MBA 744: Fraud Examination Master Syllabus
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Course Website: Canvas
Program Learning Goals
Professional skills: Our graduates will demonstrate professional skills necessary for success in the public accounting profession.
- Teaming & Leading - Our graduates will demonstrate the team leadership and interpersonal skills needed to form, lead, and work effectively in diverse organizational teams.
- Ethics and Professional Responsibility - Our graduates will understand the importance of ethical conduct and the regulatory environment of accounting.
- Professional Communications – Our graduates will communicate effectively to professional audiences in both written and oral forms.
- Analytical Decision Making - Our graduates will demonstrate analytical decision-making skills.
- Accounting Research - Our graduates will effectively conduct and communicate accounting research
Technical skills and knowledge: Our graduates will demonstrate and apply technical knowledge of accounting and auditing.
Global perspective: Our graduates will demonstrate an understanding of the role of accounting in the global business environment.
Course Description
This course introduces strategies and techniques for fraud prevention, detection, and investigation. It focuses on occupational fraud, which includes fraudulent financial reporting, asset misappropriation, and corruption as well as vendor and customer fraud, investment scams, consumer fraud and cyber fraud. Several real-life cases and examples will be used to illustrate how to detect and prevent fraud.
Course Objectives
Upon completing this course, students should be able to:
- Explain the seriousness of fraud and the consequences of fraud for individuals, organizations and society.
- Describe several forms of fraud.
- Describe the methods that fraud examiners use to prevent, detect and investigate fraud.
- Recognize symptoms of fraud and develop experience in detecting different types of frauds, including financial statement fraud.
- Identify and discuss ethical dilemmas that they might encounter in the business world.
- Develop approaches to deter frauds (such as occupational fraud) and reduce the likelihood of being a victim of fraud.
Course Materials
Recorded lectures, lecture slides, and other materials will be available on Canvas. With the asynchronous online format of this class, you will be required to complete the class online which would normally be provided in the classroom. You will need access to a computer that has basic business software like Microsoft Office Suite and Adobe Acrobat Reader. You will also need speakers or headphones to listen to course content as well as a headset microphone for video/audio sessions using tools such as Zoom. Please note that a fast, reliable Internet connection will be necessary to download course content and upload deliverables.
Readings:
“Fraud Examination” 7th edition by Albrecht, Albrecht, Albrecht, and Zimbelman. Cengage, 2025 (ISBN-13: 9780357721773). You may purchase this textbook either online or in the bookstore. You may purchase either the hardcopy or electronic version, but you need access to the accompanying web-based MindTap system, which is linked to Canvas (see MindTap Registration and Support Links folder). MindTap, which was developed by the textbook publisher, Cengage, is required, and is where you will find the online chapter quizzes and homework assignments, as well as other helpful study helps.
Course Policies
The course would be conducted over 8 weeks. Please refer to the course schedule on the last page of this syllabus and any additional Canvas announcements for detailed information.
Due dates: You are required to complete the assigned tasks on or before the due date and time mentioned in the course schedule. Please inform your instructor immediately if you have an unforeseen emergency and are unable to complete any of the tasks within the designated due dates. Late submissions will not receive credit.
Deliverables: The course requires you to complete a set of individual and group work that includes reading the assigned chapters, reviewing the recorded audio lectures within the PowerPoint slides, completing the online chapter quizzes and homework assignments, three peer-reviewed cases, one group presentation, a midterm and final exam, as well as participation and professionalism, including actively participating in weekly online discussion forums.
Individual work includes items such as online chapter quizzes and homework submissions, exams, and cases. Group work involves participating in a recorded group presentation, class discussions, and other group-related activities. You may discuss all individual assignments in study groups, however, each student must submit his or her own deliverable (these will be checked for potential plagiarism issues). However, group collaboration is not allowed on the online chapter quizzes or exams.
Grading: The table below shows all assessment activities with corresponding due dates and grade weights. Note that the assignments are all due on a [day of the week] by [time] on the applicable due date.
| Assessment Description | Due Dates ([day of the week] by [time]) | Grade Weight | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| MindTap Chapter Quizzes | (see schedule) | 1.5% for each chapter dropping the lowest two | 22.5% |
| MindTap Homework Assignments | (see schedule) | 0.5% for each chapter dropping the lowest two | 7.5% |
| Peer-Reviewed Cases (1-3) | [XX], [XX], and [XX] | 5% each | 15% |
| Peer Review of Others’ Case Memos | [XX], [XX], and [XX] | 10% | 10% |
| Group Presentation | [XX] | 10% | 10% |
| Midterm Exam | [XX] | 10% | 10% |
| Final Exam | [XX] | 15% | 15% |
| Participation and Professionalism | All weeks | 1% each week, dropping the lowest one, plus 3% for professionalism | 10% |
Note: Deliverables submitted after the deadline will not receive credit. Any changes to assignments or schedule will be announced on Canvas and via e-mail. No make-up assignments are available in this course.
