Separating Cats from Dogs: A Case Designed to Enhance Students' Abilities to Identify Incompatible Duties and Employee Red Flags

ABSTRACT Developed by a graduate student and leveraging his experience with a family owned business, this case provides an interesting scenario addressing – and integrating – a number of factors relating to fraud, including incompatible duties, the fraud triangle, psychological factors, and “red flags”. Results from an under-graduate AIS course support the case's efficacy as a student assignment. Student performance on the case closely corresponded with other assessment of learning measures, supporting the use of the case for evaluation purposes. The case also increased student interest and motivation. Most importantly, use of the case resulted in measured enhancement of students' abilities to recognize problems in an accounting system. A spreadsheet was developed to increase the efficiency of grading the case.