Copyright held by The John Cooke Fraud Report. Reprint rights are granted with attribution to The John Cooke Fraud Report with a link to this website.
By Jim Cronin
Buying software to aid in investigations is analogous to going to the local supermarket to buy a quart of milk. Do you want whole milk, 2 percent, 1 percent or fat free? Do you want white or flavored? Should it be homogenized? Vitamin D added? Lactose free? Decisions, decisions, decisions.
We live in an apples-to-apples world; therefore it’s important to understand exactly what each new product is and what it is capable of doing. The following is a brief review of some of the new technological tools available to the investigative industry.
SOFTWARE PRODUCTS
ACL (Audit Command Language) from ACL SOFTWARE, 575 Richards Street, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6B 2Z5, phone (604) 669-4225; fax (604) 669-3562 http://www.acl.com . Contact: Susan Munroe, Ins. Client Services.
This program was designed primarily for auditors. It is a powerful, flexible data audit, analysis and reporting program with the look and feel of a spreadsheet, but with sophisticated filters with sorting and reporting capability. It analyzes but will not alter the data being interrogated. It allows individual users to analyze, interrogate and extract/report on corporate data without having MIS personnel design specialized reports.
The key features of this software include the ability to define and analyze fields of data regardless of the source or format. This ability to search disparate data formats sets it apart from other programs reviewed.
Different versions of the program can be used with mainframe, minicomputer or microcomputer. The design is well thought out. A three-day course is recommended to learn the program. Strong training and customer support functions are provided.
The program does not have any graphic capability. DOS, Windows and MacIntosh versions are available. Cost per copy is approximately $2,000. There are 45,000 registered users.
*
ANALYST’S NOTEBOOK from i2 Inc., 1800 Diagonal Rd., Ste 600,
Alexandria, VA 22314; phone (703) 684-4425; fax (703) 836-9720;
sales@i2inc.com . Contact:Phil Erwin
This company markets visualization software for investigative analysis. The software has been in use since 1990.
The product is a suite of software programs specifically designed for investigative analysis. Specific functions include:
Link Notebook, for link and commodity flow charting, including a text database; Case notebook with visual displays of timeline analysis, sequence of events and case flow charting; Link Analyzer, which automatically generates the Link and Commodity charts; Case Analyzer, which is frequently used to analyze phone records. Analyzes patterns of phone calls to reveal the command and control structures within an organization.
The manufacturer claims this product is designed so that experienced analysts can switch from manual chart production to the computerized version with little or no previous computer experience. It is compatible with MS Windows and UNIX systems.
FINANCIAL CRIME INVESTIGATOR from ANTHEM CORPORATION, 12020
Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 200; Reston, VA 22091-3429;
phone(703) 620-1212; Contact: Robert D. Smith, Vice President
Designed for use by auditors, investigators, attorneys and procurement and corporate security officers, this software provides a systemic approach to the detection, investigation and prevention of contract and procurement fraud.
This is an artificial intelligence package which assists the user in recognizing indicators of fraud, determining specific schemes and developing a detailed plan of investigative steps. It generates appropriate interview formats and gives information on applicable federal statutes.
This program does not actually analyze data; it does guide the investigator through all phases of contractand procurement-related fraud investigation. The program, which runs on a 386 or higher IBM-compatible computer, costs $895 per copy.
NETMAP made by ALTA ANALYTICS, 555 Metro Place North, Suite 175; Dublin, OH 43017; phone (800) 638-6277; fax:(614) 792-3694; alta-oh.com . Contact: Linda Fitzsimmons (x112)
Originally developed for the intelligence community, this software has been adapted for use by law enforcement, banking, network security, insurance, retail, pharmaceutical electronic commerce and data warehousing sectors. It requires a mini-computer and is designed to process massive amounts of data.
The program reveals implicit patterns, trends and relationships contained in captured data. This data is graphically modeled. The program’s open architecture allows users to import and integrate data from multiple and disparate sources or formats. The data can then be graphically modeled and analyzed to identify patterns, relationships and emergent groups. It runs with NT and UNIX and requires a server.
The price of this software includes the client server architecture upon which it runs. It also includes training and installation.
WATSON, from Harlequin Incorporated, One Cambridge Center,
Cambridge, MA 02142; phone (617) 374-2400; fax: (617) 252-6505,
http://www.harlequin.com nfisher@harlequin.com . Contact: Nancy
Fisher
This intelligence analysis product was developed by a British firm for criminal investigations. It has been used for combating fraud, organized crime and drug-related activity and for phone toll analysis. It is a data visualization and manipulation tool which is in many ways similar to FraudTRACKER and Analyst’s Notebook.