Final course grade will be calculated as a weighted average of the grades you get throughout the module across all assessment activities mentioned above. The grade cut-offs are as follows (note that the minimum thresholds are fixed and must be met or exceeded without rounding).
| A | 93-100% |
| A- | 90-92% |
| B+ | 87-89% |
| B | 83-86% |
| B- | 80-82% |
| C | 70-79% |
| F | less than 70% |
MindTap Chapter Quizzes and Homework Assignments: There is a link from Canvas to MindTap for each Chapter Quiz and Homework Assignment. Once you have finished reading the assigned chapter and reviewing the recorded lecture materials (see slides), you will be prepared to take the quiz and complete the homework assignment for each chapter. These are due by [time] on the [day of the week] of each week’s class, but they quizzes may be submitted early. You have unlimited time and two attempts each to complete both of these exercises. The objective of the quiz is to assess your comprehension of the chapter material and the homework questions further assess how well you can apply these concepts. These are open book/ open notes, but must be completed individually, even though you are encouraged to prepare and study in groups if you would like. There is a quiz and a homework assignment for each of the 17 assigned chapters, and I will drop your two lowest scores for each in calculating your final grade.
Peer-Reviewed Cases: You will have three assigned cases for which you will prepare a fraud report (i.e., an individual memo) addressing all the questions in the case. See the instructions in the next section on how these will be evaluated. These case memos will be submitted via Canvas’ peer review system anonymously (i.e., you will not include any identifiable information in the memo or the file name when you submit it).
Peer Review of Others’ Case Memos: You will provide a peer review (anonymous evaluation) on three assigned case memo submitted by your fellow classmates for each of the three cases (total of nine), where you will recommend a score for each of the five criteria and provide constructive feedback on at least three of the five criteria as outlined in the peer review instructions. I will provide a simple grading rubric to assist you. These will be evaluated on a double-blind basis, meaning that you will not know who you are evaluating nor who is evaluating you. In the end, each case memo will receive three sets of constructive feedback and recommended scores. These three recommended scores will be averaged for your total grade for each peer-reviewed case.
Also, at the end of the module you will be graded by me on how well you performed as an evaluator during the peer reviews. I will review the quality and constructiveness of the feedback you provide and objectivity of your recommended scores. Please be positive when performing these evaluations. They are intended to help each other progress as developing fraud examiners.
Group Presentation: You will work in a group of 2-4 students to record and share in the designated Blackboard discussion board forum a video presentation on a unique fraud case you will find in the news media or public records. I will designate the groups, however, I will consider your preference for group members if you communicate them to me prior to Week #3 (i.e., send me an email prior to [Week #3 date] and copy all proposed group members). More information about this group presentation will be provided separately on the course website.
Midterm and Final Exams: The midterm exam will cover Chapters 1-10 and the final exam will be comprehensive with more weight on Chapters 11-17. These exams will be completed online in Blackboard, and will be timed with only one attempt allowed. The exams are open book/ open notes, but must be completed individually, even though you are encouraged to prepare and study in groups if you would like. The midterm exam will consist of 50 questions and you will have two hours to complete it. The final exam will consist of 75 questions and you will have three hours to complete it. The exams will appear on Canvas five days before they are due. Please plan an uninterrupted block of time within each exam window to complete these exams. The structure and format of the exam questions will be similar to the chapter quizzes, however, they will be taken in Canvas, not in MindTap.
Participation and Professionalism: Class participation points will be earned in each week’s Canvas discussion forum. You should post your entry for each week’s discussion forum by [day of the week] at [time], and then comment on at least three of your classmates’ posts by [time] on [day of the week] of the following week. It is critical that you learn to become involved in dialogue and speak up so you can represent yourself well in meetings and groups. A critical component of class participation and professionalism is the ability to listen to the thoughts and comments of your fellow students and in communication with the professor (even if they are expressed virtually). Professional behavior and amiable attitude is expected. I will drop your lowest week’s participation score. In addition to the weekly participation on the Discussion Board, 3% of your overall course grade will be based on your overall professionalism.
Group Work vs. Individual Work: The following policies are applicable to individual and/or group assignments:
- Students may study with others and discuss assignments with fellow classmates. Feel free to bounce ideas off each other and brainstorm possible solutions. You may even work with students who are not in your section.
- Students must submit their own original work.
- Plagiarism is considered cheating, and such actions will not be tolerated. Plagiarism is defined as "the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work." Plagiarizing the work of classmates, former accounting students, internet authors, websites, etc. constitutes cheating.
