Trish McGrew
BSFR341-E2WW
Fraud Examination
Beth Hewitt, Instructor
September 1, 2009
A Silent Crime
In this case, the silent crime was credit card refund scheme. Russ Rooker had detected a large loss at the Greene’s store and investigated to find out why. The store records showed that the store’s shoe department was losing money because it had an exceedingly high rate of return. (Wells, 2008 p.200). The expected loss at the store was well over $150,000.
During Rooker five year tenure, he should have detected the credit card refund scheme earlier. All the signs were there. The first sign that something was going on was the fact that there were so many refunds. When a refund was given to a customer the merchandise then returns to inventory. If a business had performed inventory checks periodically,they would have seen that the merchandise was not in stock. The next clue to indicate something fishy was the employee that was only working fifteen hours a week. This employee was dressed very nice, ate at expensive restaurants, and had other expensive items. An employee who only works fifteen hours a week cannot afford that kind of lifestyle. That is unless this person has a sidejob. In addition, the fact that most of the refunds occurred almost the same time every month should have been an indication of something. Customers asking for only Joe Anderson at the same time every month should have been another tip off. Most people do not buy shoes every month let alone the same people.
If Rooker knew that Joe Anderson had a reputation for being the man to see if someone needed cash, then one would think that Rooker would be able to see a pattern in Joe’s behavior. Russ Rooker could have prevented this criminal act by installing surveillance cameras earlier. Another tactic Rooker could have used to detour employees from wanting to commit fraud was to establish policies concerning refunds. If a customer needed a refund, the employee should confirm the...