Getting Ready for Fraud Week 2013

GUEST BLOGGER

Scott Patterson
Senior Media Relations Specialist

It is hard to believe that is has been almost 10 months since our last International Fraud Awareness Week. What is impressive to me is that when we wrapped up the week of anti-fraud events and awareness, there wasn’t a sense of, “see you next year!” Instead, organizations continued to sign up as Official Partners and ask about things they could do in the coming weeks and months to further the fight against fraud.

We quickly grew to a list of more than 800 supporters worldwide, many of them already preparing for our upcoming 2013 Fraud Week, Nov. 3-9. And like all of the Fraud Week’s that have come and gone, this year’s grassroots campaign to raise awareness provides unmatched opportunities to advance the fight against fraud.

Supporters host various activities leading up to and during the week to help support the cause. For example, a two-day training conference, “Targeting Fraud – Safeguarding Integrity,” will be hosted Nov. 6-7 as a collaboration between Franklin University, National White Collar Crime Center, Ohio Ethics Commission, Ohio Inspector General and Ohio Investigators Association. The conference is a follow-up to the successful inaugural conference held during last year’s Fraud Week.

It is free to sign up as an Official Supporter of Fraud Week, and the ACFE provides training tools and other resources to help organizations shine a spotlight on fraud. Among the resources we’ve added to FraudWeek.com this year (so far) – links to Fraud Talk (the ACFE podcast series), our Fraud Videos Library and our Fraud Prevention Resources CD-ROM. More tools for raising awareness and fighting fraud will be posted in the coming weeks leading up to November.

Perhaps your organization will use this occasion to survey your employees to assess levels of fraud awareness. One easy way for businesses and government agencies to spread the word is by including anti-fraud information in blogs, social media, e-newsletters and other communications.

Also, it is never too early to start following Fraud Week activities on social media. Search the hashtag #fraudweek on Twitter for real-time updates and information about Fraud Week.

To learn more about International Fraud Awareness Week, and to add your organization as an Official Supporter, visit FraudWeek.com. We look forward to hearing about what you have planned.