- Brainstorming and collaboration becomes cheating when students execute individual assignments together. Another example of cheating can occur towards the end of an assignment. A student who changes an assignment to largely conform to the answers/style/format of another person is cheating.
- Using answer keys, case solutions from the web, students' work from prior semesters, etc. constitutes cheating.
General: You may also want to take note of the following:
- Helping another student cheat constitutes cheating for all students involved.
- Students who are aware of cheating but fail to report it are in violation of the Honor Code and will be referred to the GMU Administration. These students can expect to receive the same sanctions as the students who cheat.
- It is impossible to document all possible methods of cheating. The policies above are guidelines to help clarify expectations, but they do not include an exhaustive list of cheating activities. The onus is on each student to complete all course requirements in an honest manner, and any questions about acceptable academic behavior must be addressed to your professor. Thus, ignorance is never an excuse for engaging in academic dishonesty.
A Note on Writing Deliverables: Because good writing skills are so important in the business world, each of your deliverables should be clearly written, professionally formatted, and completely free of spelling and grammatical errors. There is no minimum page limit on the case memos, but they should comprehensively address all the questions and meet the objectives of the assignment, including understanding how the case relates to the topics we are studying in this class. You should also demonstrate objectivity and critical thinking skills in how you present your case.
A Note on Course Presentations: A great presentation is a reflection of the effort and time spent on planning the content and practicing the delivery. Some success tips include time management, avoiding too much text on slides, knowing your audience and maintaining audience interest, having a summary/takeaway slide and being mindful of grammar/spelling and overall slide design/structure.
Student Responsibilities
You are expected to have read the assigned chapters, reviewed the recorded audio lectures within the PowerPoint slides, and completed the MindTap chapter quizzes and homework assignments before each week’s due date ([day of the week] by [time]). You are encouraged to review the Knapp Cases within the assigned chapters, however, they will not be handed in. The amount of effort you put into studying the assigned materials will determine the quality of your responses to class questions and discussions, as well as how much you learn about the course topics. I encourage you to not only read the assigned materials but to analyze them carefully. Think about each reading from both a conceptual and a practical perspective.
Communication: Students must use their George Mason email accounts to receive important University information, including messages related to this class and correspondence with the faculty. See Mason Email to obtain your personal George Mason e-mail account. George Mason policy requires faculty to communicate exclusively through the Mason email system. This means your instructor can respond to email from your George Mason account only and cannot respond to emails you send from your personal or work email. The instructor will periodically send electronic messages to the entire class using the listserv formed by the MSA program or via the Canvas communication system. You are fully responsible for checking your e-mail regularly and for any information communicated to the class via e-mail. You should always feel free to communicate with the instructor via e-mail.
I will try to respond to emails and questions within 24 hours during the work-week (Monday through Friday). Students who anticipate missing a deliverable due date for religious reasons should inform the instructor of their anticipated absences during the first two weeks of the module. You can find the University semester schedule and religious holidays at academic calendar and religious holiday calendar. If you have an emergency that precludes you from meeting any deadline, please inform me as soon as possible to schedule a make-up date. You will also be required to provide documentation for why you were unable to complete the assignment by the due date. If it is not an excused reason, you will receive a zero. There are very few excusable absences for assignments and even class. Please plan ahead.
To communicate with other students in the class for group study sessions and assigned group projects, use the “Send Email” feature under Course Tools in Canvas. If you are having any trouble contacting a group member, please inform the instructor.
Honor System and Code: George Mason is an Honor Code university. Please see the Academic Standards website for a full description of the Academic Standards Code and the honor committee process. The principle of academic integrity is taken very seriously and violations are treated gravely. Three fundamental and rather simple principles to follow at all times are that: (1) all work submitted be your own; (2) when using the work or ideas of others, including fellow students, give full credit through accurate citations; and (3) if you are uncertain about the ground rules on a particular assignment, ask for clarification.
Attached to the syllabus is the uniform set of Recommendations for Honor Code Violations for graduate programs in the School of Business adopted by the faculty in Spring 2016.
Costello College of Business Standards of Behavior: The mission of the Costello College of Business at George Mason University is to create and deliver high quality educational programs and research. Students, faculty, staff , and alumni who participate in these educational programs contribute to the well-being of society. High quality educational programs require an environment of trust and mutual respect, free expression and inquiry, and a commitment to truth, excellence, and lifelong learning. Students, program participants, faculty, staff , and alumni accept these principles when they join the community. In doing so, they agree to abide by the following standards of behavior:
- Respect for the rights, differences, and dignity of others
- Honesty and integrity in dealing with all members of the community
- Accountability for personal behavior
Integrity is an essential ingredient of a successful learning community. Ethical standards of behavior help promote a safe and productive community environment, and ensure every member the opportunity to pursue excellence. The Costello College of Business can and should be a living model of these behavioral standards. To this end, community members have a personal responsibility to integrate these standards into every aspect of their experience at the Costello College of Business. Through our personal commitment to these Community Standards of Behavior, we can create an environment in which all can achieve their full potential.
