// Fraud schemes
Disbursement review
Vendor-side schemes in accounts payable: fictitious and shell vendors, duplicate and inflated billing, personal purchases, check and EFT tampering, and purchasing conflicts of interest and kickbacks.
Billing — shell company
An employee creates or controls a fictitious vendor and submits invoices for goods or services that were never provided. Payments go to a bank account or address the employee controls.…
S07Billing — non-accomplice vendor (overbilling, pay-and-return, duplicates)
The employee uses a real vendor that is not part of the scheme. Methods include resubmitting a paid invoice, inflating an invoice, or deliberately overpaying or double-paying the vendor and…
S08Billing — personal purchases
An employee buys goods or services for personal use with organization funds, either by having a vendor invoice the organization or by using an organization card. The purchases are real;…
S14Check and payment tampering (forged, altered, authorized maker, concealed, EFT payee changes)
An employee converts an organization payment by forging the maker's signature, forging an endorsement, altering the payee or amount, presenting a check for signature among legitimate checks (concealed check), or,…
S20Conflict of interest — purchasing
An employee with an undisclosed financial or personal interest in a vendor uses their position to benefit that vendor: steering awards, approving inflated or unneeded purchases, or avoiding competitive procurement.
S22Bribery — invoice kickbacks (including illegal gratuities)
A vendor pays an employee to approve inflated or fictitious invoices or to steer business to the vendor. In the gratuity variant, a payment or gift is given after an…