This book has been a great reading experience. Thanks to the author and the publisher for bringing this book to life.

Forensic accounting professor Kelly Richmond Pope wants to demystify fraud. In Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories, and Secrets from the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry, Pope classifies fraudsters by category: intentional, accidental, and righteous. The latter two, she argues, deserve our understanding, if not our full sympathy.

Pope, a DePaul University professor, is best known for directing and producing the popular documentary All the Queen’s Horses about the largest municipal fraud case in U.S. history. She has made a niche for herself as someone who aims to understand fraud, not just condemn it, and has even befriended a number of white-collar criminals.

Based mostly on stories and a smattering of data, the recipe for fraud as Pope describes it is quite simple: a combination of pressure and opportunity. Most perpetrators have some unmet need or desire that can be resolved with a little extra cash. When the circumstances are right, some people choose to steal. Pope calls them “intentional perps.”

In some cases, the fraud begins unintentionally—a personal vacation accidentally charged to the company card, for example. The lack of repercussion makes the fraud too tempting to try again (and again). The people who fall into this category are “accidental perps.”

Pope’s final category, “righteous perps” are those who commit fraud for what they see as the greater good. Think Robin Hood. Though some will surely disagree with her, Pope places Edward Snowden in this category. Although he calls himself a whistleblower, Pope believes he perpetrated fraud in order to serve his country.

Most people probably can’t see themselves in a fraud mastermind like Bernie Madoff, but “they can relate to an ambitious person with big dreams,” Pope writes. She describes perpetrators of fraud like Rita Crundwell, the city comptroller in Illinois who embezzled a record-breaking $53 million, as “everyday people who find themselves entangled in a vicious lie.”

Pope believes that if people don’t acknowledge and examine the temptation to steal in themselves, they might stray more easily into unethical behavior. Using examples from her own life, like being sent two expensive designer purses when she only ordered one, and from the white-collar criminals she has interviewed, Pope highlights the ease with which otherwise upstanding people can become ensnared in financial deception.

Unsurprisingly, the most successful perpetrators of fraud operate in settings where they are trusted and where oversight is lax. Pope stresses the importance of vigilance in the workplace: If you see something, say something.

She heaps praise on the whistleblowers who do speak up. She argues that they never deserve the backlash they sometimes receive within their companies and in the media. From a student who told on her cheating college classmates to a learning specialist at the University of North Carolina who exposed the corrupt grading system for student athletes, Pope sees whistleblowers as heroes. She scorns the words “snitch” and “tattletale.”

Coming forward with suspicions or accusations can stop a fraudulent act from escalating and causing catastrophic harm. Pope has firsthand knowledge of the fall-out from fraud: Her father was fired when one of his employees was caught embezzling money from a college in North Carolina, even though he was not involved in the crime.

She shows how fraud causes harm far beyond the financial. In the most egregious case, a compounding pharmacist in Missouri watered down his chemotherapy drugs to save money. In the case of Rita Crundwell, the comptroller in Illinois, an entire town suffered the consequences of her actions—their facilities, programs, and staff were underfunded for years.

Pope’s many stories liven up the material she presents, which can sometimes feel like a compilation of lectures and handouts from her college course on fraud. Pope’s relatable attitude makes the book an easy read. She is open about her own ethical quandaries and even an occasion when she was the victim of an Airbnb scam.

Pope’s apparent objectives—to illuminate fraud and celebrate whistleblowers—are well supported by her evidence and arguments. It would be hard to come away from this book feeling immune from the temptation of fraud or ambiguous about reporting it, not to mention a bit more suspicious of one’s colleagues.

I love reading about con artists and wanted to know more about financial crimes. Pope breaks down some commonalities and signs to look for. As a business owner, I appreciate this audience but I'm not sure if it will find a wider reach beyond the business community.

You know the saying: “You can’t cheat an honest man.” It assumes that those who are the target of a cheat asked for it. The investment fund with the suspiciously high returns, the inside racing tip, the stock trade that’s a “sure thing”—the investors knew, or should have known, that something was off. The victims thought they were in on the con, and it turned out they were the marks.

The truth is that honest people can be cheated and are cheated all the time. In “Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories, and Secrets From the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry,” Kelly Richmond Pope explores how this happens. Small-business owners are blindsided when their bookkeeper turns out to have been cooking the books; multinational financial institutions find executives funneling out cash; the government of a small city discovers that an official has been skimming from its accounts for decades. Ms. Pope, a professor of forensic accounting at DePaul University, even includes a class of “accidental” perpetrator, for those who start out as inadvertent beneficiaries of a mistake but who, rather than confessing, decide to lean into the opportunity.

As Ms. Pope argues: “We all have to understand the cycle of fraud because at one point or another you’re either impacted by it, you did it, or you were in a position to expose it.” She has spent time with fraudsters, interviewing the incarcerated and paroled, to understand why they made the choices they did. She has also spoken to victims, examining how they became vulnerable, and whistleblowers, who reported their co-workers, often at high personal cost.

Some of Ms. Pope’s observations make intuitive sense, like the conclusion that community groups and churches are among the softest of targets: they’re typically run by volunteers, hold lots of cash and apply very little oversight. But any organization can be vulnerable. Most of us ignore the red flags or don’t even know what to look for. We don’t want to treat our friends and co-workers with suspicion, and keeping a beady eye feels unnatural. That’s why the perp is always the “trusted” employee. (The person everyone thinks is kind of shady is rarely given access to the bank accounts.) In my experience, systems designed to prevent fraud probably make scams more possible: Forcing users to change their passwords every 30 days results in passwords written on Post-It notes and stuck in obvious locations. Convoluted swipe-card systems end up with doors propped open......

