Chapter 2
Skimming
1
Chapter Objectives
• Define skimming.
• List and understand the two principal categories of skimming
schemes.
• Understand how sales skimming is committed and concealed.
• Understand schemes involving understated sales.
• Understand how cash register manipulations are used to skim
currency.
• Be familiar with how sales are skimmed during non-business
hours.
• Understand the techniques discussed for preventing and
detecting sales skimming.
2
Chapter Objectives
• List and be able to explain the six methods typically used by
fraudsters to conceal receivables skimming.
• Understand what “lapping” is and how it is used to hide
skimming schemes.
• Be familiar with how fraudsters use fraudulent write-offs or
discounts to conceal skimming.
• Understand the techniques discussed for preventing and
detecting receivables skimming.
• Be familiar with proactive audit tests that can be used to
detect skimming.
3
Skimming Schemes
Skimming
Refunds &
Sales Receivables
Other
Write-off
Unrecorded
Schemes
Lapping
Understated
Schemes
Unconcealed
4
Skimming
• Theft of cash from a victim entity prior to
its entry in an accounting system
– “Off-book”
• No direct audit trail
• Its principal advantage is its difficulty of
detection.
5
Asset Misappropriations
2011 Global Fraud Survey
% of Asset
Scheme Type Misappropriation Median Loss
Cases
Cash Misappropriations 82.1% $100,000
Non-Cash Misappropriations 19.9% $58,000
6
Frequency of Cash Misappropriations
Fraudulent Disbursements 65.2%
Skimming 20.5%
Cash Larceny 15.4%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
Percent of Cash Schemes
7
Median Loss of Cash
Misappropriations
Fraudulent Disbursements $100,000
Skimming $58,000
Cash Larceny $54,000
$0 $20,000 $40,000 $60,000 $80,000 $100,000
Median Loss
8
Sales Skimming
• Employee makes a sale of goods or
services, collects the payment, and makes
no record of the transaction.
• Employee pockets the proceeds of the sale.
• Without a record of the sale, there is no
audit trail.
9
Sales Skimming
• Cash register manipulation
– “No sale” or other non-cash transaction is recorded.
– Cash registers are rigged so that sales are not recorded on the
register tapes.
– No receipt is issued.
• After hours sales
– Sales are conducted during non-business hours without the
knowledge of the owners.
• Skimming by off-site employees
– Independent salespeople
– Employees at remote locations – branches or satellite offices away
from the primary business site
10
Sales Skimming
• Poor collection procedures
• Understated sales
– Sale is recorded for a lower amount than was collected.
– Price of sales item is reduced.
– Quantity of items sold is reduced.
• Theft in the mail room – incoming checks
– Incoming checks are stolen and cashed.
– Customer’s account is not posted.
11
Preventing and Detecting
Sales Skimming
• Maintain a viable oversight presence at any point.
• Create a perception of detection.
• Install video cameras.
• Utilize customers to detect and prevent fraud.
• All cash registers should record the log-in and log-out time
of each user.
• Off-site sales personnel should also be required to
maintain activity logs.
• Eliminate potential hiding places for stolen money.
• Incoming mail should be opened in a clear, open area free
from blind spots and with supervisory presence.
12
Receivables Skimming
• More difficult than skimming sales
– There is a record of the sale.
– Collection is expected.
• Customers are notified when payment is not received and
will most likely complain.
• Lapping
• Force balancing
• Stolen statements
• Fraudulent write-offs or discounts
• Debiting the wrong account
• Document destruction
13
Receivables Skimming
• Lapping
– Crediting one customer’s account with payment received from
another customer
– Keeping track of payments becomes complicated.
– Second set of books is sometimes kept.
• Force balancing
– Posting to the customer’s account without depositing the check
creates an imbalance condition.
– Cash account is overstated so the amount skimmed must be forced
in order to balance the account.
• Stolen statements
– Employee steals or alters the account statement or produces
counterfeit statements.
– May change the customer’s address in order to intercept the
statement
14
Receivables Skimming
• Fraudulent write-offs or discounts
– Write off the account as bad debt.
– Post entries to a contra revenue account – “discounts
and allowances.”
• Debiting the wrong account
– Debit an existing or fictitious A/R.
– Wait for the A/R to age and be written off.
• Destroying or altering records of the transaction
– Often a last ditch effort to conceal the fraud
– Makes it more difficult to prove the fraud
15
Preventing and Detecting
Receivables Skimming
• Succeed when there is a breakdown in an
organization’s controls
– Mandate vacations.
– Mandate supervisory approval.
– Train audit staff.
• Proactively search for accounting clues.
• Perform trend analysis on aging of customer
accounts.
• Conduct audit tests.
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