Skimming schemes can involve the theft of cash sales or the theft of accounts receivable payments.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Not necessarily
• D. Not stated

Answer: (A)

Skimming is theft of cash receipts before they are recorded in the accounting system. Because the cash hasn’t yet been posted, an employee can divert or steal money from sales at the point of sale or from payments received on accounts receivable before those payments are posted to the ledger. This makes both cash sales and AR payments targets for skimming, so the statement is true. Weak internal controls around cash handling, sales, and posting can allow such misappropriation to go undetected until reconciliations or bank deposits reveal the discrepancy.