certified fraud examiner?

[wickedness1]

I'm also a certified fraud examiner, and anticipate that I will eventually be doing some fraud-related litigation support, too.

I didn't want to hyjack the other thread, so I started this one

How does someone become a certified fraud examiner?

That sounds like a field I would love.

 

[Michigander]

I didn't want to hyjack the other thread, so I started this one

How does someone become a certified fraud examiner?

That sounds like a field I would love.

Association of Certified Fraud Examiners is mainly related to the accounting professions, but if you have actually worked as a fraud examiner or auditor for at least two years you are eligible to take the test. It is expensive and so far the courses have not had much to do with mortgage fraud (little late getting on that bandwagon I think). You can access the site at http://www.acfe.com/

 

[Lee Lansford]

Association of Certified Fraud Examiners

Does anyone have familiarity, and can provide comment, regarding the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners?

In general, does attaining their certification hold any significance?

 

[Michigander]

Vernon has it, so do some others. I belong to the organization and hope to sit for the exam eventually (it costs loads). It does hold weight with some people and organizations, not others. I was working on a degree in white collar crime investigation and decided this route might be better simply because the degree program had, at that point, absolutely nothing to do with mortgage fraud (my interest for at least several years now) and the ACFE sounded like a good alternative. Unfortunately they haven't been very robust in their education on this end either, maybe because the crime has only just started receiving much press (although it has been around for a long time).

 

[Lee Lansford]

Serena, I did visit the website of the ACFE and learned a few things regarding the areas of concentration specific to the exam for certification. Can you share what you are aware of regarding the areas of concentration regarding the exam?
That is, I noticed that one area has to do with familiarity of accounting principles; though I am not an accountant, I do have familiarity with VERY BASIC accounting principles but remain uncertain as to what level of proficiency is necessary to be successful with the exam. You get the idea.
Also, are there specific courses (other than the prep course) that are necessary in order to complete the exam?

I am aware that there is a prep course offered specific to the exam and it is offered at three universities (fyi: I am in the Chicagoland area and Northwestern U. is one of the three).

Thank you!

Lee

 

[Vernon Martin]

ACFE--Assn of Certified Fraud Examiners

So far, the ACFE has been concerned mainly with accounting fraud, and many of its members are CPAs. Their education program distinctly lacked a mortgage fraud component at first, but members started asking for it. So, last month, they had a two-day mortgage fraud seminar in Las Vegas, which I attended. It was taught mainly by Freddie Mac's director of investigations, and it was very well put together, even better than the MBA seminars taught by Constance Wilson, CFE, of InterThinx.

The demand for CFEs comes mainly from forensic accounting firms and the Big Three public accounting firms (Deloitte, Price Waterhouse, Ernst & Young). I get the impression, though, that there are more CFEs than jobs for CFEs at the moment, but that demand is increasing.

My CFE training has had very little do with my appraisal practice. I pursued this credential chiefly because, in this day and age of "credentialism", it is becoming an increasingly requested credential in the anti-fraud field, which I worked in for a year at First American. Just as some appraisal clients request an MAI because they have no other way to judge an appraiser, there are those out there who may increasingly be requesting a CFE because they don't know of any other way to judge a mortgage fraud expert.

At the moment, I don't see a CFE designation as something particularly useful to an appraiser. I hold on to it because I think there will be a lot of fraud-related litigation in the future in our industry, but any opportunities will probably be several years into the future.

VM

 

[Vernon Martin]

The four components of fraud education

Serena, I did visit the website of the ACFE and learned a few things regarding the areas of concentration specific to the exam for certification. Can you share what you are aware of regarding the areas of concentration regarding the exam?
That is, I noticed that one area has to do with familiarity of accounting principles;

There are four components to master in pursuing the CFE designation:

Accounting, Law (as it relates to fraud), Criminology, and Investigation

VM

 

[Michigander]

Glad to hear the conference in Vegas was good. I had attended the online/phone conference they held earlier last year and that one was unfortunately not as good as it could have been.

I would imagine that the ACFE is well positioned to take a leadership role in the future shaping of investigative work, and I really hope they start to have more of a presence in the mortgage field since there are so many problems there. Much of what they teach is simply not geared towards appraising, even review appraising, and they need to get some people who work in the trenches on this side on board.

I know other appraisers who have this designation who work in the field, one says it is valuable, another says it doesn't even go on their CV. It would depend on what you are doing in the profession most likely.

 

[Vernon Martin]

ACFE, by the way, is taking course proposals from experts in the fraud field. That's how the Mortgage Fraud seminar got started.