Which statement best distinguishes professional skepticism from professional inquiry in a CFE engagement?

• A. Professional skepticism is the attitude of questioning evidence; professional inquiry is asking questions to obtain information.
• B. Professional skepticism is asking questions to obtain information; professional inquiry is questioning evidence.
• C. Skepticism is ignoring gaps; inquiry is documenting facts.
• D. Skepticism about independence; inquiry about confidentiality.

Answer: (B)

In a CFE engagement, the main idea is distinguishing how you handle evidence versus how you gather information. Professional skepticism is the mindset of critically evaluating evidence—questioning its reliability, relevance, and sufficiency rather than accepting it at face value. Professional inquiry, on the other hand, is the process of actively seeking information by asking questions to obtain facts, explanations, or corroboration from sources. So the best statement is the one that treats skepticism as focusing on the evidence itself and inquiry as the method of gathering information through questions. The other options either swap these roles or introduce irrelevant ideas that don’t describe how a CFE professional works with evidence and information.