A New Tactic: Tell Fraud Stories in All Business Courses

In previous columns, we’ve highlighted college courses or programs that concentrated on fraud. However, in this column, guest author, and ACFE Higher Education Committee member, Mark Morgan, CFE, CPA, explores the advantages of expanding anti-fraud education not so much through courses and programs centered on fraud but through what Morgan calls “anti-fraud storytelling” in all business courses. Morgan is a former senior criminal investigator for the Mississippi State Tax Commission, and is now an instructor of accounting at Mississippi College in Clinton, Miss.

Instructors teaching anti-fraud courses have reported that these classes are extremely popular with students (Carnes & Gierlasinski, 2001). Former ACFE Higher Education Committee Chair Mary-Jo Kranacher, MBA, CFE, CPA, has stated that “students who have been exposed to the principles of fraud examination have overwhelmingly described their experience as exciting, fun and interesting” (FraudEDge, March/April 2007). Indeed, any time students are exposed to a story involving fraud, it tends to perk up their interest. Why is that?

The answer might lie in that fraud stories are about human nature and human behavior. And to most students, human nature and human behavior are far more interesting subjects than the banal matter of dollars and cents.