(Radio Iowa) – Iowans are urged to take steps to avoid becoming fraud victims and to prevent the misuse of public funds in their own communities. As part of International Fraud Awareness Week, State Auditor Rob Sand wants residents to check that their local community puts a second set of eyes on finances. Sand says one common form of fraud is when a city or county clerk writes checks to pay themselves more or to buy personal items. He says the best prevention is having more than one person oversee financial statements. “We want people to understand that we trust them, and so there’s a tension there that sort of stops us from doing the work that we’re supposed to do to be a check and a balance on them,” Sand says. “Just remind them that you don’t want them to feel tempted.”

Sand says his office has uncovered 29-million dollars in fraud with public funds since he took office in 2019. That includes more than 20-million dollars in misused pandemic relief funds from the federal CARES Act.

Tammy Simpson leads the Des Moines chapter of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. Simpson says advances in technology have only made it more difficult to prevent identity theft online. “Watch your financial accounts, especially if you recently got scammed, if you answered a phone call that was suspicious and gave out financial information,” Simpson says. “Then you know you are a target.”

Simpson says consumers should even be careful to protect their voices. She says even a short exchange over the phone can be used to replicate a person’s voice to try to gain access to their accounts. She says Iowa consumers should take extra precautions to protect their bank accounts. According to the Federal Trade Commission, American consumers lost 8.8 billion dollars to fraud in 2022.