Frauds and information technology: Analysis of the influence on accounting and company systems

Abstract

In an age characterized by information technology, this article aims at criticizing, pointing out and discussing some considerations about frauds in the organizational and more specifically the accounting and company information systems environment. First, the subject will be conceptualized and characterized, discussing the different existing forms and techniques for committing fraud. Then, we will treat a crime that is very common nowadays and that has been causing constraints and great damages to the corporate world, namely, the frauds realized in/with computers. Frauds have always occurred within companies, but the development of information technology provided them with such a speed and refinement they did not have before, which is aggravated by the fact that these crimes are difficult to detect. © 2003 by Springer Science+Business Media New York.