Each of the following situations describes an instance of fraud:

1. A bartender sells drinks to customers and, when they pay cash, he does not record the sale at the cash register and keeps the cash.

2. A bartender knows that there is a special on vodka tonight so he brings his own bottle of vodka to the bar. When a customer orders vodka and pays cash, the bartender pours the vodka from his own bottle, does not record the sale at the cash register, and keeps the cash.

3. The receptionist at a spa enters all appointments into a computerized schedule. After their appointment, the client pays the receptionist for the service received. For about half of the customers who pay with cash, the receptionist keeps the amount and deletes any record of the appointment from the schedule. The receptionist makes the bank deposits and records all sales in the accounting system.

4. The receptionist at a law firm has a key to a cabinet where company cheques are stored. She takes a cheque from the cabinet, makes it payable to herself, and forges the signature of the firm's managing partner on the cheque. She opens the mail every day and when the bank statement is received, she performs the bank reconciliation. She covers the theft by understating the amount of outstanding cheques on the bank reconciliation.

Instructions

(a) Is it possible to detect these types of fraud? Why or why not?

(b) Identify a control activity or activities that could help prevent each instance of fraud described above.