A client heard through its hot line that John, the purchases journal clerk, periodically enters fictitious acquisitions. After John creates a fictitious purchase, he notifies Alice, the accounts payable ledger clerk, so she can enter them in her ledger. When the payables are processed, the payment is mailed to the nonexistent supplier’s address, a post office box rented by John. John deposits the check in an account he opened in the non-existent supplier’s name.

Required
a. Define fraud, fraud deterrence, fraud detection, and fraud investigation.
b. List four personal (as opposed to organizational) fraud symptoms, or red flags, that indicate the possibility of fraud. Do not confine your answer to this example.
c. List two procedures you could follow to uncover John’s fraudulent behavior.