Course Duration: 21 minutes
Course Points: 20
Fridays with Fintelekt today features J Michael Skiba, international financial crime expert, with host Shirish Pathak, Managing Director, Fintelekt Advisory Services in a conversation around fraud. Michael, popularly known as Dr. Fraud, has had several years of experience helping individuals and corporations become safer against frauds, scams and schemes.
Michael’s experience shows that in the financial services sector, fraud is more a matter of opportunities, as 96% of people committing fraud have no criminal history. He says that the Covid-19 pandemic has changed many aspects of the ecosystem due to the transition to work from home, creating gaps in data security and increased stress on companies. This has also reduced the personal thresholds at which people respond to an opportunity to commit fraud.
With increasing automation and the use of technology, his concern is that the human element in fraud management is getting lost. Corporations need to continuously train people and build expertise in running automated platforms. He recommends the creation of a task force with people across various departments to share insights and create a sense of synergy and cooperation in fighting fraud.
To develop a strong deterrent against fraud, Michael feels that it is not just the creation of laws, but the support and proper enforcement of the laws that is critical. The lack of information sharing is another challenging aspect of fraud detection that needs to be addressed.
Listen to the entire episode for more insights on organisational culture, criminal behaviour and rationalisation of fraud from his book “The Psychology of Fraud”.