Leslie, a fraud examiner for ACME Corporation, suspects that a salesperson for another company has defrauded ACME. Leslie wants to obtain a copy of…

Laws in many jurisdictions, such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) in the United States, strictly regulate access to personal credit information. However, these laws generally permit a consumer reporting agency to furnish a report under specific circumstances, one of which is in accordance with the written instructions or consent of the consumer to whom it relates. Therefore, a fraud examiner can legally obtain a suspect's credit report from a third-party information broker if they have secured the individual's explicit consent. This is a common and legally sound method for gathering financial information during an investigation.

B. False: This is incorrect because obtaining consent is a primary and legally recognized basis for accessing an individual's personal credit information under most data protection and credit reporting regulations.

ACFE. (2023). Fraud Examiners Manual, International Edition. Section 2.308, "Information from Credit Bureaus." The manual states that under the FCRA, a consumer report may be obtained with the consumer's written consent.

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), 15 U.S.C. §§ 6801-6809. This act, along with the FCRA, establishes the legal framework for accessing financial information, where consumer consent is a key provision for permissible access.

Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(a)(2). This section explicitly lists "in accordance with the written instructions of the consumer to whom it relates" as a permissible purpose for furnishing a consumer report.