Disrupting the Mind of the Fraudster: A Management’s Perspective

Abstract

Corporate fraud is a growing phenomenon that impacts organizations internationally. A crucial point is that corporate fraud is carried out by the typical white collar criminal, who is educated, has status and has a lot to lose if discovered. The popularly used Fraud Triangle proposes that three elements are normally evident when fraud happens; the pressure or motive, the rationalization and the opportunity. Whilst this has mainly been used to assess the thoughts of a potential fraudster, this research uses it as an element to discover if it could be used to disrupt fraud instead. This quantitative research distributed questionnaires to managers, auditors and human resource personnel to understand the psychology of the potential fraudster and to assess the various ways to disrupt fraud. A key element that stood out was the differences in opinion between the age groups. The more senior respondents were receptive towards the personalized disruption techniques proposed such as financial assistances, penalties, improvements in culture and having more realistic forecasts. However, this was not considered positively by the respondents below the ages of 35. This implies that a different perspective should be considered depending on the age group.

Keywords: Fraud Disruption, Fraud Triangle, Psychology.