Diversity
George Mason University promotes a living and learning environment for outstanding growth and productivity among its students, faculty and staff. Through its curriculum, programs, policies, procedures, services and resources, George Mason strives to maintain a quality environment for work, study and personal growth. These goals apply to online learning at George Mason University equally as it does to classroom learning.
An emphasis upon diversity and inclusion throughout the campus community is essential to achieve these goals. Diversity is broadly defined to include such characteristics as, but not limited to, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability, and sexual orientation. Diversity also entails different viewpoints, philosophies, and perspectives. Attention to these aspects of diversity will help promote a culture of inclusion and belonging, and an environment where diverse opinions, backgrounds and practices have the opportunity to be voiced, heard and respected.
Resources and Support
Course support: Preparedness is a major facilitator for a heightened learning experience in an online course. For help on Canvas tools like Collaborate, Kaltura, Respondus Lockdown Browser and other resources, please refer to courses support for additional information. If you encounter any difficulties accessing Canvas or your course you can reach the Technical Help Desk at the following email: courses@gmu.edu.
Library resources: The Libraries at George Mason University strive to provide the best possible collections of research resources and scholarly materials in all formats for our users throughout the university community, supporting the University’s goals of learning, teaching, and research. The Costello College of Business has a dedicated librarian liaison and more information is available at library resources. The University Libraries also provides resources specifically for distance students, including the ability to e-reserve materials. See more information on these services and to e-reserve texts.
Writing center: The George Mason University Writing Center is committed to supporting writers in the Mason community and offers free writing support to Mason students. You can now sign up for an Online Writing Lab (OWL) session just as you would sign up for a face-to-face session in the Writing Center, which means you set the date and time of the appointment. Learn more about the Online Writing Lab (OWL).
Student services: If you are a student with a disability and you need academic accommodations, please see me and contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS) at (703) 993-2474 or see their website. All academic accommodations must be arranged through the ODS. Please take care of this during the first week of the module and inform the instructor immediately. Mason offers counseling and psychological services that can provide assistance if you find yourself overwhelmed by life, want training in academic or life skills, or the like.
University policies: The University Catalog is the central resource for university policies affecting student, faculty and staff conduct in university affairs. Information regarding weather related changes in the University’s schedule (e.g., closing or late opening) will be provided on the George Mason website and via MasonAlert. Changes to schedule or deliverable due dates, if any, will be communicated via email and on Canvas.
George Mason Student privacy is governed by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and is an essential aspect of this course.
Copyright: Any audio or visual recording of lectures, reuse or remix of course materials, or further dissemination of course content is not permitted without prior written consent from me and George Mason University unless the recording is part of an approved accommodation plan.
Disclaimer: Any changes to assignments or course schedule will be announced on Blackboard and/or via e-mail. Inability to access the course webpage or failure to read e-mails cannot be an excuse for late submissions or non-completion of assignments.
*Tentative Schedule
Week #1 Class
Chapter 1 – The Nature of Fraud
Chapter 2 – Who Commits Fraud and Why They Commit It
Chapter 3 – Fighting Fraud: An Overview
Week #2 Class
Chapter 4 – Preventing Fraud
Chapter 5 – Recognizing the Symptoms of Fraud
Chapter 6 – Data-Driven Fraud Detection
Week #3 Class
Chapter 7 – Investigating Theft Acts
Chapter 8 – Investigating Concealment
Chapter 9 – Conversion Investigation Methods
Case 1 Submission
Week #4 Class
Chapter 10 – Inquiry Methods and Fraud Reports
Midterm Exam (Chapters 1-10)
Peer Evaluations for Case 1
Week #5 Class
Chapter 11 – Financial Statement Fraud
Chapter 12 – Revenue- and Inventory-Related Financial Statement Frauds
Case 2 Submission
Week #6 Class
Chapter 13 – Liability, Asset, and Inadequate Disclosure Frauds
Chapter 14 – Fraud Against Organizations
Group Presentation
Peer Evaluations for Case 2
Week #7 Class
Chapter 15 – Consumer Fraud
Chapter 16 – Bankruptcy, Divorce, and Tax Fraud
Case 3 Submission
Week #8 Class
Chapter 17 – Cyber Fraud
Final Exam (Comprehensive with More Weight on Chapters 11-17)
Peer Evaluations for Case 3
*Changes to the schedule, if any, will be announced both via email and an announcement in Canvas.
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