Pass the ACFE Certified Fraud Examiner CFE-Investigation Questions and answers with CertsForce

“Credit card records… show card purchasing limits, previous payment history, account balance, when and where the subject has travelled, restaurants frequented, and assets acquired. In short, these records show the movements and habits of the person”.

Therefore, B is correct.

When dealing with potentially hostile or volatile interviewees, fraud examiners are advised not to give much advance notice. This reduces the chance that the subject will prepare evasive or combative responses. The Fraud Examiners Manual emphasizes minimizing preparation time for resistant interviewees to ensure more candid responses.

“When searching for an individual, the fraud examiner should obtain a past address of the subject, and search activities should begin with that information”.

Therefore, saying a past address is “of no help” is incorrect.

CFE investigative guidance recognizes online databases as valuable tools for locating public records quickly, but it also highlights practical limitations. The most significant limitation is that availability and coverage differ widely by jurisdiction. Some jurisdictions provide extensive online access to court files, property records, corporate registrations, and liens, while others provide limited access, partial indexing, or require in-person requests. This variability affects completeness and can create false negatives (records exist but are not available electronically). The guidance also cautions that online results may be abstracts, may not include supporting documentation, and can lag behind official updates—so investigators should verify key records with the originating agency when accuracy and completeness matter. Option A is not the primary limitation described; the more common problem is incomplete access rather than excessive detail. Option C is too absolute; errors can occur, but CFE methodology emphasizes validation, not the claim that records are “rarely correct.” Option D is also overstated; while source credibility matters, the fundamental limitation is uneven jurisdictional availability and completeness.

The organizational filings with the government of the jurisdiction in which the company is incorporated

Organizational filings (e.g., articles of incorporation) are generally public records and include ownership information, initial shareholders, and the location of the principal office.

“Once a denial is uttered, it becomes extremely difficult for the accused to change his response, because doing so would be an admission that he lied. Therefore, the interviewer must prevent an outright denial, thereby making it easier for the subject to confess”.

“One of the most effective techniques to stop or interrupt a denial is through a delaying tactic… the interviewer should attempt to delay the outright denial; he should not argue with the accused”.

Thus, Charles should interrupt with a delaying tactic.

Link analysis is described as a visual analytic tool that:

“Tracks the movement of money,”

“Demonstrates complex networks,”

“Helps identify indirect relationships with several degrees of separation,” and

“Discovers communications, patterns, and trends.”

It does not display financial ratios—that belongs to traditional financial statement/ratio analysis.

Before conducting surveillance, a memorandum should document the basis for the covert operation, including: (1) the information the operation is based on, (2) expected information to be gained, (3) identities of suspects (subjects) if known, and (4) operatives under the examiner’s control. Confidential sources should not be identified by name but referred to symbolically.

When preparing for interviews, fraud examiners should avoid scripting detailed questions. Instead, they prepare notes of key points to cover.

From the Fraud Examiners Manual:

“Whenever possible, do not prepare a list of predetermined questions to ask the subject. The interview should flow freely. The interviewer might, however, want to develop a list of key points to cover during the interview”.

Therefore, the best preparation method is to note key points instead of detailed questions.

Explanation with Extracts: In interviews, deceptive subjects often stall to gain time to construct plausible responses. The CFE Prep - Investigations notes that deceptive interviewees may ask for questions to be repeated or otherwise delay in order to think of what to say.