Comments on: Statistics as journalism redux: Benford’s Law used to question company accounts http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2011/10/13/statistics-as-journalism-redux-benfords-law-used-to-question-company-accounts/ A conversation. Mon, 21 May 2012 12:30:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: When data goes bad | Online Journalism Blog http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2011/10/13/statistics-as-journalism-redux-benfords-law-used-to-question-company-accounts/#comment-370305 When data goes bad | Online Journalism Blog Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:36:20 +0000 http://onlinejournalismblog.com/?p=15227#comment-370305 [...] Diego also used the Benford’s Law technique to identify potentially fraudulent data, which was also used to highlight relationships between dodgy company data and real world events such as the dotcom .... [...] [...] Diego also used the Benford’s Law technique to identify potentially fraudulent data, which was also used to highlight relationships between dodgy company data and real world events such as the dotcom …. [...]

]]> By: A magical fraud finder « magic dashboards http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2011/10/13/statistics-as-journalism-redux-benfords-law-used-to-question-company-accounts/#comment-174444 A magical fraud finder « magic dashboards Sat, 29 Oct 2011 13:15:06 +0000 http://onlinejournalismblog.com/?p=15227#comment-174444 [...] Here is a great article explaining some real world uses, from spotting financial fraud to spotting fiddled murder statistics. [...] [...] Here is a great article explaining some real world uses, from spotting financial fraud to spotting fiddled murder statistics. [...]

]]> By: Paul Bradshaw http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2011/10/13/statistics-as-journalism-redux-benfords-law-used-to-question-company-accounts/#comment-159537 Paul Bradshaw Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:53:46 +0000 http://onlinejournalismblog.com/?p=15227#comment-159537 Thanks Tony - both comments very helpful. Also spotted your tweet about the idea of a Google Refine functionality to do this. There are plugins for Refine so someone could write one... Thanks Tony – both comments very helpful. Also spotted your tweet about the idea of a Google Refine functionality to do this. There are plugins for Refine so someone could write one…

]]> By: Tony Hirst http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2011/10/13/statistics-as-journalism-redux-benfords-law-used-to-question-company-accounts/#comment-159333 Tony Hirst Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:50:26 +0000 http://onlinejournalismblog.com/?p=15227#comment-159333 PS to previous comment - the actual use case I linked to is *not* a good example when it comes to actually checking data against Benford's Law. Benford's Law applies when the data spans several orders of magnitude (tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, etc) not, as in the example i linked to, a single decade. The test probably be more appropriate when applied to eg leading digits in local council expenses, where invoices ranging from 10s of pounds to millions of pounds might be expected. PS to previous comment – the actual use case I linked to is *not* a good example when it comes to actually checking data against Benford’s Law. Benford’s Law applies when the data spans several orders of magnitude (tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, etc) not, as in the example i linked to, a single decade. The test probably be more appropriate when applied to eg leading digits in local council expenses, where invoices ranging from 10s of pounds to millions of pounds might be expected.

]]> By: Tony Hirst http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2011/10/13/statistics-as-journalism-redux-benfords-law-used-to-question-company-accounts/#comment-159292 Tony Hirst Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:15:41 +0000 http://onlinejournalismblog.com/?p=15227#comment-159292 So having identified Benford's Law as an analytical technique that we can use as a way of gaining confidence, or not, in a dataset, the next question is: how do I apply it? This post - http://www.decisionsciencenews.com/2011/10/05/do-cents-follow-benfords-law/ - includes a couple of methods (one using R, one using a Unix command-line tool), which can maybe represent a starting point for bootstrapping up from 'some programming required" to 'click here to run Benford's law test'? So having identified Benford’s Law as an analytical technique that we can use as a way of gaining confidence, or not, in a dataset, the next question is: how do I apply it?

This post – http://www.decisionsciencenews.com/2011/10/05/do-cents-follow-benfords-law/ – includes a couple of methods (one using R, one using a Unix command-line tool), which can maybe represent a starting point for bootstrapping up from ‘some programming required” to ‘click here to run Benford’s law test’?

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