28 pointsby dingobabies6 hours ago8 comments
  • jmpman5 hours ago
    I'd recommend allowing 2 digit exploration. I've used it in the past when analyzing hard drive failure logical block addresses.
  • jboggan2 hours ago
    I once did an application of Benford's Law to USDT transactions between crypto exchanges, which seemed to indicate some exchanges had mostly "organic" transactions and a handful of exchanges seemed to have heavy transaction volume of seemingly-random but not really random amounts, indicating some level of wash trading on those exchanges.
  • yellow_postit3 hours ago
    Neat! Benford’s Law was the first topic I dove into in undergrad math that got a minor publication. Given how well known it is for forensic accounting I’ve always wanted to look into convictions and see if the “average” fraudster has wised up and produces more realistic distributions.
    • nextaccountic3 hours ago
      i suppose that nowadays analysts have more sophisticated tests?

      in any case, for any set of statistical tests, it's relatively trivial to produce data that passes all of them

  • cwmoore4 hours ago
    Interesting that it was first discovered with noticing the “garden path” in the front pages of a book of logarithm tables (in 1881).
  • deanalyzer2 hours ago
    I learned about Benford's law over a decade ago, and I always found it beautiful and elegant. But surely, fraudsters have become more sophisticated by now. I wonder if you asked an AI to commit fraud, if it would be clever enough to avoid such mistakes.
  • anArbitraryOne4 hours ago
    It's interesting how all base 10 numbers identify as non binary
  • SV_BubbleTime2 hours ago
    I wonder if it using this would help disprove election irregularities?
  • stefantalpalaru4 hours ago
    [dead]