If you want to learn more about the “art” of interviewing fraud suspects, here is an interview that I gave on the subject. Let me know what you think…

CPE Link Blog

An interview with Paul McCormack, fraud investigator and educator…

How many fraud suspects have you interviewed in the course of your career as a certified fraud examiner?

After the first hundred, I actually stopped counting, but I’ve easily interviewed more than 500 people while investigating employee and third party fraud.

How is interviewing a fraud suspect different from the interrogations we see dramatized on TV?

The goals are very different. On TV, the actor-detective wants to force a confession. It makes for entertaining television. The goal of the interview in a private company is to encourage the employee to share information. Threatening him or her, with termination or legal action, isn’t appropriate or effective. In fact, there are legal risks to it. Tactics that may be appropriate for law enforcement can get you in trouble if you employ them as an interviewer in a corporation.

What qualities make a…

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Sorry valued customer, an employee just stole your identity

Source: Mel B

As a freelance writer, I often write for companies around the globe.Here is an article that I wrote for Memento – a leader in enterprise fraud management.

The post discusses the theft of nearly 3,000 customer identities by a bank manager with a very troubled past.

Click here to read the post.

Please feel free to leave comments here, or on Memento’s blog letting me know what you think.

If you would need an article, newsletter, blog post or whitepaper, please contact me at paul@mccormackwrites.com.

P.S. I ghostwrite too!

Help wanted – willingness to share trade secrets a must

How much do you know about FOAMGLAS? Not much?

Thought so…

If you worked at Pittsburgh Corning’s facility in Sedalia, Missouri, you probably know a lot about FOAMGLAS. Up until recently, Ji Li Huang, and Xiao Guang Qi would have loved to chat with you. In fact, if during that “chat” you agreed to share what you knew about FOAMGLAS, in return you might have ended up $100,000 richer. That’s what the US government alleges at least.

Apparently, Pittsburgh Corning recently made major advances in the formulation and manufacturing process associated with FOAMGLAS. Just so you know, FOAMGLAS is used in liquid natural gas (LNG) tanks.

Which country has the greatest demand for FOAMGLAS? China – it has 10,000 LNG plants.

I’ve discussed the theft of trade secrets numerous times on this blog. What makes this case unique is the fact that Huang and Qi allegedly placed an advertisement in a local newspaper that solicited “technical talent” with experience at the Pittsburgh Corning plant. The advertisement indicated that there was a project lead vacancy associated with the building of a foam glass factory in the Asian market. What they really wanted was information, presumably to launch a competing product. That’s speculation on my part… Coincidentally, Pittsburgh Corning just announced plans to open a facility in China.

Thankfully, the FBI stepped in using an undercover employee from the company. The plan that the undercover employee shared with Huang and Qi involved the employee breaking into the engineering department and stealing equipment related drawings. The FBI helped coordinate the exchange of the documents and the corresponding payment. Huang and Qi are now in custody awaiting court hearings.

Should the allegations noted above result in convictions, it will represent another example of a U.S. based company creating intellectual property that attracts unwanted attention from foreign competitors. From what I can tell so far, Pittsburgh Corning did everything right. How many companies are not so well prepared?

Need a writer that understands fraud? When you hire me to write an article, blog post, newsletter or white paper you get an accomplished writer that is also an expert in fraud.

paul@mccormackwrites.com