Identifying and responding to electronic fraud risks

Speech presented at the 30th Australasian Registrars' Conference, Canberra, November 13, 2002, by Adam Graycar and Russell Smith, Australian Institute of Criminology. This speech is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Fraud involves the use of dishonest or deceitful conduct in order to obtain some unjust advantage over someone else. Fraud currently costs the community in excess of $3.5 billion, and last year alone cost the Commonwealth Government over $150 million. Its not just big business and government - at the Australian Institute of Criminology we are ready to release data from a study of crime against small business, which shows that fraud costs small business more in dollar terms than employee theft, burglary, armed robbery, unarmed robbery, and vandalism. The prevention and control of fraud are two of the great challenges for Australia now, and in years to come. Some of the types of fraud include: commercial fraud, fraud against governments, consumer fraud, migration fraud, securities fraud, superannuation fraud, intellectual property fraud, computer and telecommunications fraud, insurance fraud, plastic card fraud, art fraud, charitable contribution fraud, identity-related fraud, advance fee fraud, health care fraud, the list goes on and on, and new opportunities for deceptive conduct arise all the time