Fraud Scenario #3 You have been called in to investigate a suspected case of skimming at Zees Fashion Bistro, an upscale womens clothing store. Zees is organized into four departments. At the end of each work day, the cashier in each of the stores department reconciles the receipts generated for the day with the cash and charge slips received. The cashier or department manager then hands over the cash, charge slips, and supporting documentation to Nancy Bradford, the bookkeeper for Zees. Nancy has worked at Zee since its inception 17 years ago. Jackson Zee, the stores owner, trusts Nancy highly and frequently relies on her to unravel the figures when he doesnt fully understand something. Jackson Zee recently received a disturbing note at his home address. The envelope containing the note had no return address. The note was short it simply said, Nancy Bradford is stealing from you. She is taking cash out of the daily receipts. Mr. Zee did not really believe what the note was implying, but he thought he needed to investigate further. He went into the archives and found the companys sales documentation, but nothing seemed out of line to him. He took some of the archived receipts to his most trusted department manager and asked, Do these documents seem right to you. It didnt take long for the manager to reply, This is really strange we dont have this many returns each day and we hardly ever give out cash refunds as indicated on these return slips. Mr. Zee thought about the situation for a moment and said If someone is stealing from us like this, that means we would be short inventory. Are your inventory numbers right? The manager sheepishly replied, I really dont know we dont have the staff to do a full-fledged inventory count on a regular basis. Mr. Zee replied, Well, were gonna find out. A full inventory count revealed Mr. Zee worst fears inventory was short in all departments by a total of $178,000. Additional information on your suspect, Nancy Bradford, is as follows:

32 years old, married for 10 years, no children, but has her ailing mother living with her and her husband.

Her husband lost his job last year at the local steel mill that was closing. It is believed he has been unable to find employment since that time. Nancy recently commented that based on her husbands current hobbies, hed be perfect for a job in easy chair endurance testing and video game playing.

Likes the TV stories (i.e., weekday soap operas) and reality TV shows.

Last year called in sick for 2 weeks, but came back to work with a deep tan and was extremely vague about her illness.