Fraud rises, scams follow
Charlotte Steinway (Tufts Daily/Tufts U.)
Issue date: 12/7/07 Section: News
"Businesses are established to make money, so they often tend to have their eyes more focused on the bottom line in their practices, although that has been changing over time," he said. "With rising tuition and increased costs, universities have started to be run more like businesses."
Bachman agreed. "The business processes of colleges are pretty much exactly the same as those of any other institution - both are protected in the exact same way: through oversight controls and accountability."
AFCA's report also cited the 2006 median dollar loss in educational fraud cases as $100,000. This is a significant jump from the 1996 report, which cited the median dollar loss to be only $32,000 - but Bachman said those figures cannot be compared on face value.
"An increase in the median dollar loss could have occurred for a number of factors ... I'm reluctant to compare numbers," he said. "Our survey is compiled from voluntary reporting, which, in some cases, may have contributed to underreporting in the education industry in past years."
Some cases of fraud or embezzlement, especially in the education industry, fail to surface, Bachman said.
"Many cases in the education industry never see the light of day. Tufts did go public with [its] case, so that in turn draws attention to it," he said.
However, attention may not always have negative implications. According to Bachman, attention, as in Tufts' case, can serve to ultimately benefit the university.
"In Tufts' case [such media attention] creates an awareness - it shows that Tufts is an organization that is willing to face its issues and confront them in a public way," Bachman said. "In this case, it worked: Tufts' approach was a good one."
By bringing media attention to such issues, Tufts was able to jumpstart movements to protect against future issues of fraud and embezzlement, Bachman said.
"In Tufts' case, the ultimate result is that it will tighten controls and make it more difficult to perpetrate that type of action in the future," he said.
Bachman agreed. "The business processes of colleges are pretty much exactly the same as those of any other institution - both are protected in the exact same way: through oversight controls and accountability."
AFCA's report also cited the 2006 median dollar loss in educational fraud cases as $100,000. This is a significant jump from the 1996 report, which cited the median dollar loss to be only $32,000 - but Bachman said those figures cannot be compared on face value.
"An increase in the median dollar loss could have occurred for a number of factors ... I'm reluctant to compare numbers," he said. "Our survey is compiled from voluntary reporting, which, in some cases, may have contributed to underreporting in the education industry in past years."
Some cases of fraud or embezzlement, especially in the education industry, fail to surface, Bachman said.
"Many cases in the education industry never see the light of day. Tufts did go public with [its] case, so that in turn draws attention to it," he said.
However, attention may not always have negative implications. According to Bachman, attention, as in Tufts' case, can serve to ultimately benefit the university.
"In Tufts' case [such media attention] creates an awareness - it shows that Tufts is an organization that is willing to face its issues and confront them in a public way," Bachman said. "In this case, it worked: Tufts' approach was a good one."
By bringing media attention to such issues, Tufts was able to jumpstart movements to protect against future issues of fraud and embezzlement, Bachman said.
"In Tufts' case, the ultimate result is that it will tighten controls and make it more difficult to perpetrate that type of action in the future," he said.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
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posted 3/02/09 @ 5:09 PM EST
Unfortunately there's a lot of scams out there. For college students, some other scams to watch out for are "free" ringtones that trick you into signing up for an overpriced subscription service, weight loss products that don't work (wu yi green tea, acai berry, etc. (Continued…)
CCO
posted 4/06/10 @ 12:06 PM EST
And dont forgot all those scams which propose to help you to get scolarships and college loans. I'd like to see how many people have fallen for them.
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