Glossary of terms: Global Economic Crime Survey 2018: PwC

We know there are several acronyms and technical words that not everyone is familiar with. That’s why we’ve put together a glossary of terms commonly used in our 2020 Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey.

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Accounting / Financial Statement Fraud

Financial statements and/or other documents are altered or presented in such a way that they do not reflect the true value or financial activities of the organisation. This can involve accounting manipulations, fraudulent borrowings / raising of finance, fraudulent application for credit and unauthorised transactions / rogue trading.

Anti-competitive/ Anti-trust

Criminal violations of laws that promote or maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive and unfair business practices conduct by organisations. Examples may include price fixing, excessive, predatory or discriminatory pricing, unfair trading terms, and tying (i.e. stipulating that a buyer wishing to purchase one product must also purchase all or some of his requirements for a second product).

Anomaly Detection

In data mining, anomaly detection is the identification of data points, items, observations, or events that diverge from an expected pattern or the majority of data. These anomalies may signal a threat, such as fraud, cyber intrusion, or errors in texts.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI is the ability of a computer programme or a machine to think and learn. It uses computer science programming to imitate human action and thought, so as to analyse data and algorithms, anticipate and solve problems, learn and self-teach to perform tasks, and analyse and adapt to surroundings and problems. Examples include Natural Language Processing, Natural Language Generation, Voice Recognition, Machine Learning and Biometric Authentication

Asset misappropriation

The theft of assets (including monetary assets / cash or supplies and equipment). This includes embezzlement and deception by employees or theft of company property or assets by outsiders.

Biometric Authentication

A verification or security process that uses biological

characteristics to identify an individual. Examples include facial scanning, fingerprint authentication and iris scanning

Bribe / Bribery

Bribery refers to the offering, giving, soliciting, or receiving of any thing of value as a means of influencing the actions of an individual holding a public or legal duty. Examples include kickbacks, extortion, gifts (with strings attached), facilitation payments, etc.

Deceptive business practices (e.g. Incentive abuse)

Frauds or deception by companies upon the market or general public. Deceptive practices associated with the manufacturing, sales, marketing or delivery of a company’s products or services to its clients, consumers or the general public.

Customer Fraud

Fraud against a company through illegitimate use of, or deceptive practices associated with, its products or services by customers or others (e.g. mortgage fraud, credit card fraud).

Contract or other unstructured data review

Review of information that is not organised in a pre-defined data structure or simply lacking a pre-defined data model. Unstructured data is often heavily loaded with text and other information presented in a format that is hard for traditional programmes or mainstream relational databases to analyse. Examples include contracts, machine data, and log files.

Corruption

Dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery or conflict of interest.

Cybercrime

Any criminal offense committed by, or facilitated through the use of computer equipment.

Economic crime

The intentional use of deceit or other criminal conduct to deprive another of money, property or a legal right or to effectuate an economic harm.

Fraud

Fraud is any intentional act or omission designed to deceive others, resulting in the victim suffering a loss and/or the perpetrator achieving a gain

Global responsibility

Where you have responsibility for more than one region.

GRC (Governance Risk and Compliance) Solutions

GRC refers to a company’s coordinated strategy for corporate governance management, enterprise risk management, and corporate compliance. A GRC solution enables the coordination and creation of controls and policies in accordance with regulatory and internal compliance requirements.

Human Resources fraud (recruitment and/or payroll fraud)

Fraud committed by members of the Human Resources department, including payroll fraud, ghost employees, pay-to-work, recruitment (i.e. hiring friends and/or relatives, hiring unqualified individuals, falsification of documents etc).

Intellectual Property (IP) Theft

IP theft including the theft of intellectual property and trade secrets as well as the intentional criminal use of a patent, copyright or trademark and the trafficking of counterfeit products and services. This does not include non-criminal infringement of a patent, copyright or trademark that can be remedied under civil law.

Insider / unauthorised trading

Insider trading refers generally to buying or selling a security, in breach of a fiduciary duty or other relationship of trust and confidence, while in possession of material, non-public information about the security. Insider trading violations may also include ‘tipping’ such information, securities trading by the person ‘tipped’, and securities trading by those who misappropriate such information.

Machine Learning

A type of artificial intelligence where a system improves its performance through experience by incorporating new data to learn and adjust automatically without human interference.

Money laundering and sanctions

Actions intended to conceal or legitimise the proceeds of crime by disguising their true origin, thereby making illegally-gained proceeds (i.e. "dirty money") appear legal (i.e. "clean").

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

NLP is artificial intelligence to help computers understand, interpret, and manipulate human language. NLP bridges the gap between human communication and computer intelligence.

Pattern Recognition

Machine learning that recognises data patterns or regularities to provide answers for data, and classify input data into classes based on data features. It can detect patterns, predict trends, recognise attacks, combine words and phrases for natural language processing.

Predictive analytics

Predictive analytics utilises data to forecast trends, behaviors, and activity. Data is aggregated into a predictive model that assesses future probabilities, predicts and analyses anticipated behaviors of individuals or entities.

Procurement Fraud

Illegal conduct involving the purchase of services, goods or assets for the affected organisation, or involving bid/tender processes.

Sanctions

A sanction is an official action taken by a government body to enforce a law or behavior or punish non-compliance. Examples include trade or economic sanctions.

Self Monitorship

The role placed on an individual or a group of individuals to use their expertise to monitor an entity that was subject to a negotiated settlement with an enforcement agency.

Tax Fraud

An illegal practice where an organisation or corporation intentionally avoids paying its true tax liability.

Transaction Testing / Monitoring

The process of analysing and reviewing a transaction that was processed on an information system or business application to evaluate compliance with a regulation or policy.

Voice Recognition

The ability of a computer software or hardware device to recognise and decode the human voice. It is often used to write without keyboards, operate devices, and execute commands.