There are a shocking amount of businesses that ultimately fail because of fraud. Many managers and business owners are unaware of their losses because they do not have the systems in place to look for fraud and it may not be their primary concern.

Today’s guest is James Ratley. Jim graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. In 1971, he joined the Dallas Police Department as a police officer. He was on numerous task forces with a concentration on major fraud cases. He joined a major forensic accounting practice and was in charge of fraud investigations.

In 1988, he was named the Program Director of The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and in 2006, became the President. In 2011, he became the CEO and he retired in 2018 after 30 years there. James has been an adjunct professor, published author, and named by Accounting Today as one of the top influencers multiple times.

• [1:14] - James shares his background and the way his career panned out over 30 years.
• [3:35] - When the ACFE was established, there was no information or education around it at all.
• [5:09] - The average organization loses 5% of their revenue to fraud. Out of every ten people hired, statistically, six of them will steal from you.
• [6:46] - Fraud can be prevented and strategies to reduce fraud are typically inexpensive.
• [8:40] - It’s important for business owners not to be afraid to call it fraud.
• [10:25] - Fraud perpetrators believe they deserve what they’ve taken.
• [13:26] - It’s important for businesses to have strong management and leadership. Training is crucial.
• [14:18] - James discusses the most common types of fraud and how even the seemingly minor things could be detrimental.
• [18:24] - Fraud perpetrators are really good at hiding what they are doing and making the business owners believe it could never be them.
• [20:15] - Another strategy is to separate tasks out and be strict about them.
• [21:37] - Surprise cash counts is another good strategy.
• [23:13] - There are no small frauds, only frauds that have not had time to reach maturity.
• [25:44] - You impact rationalization through education.
• [29:16] - James lists some of the red flags that could indicate something more going on.
• [31:31] - There should be policies and regulations that purchasing officers are held to.
• [36:30] - Auditors must be completely independent.
• [40:10] - Some business owners will deny the problem is happening because it is hard to deal with and accept that someone they trust could be stealing.
• [44:35] - Many small organizations go out of business due to operating at a loss. Most of the time this is because of fraud.
• [47:25] - Never judge someone by the standards you have for yourself.
• [51:12] - Something to remember is that most fraudsters will steal in even numbers.
• [53:11] - In most cases that James has worked, the manager had seen all the signs, but never thought anything about it.

Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review.

• Podcast Web Page
• Facebook Page
• whatismyipaddress.com
• Easy Prey on Instagram
• Easy Prey on Twitter
• Easy Prey on LinkedIn
• Easy Prey on YouTube
• Easy Prey on Pinterest
• ACFE Website

Now that so much of our communications are digital, such as texts, emails, and chats, we miss out on the tone and facial expressions to help us understand the intent and content in communication. It’s important to know ourselves well enough to know what areas we’ll be more easily influenced and are susceptible to being deceived. The greater our desire for something to be true, the easier it is for us to be scammed.

Today’s guest is Mark Bowden. Mark is a world-renowned body language expert, keynote speaker, and best-selling author. He is the founder of the communication training company, TruthPlane. Mark is also a member of The Behavior Panel on YouTube.

• [1:08] - Mark shares his background and what motivated him to specialize in human behavior.
• [2:34] - There are parts of the brain that are activated when we first meet someone new.
• [3:56] - Think about how many people you see on a regular day. Some you will notice and some you will not.
• [7:03] - There are certain parts of the brain that can overwrite natural instinct.
• [10:02] - Mark demonstrates how body language changes when there is perceived risk.
• [14:50] - Body language signals can be perceived inaccurately. People can also change their body language to send different signals.
• [17:15] - So many signals that our brains rely on in communication disappear when we cannot see the person we’re talking to.
• [19:16] - Mark gives an example of how the human brain perceives the bait of a scam.
• [22:48] - The first step in critical thinking is to suspend judgment.
• [25:58] - “You can only con a greedy man.” Think about what you want so much that if it were offered, you lose your sense of judgment.
• [28:33] - If anyone ever tells you that something seems like it isn’t true, suspend judgment and look into it.
• [30:32] - It’s a risky world. There are people who have dedicated their lives to deceiving others.
• [35:13] - Part of critical thinking is asking other people whom you trust about what they think.
• [39:56] - Sometimes we will set people up to see how they will respond.
• [43:11] - It is best to have an open mind and be willing to see things for what they are over what you want them to be.

Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review.

• Podcast Web Page
• Facebook Page
• whatismyipaddress.com
• Easy Prey on Instagram
• Easy Prey on Twitter
• Easy Prey on LinkedIn
• Easy Prey on YouTube
• Easy Prey on Pinterest
• TruthPlane Website
• Mark Bowden on YouTube
• The Behavior Panel on YouTube

Many industries are reliant on software and if the software becomes corrupt or an update fails, it may require hands-on support. Do you have your infrastructure set for repair and recovery?

Today’s guest is Gabe Dimeglio. Gabe is a 20-year veteran of information technology and security for private and public sector organizations. He is a results-driven leader, specializing in security services and solutions for mission-critical, complex enterprise platforms. His expertise includes strategic consulting services, risk analysis/risk mitigation, and compliance.

Mr. Dimeglio serves as Vice President & Executive Advisor, Security, Office of the CTO at Rimini Street. He is responsible for oversight of the GSS organization that provides tailored consulting and advisory security services to prospects and clients, in collaboration with Rimini Street sales, client engagement, and retention functions.

• [1:18] - Gabe shares his background and what he does in his roles at Rimini Street.
• [2:38] - Anyone can be a victim of a scam. That includes Gabe.
• [4:03] - Scams are very sophisticated and techniques have come a long way in the last decade.
• [5:23] - Gabe describes what happened with the update that shut down much of the United States’ systems and infrastructure.
• [8:30] - To complicate things, the platform could not be restarted with this update in effect.
• [10:42] - Updates are sideloaded continuously and are processed by this kernel driver. The thought process is interesting because it has happened before.
• [12:37] - This was the biggest problem caused by Crowdstrike.
• [14:47] - One mistake out of 10,000 updates is a low error rate, but there is a lot of reputation damage done in this event.
• [16:50] - In the case of Crowdstrike, turning off auto-update was not an option.
• [18:43] - Any time software, programs, or data are introduced, you’re also introducing risk.
• [21:04] - Part of the solution to fixing this massive problem was hands-on support on every box.
• [26:13] - One problem is that there are some industries where technology is very outdated.
• [27:23] - People are selling their solutions and the solutions are cloud-managed. This is scary due to frequent cloud breaches.
• [31:10] - There are still businesses that have no security professionals or teams managing client data and safety.
• [32:53] - The skills gap is crushing most businesses.
• [35:03] - Security has come a long way, even if there are still areas of lack.
• [37:01] - For the last couple of years, security has been something that there is a budget for in most businesses.
• [40:49] - Don’t ever let anyone convince you to shortcut anything.

Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review.

• Podcast Web Page
• Facebook Page
• whatismyipaddress.com
• Easy Prey on Instagram
• Easy Prey on Twitter
• Easy Prey on LinkedIn
• Easy Prey on YouTube
• Easy Prey on Pinterest
• Rimini Street Website