Sometimes it is stunningly easy to find indications of fraud by simply sorting and totalling the appropriate fields in a database. Let's say you work for a large company that sends out thousands of cheques each month. The name, address, ID number and other information about the transaction are entered into the database, the cheques are printed by the computer, then mailed. This is a very common occurrence. In selecting the data fields to sort, keep in mind the only thing you can trust about any transaction in such a database is the address and possibly the phone number of the payee.
Names are meaningless.
Anyone can make up a name for a person or a business and even find a way to register it. Sometimes a small variation in the spelling of a name can make it look like a different entity to the database. The name H. Hughes could be Howard Hughes or Helen Hughes or even the name of a company, erroneously entered as an individual. Companies with a lot of data entry and few staff cannot check the legitimacy of every company or individual assigned an ID number in their database. If there is fraud involved, all the other information entered into the database is generally false.