Watson uses link charts, event charts and transaction charts to display information. The program allows users to expose hidden relationships and graphically display links and chart information. It is flexible, using a “Visualization by Query” capability. Charts may be varied using over 200 icons. Actual photos of subjects may be imported to replace icons. Watson is unique in that it suggests possible investigative paths and allows the user to pose scenarios.
Data may be imported or entered manually. The program has a sophisticated data error checking capability. It is compatible with other database programs, such as Microsoft Access, Oracle and Sybase etc. The program is based on a language called Lisp. It may be used for data mining and data auditing as well. It is compatible with standard data formats. Another interesting feature of Watson is its ability to visually represent data on maps. The mapping feature has a zoom in and out feature. It also has a feature which automatically arranges objects so that there are a minimum of crossed lines. This simplifies interpretation of graphic relationships amongst elements.
The program is MS Windows compliant and requires an IBM compatible computer with 16 MB of RAM. It occupies 7 MB of disk space.
ORION from ORION SCIENTIFIC SYSTEMS, 19800 MacArthur #480;
Irvine, CA 92715; phone (714) 261-0226; fax (714) 251-0243,
WWW.orionsci.com tgates@orionsci.com . Contact:Tom Gates
ORION Scientific Systems, an international software firm founded in 1978, is a multidisciplinary research, analysis, consulting and software development firm that specializes in solving complex, information processing based problems particularly those encountered by decision-makers, crisis managers, and those dealing with fraud intelligence activities.
ORION has designed case management and intelligence processing systems to support large scale criminal investigations and prosecutions. These provide for the storage, retrieval and automatic distribution of investigative documents, crime reports, crime scene analysis, intelligence files, evidence diagrams and video and sound recordings. The systems also support fusion through real-time access to local and national data bases as well as news wires.
The investigative module of the software supports link analysis of persons and organizations through a relational data base linked to a graphic interface. Links between people and organizations/events are automatically displayed based upon data entered into the database.
VENDORS
ANACAPA SCIENCES INC, PO Box 519, Santa Barbara, CA 93102-0519
phone (805) 966-6157
fax (805) 966-7713, http://www.anacapasciences.com
anacapabg@aol.com
Contact: Barbara Gates
This company, a pioneer in the development of criminal intelligence analysis and analytical methods, has been conducting training courses on these techniques since 1971. Courses cover such subjects as link analysis, analytical charting and concealed income analysis. The company specializes in training versus software.
NATIONAL FRAUD CENTER working with Transunion National Fraud
Center, Four Horsham Business Ctr.,300 Welsh Road, Suite 200,
Horsham, PA 19044
phone (215) 657-0800
fax: (215) 657-7071 email@nationalfraud.com
Contact: Jim Kearins, President
This new company is in strategic alliance with the Trans Union Credit Bureau. It is a fraud prevention and interdiction firm, providing a clearinghouse investigative link between victim companies/organizations to link intelligence data regarding insurance fraud, check and credit card fraud, welfare and foodstamp fraud and money laundering.
This company recognizes the fact that those who are perpetrating fraud are doing so in many different areas simultaneously. Currently there is little sharing of intelligence information between the insurance, banking and public sectors. The objective of this company is judicious sharing and analysis through their independent third-party status of fraud information to produce a synergistic effect.
This company does not market fraud detection software; it is a sophisticated user of electronic information in the detection and investigation of fraud.
PATTERN ASSOCIATES, 1890 Maple Avenue, Ste. 115, Evanston, IL
60201, (847) 491-0800 fax: 847-491-0801 Contact: Stuart Cornew,
Managing Director
This vendor’s applications have been developed for the financial services, direct marketing, telemarketing, retail credit card and insurance industries.
This vendor specializes in building forecasting and segmentation models with a proprietary analytical program called “ArborLogic.” The program uses innovative recognition technology to identify patterns in data, finding out where relationships and interactions exist. The company claims that its pattern recognition tool significantly outperforms both regression and neural net-based systems.
Accuracy, speed and flexibility are the three advantages of this vendor’s product. It performs analysis of entire data sets and searches for combinations of variables, categorical variables, non-Gaussian distributions (non “bell-shaped” curves), and non-linear relationships. The system is very interactive, permitting extensive “what-if” queries. This company has a strategic alliance with the Trans Union Credit Bureau to leverage the power of historical fraud data. The key elements which this application integrates include the application data, credit data, claims data and practical patterns.
This tool uses pattern recognition to rank claims based upon the predictable likelihood of fraud in order to facilitate the prioritization of investigations.
Jim Cronin has been employed as an SIU Investigator for six years. He is a noted expert in the use of electronic information in the detection and investigation of insurance fraud.
© Copyright 1997 Alikim Media