Every fraud investigation is unique.
Depending on certain circumstances, it can go a drastically different way from
another investigation or mimic it closely. New avenues may open up as fresh
data comes to light, or some steps may be skipped for lack of data. The point
is, you can never exactly predict where an investigation will go next.
That said, you can expect most of
the conventional investigations to more or less follow a basic process.
Understanding this process might help you better follow your own fraud
investigation if you have just launched one with the authorities.
- How the Fraud Investigation Starts
Every fraud investigation begins
with a report or complaint. Someone, usually the victim, brings the fraud
report or story to the authorities. The authorities proceed to collect the
details as supplied by the victim. These usually include:
●
The alleged fraud that has been perpetrated
●
Evidence proving that fraud has been carried out
●
Evidence that may lead to the criminal’s
identity
From there, the authorities may
assess the situation to see if the data is sufficiently credible to launch a fraud investigation.They shall identify the type of fraud that has been
perpetrated, consider the story and evidence (possibly even re-interview the
victim), and determine whether the case is better turned over to another
investigative body.
- Formulating a Plan
Once the basic points have been
hashed out, the fraud investigation leader starts to make a plan. A timeline is
compiled and documents that are relevant to it are attached. An investigative
team is formed, who essentially put together a checklist of actions planned.
Again, the specifics of the
checklist are dependent on the circumstances of your case. For example, your
investigation may be one for a fraud that has been perpetrated online. In that
case, something like IP address tracing would usually be at the top of the
fraud investigator’s list.
- Acting on the Plan
Execution often proceeds in multiple
stages. Take the example of the possible investigative activity of IP tracing,
for example. If the investigative team deems this action necessary, it cannot
simply trace it. It may have to acquire a court order or warrant in order to
get it first. If there are other forms of search or seizure involved, similar
warrants may be necessary, which means the team has to clear all of these first
before moving on to the actual investigation.
These processes are necessary
because they ensure that the investigation manages to turn up actual valid
evidence. A lot of rules exist that can invalidate otherwise good evidence, if
it is collected in a way that is not in keeping with legal procedure.
As the plan is executed, the team
may go through any of the above steps again, depending on what they find. The
mark of a truly good plan, is flexibility—and given the difficulties involved,
when a plan is for investigating fraud, flexibility is definitely necessary. As
such, your fraud investigation may change or repeat steps, as time goes on.
