Unfortunately, I work in a field that sees a tremendous amount of identity theft. It is nearly impossible to protect yourself or put in place measures to keep identity theft from happening. However, there is plenty that you can do to safeguard your information and protect yourself. 

Step 1 - Learn and follow best practices when it comes to protecting your identity and data both online and off. Investing in a shedder, locking important documents in a safe, never leaving personal information in view of the public, and protecting passwords and credit card information. Below are two articles that provide a guideline of best practices to follow.

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0272-how-keep-your-personal-information-secure

https://www.lifelock.com/learn-internet-security-ways-to-help-protect-your-personal-information-online.html

Step 2 - Credit Monitoring & Identity theft insurance. ID Theft insurance is available in so many places. Certain bank account offers credit monitoring and ID theft insurance. Most credit card companies offer credit monitoring and ID theft insurance. Your homeowner’s insurance and vehicle insurance policies usually offer ID theft insurance as an addendum. Lastly, you can purchase additional protection in the form of traveler’s insurance or through companies like LifeLock. The honest advantage to all of this is that you have diversified ID theft monitoring and multiple forms of financial protection in the event your identity is compromised. I would recommend no less than $100,000 in aggregate coverage. You should increase this coverage as your income and financial situation matures. 

https://www.idprotectme247.com/sec/

https://www.lifelock.com/

Step 3 - Regularly check your credit report for suspicious activity. You are entitled to one free credit report from each of the three credit agencies once a year. I recommend pulling using the quarterly method and access one report every four months. In this way, you can monitor the information on your credit profile regularly and file disputes and claims to have bad information removed. By doing this, I have removed false addresses and suspicious inquiries before they had a chance to damage my credit or hurt my financial situation. 

https://www.ftc.gov/faq/consumer-protection/get-my-free-credit-report

Step 4 - Know what to do if your identity is compromised and act as quickly as possible to report the situation to the proper authorities and credit agencies. 

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/taxpayer-guide-to-identity-theft

All of these best practices are what I personally do to monitor and protect my identity. In my experience, there is little you can do to keep from becoming a victim, but the most important part of identity theft is in the level of protection you have in the event of an incident. I hope this helps to answer your question. 

- Professor Canania

Students,

I want to welcome everyone to the class. I am looking forward to the experience and hope for a great eight weeks.

About this course:

The course will cover all the major methods that employees use to commit occupational fraud. Students will learn how and why occupational fraud is committed, how fraudulent conduct can be deterred, and how allegations of fraud should be investigated and resolved.

Upon successful completion of the course, each participant should be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the various foundational areas of importance to fraud examination and forensic accounting
• Demonstrate and understand the legal procedures that are frequently relevant to forensic accounting work. Both criminal and civil procedures, with a special emphasis on criminal procedures          
• Communicate and apply the basic and advanced fraud examination and investigation processes, as it corresponds to the entire fraud investigation process: fraud prevention, fraud detection, fraud investigations, and the engagement process, the fraud evidence collection process, physical, documentary, and observational evidence, interview methods, forensic science and computer forensics, and fraud reports, litigation, and the recovery process
• Identify and communicate the specific areas of occupational and organizational fraud: employee and vendor fraud, and financial statement fraud
• Demonstrate an understanding of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and its impact on fraud

A few key notes for success:

As your instructor, I intend to be as available to you as necessary over the next eight weeks. My contact information is in the syllabus, and I encourage anyone who needs help not to hesitate. You may reach me by email, text, phone call, or through a query in the General discussion forum. I will do my best to respond promptly, within 24 hours.

In this course, TIME MANAGEMENT is critical! It is a good idea to view the assignment schedule at the beginning of each week. There are many weeks in which assignments, tests, and discussion forums will be due at staggered times throughout the week. It is imperative that you pay close attention to the due dates and complete the assignment on time. **PLAN AHEAD FOR WEEK 6**

Every term, I have students who fail to adhere to the discussion post requirements. The discussion post-minimum-word requirements are written in the syllabus and can be found under Resource and Materials/ Handouts/ Course Materials. Failure to meet the minimum requirements will result in a failing grade for the assignment. The discussion post content is critical and imperative in facilitating the appropriate discussion necessary for learning. In this course, there is multiple discussion posts per week that weigh heavily on your overall grade. I urge you not to underestimate the importance of these assignments.

Learning Expectations:

Since we have the scary stuff behind us, I would like to ease your tension by telling you that it is a good learning course. Though extremely challenging, most students thoroughly enjoy this course and its contents. You will get the opportunity to learn some exciting and interesting information including investigation skills, interrogation techniques, audit procedures, collecting evidence, and legal proceedings. It should be an eye-opening experience that will help to shed some light on the under-workings of fraud in our heavily corporate society. 

I am looking forward to the following eight weeks and hope that you’re excited as well. I wish everyone the best of luck and happy learning!

• Professor Canania.