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Larry C. Adams, CPA
Phoenix, Arizona USA
Certified Public Accountant
Certified Fraud Examiner
E-mail
fraudwritr@aol.com
Telephone (602) 995-8008
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July 2004 Topics
Benefit Tourism, Health Tourism,
Chief Privacy Officer, Chrematophobia, Financial Action Task Force, and
Glyph
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Is
someone new in your organization responsible for protecting employee and
customer information?
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Fraud In Other Words: Professional Jargon and Uncensored Street Slang
By Larry C. Adams, CFE, CPA, CIA, CISA
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Benefit Tourism (Health
Tourism)
A scheme in which individuals
travel to the United Kingdom from other countries, usually from those in the 25
member-state European Union (EU), to take advantage of the British welfare
system.
Soon
after they arrive, they apply for a Job-seeker’s Allowance (unemployment
benefit) or other social security benefits. Other scheming visitors seek
medical attention that is free or cheaper in the U.K. and provided with
greater privacy. This is a thriving business, and some hospitals have
hotels and restaurants on site. Britain introduced the “Habitual Residence
Rule” in 1996 to establish minimum requirements for eligibility for
benefits. The rule withstood test cases before the European Court of
Justice in 2004 concerning discrimination on grounds of nationality and
the rights of EU citizens. A new national identity card is being tested
with 10,000
volunteers in 2004 and features biometric data, fingerprints and iris
scans. The identity card will be introduced nationwide in 2007 to help
protect Britain from terrorism, identity fraud, and “benefit tourism.”
“EU
Court Rejects “Benefit Tourism”Appeal,” EU Business,
www.eubusiness.com/afp/
040323124034.d1icyhau, March 23, 2004
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Chief Privacy Officer (CPO)
A corporate executive in charge of maintaining the privacy and
confidentiality of company, employee, and customer data.
There
are 300 Chief Privacy Officers in the United States. Half of those CPOs
are part of the legal departments. Others are part of the marketing or
information systems security departments. The formal title is
relatively new – American Express first appointed a CPO in 2004 and IBM in
2000. A 1998 U.S. Presidential Directive called on all federal agencies to
designate a Chief Privacy Officer. Financial services, insurance, and
healthcare companies were among the first to establish the position. The
European Union, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, and the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA) mandated
privacy positions. Other privacy issues that require increased supervision
are “Do Not Call” registries, online marketing that could be considered
spam, computer network hacking, identity theft, Web site privacy
disclosures, and Internet fraud. The International Association of Privacy
Professionals (IAPP) developed the Certified Privacy Professional (CPP)
program.
Edward Hurley, “CPO: An Enterprise Point-Person for
Privacy,” SecuritySearch.com,
searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/
0,289142,sid14_gci876634,00.html, January 27, 2003.
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Chrematophobia (Chrometophobia)
A psychological term for an abnormal and persistent fear of
money. A fear or dislike of wealth. A fear of touching money. This may
sound like the rarest complaint known to man. Some people fear money
because it is contaminated with cocaine, dirt, germs, or terrorist toxins.
Tibet’s first paper currency was hand printed on rice paper using ink
extracted from leaves and yak dung. Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), the steel
industrialist and philanthropist, developed chrematophobia toward the end
of his life. Offended by the sight and smell of money, he refused to carry
any cash. Some who have this condition fear that ill-gotten money
may be cursed.
Chrematophobia
can cause panic attacks and keep people apart from loved ones and business
associates. Hypnosis and phobia clinics, legitimate or not, are available
on the Internet to help patients overcome their fears and take their
money.
“Trivial Money Matters,” FW The Art of Living,
www.myfw.com/money/Article_100014.asp, April 29, 2004.
Cartoon: Dr. Hemant Morparia, MD, Bombay Times,
http://www.thebestmedicalcare.com/
humour/archive1.htm
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Financial Action Task Force
(FATF, Groupe d’Action Financičre,
GAFI)
The Financial Action Task Force
was established in Paris in 1989 by the G-7 Summit, the Group of Seven
industrialized, market-economy democracies. The FATF is an
inter-governmental body that develops and promotes policies to combat
money laundering and terrorist financing at national and international
levels.
It
has 33 countries as members plus 23 organizations as observers. The task
force issued a set of “Forty Recommendations” to reflect changes that have
occurred in money laundering in 2003. Their Web site lists
“Non-Cooperative Countries and Territories (NCCTs)” with weak anti-money
laundering and regulatory controls, including the Cook Islands, Guatemala,
Indonesia, Myanmar (Burma), Nauru, Nigeria, and the Philippines. After the
tragic events of 9/11/2001, the Financial Action Task Force issued “Eight
Special Recommendations” to deny access for terrorists and their
supporters to the international financial system.
“More about the FATF and Its Work,”
www1.oecd.org/fatf/AboutFATF_en.htm, January 4, 2004.
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Glyph (DataGlyph)
A technology developed by Xerox for encoding machine-readable data
onto paper documents or other physical media. Each element or glyph is a
slanted 45-degree line,
as
short as 1/100th of an inch. Each glyph represents a single
binary 0 or 1, depending on whether it slopes to the left or to the right.
A standard scanner can read the encoded data and translate it into the
original text format. Then, it can be photocopied or uploaded to a
computer. Glyph
technology allows ordinary business
documents to carry thousands of
characters of information hidden as evenly textured gray patterns,
backgrounds, shading, or conventional
graphics. A glyph can be a form of
steganography as well as a data storage
method. Often its presence goes completely unnoticed. It could be used
to mark intellectual property, auto parts,or to encrypt demographic and recipient
data on direct mail pieces and coupons. Glyphs can be varied in size and
placed anywhere on a page, label, or business card. Glyph codes can be
read even if the paper has been crumpled, torn, photocopied, faxed,
stapled, or scribbled on.
Jordan Gruber, “Smart Paper,” Wired Magazine, December
1994, www.wired.com/wired/archive/
2.12/eword.html?pg=6.
Eye photos: Parc Research, www.parc.com/research/
asd/projects/dataglyphs/
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Larry C. Adams, CFE,
CPA, CIA, CISA, is a
consultant, author and e-mentor in Phoenix, Arizona. He founded the
Association’s Arizona Chapter and earned the Distinguished Achievement
Award. His Web site is www.larry-adams.com. His e-mail address is
fraudwritr@aol.com.
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ă
Copyright 2004 Larry C. Adams.
All rights reserved.
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This article is in the
July/August 2004 issue of
FRAUD Magazine, the Journal of the Association of
Certified Fraud Examiners.
(Glyph postponed for a future issue.)
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