CFE-Financial-Transactions-and-Fraud-Schemes Exam Dumps - ACFE Certified Fraud Examiner Questions and Answers

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:Per generally accepted accounting principles, changes in accounting principles must be disclosed in the financial statements to ensure comparability and transparency. The ACFE notes that disclosures are critical to prevent misleading users of financial statements.

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

A. Subsequent events – Material subsequent events must be disclosed; this statement is false.

B. Contingent losses – Only probable and reasonably estimable losses must be disclosed. If unlikely, no disclosure is required.

C. All information – Only material information requires disclosure.

Key Concept: Disclosure requirements in financial reporting.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:Shrinkage refers to discrepancies between physical inventory counts and perpetual inventory records. Causes include theft, errors, waste, or fraud. It is one of the most common indicators of asset misappropriation.

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

A. Altered inventory – Not a recognized accounting term.

B. Account receivable – Unrelated to inventory.

D. Write-offs – A corrective accounting entry, not the variance itself.

Key Concept:Inventory shrinkage as a red flag for fraud.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer: Biometric authentication (e.g., fingerprint, facial recognition) strengthens payment security by ensuring that only the authorized user can approve transactions, reducing the risk of unauthorized access even if credentials are stolen.

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

A – Using the same credentials increases exposure to credential-stuffing attacks.

C – Disabling biometrics weakens, not strengthens, security.

D – Incorrect since B is valid.

Key Concept: Cyberfraud prevention – authentication and mobile payment controls.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:Recognized schemes for stealing inventory include:

Larceny schemes (direct theft)

Asset requisition and transfer schemes (false requisitions to divert assets)

Purchasing and receiving schemes (over-ordering or falsifying deliveries).

“Sales & Equipment handling” is not a defined fraud scheme, making D correct.

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

A. Larceny schemes – Valid theft method.

B. Asset requisition and transfer – Document manipulation method.

C. Purchasing and receiving schemes – Valid misappropriation scheme.

Key Concept:Inventory theft schemes under the Fraud Tree.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:Donald Cressey’s fraud triangle identifies three conditions that lead to occupational fraud: (1) Pressure (financial or other), (2) Opportunity (ability to commit without detection), and (3) Rationalization (justification by the perpetrator to make the act acceptable in their own mind). Thus, the third leg is Rationalization.

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

A. Violation – Not part of the fraud triangle.

B. Isolation – Not a recognized component of the model.

D. None of the above – Incorrect because rationalization is explicitly the correct answer.

Key Concept:Fraud Triangle — Opportunity, Pressure, Rationalization.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer: Blank plastic cards are a common basis for counterfeit card production. Fraudsters encode stolen magnetic stripe or chip data onto blank cards.

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

A – False; holograms are designed to be difficult to reproduce.

B – False; high-speed printers and embossers make counterfeiting easier, not harder.

D – Incorrect, since A and B are false.

Key Concept: Counterfeit card fraud methods.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer: In the detection and analysis phase of cybersecurity incident response, the focus is on identifying the scope of the incident, including all breaches, compromised systems, and the method of attack. Containment, eradication, and recovery occur in later steps. Thus, identifying all breaches is the correct activity for this step.

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

A. Limiting damage – This occurs in the containment phase.

B. Creating an incident response plan – This is part of the preparation phase.

C. Restoring control of affected systems – This occurs during eradication and recovery.

Key Concept: Incident response methodology: preparation → detection/analysis → containment → eradication → recovery.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:Fraudsters often use write-offs to remove stolen inventory or assets from the books. By recording items as obsolete, damaged, or uncollectible, they eliminate them from records, concealing theft.

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

A. Altered – Too broad, not a standard concealment term.

B. Perpetual – A system, not a concealment method.

C. False shipping slip – Used to divert assets, not write them off.

Key Concept:Write-offs as a method of concealing noncash asset theft.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:A conflict of interest occurs when an employee secretly has a personal or financial stake in a transaction, and that interest compromises their duty of loyalty to the employer. This is one of the four categories of corruption under the ACFE Fraud Tree.

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

B. Illegal sale – Not a fraud classification.

C. Unauthorized purchase – Could describe asset misuse, not corruption.

D. Financial disclosure – Relates to reporting, not the fraud itself.

Key Concept:Conflict of interest schemes as a category of corruption.

Rationale for Correct Answer:In occupational fraud, the primary culprit is generally the employee (insider) who abuses their position of trust. By definition, occupational fraud involves someone inside the organization exploiting their role.

Key Concept:Employee perpetrator as the primary fraud actor in occupational fraud schemes.