Fraud Prevention Alert—Computer Tampering Frauds

From 2015 through 2022, we issued 12 financial investigation reports associated with about $1.4 million of Arizona public money losses where computer tampering was either the means of theft and/or the instrument used to conceal theft. Pursuant to Arizona law, computer tampering frauds involve knowingly altering, damaging, deleting, or destroying computer data. This alert outlines how some of these computer tampering frauds related to payroll disbursements, nonpayroll disbursements, and cash receipts occurred and what actions management can take to deter and detect them.