NCJ Number
186575
Date Published
January 2001
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This paper discusses types of fraud within financial services and existing and potential fraud controls by financial institutions, with a focus on what is being done in Australia.
Abstract
One type of fraud within financial services is transaction fraud. This can involve the use of valueless, stolen, forged, altered, or counterfeit checks; the fraudulent use of credit and debit cards; and the use of fax machines by clients to transmit instructions to financial institutions. Stolen and false identity is another means of committing fraud in transactions with financial institutions. Through the theft of documents, it is possible for one person to assume the identity of another, and when reasonable similarity is present, it is not difficult to conduct business dealings in the other person's name. In an effort to counter fraud, financial institutions have instituted controls. These fraud control functions are in three categories: prevention and detection, investigations, and the embedding of all learning into new products and services. A discussion of industry interaction to combat fraud focuses on what is being done among Australian financial institutions, with attention to the need to create a national fraud database into which financial institutions can input existing fraud data and against which new data can be tested to identify fraud attempts. The paper concludes with a description of fraud countermeasures in Australia that involve cooperation between financial institutions, law enforcement agencies, and government.