Benford’s Law is a long-standing statistical precept that remains as relevant and widely accepted in fighting fraud as ever. By using Benford's Law to find fraud, experts can cut down fraudsters who unknowingly reveal their wrongdoings in dubious digits. Historical background The rule is named for Frank Benford, a physicist who noted that, in sets of random data, multidigit numbers beginning with 1, 2 or 3 are more likely to occur than those starting with 4 through 9. Studies have determined that numbers beginning with 1 will occur about 30% of the time, and numbers beginning with 2 will appear about 18% of the time. Those beginning with 9 will occur less than 5% of the time. Further, these probabilities have been described as both “scale invariant” and...
