Bits About Money: Fraud Investigation Is Believing Your Lying Eyes
5 hours ago
- #investigation
- #social_programs
- #fraud
- Independent journalist exposes fraud in Minnesota social program with poor epistemic standards.
- Fraud in social programs is politicized, with some dismissing its existence despite evidence.
- Financial industry's approach to fraud: acknowledges its inevitability and focuses on minimizing it.
- Minnesota's social programs suffer from industrial-scale fraud, with over 50% of daycare reimbursements suspected fraudulent.
- Fraudsters exploit sociopolitical cleavages, using accusations of racism to deflect scrutiny.
- Fraud detection in financial industry relies on apprenticeship models and informal knowledge sharing.
- Fraudsters often reuse identities and operate within ethnic or affinity groups for trust and loyalty.
- High growth rates in programs can signal fraud, as seen in Minnesota's Feeding Our Future case.
- Fraudsters target weak links in financial systems, preferring institutions with lax controls.
- Fraud investigations benefit from machine learning to adaptively identify and respond to fraudulent patterns.
- Fraud has a lifecycle: creation, seasoning, detection, closure, and resurrection by the same actors.
- Public and legislative response to fraud often leads to overcorrection and burdensome regulations.
- Effective fraud investigation requires balancing detection with minimizing impact on legitimate users.