1. Answer the following questions based on this scenario.

 

You happen to be in New York City and have run across a person (person A) who would like to purchase an expensive widget from you.  However, your friend (person B), who lives in Baltimore, also has expressed a strong interest in purchasing the widget.  Person A has the cash on them to pay for the widget but you would prefer to sell the widget to your friend, B.  You call B on her cell phone and she says she has the cash to pay for the widget as well.  While you trust B, you would like to avoid the risk of driving all the way back to Baltimore and finding out that she really didn't have the cash on hand.  So, you call another friend of yours, person C, who also lives in Baltimore and is a CPA, and tell them you will buy them lunch if they will contact B; verify that she has the necessary cash to buy the widget; and call you right back.  C is a very old friend of yours; you trust them implicitly; and C doesn't know B.  However, if C were to tell you that B has the cash and you find out later that she doesn't, you would reconsider your friendship with C.

Using the concept of information risk and its components, discuss why you decide to hire C? 

 Hint - make sure you clearly mention the features of information risk and apply the concepts to specifically to this scenario.

 What steps would you expect C to take to verify that B has the necessary cash and why?  For this question, I would like you to be sensitive to scenario and what evidence C could reasonably be expected to gather under the circumstances. 

 Hint - Obviously C has limited resources at his/her disposal here so just pick one or two obvious sources of information that would be practical in this limited scenario. 

 Characterize C's activities.  Do they represent an audit and why?  Make sure you refer to the definition of auditing to support your answer.