When choosing to become a fraud investigator, you need to keep in mind certain skills you require to become successful. A fraud investigator needs to possess certain requirements like analytical skills, empathy, logical decision making, and physical stamina among others in order to apply for this position. The most important skills required to be a fraud investigator include fraud prevention, law enforcement, and other hard skills which are essential for this job role. When looking to become a fraud investigator you need to consider your certification and skills before you look into making it a career choice.
How to become a fraud investigator?
If you’re interested in becoming a fraud investigator one of the main things you need to consider is your education. Around 44.8% of fraud investigators have a bachelor’s degree while others have a master’s degree. A college degree is needed to become a fraud investigator and picking the right major is crucial. Most fraud investigators commonly earned a bachelor’s degree or an associate degree along with high school diplomas. You may find experience in other jobs that will help you to become a fraud investigator in roles such as customer service representation, an analyst, or an investigator. These roles coupled with your education are needed when applying for this role.
Skills and personality traits of a fraud investigator-
Fraud investigators need to work independently and have proper written, verbal, and communication skills. As a fraud investigator, you need to possess certain qualifications and abilities to conduct interviews write legal reports, collect, organize, document, and take statements as well as preserve the evidence. Your ability to communicate in an ethical and objective manner is essential for any fraud investigation professional. These individuals are experts at interacting with fraud victims, law enforcement officials, legal professionals, judicial government agencies, and potential perpetrators and it requires you to have a certain set of essential skills and personality traits. Here are some of them.
A genuine interest in legal, financial, and ethical standards-
Fraud investigators are required to help businesses and individuals to solve and maintain their social, financial, and ethical integrity as well as come up with a solution to their problems. They need an educational background in forensic accounting so that they know the motives of the perpetrators and how to prevent fraud from happening as they need to use their extensive knowledge to perform investigative work.
Previous military or law enforcement skills-
These individuals need to apply any previous experience with intelligence, investigation as well as their abilities to follow a safety standard and use their cross-disciplinary knowledge to specialize their skills for specific professionals in certain areas along with objective documentation.
Curiosity, patience, and persistence-
People who investigate fraud must be able to ask questions on the spot while investigating claims, they need to properly investigate every lead they get related to their case and need to spend multiple hours and days looking into each lead, doing surveillance and questioning individuals to have some information to resolve a case. Cases can sometimes take days and weeks to solve and fraud investigators need to determine legal and ethical faults as well as call upon a witness for a civil trial and they must need to listen, speak and write clearly, exceptionally, and objectively.
Role requirements for security risk assessment-
The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners lists these qualities and requirements for all fraud investigators interested in the career. These include:
Accounting and auditing-
Investigators undergo training in specific skills like litigation, and other roles to ensure financial compliance and accurate record keeping. They need to conduct formal reviews of a person or a brand’s financial records, performance audits, security protocols, and information systems.
Risk management and compliance-
As the fastest-growing sector of investigation, professionals need to be responsible for risk control, regulatory compliance, and management structure. They are divided into public and private sectors for federal, state, or local law enforcement to maintain independent practices, loss prevention, or even determine fraud analysis.
In Conclusion
Fraud investigators need to consider joining a professional organization that offers professional development opportunities, such as networking, conferencing, continuing education, and other professional roles and duties which will help them to grow and succeed.