I was given an advance copy to read from NetGalley. I love a good read about scams or schemes and this book was full of them. It was easy to read to follow along. I enjoyed the just for fun and red flag triggers.

This was an incredibly well-written story of a phenomenon that holds a big grasp on our collective gossip and intrigue - scams. Pope does a fantastic job of breaking down these schemes, providing detailed stories of the types of scams, and behavior to look out for and generally writes a compelling book. This is an excellent eye-opener on what it means to scam and be scammed and its place in society.

I love reading about scams, fraud, and other white collar crime so I was immediately drawn to this book. The author does a great job of organizing the book by breakdown the book into different sections (types of people involved and then subtypes of those) making it easy to read and follow

This book is about accounting fraud so there were times the details of what different scams were was a bit over my head, but the author does a great job of explaining and making sure the reader doesn't get lost (or bored). The author balances showing the grey of these stories - white-collar crime doesn't mean that there is no harm caused, some scammers are empathic good people, and fraud is often easier to commit that you think.

While I enjoy the book, I think this will appeal more to people in finances and accounting than true crime, but I definitely learned a lot.

Fool Me Once is a collection of stories written by forensic accounting expert Kelly Richmond Pope. She dives deep into uncovering fraud scams, exposing perpetrators and how they take advantage of victims, and the prestige, or is it an apprehension towards whistleblowers. This book challenges your understanding and possibly your naivety around the fraud phenomenon. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher who allowed me a copy of the book for an honest review.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Harvard Business Review Press for an advanced copy of this book on financial crimes, how people are deceived and what makes people perpetrate scams and engage in fraud.

Humans have a problem with trusting too much. For all the politicians and morality police who love to be in our personal business, many don't like to ask questions when it comes to financial issues, especially when it comes to how a person's income is derived. A police officer with three homes, 3 cars and a boat, or a CPA who somehow summers in Europe and cruises the islands, while working for a non-profit. People are told to mind our own business, people who point out these crimes are called rats, or snitches, and shunned by society. This is how crimes are committed and accountability becomes just a word with a lot of syllables. Scams are all around us, from selling a mistakenly double shipped item on ebay, registering a car in another state to not pay the state tax where they live. Mottos like only suckers pay retail, or taxes are for the little people. There is always a cost though. Forensic accountant, filmmaker and educator Kelly Richmond Pope has in Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories, and Secrets from the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry opens the book on financial schemes, fraudsters, flimflam people, who purposefully, accidentally or by not paying attention have taken so much from our economy, and from all of our pocketbooks.

The book begins with a woman filling in for her boss who is on vacation, printing out financial records for the town in which they live. Her boss might be away with her numerous horses at a dressage event, the boss being quite wealthy, though no one is quite sure how. By that afternoon it is clear that the bosses lifestyle is being subsidized by the county, as the boss has been ripping them off for years. The author saw this story, and wanted to know more. The author's father had lost his job years before due to an employee embezzling money, and her father had been caught in the fallout of blame. Soon readers are learning about different schemes, from double billing hospitals, to watering down cancer treatment medicines, putting thousands of patients at risk. Pope interviews schemers, and those who have been schemed letting them tell their stories and giving practical advice and asking for increased governmental regulation.

A book that makes financial crime not only interesting, but explains why it is so prevalent, and how this effects so much in society. Pope is a very good writer, making everything clear and understandable, even when some of the financial dealings get very deep in the weeds. There a lots of first hand stories from both sides, that really puts a human face on why people steal, and why people trust others to steal from them. There is always a very intriguing discussion on the role of whistleblowers in financial crimes, and how many really don't want to hear from them. Financial crimes can be hard to prove and a company doing financial shenanigans can be both a unrewarding case to prosecute, and cause political headaches. Pope has many suggestions and ideas on policy to make investigations easier and tips for people to try and keep their finances under better control.

A very different kind of business profile book, with a lot of practical ideas, and plenty of scare stories to make most business people afraid to even hire new people. One of the better books on business and financial crimes that I have read in quite a while. Recommended for people who work in the world of finance, or for people who are getting their own business started. This book will help them know what to look for.

Kelly Richmond Pope does not disappoint with Fool Me Once. Full of true examples of corporate and municipal (Dixon, Illinois) fraud, the book is informative and educational. Whether you own a company or even just manage your own personal financial life, the incredible and rather clever scams fraudsters perpetrate will leave you stunned. I loved this book! Thank you to NetGalley.

An unfortunately all too relevant book! This is a real eye opener and a new sort of true crime account. I thought I was pretty aware but this really slows the lid on the prevalence and types of fraud which exist and how the perpetrators target their victims and are too often successful.

As a true crime books lover I read the free copy of this book thanks to Netgalley. It was a very compelling and eye-opening read. Nowadays we have fraud in every aspect of our lives. It comes from big like the Ponzi scheme to some small attempts to steal money through fake Nigerian accounts. Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of, Fool Me Once, by Kelly Richmond Pope. from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I never realized how much fraud was in the world. From ponzi schemes, to people who stole from their job, and the government, its amazing how people think its ok, or it will not hurt anyone, no one will find out etc.