
Benford's law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - iamwil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford%27s_law
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iamwil
I remember reading somewhere that this could be used to detect fraud when
you're looking at a set of numbers. It's counter-intuitive, so most people,
when they're making up fake data skew outside of Benford's law.

A quick search on google says that I wasn't dreaming.
<http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/may1999/nigrini.htm>

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mixmax
I believe that the IRS uses Benfords law for fraud detection. If the numbers
on your tax return do not conform to the law they will investigate further, as
there is a good chance that you made the numbers up.

Maybe there is a potential start-up idea in generating and selling credible
numbers that will fit Benfords law for creating fraudulent tax returns ;-)

