article about click fraud. What is click fraud, you say? Companies can advertise their wares via pay-per-click advertisements. These are usually very short, with a few key words and a link to the […]

  • Match.com and Yahoo Personals Sued For Fraud

    A federal lawsuit against match.com accuses the company of luring customers into subscription renewals via emails from fake suitors. It is alleged that employees of match.com sent emails to members and went on sham dates in order to get subscribers […]

  • Milwaukee Fraud: Bielinski Brothers Part Two

  • Milwaukee Fraud: Bielinski Brothers Builders Inc.

    Those familiar with internal fraud (i.e. committed by your own employees) know it is expensive, particularly when it involves executives. The executives have more access to information and assets, and that leads to bigger frauds. Bielinski Brothers, a large builder […]

  • E-commerce fraud is going up.

    A survey released by Cybersource, a provider of electronic payment services, says that merchants will lose $2.8 billion to online fraud this year. Yikes!!! The threat is growing, but apparently companies aren’t doing much more in the way of personnel. […]

  • Saving Money With Proactive Fraud Prevention

    Written by Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, CFF Family Ties – Newsletter of UW-Madison Family Business Center Cost-saving measures are often attractive to businesses. If a company with annual revenue of $10 million could eliminate a $600,000 expense, would management be […]

  • Prevention & Detection: Fraud

    Yesterday I had an opportunity to emcee an event focused on the prevention and detection of corporate fraud. The event was sponsored by Jefferson Wells International, The Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee, BDO Seidman, and Foley & Lardner. Our fraud […]

  • Fraud Hotlines

    According to the 2004 Report to the Nation, a study done by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, anonymous reporting mechanisms (read: hotlines) are highly effective tools to detect fraud. Internal frauds are most often detected through tips from employees, […]