Mining Financial Statement Fraud: An Analysis of Some Experimental Issues

Abstract: Financial statement fraud detection is an important problem with a number of design aspects to consider. Issues such as (i) problem representation, (ii) feature selection, and (iii) choice of performance metrics all influence the perceived performance of detection algorithms. Efficient implementation of financial fraud detection methods relies on a clear understanding of these issues. In this paper we present an analysis of the three key experimental issues associated with financial statement fraud detection, critiquing the prevailing ideas and providing new understandings.