Community Guidelines

Community Guidelines

This is a private, members-only discussion forum where you can connect with your peers, benefit from their experiences and participate in ongoing conversations with other ACFE members. To ensure the best possible experience for all members, please follow these Community Guidelines. Take a moment to acquaint yourself before participating in any community discussions. The principles behind these Guidelines are:

  • Be kind.
  • Be respectful.
  • Be generous.
  • Be professional.
  • Be safe.

By joining and using the ACFE Community, you agree that you have read and will follow our Guidelines.

Please remember:

  1. Community members come from all over the world, which means our online cultures and practices may vary. Please review the ACFE’s  Statement of Diversity and Inclusion to understand how we can be respectful and mindful of differences.
  2. Community members are in different stages of their professional journeys. We aim to create a safe, encouraging and supportive environment where everyone, no matter their knowledge base or experience, feels welcome to participate and contribute.
  3. As members of a collective community, we get out what we put in. If you comment and participate on other people’s discussions, they are more likely to comment and participate on your contributions and questions.

For more information about our community values, please review the ACFE Shared Community Values.

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Interactions

Where to Start 

We know that joining a new community can be intimidating and a bit overwhelming. If you’re not sure where to start, we recommend visiting the “How to Use the Community” page. There are several tutorials to help you set up your profile and learn how to make your first post.

Introduce Yourself

We recommend sharing your first post on the “Introduce Yourself” thread, which is pinned to the top of the discussions in the General Forum.

Start a New Topic

If you decide to post a completely new topic, take a moment to use the community’s search function to see if anyone has already provided the information you’re looking for. If you’re using a desktop computer, the search bar is located on the top right of your screen just below your profile photo. If you’re on the mobile site (smartphone or tablet), it’s located in the top-right drop-down menu.

Type any phrase or term relevant to the information you want. You may have to get creative and do multiple searches before you find what you need, but there is already a lot of great information shared in the discussions.

If you don’t find the topic you’re looking for or the thread you find is relatively old, it’s time to start a new one. Otherwise, you can reply to the existing thread.

Write an Eye-Catching Subject Line

When you’re ready to start a new topic, be sure you come up with a great subject line. This will help catch other members’ attention and will increase your likelihood of getting a response. And remember this: subject lines with questions in them have a higher response rate.

Prohibited Posts and Conduct

To help ensure that the community remains an open, inclusive, and valuable resource for all members, we retain the right to remove any comments or threads that we believe to be inappropriate or that violate the spirit of polite and open discourse. In particular, the following types of posts and behavior are not allowed. 

Personal attacks, threats, harassment, or name calling

If you disagree with a post or comment someone has shared, don’t attack. Our aim is to create an environment that fosters genuine care and helpfulness among members. That’s not to say there won’t be disagreements. In fact, disagreements are great for stimulating fruitful conversations. All we ask is that you refrain from making personal attacks or belittling your colleagues.

This includes, but is not limited to, name calling, threatening language, bullying, stalking, and harassment. Keep in mind that this applies to both public and private communications within the ACFE Community. In addition, please avoid using ALL CAPS in posts, as this can be interpreted by readers as yelling.

Discriminatory statements

Comments that degrade or discriminate against others on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, political beliefs, religion, sexual orientation or other classification will be removed.

Political arguments

Our community is intended to foster discussions on fraud and the anti-fraud profession. Political discussions often tend to become heated or devolve into arguments, and so they should be avoided. We will remove posts or threads on political topics if they become uncivil, if they include language that generalizes groups (“all conservatives,” “all Democrats,” etc.) or if they include language that is dismissive or insulting. We will also remove comments that include falsehoods or that purposefully spread misinformation.

Comments inciting or encouraging violence or illegal activity

We hope this goes without saying, but posts that promote or attempt to incite any kind of illegal activity or violence are not permitted and will be removed.

Unsolicited advertisements or promotions

There are many places on the internet to publicize and promote your work. However, the ACFE Community is designed to be free of promotional content. Please do not post messages that contain unsolicited advertisements, solicitations or promotions of products or services.

Also use caution when discussing other people, products, companies, institutions and organizations. Remember that information posted on the threads and in the libraries is available for all members to see, and comments are subject to libel, slander and anti-trust laws.

Violations of intellectual property rights

We will remove any posts that infringe upon or violate the copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights of any person.

Pornographic, obscene or vulgar material,

Pornographic images, obscene language, profanity or vulgar comments are not appropriate for this forum and will be removed.

How to Report Inappropriate Behavior

If you are concerned that a colleague’s behavior violates our  please flag the post by using the “Mark As Inappropriate” function. This will move it into a moderation queue where it will be reviewed by the community team. You can also reach out directly to the community manager.

Use Good Judgment

No spamming please. Post your message or documents to the most appropriate threads or libraries once. Do not spam several groups or libraries with the same message. Our goal is to ensure that each message and document adds to the overall body of knowledge.

Please do not use the ACFE Community as a way to organize and form groups outside of our communities. 

Posting Anonymously

We understand that many of you must maintain a low profile on the internet due to the nature of your work, so all users have the option and ability to post anonymously. However, all anonymous posts are automatically moderated so that a member of the community team can review them before they are published.

Members have voiced concerns that they feel uncomfortable sharing information with anonymous posters if they don't know why they are requesting that information. With this in mind, members posting anonymously should provide helpful details in their posts about their work and why the information they’re requesting would be beneficial. By providing context, members will be more willing to share their knowledge.

Legal Notice

This site is provided as a service for the members of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE). The ACFE is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others. We disclaim all warranties with regard to information posted on this site, whether posted by the ACFE or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall the ACFE be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on this site.

Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. In addition, the posting party grants the ACFE and users of this site the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material.

The ACFE does not continuously monitor the site for inappropriate postings. Because messages posted to discussions appear immediately, it is impossible for us to review all messages in advance. Any user who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to contact us immediately. We will make every effort to remove objectionable messages within a reasonable time frame if we determine that removal is necessary. 

Violation of these terms, rules and guidelines may result in restricted access to the ACFE Community, restriction of ACFE member benefits, disciplinary action in accordance with the ACFE Disciplinary Procedures, or other action, including but not limited to legal or equitable claims for relief. ACFE reserves the right to delete prohibited messages or communications.

The ACFE Community also adheres to the ACFE Privacy Policy. Find more information about the Privacy Policy.

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